King Country art awards presented

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 26, 24 November 1987, Page 5

King Country art awards presented

The Central King Country Visual Arts Trust announced the nine awards in its inaugural award and exhibition season on Saturday i n Taumarunui. The Winter Show Trust Award of $5000 for the Painting "which best captures any aspect of life, atmosphere and environment in the Central King Country" has been made to Mr Richard Frizzell o f Auckland for his work 'River Valley'. The three other painting awards of $1000 each have been awarded as follows: The June Corbett Award for landscape goes to Mr David Taylor of Halcombe for his work 'High Mist'. The Taumarunui and District Promotion and Development Association Award for towns and townships to Mr Harry Sangl of Auckland for 'Morning Mist over Taumarunui'. The Wickham Award for parks and rivers to Mar-

garet Elliot of Wellington for 'Red Crater-Tongariro'. In the graphics section two awards were made. The Taumarunui Professional Services Award for landscape went to Joanna Paul of Wanganui for her work 'Erua'. Betty Brownlie of Feilding was given the Warnocks Award for parks and rivers for her work 'Ruru -Whakapapa River'. No award was made for

the Michael Mattar Graphics Award for towns and townships. While entries in the painting section were well up to expectations there were far fewer in the graphics section. Entries in towns and townships were particularly thin and the judge decided that no entry merited an award. The judge for painting and graphics Mr Robin Kay of Wellington, a distinguished watercolour artist and for many years a member of the Council of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, was impressed with the overall quality of work submitted. He suggested to the Trust that all work entered in the painting and graphics sections could be exhibited and the Trust was pleased to act on this suggestion. As a result almost 200 works will be on exhibition in these sections. In the photography section awards of $1000 each were made as follows: The Clayton & Hayes Award for landscape went to Mr P. W. Goldfinch of Ohura for his work 'Autumn

- Tokirima Valley'. The Trust Bank Waikato Photography Award for towns and townships went to Mr I.A. Thomson of Dunedin for 'Post Office'. The Taumarunui and District Promotion and Development Association Photography Award for parks and rivers went to Mr Dennis Brett of Auckland for 'Whangaehu Stream'. Mr Geoff Moon, the cele-

brated author and bird and landscape photographer judged the photography section and commented favourably on the standard of entries. More than 80 photographs will be o n display in the exhibition. The large number o f works being exhibited has meant that two halls are required to house the exhibition. In addition to the War Memorial hall the nearby Methodist Hall will also be used. "This will create some administrative problems for us" said Michael Turner Secretary to the Trust "but we are very pleased that so many works of quality have been submitted. This must make our exhibition the largest ever to focus entirely on the Central King Country region. The Exhibition opened on Saturday 21 November and will close on Wednesday 2 December. At the offical opening on Saturday the awards were presented by Lesleigh Salinger, Director of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington.