Glenn Brown’s futuristic vision Battle of Wellington wins supreme award at Manawatū Art Awards

Glenn Brown with his piece Battle of Wellington, which won the Supreme Award at the Feilding and District Art Society’s 2024 Art Awards. Photo / Eris Newson

Gisborne artist Glenn Brown has won the Supreme Award in the Feilding and District Art Society’s 2024 Art Awards with a work which depicts a futuristic vision of New Zealand’s capital city.

The painting, titled Battle of Wellington, is 1800cm x 1300cm and took more than 1000 hours to produce, with a lot of time devoted to researching and image concept development.

It combines two of his interests – architecture and ornithology.

Brown is originally from Wellington and moved to Gisborne in 2020.

He said it was emotional winning the award and he had been nervous about entering the competition because of the high calibre of entries.

“It had been a very mentally challenging concept to produce and I was happy to share the experience with my mum, who attended the awards announcement.”

Brown works as a biosecurity officer at Gisborne District Council. He does art and graphics on a regular basis outside of work.

His interest in art runs in the family – his dad attended art school in Glasgow – but he said art wasn’t encouraged when he was at secondary school.

“My greatest inspiration to produce this work was in memory of my father, who was very supportive of my art.”

Battle of Wellington was sold in print form prior to Brown entering the competition and it was one of his buyers who encouraged him to enter the art awards.

“The idea for the painting came from a dream, where AI tech warfare was dominating the planet. However, eugenics was something AI had difficulty in battling as it couldn’t analyse/mimic the processes on how other animal species think.”

The awards event was held at the Feilding & District Art Centre earlier this month.

“It’s nice to know the artwork has created happiness for many others,” Brown said. “That motivates me to produce more work.”