Craigs Aspiring Art Prize

I was honoured to be selected to participate in the 2022 Craigs Aspiring Art Prize exhibition earlier this year.

The exhibition is the main fundraiser for the Holy Family Catholic School which is located in beautiful Wanaka. While my painting didn’t win a prize it did hang right next to the winner by Deborah Moss, so I was in good company. And honestly that is totally fine! My aim in submitting an artwork was to get my work out into the world. My entry “The Poetry of Place” found a new home during the show so I was very happy with that.

This was one of those paintings that sat nearly finished for quite a while and I couldn’t figure out what it needed to complete it. There were several parts of this painting that I loved in its nearly finished state and that can actually be a hinderance. The fear of ‘ruining’ those pleasing areas can obscure the way forward. It wasn’t until I bravely added that diagonal pink swathe of paint across the middle, regardless of what would be lost that it felt finished.