Page 54 - HW November 2019

painting & decorating
2019’s Master Painter of the Year is Gavin Lambert. Jade Robertson is the 2019 NZ Apprentice of the Year.
Search for the BEST Kiwi painters
A round-up of events, issues and newcomers, at home and abroad, in painting & decorating. Steve Bohling reports.
MASTER PAINTERS NEW Zealand headed off to Australia’s East Coast for their 2019 conference and Master Painter of the Year Awards.
Master Painters’ CEO, Brian Miller, reports that it was a wave of new Awards entrants (and Mainlanders to boot!) who “provided a fantastic challenge to the established entrants”, and in so doing took away many Awards.
The year’s major winners were:
• WallcoveringsApplicatoroftheYear–MitchellDecoratingof
Canterbury.
• ResidentialPainteroftheYear–GavinLambertPainting&
Decorating of Nelson.
• Commercial Painter of the Year – Frame Contracting of
Canterbury
The overall title this year went to “a first-time entrant who put up some of the best work we have ever seen. The quality of workmanship presented this year was simply marvellous and we congratulate all of you all of you who had the courage to put your projects forward,” says Brian Miller.
2019’s Master Painter of the Year was Gavin Lambert Painting & Decorating of Nelson, which received the highest points ever awarded for their “once in a career” entry whose every element was “just right” and the end result “bang on”.
“A combination of beautifully finished surfaces, all carried out through traditional brush and roller techniques, combined with high quality wallcoverings and some very confined spaces (still not sure how anyone fitted in some of the light wells) resulted in the highest score ever received in the Awards history,” said the judges.
The competition for the New Zealand Apprentice of the Year was also “simply amazing – what a fantastic group of people with amazing skill and talent,” says Brian Miller.
Intheend,fromamonga“trulyimpressivegroupofpeople”, Jade Robertson of Hamner Springs was named the 2019 NZApprenticeoftheYearaswellastheUpperSouthIsland Regional Apprentice of the Year.
Encouraging and retaining such a pool of skilled young people is vital to any industry and, says Brian Miller: “We encourage
all of our members to put forward the excellent candidates they have for the four Regional Apprenticeship competitions coming up in mid-2020.
“We are truly excited about this aspect of our Association’s activities, and believe it can only be to the greater good of the industry. This is a trade of excellence and, between the Master Painter of the Year Awards and the apprentice platform, we are both celebrating and showing this is a fact.”
www.masterpainters.co.nz
52 NZHJ | NOVEMBER 2019
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