The talented student awarded top prize at the recent Howick Art Group’s Spring Festival Art Exhibition has spoken of the energy of the ocean as her inspiration for her winning artwork.
The beautiful painting by Ruby Tierney, of Howick Intermediate School, was judged the best piece in the school students’ section of the exhibition, staged at Howick Bowling Club in early August.
Howick Art Group invited creative children of Howick, Bucklands Beach and Somerville Intermediate Schools to enter pieces in its Art Extension programme, with its theme this year being In Our Own Backyard.
Ruby, whose art teacher at Howick Intermediate is Amanda Wolken, says she’s “always been drawn to the ocean because it feels both calming and powerful at the same time”.
“It changes every day, sometimes it’s peaceful and still, other times it’s wild and unpredictable.
“I wanted my artwork to capture that energy and show how the ocean can reflect different moods and emotions,” Ruby says.
“When I started, I focused on the colours, the textures, and the movement of the waves to show what the ocean means to me personally.
“I think of the ocean as a symbol of freedom, but also something we need to take care of, so I tried to bring both beauty and awareness into the piece.”
Julie Mitchell, of the Howick Art Group, says it’s heartened by the enthusiastic reaction it got from the schools and artistic students for the Art Extension programme and its environmental theme.
“The Howick Art Group supports and encourages involvement in the creative process and has been very pleased with the overwhelming positive response that inclusion of the students’ artworks had on our recent exhibition.
“The art students’ work from the three local intermediate schools was a special part of our very successful 60th anniversary art exhibition.”
Mitchell says the pupils’ works were judged by Matt Dowman, a lecturer at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design; Tony Morgan, a former art teacher at Macleans College and centre director at Uxbridge Arts and Culture; and Nicki Richards, owner and curator of Quay Gallery in Whitford.
Some 212 works by adult artists were also entered in the prize categories for the 60th anniversary display by the Howick Art Group that formed in February 1965.
The students whose works were acknowledged in the In Our Own Backyard section of the Howick Art Group’s Spring Festival Art Exhibition are:
- First: Ruby Tierney (Howick Intermediate).
- Distinction: Sasha Chugunova (Howick), Mimi Al-Malaika (Howick), Ting Ting U (Somerville Intermediate), Connie Lin (Howick).
- Merit: Michael Song (Bucklands Beach Intermediate), Zoe Jin (Bucklands Beach), Xiaoxiao Y (Somerville), Jade G (Somerville), Esther Tan (Howick).
- For earlier Times stories about the Howick Art Group’s Spring Festival Art Exhibition, read:
https://www.times.co.nz/art-entertainment/story-and-photos-howick-art-group-exhibition-opening/
https://www.times.co.nz/art-entertainment/special-show-marks-60-artistic-years/
