Driftwood sculpture rises to top

Jack Marsden Mayer's Humpback Whale on display in Devonport last week. PHOTO/MARK MERADITH

A whale of a tale had a happy ending for Wanganui artist Jack Marsden-Mayer.

The driftwood sculpture artist left town three weeks ago with the 5m humpback whale sculpture on a trailer bound for Auckland.

He was hoping to win the People's Choice Award at the NZ Sculpture OnShore event in Devonport and sell the sculpture.

Back home after succeeding on both counts, Marsden-Mayer says he was paid $1000 for the whale, although he is more chuffed about the prestige of winning the award.

After a busy month of completing commissions and finishing the whale in time for the Auckland event, the artist says he is looking forward to catching up on things. "I want to fix up a dragon head and I've got a horse and a frog that I need to work on.

"I sent two moa sculptures down to the Art in a Garden competition in Christchurch.

"They were very similar but they were in different locations so ended up pitted against each other for the people's choice award and one of them won."

It is the second time that Marsden-Mayer has won the People's Choice Award at the biennial NZ Sculpture OnShore competition.

His life-sized elephant sculpture, Kashin, won the award in 2012.

"Kashin has a baby now. I made a smaller version for a commission, and the person who bought the life-sized version has acquired the little one, so they are together."

NZ Sculpture OnShore is an exhibition that showcases contemporary New Zealand sculpture while at the same time raising funds for Women's Refuge NZ. Around 100 artists, from Northland to Invercargill, exhibited this year and the People's Choice Award, sponsored by Fisher Funds, attracted many votes.

Exhibition curator Rob Garrett said this year's exhibition seemed to have wide appeal.

"In counting the People's Choice voting papers, we noticed that people took the time to cast a vote for a whopping 90 sculptures out of the exhibition's total of 108 artworks," he said.