BEECHMONT artist, David Groom, has been named the winner of one of Queensland’s most prestigious art awards.
After being listed as a finalist in the Lethbridge Landscape Art competition in Brisbane for four successive years, David finally went one better to take the major prize in 2025.
Competing against 800 entries from 56 artists his oil painting entry, Central Flow, received glowing reviews when it was named the best.
David said the inspiration for his winning painting came from the mountains and valleys that surround his home at Beechmont.
“My grandfather, Arthur Groom established Binna Burra Lodge on the edge of Lamington National Park which led my sister and I to develop a great appreciation for the surrounding landscape of rainforest and open eucalypt forest,” he said.
In taking the award David received a $30,000 acquisition payment from the Lethbridge Gallery which is located in Paddington. Brisbane.
The painting will now become part of the gallery’s permanent collection.
The judges this year were Susi Muddiman, David Usher and Julie Fragar.
Julie recently won the 2025 Archibald Prize.
At the award presentation night they commented on how the immersive panorama of his entry drew the viewer into a thriving forest scene where ancient trees twist and reach toward the sky, their trunks rendered with a precise sculptural intensity.
They went on to say: “Groom’s use of scale and perspective evoked the sensation of standing on the forest floor, looking upward. There is a spiritual quality to the composition – a stillness that suggests a deep listening to country and a slow passage of time. The work is a testament to Groom’s deep connection to place and his ability to render the natural world not only as it appears, but as it feels.
It is a work that commands both attention and contemplation, and one that lingers long after you’ve looked away.”
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