Best of the Drawing Year 2017

Students of the Royal Drawing School’s postgraduate programme - the Drawing Year - are having exhibitions of their work this month.

• The Best of The Drawing Year 2016-17 is displaying over 90 drawings, prints and works on paper at Christie’s King Street 10–15 November 2017 Monday to Friday 9am–4.30pm, (Wed 15 Nov 9am–2pm)
• An expanded show of over 300 drawings in  The Drawing Year End of Year Exhibition 2016-17 at the Royal Drawing School Shoreditch 29 November 2017 to 16 January 2018.

The works are by artists graduating from the School’s intensive postgraduate programme who have spent the last year exploring their practice through drawing from observation.

The Best of the Drawing Year 2017 Exhibition at Christies Ground Floor Gallery

The Drawing Year

The Drawing Year was founded in 2000 as the School’s flagship programme. It offers:

• a year of intensive study, research and practice in drawing from life
• high-quality teaching from a distinguished faculty. 
• Every student is given a full scholarship and free studio space, allowing artists of all backgrounds to develop their artistic professions and careers in the creative industries

The scope to study for free is particularly relevant and helpful at a time of rising fees for education and the high cost of living in London.

Past graduates of The Drawing Year have gone on to work as fine artists, or have professional
practices in illustration, animation, architecture, film and theatre design.

Recent success stories include:

• Clara Drummond, First Prize winner of the BP Portrait Award 2016
• Kathryn Maples, winner of the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 2014 and 2016
• Alice Shirley, acclaimed designer of Hermès silk scarves. 

Alumni have also exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, and their work is included in major collections, such as Tate, the Royal Collection, British Museum and the V&A Museum.

The Drawing Year 2016-17

Graduates of the most recent Drawing Year include the first ever graduate who started out on the Drawing School's Young Artists courses who has then gone on to complete The Drawing Year.

• Londoner Gideon Summerfield age 22 was part of the Young Artists programme between the ages of 12-17. Since then he has graduated from Cardiff School of Art and Design with a First Class Honours Degree in Illustration, and credits the School with much of his success. I first highlighted him on this blog in Drawings of Holocaust Survivors.
• He displays two of his portraits in this exhibition, including a pencil portrait of British immunologist Dr William Frankland MBE, which won first prize in the Hermione Hammond Drawing Award 2017. 
• An expanded selection of his work displayed at Shoreditch, will feature his reportage illustration documenting the refugee crisis, entitled ‘Love the Stranger as Yourself, which recently captured the attention of the media including the BBC.
• Lee Cutter’s ink drawings of Japanese gardens symbolise the presence of harmony and balance. This metaphor of finding peace is important to Cutter – he led a difficult childhood, facing challenges in his education, a lack of support networks, and some bad decisions, which led to spending time in prison. Upon discovering drawing, it ‘gave him a new life’; he went to study fine art at university, and now works at the Koestler Trust, helping others transform their lives through the power of art.

drawings by Christabel McCreevy

• Christabel MacGreevy came to The Drawing Year from Central St Martins, with a background in fashion and commercial textiles, looking to expand her practice. Christabel took up drawing and illustration to create the designs for her fashion brand launched in May 2017, Itchy Scratchy Patchy, featured in Vogue, NY Times Style and Financial Times Fashion
• Richard Ayodeji Ikhide has used drawing to develop his textile designs into fine art.
• Jack Fawdry Tatham’s interest in aquatint etchings (pictured above), has led to plans to reopen the printing press under Pollock’s Toy Museum, a Victoriana museum in Fitzrovia owned by his Grandmother. 

All the drawings in this exhibition are for sale; prices for a small print, study, or a large-scale drawing range between £150 - £2000.

The commission goes towards funding the School’s scholarship and bursaries programmes so that high-quality drawing tuition is available to all regardless of background or circumstance.

Exhibiting Artists

• Joshua Bristow, 
• Rosie Chamberlain, 
• Jessica Jane Charleston, 
• Ben Westley Clarke, 
• Becca Collins, 
• Mark Connolly, 
• Laurie Crean, 
• Somaya Critchlow, 
• Lee Cutter, 
• Joana Galego,
• Alexander Gilmour, 
• Judith Hagan, 
• Nancy Haslam-Chance, 
• Emily Hill, 
• Richard Ayodeji Ikhide, 
• Charlotte Johnston, 
• Alice Macdonald, 
• Christabel MacGreevy, 
• Isaac Nugent, 
• Jackson Rees, 
• Tom Scotcher, 
• Dorry Spikes, 
• Jamie Stenhouse, 
• Gideon Summerfield, 
• Jack Fawdry Tatham, 
• Stefan Tiburcio, 
• Catherine Watson, 
• Peter Wenman