We are delighted to announce Margaret Ambridge’s work Cheek by jowl (2024) as the winner of the People’s Choice Award for the 24^th Dobell Drawing Prize. A huge congratulations to Margaret, who also won the People’s Choice Award for the 23^rd Dobell Drawing Prize in 2023.

Margaret shares:

‘My primary practice is drawing. To have three very different, some say demanding, works exploring the human condition accepted for the Dobell Drawing Prize over the years is such a rare privilege and wonderful recognition of my artwork. For many years I have struggled with drawing’s place in my art practice. To me there always seems to be an external pressure suggesting that drawing is a pathway to something ​‘bigger’ like a painting or a sculpture. The longevity and gravitas of the Dobell demands that drawing be seen as the final work in its own right. It’s been a long journey from drawing at the kitchen table as a child with my mother, an artist in her own right.’

See Margaret’s winning work in this final week of the 24^th Dobell Drawing Prize at NAS Gallery, closing Saturday 21 June 2025.

Image credit: Margaret Ambridge, Cheek by jowl, 2024, charcoal and rainwater on paper, image courtesy and © the artist, photograph: Mark Fitz-Gerald