Education
A Gore art tutor has won the top prize at the 48th Wānaka Arts Labour Weekend Exhibition, taking home First Prize Overall for her painting Regal Tūī.
Julie Duncan, who facilitates the Art for Leisure class at the Southern Institute of Technology's Gore campus, She entered three fine-art still-life paintings, designed as a cohesive group featuring silver bowls, flowers and birds. as a cohesive group featuring silver bowls, flowers and birds. The winning work depicts a tūī perched on a silver filigree bowl.
Duncan said the recognition meant more than the $3,000 prize. "It's just the kudos more than the money."
"The judges had some lovely comments on it: perfect composition, skilful paint work, a well-balanced painting and eye-catching subject, which I felt was good because it validates that I knew what I was painting."
The prize money, she said, will go straight back into her practice. "It always goes back into art. It always does. That's what I do with my life…"
The three works took around two to three months to develop, built up in layers and regularly set aside before she returned with fresh eyes. "If you smile it's finished; you'll know. If you're not smiling, you know it's not ready."
Duncan brings that knowledge directly to the artists she works alongside at the Gore campus, particularly around composition and the structure of a painting. Equally important to her is the environment — giving people at different stages of their artistic journey somewhere comfortable to make art together.
"We all feed off each other when you've got a group of people together," she said, describing the fellowship within the group. "… being like-minded, everybody valuing the creative side of things, seeing what's new and sharing information."
The studio setting also lets class members leave everyday distractions behind. "If you're painting in an atmosphere like this, you're not at home where you've got to get up and wash the dishes. You can totally focus on your art."
Her approach to the class is straightforward. "Everybody's perfect in their own way. Everybody is talented in their own way."
The Gore campus recently opened its doors as part of the Southland Arts Trail, with an estimated 80 to 100 people visiting on October 31 and November 1 to view and purchase artworks. Duncan said the response had been "absolutely wonderful."
"We had so many people through our studios and through SIT here. It was just fabulous, and hopefully a few more people enrol, so that's lovely."
She said opening the campus let visitors see first-hand what happens inside the art class and the wider creative community around it. "If I'm working here, I will always open it up for people to see what we're doing. It's wonderful."
For Duncan, that connection to people is central to what art is about. "It doesn't always have to be teaching people. The classes here could be just being amongst like-minded people."