OHAKUNE ART AWARDS

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 15, 8 September 1987, Page 1

OHAKUNE ART AWARDS

For the first time in its nine years the Ohakune Art Awards Premier Prize was shared by two winners. John Scott of Wanganui (a winner in 1985) this year shared first prize with Carolyn Cole of Taupo. John Scott, whose mixedmedia abstract painting was titled 'Line 7#6', is principal of the Wanganui Community College. Carolyn Cole, whose non -representational painting in acrylics was untitled, is an 18-year old graphic artist who left school only two months ago to join a firm of printers in Taupo. She had attended Tauhara College as a 7th Former earlier this year. They shared the $2,000 award donated by patron Elizabeth Baigent of Wellington. Another first on this occasion was the fact that never before has a woman been the sole judge of the Ohakune Art Awards: all previous Awards have been judged by male artists. This year the judge was Les leigh Salinger, who is director of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington. These and other Awards were made in a preview and

presentation ceremony in the upstairs lounge of the Ohakune Club on Sunday evening. It was attended by about 100 invited guests and exhibiting artists. In announcing the Awards and declaring the exhibition open Ohakune's Mayor Bill Taylor thanked the sponsors of the prizes and the participating artists for making the occasion possible ... "without you we wouldn't have these annual Awards", he said. Lesleigh Salinger, commenting on the exhibits, said that in judging the entries, she was assessing them from the point of view of how the artist used

the media - oil, watercolour, acrylic,pastel, pencil, pen and ink - to express the concept behind the work. She said that some forms of media, particularly wa-ter-colour, were much stronger than others while portraiture was, for the most part, weak. She advised local artists to avoid 'sentamentality' in their work and admitted she personally preferred nonrepresentational work unless the painting or drawing was interpretive rather than merely a replication of the observed scene. She also warned against cont'd onp. 7

ART AWARDS cont'd from p. 1

the temptation of becoming too concerned with perfecting a technique at the expense of expressing an idea ... this could result in a certain sterility which might inhibit further development. The results of the Awards were as follows: Premier Award 120, Line 7#6, John Scott, Wanganui; with 32, Untitled, Carolyn Cole, Taupo. Oil Award 43, Waitarere Beach, Peter Donne, Wanganui. Water Colour 64 Country Church N. Grimes, Feilding. Any Other Medium 114, Geranium, B. Register, Palmerston North. District Award 144, Morning Lights, Doris ('Doddie') Fetzer, Ohakune. Portrait 130, Mrs Nina Ryder, Mrs M.A. Waters, Levin.