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Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa is the host gallery for the Hibiscus and Bays Annual Art Awards. 84 artists were selected and 111 arworks were judged by Matthew Browne and John Mullholand. The Premier Winner was Sam Dollomore with a powerfully evocative pen on paper work of art.  Sam Dollimore is based in Titahi Bay, Porirua. She did her undergraduate art education at Whitireia Polytechnic and completed a Masters of Fine Arts from Whitecliffe College of Art & Design in 2016. Dollimore’s practice is based around problems, anxieties and coping processes of the psycho-sensual body.  Her work often references gender, body image, popular psychological and erotic theories, and surrealism.  She cites the paralogical approach as most helpful when navigating her subject matter.  For Dollimore there is power generated in the moment when reason and rationality become so overwhelming that they can be completely disregarded and catharsis, however uncomfortable, can then be embraced.  Dollimore says “I don’t know why absurdity and utter ridiculousness give such creative fulfillment. But I do think I live in a world where the scrutinising, policing, idealising, fetishizing, and commercialising of bodies, gender and sexuality is constant, unavoidable, and often debilitating. In that world, doing the least sensible thing somehow becomes the most constructive thing to do”.

Judges John Mulholland said  of Sam's work, “Recklessly controlled, I’m in straight away” while Matthew Browne said, “Intense, Mesmeric and compelling / structured yet organic, loose versus detail, visually eloquent and poetic”.  

The exhibition will run until Monday 26 November. The Gallery is open daily from 9am to 4pm. Located on the Western Reserve in Orewa, 214 Hibiscus Coast Highway, Orewa, website: 444.estuaryarts.org