‘Little symphony’ of details wins People’s Choice

BY ELISE VOLLWEILER

Jennifer Stebbings still returns to watercolour or pencil, but for the Riwaka-based artist, nothing beats oil paint.

“The smell of it, the texture, the vibrancy of the colours,” she describes.

Jennifer’s mastery and understanding for her favourite art medium shone through at the recent Mapua-based Tasman National Art Awards, where she was announced the winner of the NBS People’s Choice Award at the close of the exhibition earlier this month.

She is surprised, yet utterly delighted, to win the award, as her subject matter – a detailed close-up of two draft horses – is a fairly traditional one.

She says she had assumed the piece that would capture the public’s eye would be “something more weird and wonderful”.

“It’s one of those moments that makes it all worth it,” she says.

Jennifer says that she has been drawing and painting since she was tiny and studied commercial art at polytechnic “because I knew I wasn’t going to make any money” doing art any other way.

She spent 15 years in England “doing real jobs” before returning to New Zealand, where circumstances allowed her to take up painting full-time.

The national art awards are an annual competition that welcomes submissions from across the country. It draws several hundred submissions, which are vetted before the finalists - just 115 pieces - are accepted as part of the display.

Jennifer submitted two pieces – her draft horses, and another of a traction engine, both of which were accepted.

The paintings show intricate detailing, a challenge that Jennifer loves. Her winning piece, with its delicate whiskers, horse hairs and manes, took her 1000 hours to craft. She’s presently enjoying a phase doing commissions of traction engines, revelling in the “little symphonies of lots of things to look at”.

“The busier the picture, the more stuff in it, the more fun it is to paint.”

Jennifer’s art can be viewed at her Riwaka home by appointment – her website can be found here.

She is a long-standing member of the Motueka Art Group and will be displaying pieces in their annual summer exhibition at the St Thomas Church, from 25 January to 4 February. The art group will also be exhibited in the Motueka Museum from 17 December to 21 January.