Kāpiti artists shortlisted for Parkin Drawing Prize

Morag Stokes with pieces from her Mickey Mouse Revisited series. Photo / Rosalie Willis

Two Kāpiti artists have made the shortlist for this year's Parkin Drawing Prize after a record number of entries.

The prize has this year attracted 563 entries, the highest number of entries since 2014, a year after the prize was launched.

Elisabeth Vullings from Paraparaumu and Morag Stokes who has recently moved up to Waikanae from Wellington have been announced on the shortlist of 80 works selected for the national drawing competition, founded by philanthropist and arts patron Chris Parkin.

Elisabeth Vullings with Double-Sited, her Parkin Drawing Prize shortlisted work. Photo / Rosalie Willis

Both are no strangers to the prize with both artists being finalists for the fourth time this year.

"I was quite surprised to be shortlisted because it's such an experimental piece, but I'm also stoked," said Elisabeth.

"Especially because there were so many entries this year."

Elisabeth's piece Double-Sited was an experiment which was not originally meant to be a double sided work.

"It's a very experimental work, working with an idea that I've wanted to explore for a while.

"The idea was to take something really familiar and breaking it down and deconstructing it to discover new meaning.

"That was the beginning point.

"I started with our house, which is a subject I often start with, and began to break it down into different spatial relationships.

Side A of Double-Sited by Elisabeth Vullings.

"It's all about the interior spaces and the spatial relationships using this diagrammatic architectural language."

First painting the glass and then etching her drawings into it, Elisabeth then painted on the glass with her fingers and a fine brush, all on the back side of the glass-panel door she was using as her canvas.

"It was an interesting technique because I was etching the drawings onto painted glass and then having to turn it around and look at what was happening on the other side.

"At this stage the other side wasn't going to be seen but when I saw it had developed its own abstract composition I made it double sided."

Working with graphite and Chinese ink for her Mickey Mouse Revisited series, Morag's piece Mickey Mouse Revisited (diptych) #2 has been shortlisted.

"This is a drawing, but not as you know it," she said.

"It's not done in a traditional way at all but it's done with traditional materials applied with untraditional tools."

Wanting to engage the viewer into looking at what's real and what's not, Morag said, "For this series I've used Mickey Mouse balloons, merchandised fantasy to question photo realism in drawing - except doing everything in reverse.

Mickey Mouse Revisited (diptych) #2 by Morag Stokes.

"Normally an artist would start out with a photograph of something real and set out to draw the image.

"I've done this in reverse.

"I've taken the piece into a specialist photographer to get printed in super high resolution to create a photographic reproduction of it.

"The piece looks black and white but there is a lot of temperature variation there.

"I want the photo to get as close as possible to my original drawing and have people questioning photo realism.

"I want people to look at a real work like this next to a photograph and struggle to tell the difference."

After finding out she had made the shortlist for the fourth time, Morag said, "For me this is the most interesting art show in Wellington, so being shortlisted is great.

"It's always a very engaging show."

The inspiration for her piece came from running balloon smash painting workshops at Pablo's Art Studio in Wellington.

Starting out using Mickey Mouse balloons, Morag moved to using extra-large condoms as the balloons popped too easily.

"Creating these works has been quite a meditative process, taking me several hours to get to the point where I can make it happen.

"There's a sweet point I need to get to where I'm mixing the mediums - sometimes it's too wet and sometimes it's too dry.

"There's only about 2-3 minutes where I get it just perfect.

"So I've got to make it happen very quickly which is why I need to be in the zone.

"I create and destroy until I find myself in that sweet point and something magical happens."

The works will be showcased at the Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts from August 3-29 with the winners announced on August 2.

The winning submission will be selected and announced by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki head of curatorial and exhibitions Dr Sarah Farrar.

The major prize is $25,000 with 10 highly commended prizes worth $500 also awarded.