Derwent Prize Exhibition 2014 - Other prizewinners

Further to yesterday's post Derwent Art Prize 2014 - ineligible drawing wins first prize?,  the other prizewinners are detailed below - with photographs of the winners where I have them and my comments.

Derwent Art Prize 2014: People gathering for the announcement of who had won the prizes

Second Prize

Second Prize ( £3,500 ):  ‘Hörnan’ (coloured pencils) by Brian Morris.  Brian was born in Australia but currently lives in Sweden and he was telling me about the fact his attendance at last night's preview went down to the wire as he had to get a visa!

I looked up Hörnan and it means 'corner'

“It is a self-portrait which describes my feelings of living in the modern world.”Brian Morris

Second Prize winner Brian Morris and his two coloured pencil drawings
‘Hörnan’ which won second prize is on the left.

Third Prize / UKCPS Award

Patsy Whiting won both the Third Prize (£1,000) and the UK Coloured Pencil Society Award for Excellence (£250) with her coloured pencil drawing with the curious title of 'Garden garage marriage’.

Patsy comes from Loughborough in the Midlands. She seems to specialise in figurative and floral subjects lit with chiaroscuro lighting and sells her figurative drawings as fast as she can create them. I've no doubt in my mind that this will one of those sold in the exhibition.

Interestingly the image of her work on the website loses its background and a lot of people commented how much more they could see in the work in the gallery - and that's a good comment - it's more interesting!

Patsy Whiting with her prizewinning work - "Garden garage marriage" (£2,450)
- we were trying to find an angle to avoid reflections!
coloured pencils on black Colourfix paper

Those of us who have worked on Art Spectrum Colourfix before are not in the least bit surprised to find out that's the support which Patsy produces her work on. She applies her coloured pencils so it allows parts of the support to show through which adds a very textured feel to her immaculate control of both tonal values and colour palette.

“Recent work depicts moody, dark, still life, in a realistic style. The work is created using soft coloured pencil on black pastel paper and though technically a drawing, looks like a painting. Roses are a favourite subject at the moment, for the sculptural quality of the form. I like to contrast them with battered, mechanical or man-made forms.”

Her work has a flavour of the flower and plant drawings of Paul Emsley who works in pastels. I discovered that Patsy, like me, is a big admirer of Paul's work. I wish I could be half as good as either of them when I try to do the same thing! However I haven't tried flowers on colourfix for a long time - but Patsy has prompted me to get out my stock and have another go.

I know that UKCPS are inviting Patsy to exhibit them at their next Annual Exhibition so hopefully there will be another opportunity to see her work within the next year.

Now to the other awards!

The Young Artist Award - for artists aged 25 or under

I'm a big fan of the artwork which won this award - even though it's awkward to look at. Natasha-Anne Aplin comes from the North East and is working towards a fine art degree at Sunderland University (just graduated?).

The drawings in Devolution Series are of a child who appears to have the habits and features of a 'rougher'  and much older man ( piercings, tattos, smokes and drinks etc). First you see the faces and are riveted by these - if you don't want to look away. The series creates a curious "look at me/look away now!" tension. Then you ponder the format and, finally, you spot that at the top of the drawing are the pale drawings in crayon - done by a child

I wrote down in my notes 'there's a vivid contrast between the image of the child and the images made by the child.'. It's very clever - and I'm not in the least bit surprised it won a prize.

Winner of the Young Artist Award (£500)
Devolution series by Natasha-Anne Aplin

People's Choice award

Day-Z with her London Riots drawing
(Pencil, ink and coloured pencil)

There were two awards - of £700 each - one for the entries in the exhibition and one for all the entries. This gave a chance for an artist who wasn't selected to win a prize.

• Day-z won the People’s Choice Award of £700 in the exhibition 
• János Hegyes won the People’s Choice Award of £700 from all the entries.

Day-z is a London based artist who graduated in Fine Art from Central St Martin’s and is actually called Anastasia.

She uses the traditional concept of
anthropomorphic drawings to reflect and provide social comment.

She told me that her drawing reflected the herd mentality of some of the people who engaged in the looting of shops during the riots.

and finally.....

A Special Commendation is awarded to Katarzyna Wiesiolek  from Rewal in Poland for her charcoal drawing entitled ‘Immanence V’ (bottom left below) She has won major scholarships and participated in important drawing competitions prior to this one.

Her work was certainly one which caught my eye - although my preference was the series as a whole.

Special commendation for Katarzyna Wiesiolek
bottom right: Imminence 5 (charcoal)

She was one of those I thought might win a prize when I reviewed the exhibition prior to the private view

Next up is the review of the exhibition as a whole - and I'll highlight some favourites of mine. However first I need to process a video!

The exhibition continues at the Mall Galleries until 5pm on Saturday 20th September