A beautiful dot on the map

Art awards The Waimarino Art Awards will be held this year from June 27-July 7.

They are open to exhibitors in the Central North Island, from the West across to the East Coast and takes in the region from Levin up to Hamilton.

Dot's works will be exhibited in The Barbed Wire Gallery in Raetihi from Saturday through April.Dorothy Barnes laughs when she says everybody knows her as Dot and that her late mother Beatrice was always known as Bea during the 35 years they had Kune Krafts in Ohakune.

These days the acrylic and pencil artist says she does not know what she enjoys more, being in her garden on a fine day, or painting or drawing when the weather turns wet.

The scenery around Ohakune is amazing, says Dot, adding that she loves the walk along Mangawhero River.

"I love the mountain and the hills. I loved drawing as a child and always had a pencil in my hand."

Dot spent two years at the Croydon College of Art which fuelled her love to paint and draw.

On a wall above the dining table is a painting of Dot in a bright flower-bedecked hat which she says turned up in the post one day, two years after a woman came into the shop and "clicked her camera".

Dot and her mother came to Taumarunui 40 years ago from Croydon in London, eight weeks before Dot's 21st birthday.

They then moved to Ohakune and started the Ohakune Art Awards.

"After a while a committee was formed and we ran it for 20 years."

Three years after the committee stopped the awards, Trish Smart picked it up and renamed it the Waimarino Art Awards.

Today it is run along the same lines as the awards, smiles Dot.

If you have news from the Waimarino, South Taranaki or the Rangitikei contact Merania: merania.karauria@wanganuichronicle.co.nz or 06 349 0710 extension 50940.