Winners of the Tabernacle Art Competition announced

Winners of the 2022 Tabernacle Art Competition have been announced by MOMA Machynlleth.

More than 150 works were submitted and the winners, highly commended and a selection of other works will be exhibited in the Pulpit Room at MOMA Machynlleth until September 7. All the exhibited works are for sale.

Visitors are being encouraged to vote for their favourite work for the Ailsa Owen Memorial prize which is open until August 26.

The competition theme was “Cartref” or “Home” and the judge was Steven Allan Griffiths, previous winner of the competition who has also twice won the public vote. Griffiths drew on his experience of the competition alongside that of lecturing and tutoring in the arts.

Winner of the adult category was Joseph Scrobb with his work of pyrography and watercolour on maple titled ‘The Grave of Gogmagog’. Joseph is an artist, illustrator and story-teller, compelled by a passion for the magical and mythological heritage of the British Isles.

“My work is an expression of my engagement with that heritage, filtered through an autistic outsider’s perspective and influenced by my experiences with mental illness, while drawing upon my own research into history, folklore and landscape,” he said.

Joseph’s work seeks to un-earth the obscure stories that have come to haunt the British landscape through folklore, superstitions and mythology. He shares his own interpretations of these tales as living, vital and present in the world we inhabit.

Second prize, donated by The Friends of The Tabernacle, went to Kim Dewsbury with her oil painting titled ‘Moving Home’.

Kim has returned to her passion for painting, after spending many years organising and curating exhibitions in North Wales where she lives.

Excited by all the possibilities opening up in her painting, she said:  “Inspired by my rural surroundings, I value that first hand contact with nature. My sketchbooks are filled with walks, insects, clouds and natural ephemera.

“Patterns and textures fascinate me: the velvety skin of a peach, the undulating folds of a distant hillside, the patina of a well-thumbed book. Everything has a story to tell”.

Third prize, donated by Wendy Fuller, went to Alex Boyd Jones with her charcoal on paper work titled ‘On the Black Hill (The Vision #2)’.

Alex’s emerging creative practice follows an enjoyable and rewarding career working in the public sector as a curator for 20 years in various galleries across the UK. In 2021, she  decided to invest more time in her own work and focus full time on her practice from a home studio in Montgomery. 

“Through drawing and painting, I aspire to create work that evokes a specific moment or gives time to the overlooked so that there is space to reflect on the places we inhabit or frequent,” she said. 

Daphne Hurn, Halcyon Hinde, Pauline Bradley, Gareth Lloyd Hughes, Julie Davies, Valerie Thompson, Caroline Maddison, David Alderslade, Gwen Owen, Alison Ross, Phil Wheeler, Robert Price, Alys Gwynedd and Jonathan Retallick were highly commended.

In the 11 year and under category, the winner was Tansi Butler, five, with her pencil and watercolour painting titled “Beehive”.

Tansi enjoys creating bold and striking images using pencils, crayons and watercolour paints. She loves nature, animals, birds and flowers and these are the subject of a lot of her pictures.

Lok Yiu Yoel, nine, Rosa Butler, nine, Jamie Smart, six, Ava Hussein, 11 and Iolo Williams, seven, were highly commended.

Winner in the 12 to 17 years category was Jude Westermann, 17, with his acrylic painting titled “Kitchen Table”. Studying art and design at Coleg Ceredigion, he is a student of Roy Marsden.

“I have been lucky enough to have been able to have drawn or painted pretty much every day since I was very young, as I was home educated up until age 14,” said Jude.

“I think this gave me the freedom to explore and it has benefited me now as I have a keen interest in the creative arts, some of which I play and explore in.”

Jude also makes short films and break dances competitively at a national level. He is particularly interested in the work of Lucian Freud and Paul Gauguin and hopes to continue studying fine art at university.

Evie Chapman, 15, Dyfed Childs, 14 and Kyra Williams, 14, were highly commended.

Picture captions:

Joseph Scrobb with his winning work titled ‘The Grave of Gogmagog’.

Jude Westermann’s winning acrylic ‘Kitchen Table’ in the 12 to 17 years category.

Tansi Butler’s winning pencil and watercolour painting titled “Beehive.