Masterton artist Tina Rae Carter has beaten thousands of rivals across New Zealand and Australia to take first prize in the Resene Mural Masterpieces Competition with an artwork she painted at a local school.
Wairarapa Montessori Centre principal Pauline Harter commissioned the mural, which Ms Carter painted in the entrancewayto the Wairarapa Montessori Children's House in Masterton.
The artwork, which won Ms Carter $1000 worth of Resene products in the professional category of the Australasian contest, captures a host of native birds in their natural habitat, including a white Kiwi, and was painted during the winter months this year.
"We've created a natural habitat of native plants to complement the mural, which is a beautiful piece of art that has real depth which more commercial works lack," Ms Harter said.
Ms Carter had last year painted a Castlepoint Beach mural that backgrounds a sandpit at the Lincoln Rd children's house and also had co-ordinated the creation of a mural titled Trace at South End Montessori in Carterton that a hundred of the school's pupils also helped paint.
In 2005 Ms Carter had painted the blue sky and clouds decorating the walls of the Old Stick and Rudder museum hangar at Hood Aerodrome in Masterton and in 2006 painted the lavish and detailed interior of the Hawkes Bay Opera House in Hastings.
Peter Maxwell, Wairarapa area manager of Resene, applauded Ms Carter's latest artwork and said the Resene mural contest annually draws thousands of entrants.
Ms Carter said the winning mural aimed to "provide an area of magic and to educate the children about our birds and their environment".
