Manor Lakes teenager John Mathet has won the People’s Choice Award at the Wyndham Art Prize for the second year in a row.
Wyndham council last week announced Mr Mathet’s digital painting, titled I.D.E.N.T.I.T.Y., received the highest number of votes from visitors to the competition’s exhibition, which was held earlier this year.
More than 700 votes were cast for the People’s Choice Award.
Wyndham’s arts and culture portfolio holder, Cr Tony Hooper, said another digital painting by Mr Mathet, titled Top of the World, won last year’s People’s Choice Award.
Cr Hooper said Mr Mathet would receive a prize of $2500, for the second year in a row, after his latest win.
Mr Mathet, who is originally from South Sudan, moved from Perth to Wyndham four years ago.
Mr Mathet said he felt honoured to win the People’s Choice Award two years in a row.
“That people have stood by me two years in a row is amazing, I feel blessed,” he said.
Mr Mathet said that he had wanted to become an artist from the age of seven years old.
Nowadays, in addition to creating his own artworks, he teaches other young people at the Wyndham Community Education Centre.
Mr Mathet said that as an artist, he works in both digital and conventional mediums.
“My strengths in art include portrait drawings, where I have grown to love the beauty of creating faces and paying attention to each small detail as I have grown to be passionate and patient with my work,” he said.
“I plan to share messages and stories through my work to educate and inspire society.”
