Former elite athlete and Sydney-based artist Sophie Cape has won this year’s Hadley’s Art Prize.
Cape’s artwork Thunder Shifts the Shivering Sands was created in situ within the soaked landscape of southern NSW after the 2024 floods.
Created using rust, charcoal, soil, pigment and binder on canvas, the artwork was selected for best portrayal of the Australian landscape.
The $100,000 prize winner: Thunder Shifts the Shivering Sands by Sophie Cape. (Supplied)
“This is an absolute life raft,” she said when accepting the prize on Thursday morning in Hobart.
“Things are a bit tough in the art world at the moment. I can keep painting, fix my car, fix my dog, fix my knees, so I’m over the moon, I’m so grateful.”
The 2025 judging panel said Cape’s portrayal of the Australian landscape was an “honest record of environmental upheaval, of land torn by flood and landslide”.
“The artist brings an almost primal energy to the work but, with instinct and finesse, produces a compelling work of balance and refinement,” they said.
Sophie Cape says she finds making art “very cathartic”. (ABC News: Owain Stia-James)
Cape said she created the artwork while “exposing it to the chaos of the elements”.
“This painting is a portrait of survival and decay, beauty and destruction,” she said.
‘I’ve managed to break bones making art’
A former elite downhill ski racer and track cyclist, Cape turned to art after her sporting career was shattered by catastrophic injuries.
“Once I had to retire, I went to art school and I absolutely loved it,” she said.
“It was very cathartic. I’d lost those athletic dreams and I found a way of practising art that was physical, exciting, in the elements, in nature.“
Cape creates her art in natural environments, using materials she finds in the landscape, such as animal bones and soil, as well as painting with her own blood.
Sophie Cape creates her artwork on location. (Supplied)
In making her art, Cape says she tries to get “as physical as I can”.
“I’ve managed to break bones making art, I don’t know how. [I] sort of drag canvases through the bush and they get lost in trees and dams and cliffs and I have to go rescue them.
“But I love that excitement and that physicality and engaging with the environment.
“It’s great fun.”
The finalists will be on display at Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart until September 21. (Supplied)
Ken Done amongst finalists
The prize, which is in its ninth year, is open to Australian artists over the age of 18 working in two-dimensional media.
This year’s prize received more than 500 entries, with 29 finalists selected.
Quiet Refuge by Melanie McCollin-Walker on display at Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart. (Supplied)
Finalists included Australian artist Ken Done, whose artwork Mauve Reef explored his experiences of reef diving, and First Nations artist and opal miner from Coober Pedy, George Cooley, who depicted the Stuart Range from memory.
Mauve Reef by Ken Done. (Supplied)
Painting My Country The Breakaways by George Cooley. (Supplied)
Alongside the major prize winner, the $10,000 Hadley’s Residency Prize was awarded to Queensland artist Denise “De” Lamby, whose artwork was created using thousands of recycled tea bags.
Honourable Mentions were awarded to Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray (NT), Sara Maher (TAS), Valerie Sparks (TAS) and Philip Wolfhagen (TAS).
Evening Tide by Philip Wolfhagen. (Supplied)
Established in 2017, the Hadley’s Art Prize is acquisitive and is announced each year at Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart.
The finalist exhibition will be open to the public from August 29 until September 21.
More finalists
Once Was by Pamela Pauline. (Supplied)
On Memory by Susan Stevenson. (Supplied)
A View of Water by Neil Haddon. (Supplied)
Ancient Light by Richard Klekociuk.
(Supplied)
Ngayuku Ngura My Home by Sandra Pumani. (Supplied)
There were 29 finalists for this year’s prize. (Supplied)
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