Young artist 'rapt' at national win

Jamie Chapman and his award-winning painting. Photo / Supplied

A Whangarei artist has taken out the National Youth Artist of the Year title in the prized Waikato Society of Art Awards.

Jamie Chapman, 26, was rapt to be presented with the award for his oil painting depicting the 2011 Japan tsunami 1000 Images of the Sea.

Chapman was raised in Whangarei and attended Whangarei Boys' High School where a relief teacher sparked his passion for art.

"I had always loved drawing and painting but it wasn't until a relief tutor who was actually an artist came and taught at Boys' High and took me and another guy down to the art schools that I realised I could try and do it full-time," he said.

He studied a certificate of arts and design at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design in Auckland before travelling through Europe and seeing masterpieces he had seen only in books.

"[The paintings] are even more amazing seeing them in the flesh," he said.

He returned to Auckland to study Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts.

Chapman has his first solo exhibition at the Geoff Wilson Gallery in Whangarei. He said he was proud to have his first solo in Raumanga, where he grew up. The exhibition Hangover shows the influence of the old Masters of the Renaissance on his work, but with a contemporary spin. Hangover is on exhibition at the Geoff Wilson Gallery, NorthTec Raumanga campus, until October 3.