Tirau artist a winner
A Tirau artist Wilma Van Veen has won the 2018 ART Waikino Supreme Award and first prize Art Award for her oil painting entitled Life.
Wilma could not believe she had won this year's contest.
“It has been a surprise and a first-time win in the contest,” she says.
Wilma received two commendations in the previous ART Waikino competitions, which she has been participating in for the last four or five years.
Her painting, Life shows a little boy looking at a bird standing by a tree.
This somewhat candid painting includes complexity in its execution.
Wilma used a mix of oil and water to reach the desired thickness then drew contours with charcoals.
This creates texture to her work and leaves the viewer wondering about the interconnections between the different characters painted on canvas.
“I like to let people's imagination run free.
“I do not like to put too much in the picture and want to leave it minimal for people to make their own story up,” she says.
Wilma's creative expression started with tapestries.
“At the time I had different ideas to add to my own pictures,” she says.
She started adding drawings from a colouring handbook on to a tapestry cloth and filled them with colours.
“Someone told me, why don't you draw on it,” she says. She took drawing classes, and started painting in 2001 and has never looked back since.
More of Wilma's work can be seen at the gallery Art on Main in Tirau.
The second Art Award went to Sally Trush for her original collagraph entitled Nikau and the third prize went to Joe Hale for a collage entitled The Empire Strikes.
The People's Choice award went to Waihi Beach artist Paul Herbert for his acrylic painting showing the Island View dairy which was entitled Happy Dairy — Bowentown Roundabout.