TWO TIME ARCHIBALD PRIZE FINALIST AND LOCAL ARTIST ZOE YOUNG SUPPORTS BOWRAL PUBLIC SCHOOL 150 YEAR CELEBRATIONS WITH BRADMAN PORTRAIT

As part of Bowral Public School’s sesquicentenary celebrations, award winning artist and two-time Archibald Prize finalist Zoe Young has painted a portrait of Donald Bradman as a boy as a silent auction fundraising prize.

Zoe, a Highlands local, is one of the rising stars of the Sydney Art scene. Zoe has exhibited nationally and internationally including in Thailand and Chicago and recently hosted a sell-out exhibition at Piermarq Gallery in Paddington. Zoe is due to exhibit in London in February next year.

Zoe, like Don Bradman, is an alumni of Bowral Public School.

Growing up in the Highlands and whilst attending Bowral Public School, Zoe even met ‘The Don’ himself when he visited her parents hotel, The Bowral Motel and Grill, now Biota.

Wendy Buckley, Bowral Public Principal said “We are incredibly proud of alumni like Zoe Young who has achieved such great things in the art world. To have an artist of Zoe’s acclaim paint a portrait of another of our outstanding alumni and to help us raise funds for the school is, quite frankly, amazing.”

Zoe said, “Having attended Bowral Primary as I child I always wondered whilst looking at the bell beside the old school building what Bradman did and what times were like in ‘the olden days’.”

Zoe said she is thrilled to have the opportunity to paint his portrait as a young boy, and to support her old school.

“I was quintessentially doing a portrait of Bradman as a young boy. The feeling I wanted to capture was a Bowral childhood – it’s about Spring time. He’s sitting on the verandah, it’s about the time and space that children have in Bowral of not having to grow up so much.

While I was painting it I was thinking, do city kids have time to reflect like that? I also thought about Don Bradman as a gentleman, cricket is a gentleman’s game, and Bowral is a gentleman’s town in many ways,” Zoe added.

Zoe’s painting is titled ‘Young Bradman’ and was inspired by archival photographs of Don Bradman as a young boy which have been kindly provided by the Bradman Foundation.

Rina Hore of the Bradman Foundation said, “When the opportunity arose to help support our great local school which has such strong connections to both the community and its history together with Don Bradman himself, we were delighted to be able to help out. We can’t wait to see the framed work on the night.”

The school hopes to attract the interest and support of the broader community, and would love to see the artwork go to a home where it will be appreciated and loved.

For lovers of fine art and cricket this represents a unique opportunity to secure a piece of history for the support of a good cause.

The artwork will be available for viewing and auction bids from the whole community through an online auction site, https://www.32auctions.com/backtobowral with the final auction culminating at the Back to Bowral ball on Saturday 9 September. The work will start at a modest reserve of $5000. So if you’re a cricket lover or lover of fine art this could be just the thing.
Ends.

For more background on Zoe see:
https://www.zoeyoung.com.au/
https://www.zoeyoung.com.au/biography.html

Key contact details/information sources for all events:
Ball tickets: https://backtobowral.eventbrite.com.au
BPS website: https://www.bowral-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/
Phone: 02 4861 1086
Email: [email protected]
Alumni Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BowralPublicSchoolalumni/