TWO-TIME winner of the Parramatta Chalk Art Festival, Jenny McCracken, has won gold at the Olympics of street-painting in Italy.
She placed first in her division at the 40th anniversary of the world’s oldest street-painting festival – Incontro Nazionale dei Madonnari – at Grazie di Curtatone in Lombardy, near Milan.
Ms McCracken, who won the Parramatta Festival in 2010 and 2011, took on the world’s best for the first time in front of about 200,000 people.
She will return with the historic honour of being Australia’s first Madonnara of Grazie.
A film crew is shooting a documentary of her journey which will be screened in Australia and elsewhere next year and will be edited by Rodrigo Balart, who is also working on Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron’s latest project, Deep Sea Challenge.
Ms McCracken impressed the judges with her original design, technique and skill of anamorphic perspective for her piece Assunzione della Grazie.
“I'm absolutely ecstatic,'' she said. ''It’s such an honour to represent Australia so successfully, alongside so many exceptional artists from around the world.
“I'd hoped to win but didn’t expect to, and to have achieved it is the fulfilment of a lifelong dream.
“I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with Australian street artists and I'm proud to be the only Australian ever to win at Grazie.
“The frenzy of working and getting to know so many of the international and local artists has been overwhelming – there just wasn’t time to let it all sink in properly .”