The Gordon Harris Winter Online Watercolour Competition
The aim of Watercolour New Zealand's annual Online Watercolour Competition, sponsored by Gordon Harris Ltd, is to to celebrate and reward excellence and originality in the medium of watercolour. Members enter the competition by sending in their entries by e-mail, and their entries go before a panel of judges.
Online Watercolour Competition Winter 2020 Entries
1st place: Crimson Spring Blossom by Jie Yi Liang
"Crimson Spring Blossom" by Jie Yi Liang
Also 2nd place in People’s Choice vote
46 x 33 cms. Arches.
The inspiration for this painting was a rose growing in a public park in China. Jie Yi used her photograph for the central flowers and her imagination for the foreground and background. The base pigments for the roses were Opera Pink and Permanent Rose; for the leaves Lemon Yellow mixed with various blues. Jie Yi finds mixing her own greens gives a more harmonious result. The work took a month to execute.
2nd place - Tui Hui by Deb Clarke
"Tui Hui" by Deb Clarke
Also 1st place in People’s Choice vote
Deb writes: “I was inspired to paint Tuis, one of my favorite native birds, to capture the brilliant turquoise I glimpse as they flash by, and their bossy, noisy personalities. I used several images and grouped them as they are often seen chortling and singing to each other in the top of a Kowhai tree - hence the title ‘Tui Hui’. Paper: Fabriano 640gsm Extra White CP. 55 x 75cm. Pigments for blue feathers: Winsor & Newton Phthalo Turquoise and Cobalt Turquoise Light. I am delighted as this is the first competition outside our Tauranga Society of Artists that I have entered.”
3rd place - Monty’s Surprise by Svetlana Orinko
"Monty’s Surprise" by Svetlana Orinko
30 x 37 cms
Svetlana follows her Ukrainian heritage, filling her small central Christchurch garden with berries, vegetables and fruit trees including Monty’s Surprise. “We are almost self-sufficient.” Researchers have found this heritage New Zealand apple tree to have special properties: “Testing has shown its potent effectiveness at inhibiting colon and stomach cancer cell proliferation.”
When painting a plant, Svetlana begins outdoors from real life, then continues in her studio using photos. She finds apple trees tend to have either beautiful fruit and unattractive leaves or vice versa, so she will incorporate leaves from a different apple. She gives careful attention to composition. Opera, being the coldest red pigment, is her choice for the apple colour.
3rd place in People’s Choice vote: "Grazing below Mount Hutt" by Charlotte Hird
"Grazing below Mount Hutt" by Charlotte Hird
The winner on Instagram "Tekapo, from the South-West" by Roderick Weston
"Tekapo, from the South-West" by Roderick Weston
"Beach Houses, South of Moeraki" by Nancy McLennan Hughes
