120 separate drawings to create one special entry.

Ella Jones is celebrating the success of her visual tapestry, announced as the winner of the $25,000 Parkin Drawing Prize for her incredible piece - The Visual World is Inexhaustible.

The 24-year-old Lower Hutt artist was shocked to overcome a field of 463 entries - and 76 fellow finalists - at the exhibition's launch on Monday night (5 August) at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts’ Academy Galleries.

“It was an immense joy just to be selected as a finalist, so winning is beyond my wildest expectations. I’m truly honoured—this is something incredibly special.”

The Visual World is Inexhaustible is a captivating graphite drawing of 120 paper drawings on graphite interwoven with steel wire that cascades down a wall. 

"Ella Jones’s work kept me looking," explains judge Justin Paton - Head Curator of International Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. "It’s a work that seems curious about the world, and it makes us curious in turn. 

"A kitchen sink, a black cat slinking by, a lumpy tumble of river stones, a dog looking dopily from a car window, a slice of landscape hanging in a rear-view mirror. Jones records all this and more using a constantly changing alphabet of graphite marks, lines, dashes, twists, gaps, knots, darks, and densities – a live drawing language which acknowledges that no one description can hold the world’s complexity. 

"Though drawing is usually thought of as a way of bringing the world to order, Jones seems at least as interested in the gaps between things and the moments when we’re not quite sure what we’re seeing. 

"In an era when most of us respond to interesting sights by photographing them to look at later (or, in reality, deleting them when our camera rolls fill up), her winning work reminds me of the potential of drawing as an act and process of physical noticing – a way of reacquainting ourselves, mark by mark, with the oddity and elusiveness of a world we often take for granted." 

Jones reveals her personal connection to her long-laboured piece.

“This body of work addresses the fear of habitualization—the conscious acceptance of daily life. It focuses on the ephemeral sensations and fleeting moments of our surroundings. My piece draws from the work of the renowned NZ artist Joanna Margaret Paul, whose approach of being attuned to the world rather than just existing in it resonates deeply with me.”

Jones elaborates that she finds inspiration in Paul’s intimate and reflective approach to drawing - seeing it as a form of active meditation.

“Each drawing represents a window into my personal life, capturing seemingly mundane moments that are profoundly intimate. For instance, a drawing of a cat that used to visit my old flat holds memories and stories that highlight the habit of daily life. It’s a reminder to slow down and be present in these small yet significant moments.”

Jones, an alumni of Lower Hutt's St. Oran’s College, recently completed a Master’s in Architecture at Victoria University’s School of Architecture and was a finalist in the NZ Institute of Architecture Student Design Awards in 2022 for her project Drawing Ground. Jones will take the buzz of this latest accolade with her as she heads to the Netherlands.

“As I’m half Dutch, I’m excited to connect with my Dutch whanau and explore my artistic and architectural pursuits.” 

10 other artists from across the motu were awarded $500 highly commended prizes:

Early days - Theodore Brookes (Wellington)
Eye opener by Felix Conlan (Timaru)
Tumour ballet by Nela Fletcher (Invercargill)
Freeling by Karl Fritsch (Wellington)
Awareness, the key to it all by Veronica Heber (Auckland)
no title by John Ward Knox (Waikouaiti)
Aether by Lisa Munnelly (Wellington) 
Ted by Samuel Pepper (Featherston)
Ostinato by Morag Stokes (Waikanae)
Looking out through nine body holes drawn with my mother pen by Jarad Tom (Auckland)

The Parkin Drawing Prize exhibition - named after the man who funds the award, arts patron and philanthropist Chris Parkin - runs until 8 September in Wellington. Everything on display is available for purchase, an excellent opportunity for arts to see their work generate new audiences.