Where are they now? Tracking down past award winners

Where are they now? We tracked down three previous winners of the Tyson Evans Scholarship as it celebrates 20 years and prepares to announce this year’s winners.

Former Tyson Evans Scholarship winner Jared Thorp. Photo: Dominika Lis.

YOUNG artists need reassurance that their work is worthwhile and the Tyson Evans Scholarship has been doing just that for nearly two decades.

The scholarship, in its 20th year, was created in memory of a talented artist who tragically died in 1997 and provides financial assistance to young people wanting to study visual arts or a related field.

Moreton Life tracked down three winners, including inaugural winner Merryn Fawssett (nee Parsonson), 2000 winner Eliza Turnbull and 2009 recipient Jared Thorp.

All are still involved in the arts and all say winning the award gave them confidence to pursue their passion, and practical help to make it happen.

The very first winner, Merryn Fawssett, went on to study photography at university and worked as a wedding photographer until her daughter was born. She picked it up again during the eight years her family lived in Birmingham before they returned to Australia in December last year.

Inaugural Tyson Evans Scholarship winner Merryn Fawssett.

Her black and white photo Circle of Faith won the BBC’s Faith Through A Lens competition in 2014 and she donated the £1000 (A$1800) prize money to The Feast, a charity group based in Birmingham which works to promote community cohesion between Christian and Muslim young people.

The former Grace Lutheran College student says winning the scholarship made it easier to attend university.

The mother of three says she loves the “immediacy of photography as an art form”.

Former Tyson Evans scholarship winner Jared Thorp with a painting he was commissioned to paint on a wall in New Farm. Photo: Dominika Lis

Jared Thorp won the scholarship in 2009 as a Clontarf Beach State High School student, with 15 paintings inspired by women.

“It was a body of work that looked at the female form and the wear on the face, and stories etched on the female body,” he explains. He says his narrative about the collection probably won it for him and came after encouragement from his art teacher, Ashley Humphrey.

Jared is now studying honours in landscape architecture, specialising in urban planning. He creates commissioned works for friends, businesses and art groups, while working full-time for an architecture firm.

Former Tyson Evans Scholarship winner Eliza Turnbull and daughter Beatrix.

Winning the Tyson Evans Scholarship validated Eliza Turnbull’s creative inclination and boosted her artistic self-esteem.

She used the prize money to attend a week-long winter school at the University of Southern Queensland.

Eliza subsequently completed studies in Business and Fine Art at the Queensland College of Art, doing a double major in Printmaking and Small Objects/Jewellery.

She now lives in Melbourne with her partner Lachlan and daughter Beatrix, and is personal printmaker to renowned Australian cartoonist, artist and social commentator Michael Leunig.

TYSON EVANS SCHOLARSHIP

• First prize is a bursary of $2500 for study, research or tuition to help the winner develop their artistic skills

• There are two second prizes, one each for junior and senior students

• An exhibition of entrants’ work will be held at Redcliffe Art Gallery from July 28 to August 18

• The scholarship winners will be announced at the official opening at 6.30pm on July 27