Landscape inspires winning artwork
If at first you don’t succeed, draw, draw again.
After being highly commended in 2017, Nelson artist Michael Dell has won this year’s $20,000 Parkin Drawing Prize for his charcoal drawing Every Valley.
The work on canvas topped this year’s list of 78 finalists, which itself had been narrowed from 472 entries nationwide.
The winning entry was a return to something more traditional for the award, which has attracted controversy for pushing the boundaries of drawing, rewarding works made with fishing line, carpet, and graphite rubbings.
Dell said he was ‘‘genuinely thrilled’’ to be the winner.
Every Valley combined his interests in the ‘‘impartial and arbitrary character of the natural world’’, he said. ‘‘Nature exists on its own terms.’’
Dell works out of a Nelson studio but regularly goes out to nearby Pigeon Valley, where he gathered inspiration for the 1.9m by 1.4m work. ‘‘I started thinking about Every Valley six months ago, and it took me three days to do the physical drawing.’’
Judge John Gow said the ‘‘mystery’’ of the work drew him back many times.
‘‘I wasn’t sure if I was looking into the forest or into the future or into the past. Quality of image, quality of materials and quality of thought all added up to a winning combination in my mind’s eye.’’
Gow also awarded 10 highly commended prizes of $500 each.
The Parkin Drawing Prize is sponsored by Chris Parkin, a former owner of the Museum Art Hotel and Wellington City councillor. He said that when he founded the prize seven years ago, he hoped it would create a resurgence of interest in drawing, empower artists and ‘‘get the drawing conversation going’’.
The Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition season will be from August 6 to September 8 at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Gallery in Wellington.