LATEST NEWS | 2025 to 2026
February 2026
RUNNER-UP (2nd Prize overall)
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.
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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.
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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.
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All the prize winners can be seen here:
https://www.camelbackgallery.com/mybestwork2025exhibition
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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
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.
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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.​
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​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:
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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.
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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.
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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.​