The theme for the seventh iteration of the "Colin Wheeler Art Exhibition" was North Otago, with entrants urged to find something which resonated with the region.
Wheeler was a life member and patron of the society, and following his death in 2012 members decided to turn a drafting board, riddled with pin marks made by the artist himself, donated by his family, into a trophy for the competition.
The three judges for this year’s competition were multidisciplinary artist Ferne Smyth, jeweller Iain Clark and photographer Lucy Gardner.
The trio told those gathered at the Customs House Gallery, at 29 Tyne St, for the opening night of the exhibition that it had been a privilege to judge the artworks and that everyone should be proud of themselves. When judging, they said they had to bear in mind the question of which works spoke to the theme.
In first place was Ricky Hammond-Tooke’s watercolour of Oamaru Harbour, with Allan Jonassen’s watercolour titled Timeworn second and Kevin Blake’s acrylic Potted History in third place. Highly commended were Barrie White, Jude Ansbacher and Jeff Armstrong.
There were cash prizes for the winners and most importantly, Lindt chocolate bunnies, which were also handed out to the highly commended.
Society vice-president Henk van Lier thanked everyone involved in putting together the exhibition and those who kept the gallery running for their hard work, as well as Whitestone Funerals for sponsoring the event.
In his speech, Mr van Lier said: "All our art society members should be proud of the efforts and endeavours that your committee members are making by increasing the public and tourist awareness of this lovely art gallery."
Wheeler’s paintings, loaned from the Forrester Gallery, were also on show at the exhibition, which runs until the second weekend in May.
• Wheeler was born in Dunedin in 1919. He studied at Canterbury School of Art and then at Camberwell in London, and was an art teacher at Waitaki Boys’ High School in Oamaru until 1969, when he took up painting fulltime. His well-known works have been exhibited in numerous public and private collections.
