For Havelock North artist Jeff Drabble, taking honours in the photography section of the Taranaki Art Awards means one thing, "I guess I have to start making my sculptures better".
The Taranaki Art Awards are one of the few art awards that accept photographs and Mr Drabble was as surprised as
anyone he took honours with A Day Out in Blue Socks, especially considering New Zealand Photographer of the Year Tony Carter had also entered.
Mr Drabble originally planned to only enter his first sculpting effort, dubbed Art Domesticated, and as an afterthought entered the photograph, taken in the National Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne last year, as well.
The sculpture, a metal egg shape with protruding legs that consumed 5000 rivets and about nine months in construction, represents the constraints an artist places on himself when making art for sale.
Sculpture wasn't an entirely new process, however, with Mr Drabble working for 15 years in the Australian film industry constructing props and other set pieces. "I'm using the same skills I learned there."
For now sculpting is his new passion and he already has two other pieces in the egg-shaped series, though the new additions are made of fibreglass and wood.
Art Domesticated can be been at the Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition on 121 Rosser Rd, Hastings, and is open to the public until Sunday, November 14.
