Tina Wilson and Matt Ottley, who have been judges since the 4th contest, are an Australian artist couple with a special passion for children’s artistic activities. Living in the rainforest region of New South Wales, they work across various fields including graphic design, picturebooks, performance, and art education. Both artists said they were deeply moved by the children’s artworks that sincerely captured their love, interest, and concerns for our precious ocean.
”That was one of the aspects that we were most impressed with, was the deep thinking that went behind a lot of the images that you created. We feel very reassured that the future of the ocean, in fact the future of the planet, is in very safe hands."
A Message to Our Young Artists from Tina and Matt
We are very proud to be judges once again for the My Beloved Ocean International Children’s Environmental Drawing Contest. It is an honour to view so many deeply considered artworks created by children from all around the world, showing their love, care and concern for the Earth’s precious oceans.
It was wonderful to see artworks branching out from the ocean to the meeting point between the land and the sea, detailed drawings of mangrove ecosystems and the role that land plays in the life of sea creatures (e.g. sea turtles nesting on the sand), showing us that everything is connected and that we must take care of all our planet.
Our deepest congratulations to each and every artist who submitted work for this important contest. Your unique observations and perspectives on the three key themes provided us with an opportunity for great discussion – and many hours of viewing pleasure. We were delighted by the variety of drawing styles, the inventive ideas and also the care you have taken to express the way you feel about the environment. Many artworks showed great concern for the ocean and offered creative ways that humans can help, while others exquisitely showed us the beauty and vitality of what exists today – that which we do not want to lose. Your artworks filled us with a sense of awe and wonder for the beauty, importance and absolute essentialness of the ocean, reflecting your deep care for its conservation.
We hope you all continue to express your ideas confidently and imaginatively so that adults can be inspired, like us, and heed your underlying messages to take action.
It is you, the young generation, who will lead the way into creating future conservation strategies for the ocean, but we as adults need to take our lessons from you and show that we too want to save our precious oceans.
Meet Tina Wilson and Matt Ottley
Tina Wilson
Tina Wilson is an award-winning artist who loves creativity in all its forms. From her rainforest studio high on a mountain, she writes, paints, photographs, and makes animated films. Inspired by the world around her, Tina’s work captures the wonder, joy and playfulness of life. The Monkey’s Great Adventures series is her enchanting children’s book series featuring an endearing soft toy, ‘Monkey’, who finds himself in all sorts of scrapes where he learns about himself and the world around him. Beautifully photographed in locations around the world, and with knitted characters and props, it perfectly captures the innocence of childhood. Tina previously founded the Lester Prize (a national portrait prize) and was its executive director for 10 years. The Lester Prize is now the highest prize money portrait prize in Australia and Tina was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her contribution to the arts.
www.tinawilsonartist.com
Instagram: @tinawilsonartist
Mmatt Ottley
Matt Ottley is an internationally acclaimed multi-modal artist, working equally across the fields of literature, visual arts and music. Matt has had more than forty picture books published and awards include the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, CBCA Picture Book of the Year and the Queensland, Western Australia & NSW Premiers Awards for literature. As a composer Matt writes music for many of his picture books in an initiative called The Sound of Picture BooksTMwhich has been performed to thousands of studentsacross Australia. In 2014, Matt was made an Endorsed Yamaha Artist for his work as a composer.
www.mattottley.com
Instagram: @mattottleyart
