2023 Kingston Prize People's Choice Award winner announced

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Michael Goodson, “Terroir,” acrylic and silicone on Masonite board

74" x 48" (image courtesy of The Kingston Prize)

Ottawa artist Michael Goodson has been awarded the 2023 Kingston Prize People’s Choice Award, for “Terroir,” a portrait of his father. 

“My father, Robert Goodson, is a retired superintendent of special education, an avid curler and, at 88, he is soon to celebrate his 63rd wedding anniversary with my mother, Elizabeth,” said Goodson.

“The subject of the work is both the connection and the tension between the topography and the psychology of the face. Because of the scale of the piece, when standing up close, one is aware of the geography of the surface. Only when one begins to retreat from it does the more visceral surface give way to a sense that the viewer is being ‘stared back at’ by a presence, in this case, an image of my father.”

The artwork— acrylic and silicone on Masonite — was on view throughout October at the Thousand Islands Playhouse Firehall Theatre in Gananoque. More than 2,000 people visited the exhibition, which closed Oct. 27. 

The $1,000 award is sponsored by CIBC’s Wetherall Galbraith Wealth Management.

The Kingston Prize is a biennial competition that started in 2015. It aims to "encourage and reward the creation of contemporary portraits by Canadian artists, to promote Canadian artists through competition, and over time to develop an historical record of Canadians, by Canadians," according to the Kingston Prize website. 

Source: Kingston Prize news release

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