Waipawa artist Felicity Bergström one of 10 highly commended at national Parkin Drawing Prize

Felicity Bergström's piece I Captured Your Being was one of 10 works nationwide to be highly commended at the 2022 Parkin Drawing prize. Photo / Supplied

A Waipawa artist has been reminded that the best work is the kind one makes for one's self with her recognition at a national drawing competition

Felicity Bergström's piece I Captured Your Being was one of only 10 works nationwide highly commended at the 2022 Parkin Drawing Prize.

She received a prize of $500 at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts' Academy Galleries on Monday evening.

She said she wasn't expecting the highly commended prize, but it felt great.

"It's definitely encouraging," Bergström said.

She said she had entered two pieces originally this year and I Captured Your Being was the one she least expected to be shortlisted.

"One I did specifically for what I thought they would like and that didn't get in, while the one that I did for myself, that one got in," she said.

"It's a nice reminder that 'oh yes, actually it is worthwhile doing work for yourself'. Doing work for other people, it doesn't come out as good."

She said earlier that she didn't think her work would fit the competition, and she was surprised and pleased to be shortlisted.

"I have never thought that my work would be a good fit for the competition as most work seems to be fairly abstract and I have always leaned towards the representational and naturalistic," she said.

Bergström said earlier she aimed to capture a striking likeness more in the sense of a 3D wire frame rather than a photographic likeness with I Captured Your Being. Photo / Supplied

She said she was planning on doing an exhibition in Hawke's Bay at some point with a small collection of paintings she had been working on.

Bergström said earlier she aimed to capture a striking likeness more in the sense of a 3D wire frame rather than a photographic likeness with I Captured Your Being.

"I paid a lot of attention to the form and slowly built up layers from very faint searching lines to the final harmony of light and dark, soft and hard," she said.

"I engaged in a participatory knowledge of my subject by feeling the sculptural 3D quality of the head as I drew,"

I Captured Your Being was one of a record 588 entries nationwide and 76 eventual finalists in the competition.

Bergström's I Captured Your Being was one of three shortlisted finalists from Hawke's Bay, along with Kate MacKenzie's Refugees and Leslie Falls' Ophelia and Arthur go to Town Part 2.

Of the 76 finalists, 10 works were selected as highly commended and won $500 each while one work won the top prize of $25,000.

The pieces were judged this year by Felicity Milburn, lead curator at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.

Siân Stephens from Wellington was announced as the winner of the top $25,000 prize for her work Liam Cutting His Hair After An All-nighter.

The Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition season runs until September 11 at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Academy Galleries, Queens Wharf, Wellington.

All the artworks will be for sale for admirers and collectors to purchase.