It’s a tiny slice of Australia, the Trephina Gorge Nature Park, located 85km east of Alice Springs.

Renowned for 1700 hectares of sheer quartzite cliffs and Red River gum trees, it’s tiny only because it’s been captured by Hairini artist Maureen Ledgerwood in a pastel artwork no bigger than an A4 sheet of paper.

But the tiny landscape wowed the judge at the Tauranga Society of Artists Expo on September 28-October 1 – and won for Maureen the prestigious 2023 Supreme Art Award.

“I wondered if anyone would notice it because it’s so little,” says the artist. It was certainly the smallest of all the 60-plus entries in the major award for the art community in the Bay of Plenty.

But the judge thought the detail of Maureen’s Trephina Gorge set her work apart. He likened it to looking through a gap in a fence and seeing a whole new world on the other side.

Maureen visited the gorge in 2003 and the image of Trephina Gorge stayed very alive. “The colours are just stunning there.”

Maureen primarily does pastel work. “It’s the immediacy that I love and the way you can manipulate it.”

A peek through a hole in the fence. Maureen’s winning work.

It was pottery at night school shortly after starting a family that ignited her creativity. She then moved onto porcelain art for about 10 years before discovering her true calling and joining the art society around 2015.

“On the night they read through all the merit awards and runner-up, and I thought: ‘Oh well, I didn’t even get noticed’. When he called my name I was absolutely thrilled. It’s the recognition that’s nice.”

Maureen put a $200 price tag on her work, while some of the top end pieces at the Tauranga Society of Arts Expo attracted up to $3000.

The pastel work sold, and Maureen laughs. “Had I known I was going to win, I could have added another zero.”