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Prizewinning works by local artists included Susannah Law’s The Moa Hunters. One of two Student/Youth award winners was Zandri Spies of Mairangi Bay with Bipolar.
With the hard work of judging over, all entries in the annual Hibiscus & Bays Arts Awards are now on show at Estuary Arts Centre.The work of local artists, who competed for a top prize of $3000 in the Hibiscus & Bays Arts Awards, fills all the galleries and the foyer of Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa.
This is the third year that the awards, initiated by the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board, have been held. They were launched at Estuary Arts Centre in 2014 and are hosted in alternate years by Mairangi Bay Arts Centre. This year there were 118 entries from more than 70 established and emerging artists. In the past, finalists were pre-selected but Estuary Arts Centre manager Kim Boyd says this year all entries were presented to judges and no one was turned away.
Artists were competing for a main prize of $3000, with $500 for second. There are also Merit awards and the People’s Choice award – a $300 voucher from Orewa Framing Studio that will be drawn at the end of the exhibition.
Most works are paintings, and the majority of the artists are from the Hibiscus Coast or Rodney areas. Despite this, the majority of the prizes went to artists from outside this area. The premier winner was Becs Wood of Whitianga, with her pencil and watercolour wash painting Orchard Dreaming. Second prize went to the painting Alligator Wine by another Whitianga artist, Martinus Sarangapany.
Hibiscus Coast artist Susannah Law won a Merit for her work The Moa Hunters. Judges commented on its unusual use of paint, which included masked and marbled areas. Young Silverdale artist Laura Layton won Merit for her pencil drawing Great Horned Owl.
The judges were Auckland sculptor Claire Ulenberg, printmaker Prue MacDougall, painter Peter Miller and potter Suzy Dünser.
The opening was an award evening on October 28 and the work will remain on display at Estuary Arts Centre, 214b Hibiscus Coast Highway, until December 11.
