Fireys’ Anzac heroism is unmasked by prizewinning artist Alison Mackay

Alison Mackay’s has won the Gallipoli Art Prize for her still-life painting Breathe, inspired by last summer’s deadly bushfires.

Alison Mackay with her prizewinning painting Breathe, inspired by the RFS and the spirit of the Anzacs.

In today’s locked-down world, a painting of World War I-era gas masks may give rise to thoughts of personal protective equipment and the global battle against an invisible viral enemy.

But Alison Mackay’s still-life painting called Breathe, named winner of the Gallipoli Art Prize in Sydney on Thursday, was inspired by another deadly hazard: last summer’s bushfires.

Mackay lives at St Georges Basin on the NSW south coast, where her home and thousands of others were threatened or destroyed by the devastating fires.

“We found ourselves on a number of occasions with goggles and masks and trying to defend our property against potential ember attack,” she said. “It was a huge thing, and got me thinking about breathing apparatus and masks, and what the RFS were using. That was a big part of where this picture came from.”

The $20,000 prize is awarded by the Gallipoli Club to artworks that honour the Anzac spirit. This year’s exhibition has been postponed because of venue ­closures, but is available for ­online viewing.

A still-life painter, Mackay said the idea of using gas masks as a subject came to her when she saw the heroic fireys saving lives and homes during the summer.

“I was thinking about the Gallipoli prize and how the RFS was really epitomising some of those Anzac qualities, such as courage, comradeship and love of country,” she said. “That’s what made me investigate the gas masks.

“It will be interesting to see what people read into it,” she said.