North Shore Salon Winners
Congratulations go to Janice Chen for winning the Champion Image in the recent North Shore Salon. The image Solitude was also the winner of the Monochrome category.
Janice takes home a CANON imagePROGRAF PRO-310 printer for her win.
Print Art as sponsors for this competition will host an exhibition, so do watch out for that in future newsletters!
The North Shore Photography Salon had five categories with winners chosen in each one and live judging available to watch on youtube. The winners were:
‘Scapes – Shades of orange – Jacky Challis
Open Monochrome – Solitude – Janice Chen
Open Colour – King Kina – Julia Rae
People – Mere Shadows of themselves – Eva Cadario
Minimalism – Eye spy – Trish Bailey
Click on the links below to see the winners and judges choices or sit down with a cuppa to watch the live judging.
Bird POTY Winner
Photography Credit -‘Sunball Rocket’ by Henley Spiers. Overall Winner and Bird Photographer of the Year 2026.
Celebrating bird life from around the world, over 24,000 images were entered into the Bird Photographer of the Year 2026. These images comprise some of the most incredible bird photos in the world taken by talented photographers, whilst also raising vital funds for the charity Birds On The Brink. Overall Winner is ‘Sunball Rocket’ by Henley Spiers. The image shows a northern gannet bursting through the ocean’s surface. Henley Spiers, winning the top prize of £3,000, is a British underwater photographer, writer, and expedition leader whose work documents marine environments, underwater wildlife, and human interaction with the oceans. He is known for his work in Underwater photography in both tropical and cold-water environments. Whether swimming alongside hunting orcas or capturing the delicate beauty of minute oceanic species, Henley combines technical skill with a storyteller’s eye to create images that reflect both the wonder and vulnerability of the natural world.
Creative Focus Supreme Winner
The Creative Focus 2026 national photography competition Supreme Award overall winner is Lisa Kearns for her image “The Living Gallery”
Lisa has recently also opened her own art gallery, Lisa Kay Photography, in Rangiriri.
Opening a photography gallery has been a dream of mine since I attended my very first market [selling artwork] around six years ago. I have loved sharing my photography and I began imagining a space of my own where I could display and sell my work. I am selling A4 and A3 photographic prints, both framed and unframed, featuring my own landscape, wildlife and creative fine art photography from around New Zealand.
Congratulations go to Lisa for both achievements.
Tauranga Gold Award
Artwork Credit – Constanza Briceño – Colouring In #18
Chilean artist Constanza Briceño is the Tauranga Art Show Aotearoa Art Award winner. She has dedicated the last few years of her life to painting in her home-studio in Papamoa. “Colouring In” is new body of work exploring and remembering those precious moments from childhood when you were colouring shapes, filling in spaces, fully in the moment, and your mind was free of any thoughts. The stains and textures that blend without the need for a fit reveal the construction process of the work, revealing the beauty of imperfection as a metaphor for repairing or mending a moment. Constanza proposes a visual narrative using a personal color palette that she has built over time, which identifies her painting as a personal and intimate mirror. Her work is recognized locally and regionally and has been selected for major group and solo exhibitions in galleries in New Zealand, Chile, and Argentina.
NZPPA Winners 2026
Artwork Credit – Brett A’Court – Kahu-Manu
The NZ Painting and Printmaking Award (NZPPA) run by the Waikato Society of Arts are held at Artspost galleries in Hamilton. They celebrate and recognise the artistic excellence, achievement and contribution of artists working in many forms of art. They award two Main Prizes of $12000 each in Printmaking and Painting and two Merit Prizes of $2000 each in Printmaking and Painting. This years main painting award went to Brett A’Court for his Kahu-Manu Aute Oil on Woollen Blanket
In Māori spirituality, the Kahu, or Harrier hawk, was a medium between man and God. The substitution of the Kahu with Christ is a comment on colonisation. The replacing of one faith for another, or in the case of the Māori prophets, the assimilation of Christianity with Māori spirituality.
The main Print award went to Graham Hall for The 14th Station of The Cross The Ascension
The 14th Station: The Ascension traces a symbolic journey from the streets of Whanganui to the quiet, geometric light of the Sarjeant Gallery. Reimagining the Stations of the Cross within a contemporary landscape, the work presents ascension as grounded in place— moving from lived experience toward lifting, clarity, and renewal. The gallery becomes the final station, both sanctuary and transformation, inviting reflection on how ordinary pathways may lead toward grace.
Nelson Arts Festival This Weekend
The Nelson Arts Festival continues, now in its 32nd year, it is the longest running annual regional festival in Aotearoa.
Every Spring, they curate, craft and celebrate 11 days of unmissable arts experiences in of Nelson,and beyond
The exhibition Unravelling the Saree: Beyond the fold is part of the festival that has served as a conduit for creative expression in the Nelson community, weaving together stories of people and place. This community-led exhibition celebrates the South Asian saree as both a traditional and contemporary living garment. The exhibition explores the stories, cultural meanings, memories and personal connections carried in sarees from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Embracing all bodies, the exhibition considers the saree as a powerful expression of culture, identity, resistance and creativity.