College teacher takes top art award

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 538, 6 September 1994, Page 1

College teacher takes top art award

It was ironic that Ruapehu College' s new art teacher, who is building a reputation for encouraging young artists, was the winner of the Ohakune Art Awards premier award in a year that had few young entrants. Art awards judge Bob Bassant said the college was very lucky to have an art teacher with such skill and enthusiasm and that he hoped this would flow through to more entries in the young artists' category in future years. "I want to see a very, very large youth section next year. My only criticism of this year's awards is that the youth section is too small and needs building," he said. Ruapehu mayor Garrick Workman, in opening the awards exhibition, also said it was a shame that there was not more young local talent represented. "It would be good if we could harness the skills and energy of our tagging and graffiti artists," he said. He said the district appreciated the efforts of the organisers of the art awards in keeping them alive. He said a district such as Ruapehu, with its small population base, did well to host such an exhibition. Art teacher Richard Lewer won the premier award with his work "A Happy Childhood" — a black-and-white printed and pencil drawing work which was a depiction of what he said was his earliest childhood memory. The picture represents a mixture of memory and dream of a scene in his first home where three witches in a top hat descend on his head, setting his hair alight. He said he wonders if the memory is of a dream or partly reality. Mr Bassant told the audience the result was visually complex but compositionally ordered. He said it showed widely developed conceptual skills and that it was a jewel of craftsmanship and imagination. He said it was "easily the most accomplished and authoritative work" in the exhibition. "Some people have an authority about them - something that^ makes you remember them, and paintings can be the^^ same," he said. Winner of the Barnes Young Artist Award wa^^r tvQ Ruth Templar with her work 'Passage of Time"^^^ . ^ ^ Mr Bassant said the drawing showed sophistication and very good concep sOl tualising techniques for such a young artist - a delightfu q work ofintimacy and per-^^r ^ *!■ ception". Marueen^^ Turn to o ^ Page 2 ^ ^">1

College teacher wins art prize

FROMPAGE1 Thirtle of Wanganui won the life study award with her "Shearer" portrait — "a convincing study of a shearer, a man of the land". "A powerful, exuberant painting with a sly social comment" was how the judge described Todd Haywood's "Edmonds". He said its composition worked despite many large overlapping elements, and warned viewers that it "pounces at you when you walk past". A "delightful example from the primitive school" was how the judge described Mr Mancewicz' s "Princess Diana" portrait. He said everyone had read about the Princess and that, "who knows, this painting could be the true Diana", with its child-like simplicity and honesty. Judy Johnson's work 'Gorge Impression' ran close for the premier award, said Mr Bassant. He said it was a superb painting in colour and technique of the New Zealand landscape. Val Southcombe's 'Eloquence Never Retires Series I' showed considerable artistic skill and understanding, with the different spaces in the painting moving in subtle ways, said Mr Bassant. Mr Bassant is an artist who is a member of the New Zealand Arts Gouncil. He has been an artist member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts for 20 years. He is a past vice-president of the Wellington Soci ety of Watercolour Artists. He continues to paint and exhibit his work.

After spending the early war years in German-occupied Holland he enrolled at the Rotterdam Academy of Visual Arts. But his five-year course was interrupted when the German army requisitioned the Academy buildings. He came to New Zealand as a Dutch assisted immigrant in 1952, accompanied by his wife Gray and their young son. They worked on a Dannevirke farm for 18 months before he set up a signwriting and display studio in town. Later he joined the staff of one of New Zealand' s leading advertising agencies of the day, as a visualiser. In 1965 he joined the staff of the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design as a tutor in graphic design, opting for part-time tutoring in 1 980 so he could do free-lance design work as well as painting.