14/08/15
LFEST 2015 DIVA Art Award
Now in its fifth year, L Fest continues to blossom.
From one good-sized event back in 2010, The World of L Fest now runs three
international events, the L Fest Foundation and the L Fest awards. This
year saw the addition of the DIVA Art Award and, from five strong competitors,
a winner and a runner-up have now been chosen.
First prize undisputedly goes to Jen Orpin for her
breathtaking renderings of light and shadow in her oil paintings, M60 Rain
& Shine (2012) and Big Trees (2014). Leonardo da Vinci once wrote that
light and shade should blend “without lines or borders in the manner of smoke”
and Orpin certainly achieves this in her atmospheric works, each of which
captures a fleeting moment in time.
Orpin graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University
in 1996 with a degree in Fine Art. She joined Rogue Artist Studios, Manchester,
in 1999 and has been painting from her studio there ever since, exhibiting both
locally and nationally. Her work has featured in the last three series of
BBC1’s Last Tango in Halifax and both series of Russell T. Davies’ Queer as
Folk. A DIVA award, it would seem, is long overdue.
The runner-up award goes to Giselle Louise Ryan for
her luscious, bold and vibrant paintings, made using resin on canvas. Her work has
been described as “like Georgia O’Keeffe on
acid” and there is a seductive, feminine fluidity to it. “The process,” she
says, “is very intuitive and I roll with what feels right.” Before applying
the resin, Ryan colours it with various media: oil, acrylic, ink – and
sometimes even bodily fluid. With a background in
sculpture and ceramics (Melbourne University, Bachelor of Education, Visual
Arts, 1994–1998), it is perhaps not surprising that her 2D work today has such
a glaze-like finish.
Congratulations to both of our winning artists in the
inaugural DIVA Art Award!
facebook.com/jenorpinpaintings
Jen accepts commissions, including for baby
portraits and landscapes
To see the full feature, please buy the September print issue of DIVA magazine.