The competition and resulting exhibition's opening night was held on Easter Thursday and continued throughout the long weekend.

A huge array of artwork across many different categories was on show, with this year's judges finding it particularly hard to chose a winner in each section.

Mrs Heffer's art deco magpie take on the aforementioned theme was a standout for the overall award, making it the first time she has taken out the honour.

Leeton Art Society president Jacqui Herrmann described the competition and exhibition as one of the best yet.

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"We had 450 people through the door over the weekend and 120 on opening night," she said.

"This is such a wonderful opportunity to give our local artists a platform to show off their work.

"This year we had a lot of new artists showing their work for the first time, so I want to thank them for having the courage to do so.

"It's not easy putting your work out there sometimes."

The competition is named after the late Penny Paniz, who was the founding mother of the Leeton Art Society.

While it wasn't a SunRice Festival Easter weekend, Ms Herrmann was pleased to see many people come through the doors to take a look. "It's great we are able to provide an event over the Easter weekend ... there were many people through the door who were from out-of-state," she said.

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