What's on in the Canberra arts scene, June 10, 2017

Bilk's co-director Mio Kuhnen says she grew up with her father adoring brooches, and every jacket had its own special brooch.

"Working with public servants I have noticed how blank and lacking their jackets are without brooches," she says.

"Once again I want to make the brooch become the accessory for both men and women. The exhibition is also well timed as the Canberra winter is moving in and there is plenty of acreage on those empty jackets begging to be adorned."\

Can't go past Marian Hosking's Emu Brooch, or that baby, or that beard.

Opening at Bilk, 12 Palmerston Lane, Manuka, on June 16, until July 15.

Photographer Brett Canet-Gibson's has won the People's Choice Award for 2017's National Photographic Portrait Prize for his portrait of Trevor Jamieson. Canet-Gibson also won a highly commended in the judge's round of voting for his portrait Mastura. It's the first time a photographer has received an award from both the official judges of the prize and the public.

Canet-Gibson was surprised and delighted to hear the news of the public vote.

"Unbelievable," he said. "A big thanks to all those portrait-loving souls who took the time to vote this year and a huge congrats to the portrait gallery for another inspiring showcase of contemporary Australian photographic portraiture. A year to remember."

Canet-Gibson wins a studio/equipment rental package and a Canon EOS m5 with EF-M 15-45mm lens, courtesy of Sunstudios and valued at $4500.

The top five portraits for the 2017 People's Choice were: Trevor Jamieson, by Brett Canet-Gibson; Melanie and sighthounds, by Christopher Pearce; The man who raised me, by Steven Lloyd; Currents, by Natalie Ord; and The skin I'm in II,. by Brian Cassey.

The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017 exhibition is on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra until June 18, 2017. It will then travel to the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre as the first stop on its national tour.

I'm making time this weekend to go and see my favourite girls one more time before they take their party elsewhere. My favourite was The gin-soaked effervescence of Libby and Maeve, 2016, by Patrick Boland. Guess I should have voted more often.

An exhibition featuring colours extracted from more than 200 species of eucalypts has opened at the Australian National Botanic Gardens. The Colour of Eucalyptus by local artist Sally Blake, features textile, basket and paper-based works coloured with eucalypt dye.

For six months in 2016, Blake recorded the colours extracted from the leaves of 230 eucalypt species and the bark from 100 eucalypt species growing in the Gardens.

"Each dye was recorded on a small pieced sampler made from seven different fabrics, as each fabric shows the dyes uniquely," Blake says. "Many eucalypts gave unexpected results such as bright oranges and reds on wool."

The highlight of The Colours of Eucalyptus exhibition are mosaics of fabric displaying the range of colours created on linen, wool and silk dyed during the project.

Also on display are Hidden Mysteries, small woven baskets created with threads dyed from eucalypt leaves and artworks displaying the diversity of eucalypt leaves used to create the Dye Diary.

In conjunction with the exhibition, eucalyptus dye workshops will be presented by Sally Blake on June 11 and 18.

The Colour of Eucalyptus exhibition is on display at the Australian National Botanic Gardens' Visitor Center Gallery until Sunday June 25, 2017.

A "hood" can be (among other things) the metal covering that protects a car engine, something worn to cover the head, an aggressive or violent young criminal, slang for a neighbourhood or, a tubular attachment for a camera lens to keep stray light out. Hoods at ANCA is an exhibition that brings together four artists whose art practices investigate urban environments and culture.

Each artist and their work engages with at least one definition of the word "hood" listed above. They reflect directly on their surroundings to uncover the things and people they encounter in their immediate environment, their neighbourhood. Each artist delivers their work with a tangible interest in materiality and sometimes delicate use of irony.

Nicole Breedon's Cut the Air with a Knife is a looped video depicting classic customised cars vanishing into a fog of burnt rubber. Sean Davey's Roadworks #1-9 is a collection of shrouded roadwork signs, each illegible to the motorist. Rowan Kane's paintings are informed by sub-culture and how symbols are used out of context. Sydney artist Paul Williams works take on an almost biographical quality as he examines his status as a painter and the struggle of the creative process that partners it.

At ANCA, 1 Rosevear Place, Dickson, until June 25.