Oberon artist, Joanna Logue, who is a regular visitor to the area, painted the picture at Ballalaba Homestead. The Award was announced at the Goulburn City Regional Gallery by judge, painter Tim Storrier.

"The choice of the winner was almost immediate," Mr Storrier said. "It displays a technical finesse and a type of poetry that is inescapable."

Country Energy's managing director Craig Murray congratulated Joanna and said the competition, which is only in its fourth year and is Australia's richest annual acquisitive landscape art prize, had come of age. "It's been exciting to watch the Art Prize unfold this year and to see the quality of art works entered, such as that of Joanna's," he said.

This prize provides opportunities for artists and regional galleries across New South Wales to participate in an event that highlights the importance of regional art, whilst promoting the value and benefits of regional galleries and the arts in our local communities.

"Art can sometimes be very city-centric but this prize is focused very much on those outside our big cities and offers the chance for exceptional, regionally produced art to be showcased to the broader community," Craig said.

"This competition gives a collective voice to the way country and coastal artists interpret the landscapes around them, it's an expression of their personal experience which is what we see in the winning entry."

Selected from more than 450 entries and 42 finalists, Joanna was announced as the winner of the Country Energy Art Prize for Landscape Painting this morning, Thursday 12 October, at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery.

Joanna echoed Craig's comments - "I entered the prize because I am responding to my immediate environment."

Joanna Logue studied at City Institute in Sydney and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in metropolitan and regional NSW, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. Her paintings are a journey through space, with tree lines and horizons characteristic of the country near her home in Oberon. The work plays with visual contrasts - creating a paradox between the figurative and the abstract. She has received several awards, including the 2000 Kings Contemporary Art Prize, and her work is represented in an array of national collections, including NSW University, Qantas, Walker Corporation Ltd, Australian Art Investment Trust, NRMA and Macquarie Bank. Joanna was also a finalist in 2004.