New Plymouth Floral Art Group member Beryl Watson is the 2024 Taranaki Area Floral Art Designer of the Year. Photo / Alyssa Smith
A free-standing artwork using home-grown plants was the pick of the bunch at a regional floral art competition.
New Plymouth Floral Art Group member Beryl Watson was crowned the 2024 Taranaki Area Floral Art Designer of the Year. As well as winning the top spot, her artwork, titled What’s My Line, won the Flight ‘n Fancy category.
Watson said after winning second place a few times, claiming the top title was “a privilege”.
“I’m happy to have won. I enjoyed stepping back from my work and seeing something I was proud of.”
She had four hours on Friday to construct her artwork.
“I just plodded along. I had to do a lot of tying before I could get the flowers in.”
She said she relied on new and old techniques to get her creation right.
“I was quite lucky this year to attend a workshop in Tauranga in August by Gregor Lersch, a German floral artist. I picked up a few tips at the workshop about binding and assembling without using floral foam.”
To create her free-standing design Watson used paper-covered binding wire to connect vines, willow, fairy bells and dried amaranthus she grew in the garden.
“I skinned the bark off the willow last year and it’s gotten lighter and lighter. As for the fairy bells, they reminded me of gnats and they looked like they were flying in the garden. I thought the dried amaranthus would be a nice touch.”
Wrapped around the design was flax, she said.
“I used the hapini method, which is a way to create threaded flax. You put it through a pasta machine at an angle so it becomes like netting.”
Watson also incorporated orchids from Slater’s Orchids in New Plymouth.
“It’s nice to support local growers.”
As well as winning the coveted title, Watson moves on to the national round of the competition, the FASNZ diamond anniversary AGM and conference in May.
“I’m looking forward to my next challenge of representing Taranaki at the national competition.”
Pam Sims, also of the New Plymouth club, won the Most Creative Design award and the Line Them Up category. She said she incorporated beach sticks into her work.
“I was thinking about the topic and thought it would be wonderful to stand everything up with a line of beach sticks. Then my other inspiration was raising the orchard and having it hang.”
Stratford Floral Art Group member Glenys Campbell won the Best Use of Colour category, with her piece inspired by the Olympics.
“My category was Flight ‘n Fancy. I was struggling with it, but then I was watching the gymnasts in the Olympics and thought ‘hey, that’s flight and it’s fancy’, so I used silks and different flowers and foliage to create my design.”
This is the third time Campbell has won the award, first winning it in 2000 and then again in 2007. She said floral art was something she enjoys.
In the children’s pre-made stick figure category, Rebecca Surgenor won the 10-15-year-old division with Chloe Fabish winning the 9-and-under division.
Head steward Judy Williams said she was impressed by the calibre of entries, saying they were all world-class.
“Take Glenys’s work for example, for someone to be able to take orange and purple, which are entirely separate on the colour wheel, and to make it work is a testament to skill as a designer. Beryl’s work stuck completely to the theme and Pam’s work was amazing.”
The show received 40 entries in the adult competition and 35 in the kids section.
“Isn’t that just wonderful? We’re delighted by the numbers, both the entry levels and the people coming through the doors. We had over 200 visitors come and see the show on Saturday which exceeded the numbers we expected for the whole weekend. I think it’s interesting seeing people who don’t know what floral art is, coming in and seeing it for themselves. It’s so lovely to walk them through it.”
The 2024 Taranaki Area Floral Art Designer of the Year wasn’t all about competition, with each Taranaki club submitting a piece of artwork “for fun”, said Kapuni Floral Art Group member Margaret Holmes.
“We each had to create a piece inspired by a calendar photo. Sue Muggeridge and myself created this piece. Most of the plant material came from Sue’s garden and some of the amenities came from my garden, with other members pitching in as well.”
Holmes is a life member of both Kapuni and Taranaki Area Floral Art Groups, competing internationally over the years.
“In 1999, I competed at the world show in Durban, South Africa.”
She’s also judged many shows locally and further afield.
“I’ve judged many national shows and I was also the judge at the world show in Glasgow in 2002.”
Taranaki Area and New Plymouth Floral Art Group president Jan Coffey said the show was popular, showing the resurgence of floral art.
“We’re getting more young people involved and it’s becoming something a lot more people are doing. We’ve had a lot of people through the doors and we’re really happy with how this show went.”