Grace Swanston wins Whanganui Fine Arts 2020 Young Artist Scholarship Award

Whanganui Fine Arts 2020 Youth Scholarship winner Grace Swanston with her self portrait. Photo / Liz Wylie

While some of us will be pleased to see the back of 2020, young Whanganui artist Grace Swanston will remember it as a year of personal triumphs.

In September, the Year 13 Whanganui High School (WHS) student was named a finalist in the Wallace Secondary School Art Awards and she has now won the Whanganui Fine Arts 2020 Young Artist Scholarship Award.

Her winning entry is a watercolour self-portrait which is one of a series she completed for her NCEA portfolio this year.

"It is one of the later ones in the series which has some optimism to it," Grace said.

"The series moves through a range of moods and emotions I was experiencing."

The painting shows the artist with one hand raised to her forehead, gazing towards the viewer.

The light and shadows in the painting are beautifully rendered and we see the fine hairs on her forearm highlighted in delicate brushwork. The realism is balanced by tiny goldfishes swimming through the background of the painting.

It is easy to see why judges Sietske Jansma and Anique Jayasinghe selected the painting as the winner from an impressive selection of work submitted by 11 artists this year.

Fine Arts Whanganui first offered the scholarship in 2017, with WHS student Mikayla Baldwin the inaugural winner. Lily Claypole (WHS) was the winner in 2018 and last year's winner was Whanganui Girls' College student Tsubaki Scythe who held her solo exhibition in June this year.

Each year, the winner receives a $1000 cash prize and members of the Whanganui Fine Arts Collective support them to prepare for a solo exhibition of their work at the Taupō Quay gallery.

Gallery visitors also get to vote for a People's Choice award of $200 and this year's winner is Zoe Bracegirdle.

There were also some highly commended categories this year as the quality of submissions was of an especially high standard.

Collective chairman Craig Hooker said it has been fantastic to see the quality of work submitted each year.

"When we formed the collective and opened the gallery in 2015, we wanted to make nurturing emerging artists a part of what we do.

"All the winners have sold most of their work at their solo shows and it is so good to see them getting that encouragement from the community and a fair number of out of town visitors purchased some as well."

Hooker said the collective was adjusting the submission dates for next year so they aligned better with the NCEA schedule which would allow more young artists to enter.

The collective line-up of 12 artists has changed personnel over five years and Hooker is the only original member as they celebrate their fifth anniversary.

"Individual artists have set up their own studios or moved on to other things but we haven't had trouble recruiting new members so it is working well.

"Each new artist brings something unique to the collective."

Swanston has enrolled to study psychology at Massey University in Palmerston North next year.

"I won't stop doing art and I might look at specialising in art therapy eventually," she said.

"I will always want to do art - it is always the first thing I do when I get home and I'm happy to work anywhere.

'If I don't have a space I'm happy to work on the lounge floor."