LATEST NEWS | 2025 to 2026
23 June 2026
WORLD ART AWARDS MULTIPLE WINS!
Frances is beyond excited to have received notification that she has won in multiple categories in the 2026 World Art Awards!
Frances won $800USD for the 2ND HIGHEST OVERALL SCORE with Showing Off (Sulphur-crested Cockatoos). Showing Off also won 1st Place Category 13 (Expressionism-Other).
Entries are received from around the world and are sent by the World Art Awards Advisory Board to twenty of the world's top galleries and museums for judging.
Click here to read more about the World Art Awards and to see all the winners
Frances' other category wins (non-cash) include:
2nd Place TIE Category 33 Realism-Animal
House Hunting (Eastern Rosellas)
3rd Place TIE Category 33 Realism-Animal
Relief (Eastern Rosella)
2nd Place TIE Category 36 Realism or Impressionism-Landscape with Life
Spangled (Spotted Pardalotes)
4th Place TIE Category 36 Realism or Impressionism-Landscape with Life
Rise and Shine (Cockatiels)
1st place Category 13 Expressionism-Other
Showing Off (Sulphur-crested Cockatoos)
1st Place Category 17 Realism-Floral
The Banquet (New Holland Honeyeater)
5th Place TIE Category 17 Realism-Floral
Territorial (Eastern Spinebill)
Showing Off (Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos)
WINNER 2nd Highest Overall Score | World Art Awards 2026
5 June 2026
PRESENTING MY NEW LOGO!
After five years utilising the old Crimson Chat logo, I feel it's time for an update!
The new logo indicates more clearly that I am a bird artist.
Apple green is the perfect new colour, as I often paint green leaves and birds. Green is more organic colour and this particular shade is a little warmer than the former blue.
The design, being simpler, means it can reduce to tiny sizes and still be recognisable. Its simplicity also lends itself to many colour and typographic configurations.
There's also a circular logo alternative for "flavicons".
June/July 2026
FEATURED ARTIST
International Artist Magazine
Frances' work had caught the eye of the editors of International Artist, as her painting Cornucopia (Rainbow Lorikeets) was a finalist in the Challenge No. 150 : Florals and Gardens.
See full article below.
As a direct result, International Artist invited Frances to write a feature article about her working process. The article outlines in step-by-step how the painting Spring Has Sprung was created, as well as her materials, working methods and other interesting tid-bits!
READ THE FULL ONLINE ARTICLE HERE!
February 2026
RUNNER-UP (2nd Prize)
Teravarna
11th International Juried Art Competition
Flower theme
MINUTIAE (Painted Lady Butterfly) is a wonderful and most unexpected surprise win for Frances, who very rarely paints non-avian subjects!
Many entries are received worldwide.
Frances has won $150USD for her efforts.
December 2025
GOLD AWARD
Camelback Gallery's 8th International Juried online art competition:
My Best Work of 2025
Topping off a spectacular 2025, Frances received notification (on December 31st!) that her painting Spangled (Spotted Pardalotes) is among two other winners of the GOLD AWARD.
Hundreds of online entries were received from 12 countries. Her prize includes a three month virtual award exhibition online, event announced with her name listed at ArtWeek.com and TheArtGuide.com with the winning image posted on the Camelback gallery's social media sites.
All the prize winners can be seen here:
https://www.camelbackgallery.com/mybestwork2025exhibition
December 2025
AUSTRALIA POST STAMP COMMISSION
A series of four stamps featuring rare and endangered Australian birds to be released 27th January 2026
IT'S A TRULY REMARKABLE STORY!
Back in March 2025, while Frances held a market stall at Old Bus Depot Markets, a visitor happened to pass by, taking a business card. Little did Frances know, the person who took her card was the head of Philatelic Design from Australia Post!
What followed was the most incredible commission Frances has ever been given. Taking over four months of careful research and planning, the series of stamps will feature rare and endangered birds endemic to Australia.
The three stamps shown will be released to the public on 27th January 2026. This date happens to be Frances and Mark's 2nd Wedding Anniversary. The fourth stamp (Plains Wanderer) will be released as a special semi-perforate collectors' issue.
Considering stamps are literally printed in the millions, this will truly catapult Frances into the artistic stratosphere, exposing her artwork to a worldwide audience.
ALL IMAGES © Australia Post 2026
and illustration Frances McMahon
December/January 2026
FINALIST
International Artist Magazine
Challenge number 150: Florals and Gardens
CORNUCOPIA (Rainbow Lorikeets), a commissioned work taking 300 hours to complete, has been announced as a finalist in issue 166 of International Artist's Florals and Gardens challenge.
With only 3 place-winners, and 5 finalists from a field of many hundreds of international entries, this is very special, considering Frances doesn't consider herself a botanical or flower painter!
Frances receives and Award Certificate and a one-year subscription to International Artist magazine. Furthermore, she will have her work seen worldwide by international galleries looking for new talent.
Here's the online article showing the winners:
https://www.internationalartist.com/issues/166/Florals-&-Gardens
October 2025
BEST IN SHOW WINNER!
Holmes Prize for Excellence in Realistic Australian Bird Art 2025
2025 marks the 10th anniversary of this prestigious bird art competition that attracts many entries from around Australia, with the winner receiving $15,000 prize money.
Only 35 finalists were selected. The judge for 2025 was ARC Living Artist Gordon Hanley, a celebrated and world-renowned artist of some 35 years.
Frances says of her win:
"This is an extraordinary honour to be awarded the overall winner among entries of such a high standard. On hearing the good news, I think my screams of joy could be heard in Tasmania!
Since turning 60 in January this year, I can honestly say 2025 has been the most fortuitous and extraordinary year of my professional career."
This is the fifth year Frances has entered the Holmes Prize. She was awarded Best in Show in 2022 with Showing Off (Sulphur-crested Cockatoos).
She has also won two Awards of Excellence (2023 and 2024) and was a finalist in 2021.
Spangled, along with all other Best in Show winning artworks from previous years, are acquired into the collection Dr Gary Holmes, sponsor of the Holmes Prize.
Read the full article in the online edition of the Canberra Daily
Spangled (Spotted Pardalotes)
BEST IN SHOW | Holmes Prize 2025
58 x 36cm | Watermedia on 2000gsm museum board
Now available as a stunning open edition giclée print
With Holmes Prize sponsors Drs Margaret and Gary Holmes
2nd Place WINNER
ArtandColor365 Magazine
Pets Art Competition 2025
Frances is delighted to have won 2ND PLACE in the recent Pets online art competition. Hundreds of entries are received worldwide, with artwork of a very high standard.
Bella is a rare portrait of a non-avian subject! The painting is also unusual in that the format is square and the entire work is brushed in (with no airbrushing). The painting was a commissioned work.
Part of Frances' prize will be a four page feature in the Spring 2025 issue of ArtandColour365 magazine in both print and digital editions, as well as ongoing social media and online promotion.
March 2025
Frances has been granted membership of the prestigious Art Renewal Centre and now holds the internationally recognised title of Art Renewal Centre ASSOCIATE LIVING MASTER (ARCALM)
After a rigorous and extensive selection process, Frances is one of only 14 Australian artists to receive ARC affiliation and title. Worldwide, only about 300 artists are currently ARC members, which means this is one of the highest achievements in the world of realistic art.
From the Art Renewal Centre website:
ARC, having become the centre for artists, collectors, and scholars, is the defining force for Contemporary Realism and excellence. We have in our ARC family an exclusive group of artists whom we have classified into the following three levels of expertise:
ARC Living Artist (ARCLA)
The artist has dedicated themselves to becoming a realist artist with the wish to express our shared humanity through the visual arts. In addition, an ARC Artist™ has shown competence and understanding in all of the basic building blocks of great art, these being for a painter: accurate drawing, compositional sensibilities, effective use of lighting, the technical ability to use modeling, glazing /scumbling, perspective, tone, hue and successful emotional expression. For a Sculptor: accurate representation of 3 dimensional objects, compositional sensibilities in 360 degrees, the technical ability to create an accurate finish to the surface of the sculpture, successful emotional expression.
ARC ASSOCIATE LIVING MASTER (ARCALM)
The artist has dedicated themselves to becoming a realist artist with the wish to express our shared humanity through the visual arts. In addition, an ARC Associate Living Master™ has shown significant skill in all of the building blocks of great art as defined in the ARC Artist™ description above. They have further developed their skills, experience and body of work to the point where they are in striking distance of becoming a full ARC Living Master as described below.
ARC Living Master (ARCLM)
The artist has dedicated themselves to becoming a realist artist with the wish to express our shared humanity through the visual arts. In addition, an ARC Living Master™ has mastered all of the building blocks of great art as defined in the ARC Artist™ description, creating fully professional works of art, as well as some identifiable masterpieces. Beyond that, they have successfully created a body of work which demonstrates accomplished facility in their craft that compares to the masters of prior centuries. Their work demonstrates strong, reliable, poetic sensibilities which intertwine great universal subjects, powerful original compositions and mastery over all aspects of the craft, working seamlessly to enhance the chosen subject. They repeatedly are able to "suspend disbelief" in the viewer eliciting empathy which is rooted in our shared humanity.