MELBOURNE artist Peter Grziwotz was announced as the winner of the prestigious 2016 Paul Guest Drawing Prize in Bendigo last night.

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology graduate beat out 44 other finalists with his work, Study as St Jerome for a self-portrait.

Judge Godwin Bradbeer described the winning entry as having a “high level of visual acuity, but more significantly it is a work where the technique does not interfere with empathy for the subject”.

He said it was the stand out in a “most impressive and varied field of exquisite drawings by artists of accomplishment both young and older”.

“The drawing is intense with poignant, compassionate and enigmatic feeling,” he said.

The biennial Paul Guest Drawing prize was initiated by former Family Court judge, Olympic rower and avid art aficionado Paul Guest.

It is a non-acquisitive cash prize of $12,000 held every two years at the Bendigo Art Gallery to highlight the art of drawing.