Barton Drawing Award
 October - 30 November 1997
Artists from around the country have been invited to put pen, pencil, charcoal (or any
other graphic medium) to paper for the biennial Cranleigh Barton Drawing Award.
The competition, which is designed to recognise excellence in drawing and to raise the
profile and status of the skill in contemporary visual arts practice, offers a $3,000 cash
prize to the winning entry and two merit prizes of materials valued at $500 each. Drawings
selected by a panel of three judges will be exhibited at the McDougall Art Annex from 31
October until 30 November. The award winners will be announced on Thursday 30 October.
This year will be the third time this competition has been held, with the winners of the
last two Awards being Michael Dell and Nigel Buxton respectively.
The Cranleigh Barton Drawing Award has been made possible through the legacy of
Canterbury watercolourist Cranleigh H. Barton and is jointly presented by the Robert
McDougall Art Gallery, the Canterbury Museum and the executors of the Cranleigh Barton
Estate, the Guardian Trust. The exhibition of finalists is supported by The Drawing Room
in association with Staedtler.
Cranleigh H. Barton (1890-1975) was born in Fielding and attended Victoria University
where he received three Turnbull scholarships and graduated with a Bachelor of Law degree
in 1912. His interest in art began early, and in 1906, before beginning his university
studies, he attended classes as a pupil of Maud Kimbell (Sherwood) at Wellington Technical
College. Barton worked as a solicitor but continued part-time activity as an artist,
becoming a working member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in 1919 and joining the
Canterbury Society of Arts in the following year.
In 1924 Barton commenced four years of studies at the Slade School of Art in London,
during which time he held two successful solo exhibitions of his work, with Queen Mary
among his patrons. Barton also participated in exhibitions of the Royal Institute of
Painters in Watercolours, the Royal Society of British Artists and the New English Art
Club in London. In 1925 his work was included in the Dominion Artists Court at the Wembley
British Empire Exhibition. Upon his death Barton bequeathed a substantial number of his
watercolours to the Canterbury Museum which today has the largest holding of his work. He
is also represented in the collections of the Hocken Library, Dunedin and the Alexander
Turnbull Library, Wellington.
image by Michael Dell
This exhibition was held at the Robert McDougall Contemporary Art Annex in the Arts Centre.
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