Maitland-born artist Michael Bell has won the $20,000 annual Cricket Art Prize, with a painting that depicts life in and around the game and sport of cricket.
His work, Last Ball, is making its way around different exhibitions held at Australia’s most iconic cricket stadiums, including Sydney and Melbourne cricket grounds.
Nearly 200 artists submitted paintings for the competition, from which 40 finalists were selected.
Mr Bell said the inspiration for the painting came to him when he imagined the frustration of a bowler and their desperation.
“As the game draws to an end, there’s a flicker of hope ‘I’m gonna get this guy out and change the result of the match with the Last Ball’,” Mr Bell said.
“I applied the paint quite quickly to render the frantic energy of the setting.”
The oil on canvas painting portrays a large head and long arm of a bowler sending a delivery towards a batsman in the distance looking to receive.
Mr Bell, 50, grew up in Maitland and attended Maitland Marist Brothers High School, now All Saints College St Peter’s Campus Maitland.
He lives in Newcastle.
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