Hawke's Bay artist's sewing machine creation. Video / Supplied
Three Hawke's Bay artists demonstrating vastly different styles and methodology have each had works selected to be finalists in a national drawing competition.
The locals are three of the 76 shortlisted finalists for the 2022Parkin Drawing Prize.
Hawke's Bay artist Kate MacKenzie's stunning sewn artwork Refugees is a meditation on the ambiguity and distortion of truth during war.
"Using a sewing machine as my pencil, layer upon layer of tulle and cotton draw an almost haunting holographic image that represents movement, time and distance," MacKenzie said.
"The images of Ukrainian refugees escaping their country were a stark reminder of historical wars we witnessed on our monochrome TV screens. Yet current times of misinformation suggest the facts are no longer black and white."
She said she drew pencil figures on white canvas which were removed after the tulle was added.
"Random off-cuts were then salvaged from the floor and applied unconsciously to create blurred lines to distort the truth."
She said more of this new fabric work will be exhibited alongside her oil paintings at Muse Gallery Havelock North in November.
Ophelia and Arthur go to Town Part 2 has been shortlisted for the 2022 Parkin Drawing Prize. Leslie Falls said she has entered the competition before. Photo / Supplied
Leslie Falls from Havelock North aimed to evoke meaning without meaning anything specific with the motifs reminiscent of the insides of electronics appearing in her enigmatic drawing Ophelia and Arthur go to Town Part 2.
"It's a diagram that looks as if it means something, maybe electronically or something like the inside of a computer chip, but it is completely fabricated," Falls said.
"It was partly inspired because my father was an audio engineer and I always liked the idea of diagrams."
She said the inspiration for the title came from her granddaughter Ophelia and son Arthur.
"Arthur is into the blockchain and all of that and he was the one who suggested I start colouring my diagrams, because they've always been in black and white.
Leslie Falls, art teacher from Havelock North, said she made Ophelia and Arthur go to Town Part 2 as a way to understand the purpose of art. Photo / Supplied
"He inspired me to colour them as a way to emphasise a narrative."
She said Part one of the piece was much more free style drawing which relates to the perspective of a 3-year-old.
"I thought if Ophelia went to town, what she would see is this jumble of lines that are very abstract and loose form and kind of non-sensical whereas if Arthur went, his would be much more methodical, predictable, even though that drawing is just as non-sensical."
Waipawa artist Felicity Bergström's shortlisted traditional graphite pencil drawing I Captured Your Being. Photo / Supplied
Felicity Bergström from Waipawa has lived up to the name of her work with her finely detailed traditional graphite pencil portrait I Captured Your Being.
Bergström said she aimed to capture this sculptural sense of the subject, a striking likeness more in the sense of a 3D wire frame rather than a photographic likeness.
"I paid a lot of attention to the form and slowly built up layers from very faint searching lines to the final harmony of light and dark, soft and hard. I engaged in a participatory knowledge of my subject by feeling the sculptural 3D quality of the head as I drew," she said.
Bergström said she didn't think her work would fit the competition as most entrants were abstract pieces, and she was very surprised and pleased to be shortlisted. Photo / Supplied
The shortlist was selected from a total of 589 entries by an advisory panel, consisting of leading painter John Walsh of Aitanga a Hauiti/ New Zealand Irish descent, contemporary ceramics artist Virginia Leonard, and New Zealand artist Matt Gauldie.
The top prize for the Parkin Drawing Prize is $25,000, while 10 works will win highly commended prizes of $500.
The winning submission will be selected and announced at the gala announcement of the Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition on Monday, August 1.
All the artworks in the 2022 Parkin Drawing Prize shortlist will be for sale.
The finalists will be showcased at the Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts from August 2 to September 11.