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Third-year Whanganui UCOL fine arts student Bonnie Wroe is this year’s recipient of the pattillo scholarship award.

Third-year Whanganui UCOL fine arts student Bonnie Wroe is this year’s recipient of the pattillo scholarship award.

Bonnie’s winning entry in one of the country’s richest art scholarships for students, is a pencil drawing called Little Ashes.

As her prize, Bonnie received $7,500 and a commemoratory medal sculpted by nationally recognised jewellery artist Frances Stachl.

This year the award also comes with mentoring from the Artists Alliance, an international organisation set up to advance the interests of visual artists.

The annual scholarship was established by the Wellington-based consultancy pattillo in 2007 for students of the Quay School of the Arts and will continue for ten years.

Bonnie received her award from the scholarship’s founder Anne Pattillo at a function at Whanganui’s Serjeant Gallery on Friday night.

As reported by the Wanganui Chronicle, coming to Wanganui to judge the annual competition and present the scholarship was the best day of her year, and Ms Pattillo was very pleased with the standard of entries. "It's the best year we have had. We are completely delighted with it."

Clients who go to her management consultancy office in Wellington see the talent of past scholarship winners on the walls, on the shelves and hanging from the ceiling, she said.

The decision to move fine arts students out of Taupo Quay until their buildings were strengthened against earthquakes was a responsible one, she said. The move created some practical problems in the short term and the polytech was thinking about how to handle them.

Ms Pattillo has committed to giving the scholarship for five more years.

 She said it was a way for her business to give back to the community - and to a community it had something in common with.

"Our work is essentially about dealing with uncertainty and complexity, and that takes creativity and innovation," Ms Pattillo. "We were looking for an educational organisation where we could recognise those rare talents."