Queenstown artist Marc Blake’s pocketed $20,000 after winning Wānaka-based national art competition, Craigs Aspiring Art Prize.
Sponsored by Craigs Investment Partners, the annual event, which raises money for the Holy Family Catholic School, this year attracted a record 250 entries.
Judges Louise Garrett, of Queenstown, and Bridie Lonie, of Dunedin, picked Blake’s piece, ‘Happy Birthday’ (pictured), pigment ink acrylic on canvas, as the supreme winner.
Blake’s exhibited widely since 2005 and is extensively represented in national and international collections, including 18 works held in New Zealand’s largest private art collection.
In February, 2021, he founded Five Mile’s Broker gallery, an artist-led initiative which has become the first Queenstown-born gallery selected to participate in this year’s prestigious Aotearoa Art Fair, running from March 2 to 6 in Auckland.
