Jamie Lewis with his award winning Snowy Mountain Ranges painting.
A teenager from Waikanae has won the Gordon Harris Award for best painting by a junior artist for the second year running, at Splash, Watercolour New Zealand's national exhibition in Wellington.
Judges were impressed with Jamie Lewis' painting Snowy Mountain Ranges.
Jamie, 15, was "over the moon".
"This is much more than I could have asked for and winning the award for the second year running totally astonished me.
"The most important thing for me is that I want people to enjoy my artwork.
"I'm so happy to see that people do and now after winning the award I can continue to paint knowing that."
The painting stemmed from a family photo of the Southern Alps taken from a distance in Canterbury.
"This photo stood out to me and my mum when we were scrolling through hundreds of other photos on the computer mainly for its bold whites and smooth water and sky.
"The trees located at the front left of the painting were quite a struggle and took a relatively long time to complete.
"For the sky, water and the mountains, I used the same cobalt blue to give it various shapes, colours and textures.
"I thought cobalt blue would suit it best as it is a cold coloured blue and the photograph doesn't exactly look like it was shot in the warmest of places."
Last year Jamie won the same award for Matt's House.
"It was a painting of a stunning house that I went to visit with my mentor Philip Markham and his friend and fellow painter Marcus Ebbett.
"Philip got me to take many different photos of it from different angles and once back at the studio we went through the photos to find which one was most appropriate for painting.
"I was pleased with the final result and wasn't quite sure what people would think of it as I hadn't entered Splash previously."
Jamie hopes art will become a full-time career for him either working for a company or being self employed and working from home.
"Either way I'll still be doing what I enjoy best."
He said he always enjoyed the concept of being given a blank canvas to create literally anything you want on it.
"And no matter what you paint or draw on it, it will never turn out exactly like another artists, meaning it's completely unique to you, along with your style."
Jamie was grateful to Mr Markham, who has been his mentor for nearly five years.
"It is because of him that I still do art to this day.
"Without him I imagine I would have changed my opinion on art and moved on to something else."
