A NEW category has been unveiled for this year’s Paint the Port art competition with Gladstone Ports Corporation (GPC) encouraging locals to paint the town red in celebration of 60 years of the Harbour Festival.

Registrations for the region’s favourite art competition is officially open with $2000 worth of prizes up for grabs in five different categories including a $500 prize in the new category, the Harbour Festival’s 60th Anniversary.

GPC’s popular competition, now in its 9th year, encourages artists of all ages in Gladstone, Rockhampton and Bundaberg to pick up a paint brush or get sketching.

Chief Operating Officer Craig Walker said the competition was about capturing the port, with the new category sure to entice more entries.

“The Harbour festival is a special tradition in Gladstone and is adored by so many, including our older generations who would have remembered the early days of the festival when we had amazing floats going through Goondoon Street and marvellous costumes on parade,” Mr Walker said.

“This new category is a wonderful way to capture the spirit of our harbour through the eyes of our locals who have gone to the festival with their families and have seen the parklands come to life with rides, music and food,” he said.

“The ideas are limitless, we’ve seen some amazing pieces from abstract to port facilities and of course our marine life is always a popular subject matter especially with our younger artists,”

“We’ve partnered with ARTmatters again this year who will host the artwork in their wonderful gallery. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.”

Registrations open online on Friday 21 January 2022 and close on 4pm Friday 11 March 2022.

The categories include:

• Open Category of $1,000 acquisitive cash prize

• High School Category of a $350 cash prize

• Upper Primary School Category (Year 4 to 6) $75 cash prize

• Lower Primary School Category (Prep to Year 3) $75 cash prize and

• The Celebrating 60 years of the Gladstone Harbour Festival Category of $500.

Artists are required to submit their artwork with the supplied artwork label attached to the back of their art to ARTMatters Gallery at 3 Pitt Street, Gladstone between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm on Friday 18 March 2022 or Saturday 19 March 2022.

GPC has partnered with ARTmatters to host the exhibition of artwork from 30 March to 22 April 2022. The exhibition will also be open on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday.

To register your interest click here.

For more information, visit www.gpcl.com.au/paint-the-port.