Australian Art Creativity Studio Penola Coonawarra Arts Festival Design Prize Submission

Australian Art Creativity Studio symbolic submission for the Penola Arts Design Prize 2025

In the spirit of the studio's thematic collection of 'country twilight' it was a fun and enjoyable time to apply that theme to the submission for the Penola Coonawarra Arts Festival Design Prize 2025 for the 2026 festival.

Submission was symbolically made to show supportive participation and interest that the studio has for the culture of it's local community, and in no way ever expect to be a definitive success for the prize outcome. Being creatively involved in a community culture lifestyle of arts, agriculture, viticulture, horticulture and cuisine in the first place, is dreamy enough as it is.

This submission is an original digital artwork and NOT AI generated. All the little details were individually curated, tweaked, polished, and the original template is loaded with layers upon layers of individual illustrative design elements that when viewed as a grouped template, is a constellation of multiple dozens of graphic design boxes.

Creating this submission was a side 'down time' art project (or as the seasoned artists would know as a 'unicorn artwork') that was a joyful experience to create. While constructing it, thoughts and considerations about the enigmatic cultural backdrop that Penola and The Coonawarra evokes, consumed a lot of my daydream like focus... which was a pleasant surprise to discover about myself.

My design is a little different than the festival's 2025 design. What I loved about the festival's 2025 design was the simple 'blanket colour concept' that gave enough interest to capture the eye but in order to retain the focus, inspection was required to explore the various components and elements, compelling the viewer to think about what they were seeing. Overall, it was very interesting and a great balance of contrast and complimentary art design that evoked provocation of thought.

With the 'country twilight' themed design influence, this being the studio's first ever submission, it truly was a literal follow the intuitive soul flow kind of creation. It uses bold colour, sleek presentation and mood energy to convey its message.

Although as a creative I am not typically a 'modernist' style of artisan, this design encapsulates the studio's bohemian feel and energy but delivered in a contemporary - almost futuristic - vibe (which is a message in itself about faith in the growth potential of the future pathway forward for the community) ….

…. and interestingly while all the components of the festival were encapsulated, so the large tree representing the deep connection of nature being metaphorical for the people, the history, the heritage that is entwined into the district, it also is the focal point of the blended agricultural, viticultural and horticultural nature based essence to which the cultural foundations of the district were founded and come together united within the township and the spirit which it shares with others.

Fireworks were symbolically added into the design as a 'stereotypical' celebratory feature but also more notably, in its counterbalance, an gesture to reflect the inclusiveness of the community and what the festival provides for that community.

With a ceiling top drawing focus to the ageless dominion that humbly brings everything together, which is the beyond that is typical of space and time, a broad spanse canopy of stars represents and honours the district's reliably consistent famous night skies of the milky way, southern aurora lights and indigenous dreamtime.

With a backdrop of twilight to add enigmatic mystery to metaphorically represent the connectivity of both day and night and all in between, the canopy of stars gently lower themselves in around the tree, just like the mystical seasonal fog of the district does to the streets and landscape of the Penola and Coonawarra environs.

And this is the soulful meaning behind the simple slick modern design the studio has tendered to the arts festival. Regardless of any outcome, the experience of creating the design was a journey in itself and that alone, is everything and more than what was planned.

It is a sweet little artwork that was created with only 48 hours to imagine, design and develop for the submission due date which made the design prize not only a late discovery of opportunity for the studio, but was a deadline that incidentally was unexpectedly extended for another 2 weeks from its original due date (so was honestly a last minute invitation to seize the opportunity to participate).

Simply for the experience to immerse in the joy and fun of creating, it was contributed as a demonstration to the adopted community homebase of Australian Art Creativity Studio, that what we have found in Penola and The Coonawarra truly is a culture reveller's paradise!

Jody Simone Arnold,

Artist, founder of Australian Art Creativity Studio, Penola