The Best of the Drawing Year at Christies

Every year, I make a point of going to see The Royal Drawing School's "The Best of the Drawing Year" at the annual exhibition at Christies at King Street in London.

I went this afternoon to see the 2024 exhibition.

View of one end of the exhibition on the ground floor at Christies

That's partly because when I first retired, I enrolled in classes at what was then called The Prince's Drawing School between 2005 and 2008.  You can see what I did by reviewing my blog posts back then which are labelled "Drawing a Head"

It's also because 

• I've encountered many of the alumni of The Drawing Year winning prestigious art competitions eg 
• Kathryn Maple (Sunday Times Watercolour Competition - twice and the John Moores Painting Prize) and 
• Clara Drummond (BP Portrait Award 2016)
• plus - last week - two alumni appeared in Episode 5 of this year's PAOTY.

Finally it's because it's always a very good show with lots of people finding really interesting ways to make drawings - using a variety of dry media on a variety of surfaces..

For example, this year, they seem to be rather interested in coloured pencils - but the drawings in coloured pencil that I saw are nothing like the artwork I see in for example the UKCPS Annual Exhibition.

I'm going to upload my pics to an album on my Facebook Page - but that might have to wait until tomorrow - because I need to make dinner before PAOTY Episode 6 starts!

The Best of the Drawing Year

Entrance to the exhibition

This is a selling exhibition of drawings, prints and works on paper from students graduating from the Royal Drawing School’s postgraduate programme, The Drawing Year 2024 at Christie’s, London.

It's on from today until Sunday 17 November 2024 and it's FREE admission! It's open every day between 9am and 5pm on weekdays and between 12pm–5pm at the weekend. 

You can find Christies at 8 King St, London SW1Y 6QT (the link is to a google map!). I go to St James Park and the walk across St James's Park to get to King Street - it's very pleasant! It's also near Green Park and Piccadilly tube stations

You can also see the exhibition ONLINE and buy works from 13th November at royaldrawingschoolexhibits.org - and there have already been a number of sales. Some of the young artists are doing really well.

If you can't get to Christies, then come December, there will be an exhibition of a selection of over 500 drawings, prints and works on paper by students graduating from The Drawing Year 2024 postgraduate-level programme in The Drawing Year 2024 End of Year Exhibition which is held at the Royal Drawing School between 4 December 2024 – 19 December 2024

So the current one is "Best of" and the December one is the comprehensive look at artwork produced by this year's Drawing Year Postgraduates.

The Drawing Year

The Drawing Year has changed somewhat since I first knew it. 

I was going through the profiles of those exhibiting at Christies and was very surprised to find that a very significant percentage are now postgraduates who were awarded First Class Honours wherever they graduated in a related subject.  As in "a LOT"!

You can download the Drawing Year Prospectus as a PDF from the Royal Drawing School website.

The really important thing to know is there is nothing else like this course.

• it's about drawing
• it's completely free to qualifying postgraduates who are selected
• some of its ex-students have done really well
• there's quite a few things you can also do afterwards - like residencies overseas.

So if you like drawing, then this is something you really should investigate!

Continuing Art Education - Online #1: RISD

One of the advantages of the Pandemic is so much education and instruction is moving online. 

Plus being online means it can now be accessed by students all over the world. 

The only limitation on class size is the numbers one teacher or instructor can reasonably provide feedback to.

Rhode Island School of Design

RISD Ready and Reactivated. Campus looks a little different this fall due to COVID-19, but through the efforts of our community, creativity flourishes as ever.

Rhode Island School of Design is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island.  Founded in 1877 it offers bachelor's and master's degree programs.

It also offers a program of continuing education 

This winter, RISD Continuing Education is offering 40+ online courses for adults, which can be taken from anywhere in the world, at any time of day or night.

RISD Continuing Education

This is the dedicated website for continuing education

Art and Design for Everyone
provides an immersive and innovative art and design education for everyone, at all stages of life and all levels of experience.

The offerings are diverse and include courses for both adults and kids and face to face and online. 

Rhode Island School of Design Continuing Education announces over 60 online courses for adults and teens this winter, as well as eight certificate programs now being offered 100% online.

These are their news updates today about

• RISD CE Online Winter Art + Design Courses for Adults - for adults aged 18+
• RISD CE Online: Winter Classes Start Jan 11 - Courses run from Jan 11–Feb 23, 2021.

This page talks about how their courses are delivered online. 

• Minimum requirements for online courses are a computer, smartphone or tablet; an internet connection; and a web browser
• The minimum system requirements for those classes/courses which use Zoom include: 
• A broadband (Ethernet or fast wireless) internet connection, 
• a computer running at least Windows XP or Mac OS 10.7, 
• at least 4GB of RAM, 
• a built-in camera or USB plug-in webcam, speakers or headphones, and 
• a microphone (if you have a built-in webcam, it includes a microphone).

“We are excited about the new opportunities and benefits online instruction offers; we found people really appreciate the flexibility it affords and we have been able to expand our audience to include students from all around the world.”

Adult Programs:

• include a broad range of visual arts and design disciplines (both traditional and digital)
• plus topics related to art and design as integral parts of our lives and culture
• scheduled over four terms in the Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer.

There are four different types of courses - and these include 

• RISD Online Courses - which allow people to learn no matter where they live
• RISD Online Certificate Programs - which allow people to pursue a Certificate in a specific topic (note that most certificate programs require 396 hours of study)

Certificate programs are designed especially for adults who want a rigorous and comprehensive course of pre-professional and professional study on a part-time basis.

These are the range of online courses.

Page 2 of the portfolio of online courses available to adults

You can take certificate program classes with the intention of joining a certificate program at a later date - and if you do this you have a one-year grace period in which to apply.

RISD Online Certificate Programs

If interested you are urged to make sure you sign up quickly as a number of courses were filled very quickly in previous term.

If you know of other reputable educational institutions which also deliver comprehensive online courses please let me know (Message me via https://www.facebook.com/makingamark2/)