Competition Winners 2020

This year’s online and DIY Ellen Hutchins Festival was designed to inspire you to get out and explore some aspects of natural heritage on your doorstep that you may not be familiar with.

As part of the festival we ran a competition to encourage you to document and share your experiences of the the natural heritage on your doorstep through botanical art, photography or writing.

Here are the winners of the heritage on the doorstep competition, with the judges’ comments on the pieces of work. All those featured here won prizes. Congratulations! We thank all of you who submitted entries. The judges were very pleased with the quality of the work. We hope that reading and viewing these pieces with act as further encouragement to look more closely at nature on the doorstep.

Botanical art (Adult) 

Red Seaweed: Thread Drawing by Kathleen Griffith

The judge’s comments:

‘A beautiful and interesting take on the theme! This intricate piece of thread work really has the look and texture of a seaweed. I would love to learn more about this technique!‘

This piece of work stretched the definition of this category! The judge felt that it was ‘really beautiful and a worthy winner’.

After the judge had awarded the prize to this piece, Kathleen Griffith provided the following information:

‘The red seaweed is based on Ellen’s specimen plate of Metacallophyllis laciniata, from the Herbarium of The National History Museum London.

The míobhán (dulce) I would have collected when I was a young girl in my home of Waterville, growing up with stories of the under water garden.

The sculpture is 17cmx19cm, made from tiny threads that are stitched and knotted together using soluble fabric, then pinned like Ellen’s specimen.’

Botanical art (Aged 12 and under) 

Corn Marigold by Keisha Hickey aged 6

The judge’s comments:

‘Keisha has closely examined her corn marigold flower and carefully drawn and coloured her work. It’s a lovely bright and detailed piece of art.‘

Oak leaf by Samuel Burford  aged 2

The judge’s comments:

‘A lovely colourful representation of what is clearly an oak leaf. A pleasure to see a small child being introduced to nature in this way.‘

Photography (Adult)

First prize – Nettle Flowers (Oonagh O’ Dwyer)

I love nettles and gather the seeds after they have flowered and use them in cooking and for medicine. I love their nutty taste and I have several nettle patches in my Wild Garden here at home in Callura Lahinch, Co.Clare, near the sea.

The judge’s comments

‘I like this the most because of how the top layer of flowers are so sharp against the blurred background. It gives a different perspective of the nettle flower.‘

Second place – Zing-a-ling – Common Blue on Ling with Bell Heather (Vivien Bradley)

Title: ‘Zing-a-ling: Common Blue on Ling with Bell Heather’

Location: Sheep’s Head peninsula overlooking Bantry Bay and just above where we live.

Why I chose this photo: The pure pinks and purples of the heathers scintillated with the luminous blue of the butterfly.

Neither the butterfly nor the heathers are rare and yet …

Writing (in response to the above):

And for that moment of seeing, we are given the grace to forget ourselves and be taken into such a shining wonder.

The judge’s comments:

‘The Common Blue is the standout feature here (I do realise butterflies were not the focus of the competition) and gives a sense of scale to the Ling and Bell Heather.’

Writing (Adult)

Bog Cathedral (poem) by Sue Goss

Bog Cathedral

Have you ever listened to a bog?
Put your ear to the ground
You will hear choirs, supplicants and spirts
Acapella of water and decay
A subterranean cathedral

The nave floor shines like glass
Walled by crumbling frescoes
of russet, gold and lime

The chancel has velvet cushions and white satin
Myrica anoints with myrrh
Moss trans-substantiates the rot
and traps the alchemy of dew

Four-fold stars of tormentil
pattern the side chapels
Lit by rose gold asphodel
and votives of bog heath
You can see the way
to the dark crypt with shining floor

In summer the bog holds a festival
Reeds are flagging the approaches
Throngs of humming insects, shining beetles
spirit-flash of dragonflies
spider children veiled in lace
bog spider in embroidered gown
Sun lights stained-glass colours
Magenta heath and golden gorse
Leaden streaks of moorgrass
Ling raising spires to heaven

Tread carefully
Your steps reverberate in ancient time

The judge’s comments:

‘I give the adult prize to Bog Cathedral. Because of its rich use of imagery to draw us down into this fascinating minute world. I love the way in which the writer draws a parallel between something as grand and as magnificent as a cathedral and the tiny elements of this natural bog world. And I love a poem that draws me in by asking me to ‘listen’, but then it gets me off guard by opening up all my senses. A very controlled piece of writing, delicately paced and as soft sounding as a footfall on a spongy bog.‘

Writing (Aged 12 and under) 

The Beauty of Autumn (poem) by Noah McGuinness (aged 10)

Noah wrote this poem while at school camp, Scoil Padraig Naofa, Bandon.

The Beauty Of Autumn

I see the golden leaves falling from the sky

I see an amazing Autumn butterfly

Landing on a near-dead flower

Then watch it slowly spread it’s wings –

Now you know Autumn holds many amazing things

The judge’s comments:

‘The Beauty of Autumn deserves the prize for the way it celebrates Autumn by focusing on something as seemingly simple as a butterfly on a flower. So simple but the image says so much. It tells us how summer was full of life and colour and perfume and riches, but that now it is all coming to an end. But it also hints at the fact that these same elements will once again be back with us. So we should celebrate all seasons, all of nature.‘

The Ellen Hutchins Festival Team thanks the judges for their time and expertise given for free in judging the competition entries, and thanks the publisher, New Island, for giving a copy of A Quiet Tide by Marianne Lee as the prize for the adult writing category. The Team also thanks all those who submitted work. It is great that many pieces of work have been by people local to Bantry, and equally lovely that the virtual Festival has reached far and wide across Ireland. Next year’s Festival may well have another similar competition. In the meantime, look up close, and enjoy the natural world on your doorstep through the seasons.