Imaginative and stimulating art in "Planet Future" Exhibition

The theme of the annual art exhibition for sixth form colleges is "Planet Future"

This is the national art exhibition for sixth form college students. It contains a lot of very thoughtful imaginative and creative art from students at various sixth form colleges in the UK.

I was impressed by the diversity of media used, topics tackled and different approaches used to portraying messages about sustainability and the current and future risks to planet earth.

"The sustainability agenda has never been more important and the exhibition highlights students' hopes and fears about the future, while also showcasing their enormous creativity and innovation,"
Alex Burghart, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education - who launched the exhibition.

As I began to look at the art it struck me that there's a bit of a gulf beginning to open up between art created by younger people - who are focused on things which matter a lot to them - and artwork by much older people in other exhibitions where the artwork seems to be more traditional and very often demonstrates little interest in topical issues.

 

My favourites included the following. 

• Click the links in the title to see a much larger image online. 
• I've also included links to the students where I could find them online.

Hope for the future by Ruby Currie (Woodhouse College) 

I particularly liked the use of the textile art and its use of various messages addressing many different aspects of contemporary life and issues of concern and the designs she used to catch attention. 

Thumbnails versus slideshows versus videos

See if you can spot the artist who will make their mark in future years - in the online Graduation Show 2020 by recent graduates of the Heatherley School of Art.

Heatherley's Graduates Exhibition 2020

I was left wishing that the show was a slideshow - because 

• going back and to (due to the lack of a right arrow for the next image of decent size) 
• means inevitably you only look at some artwork as a thumbnail.

I clicked around in vein trying to find the arrow for the next image - and finally realised there wasn't one.

Hence this post

I'd also have liked to see a text document - providing a summary about each artist and links to their websites and social media accounts.  Being an artist is so much more than producing the artwork....

Presentation of art on a website

Presenting art on a website demands some careful thought about what's likely to generate the best response.

The critical issue is to remember people have limited time and need an efficient and effective method of viewing art they might be interested in.

It's really worthwhile thinking about:

• the optimum size of image to display your work to best effect - now that buyers are much more used to buying online
• how best to display a sequence or series of your artworks
• thumbnails only - enlarging to larger image if clicked (and then you have to go back and start again as per the Heatherley's Show)
• slideshow of decent sizes images
• slideshow of decent sizes images - properly annotated with title, media and size (framed and/or unframed as relevant)
• a video of your artwork - with successive static frames - working in the same way as a slideshow - but with a bit more control for the viewer. (I usually put my cursor on the bottom and speed through - and then only come back and watch slowly if I like what I see)
• thumbnails AND slideshow - i.e. give the viewer the choice of how they want to view.
• what's the best thumbnail for your artwork? 
• Not every artwork is created in a standard thumbnail shape (eg not everything is a small square!)
• the critical issue is whether or not the thumbnail "reads well" and tempts the viewer to click it and open up the larger image
• Hence a decision may be required as to how best to format the thumbnail before converting to larger image of the whole work

Thumbnails in the Heatherley's Graduate Show which worked for me are by:

• Sarah Thorneycroft
• Zhouzi Zhang (more than one)
• Jayson Singh (more than one) - who impressed me the most - who has a Twitter account but no website

Jayson Singh is a visual artist based in Battersea and has a fine art degree from Central Saint Martin's. Recently, he has completed a portrait diploma from Heatherley's school of Art and achieved a special commendation from the painter Andrew James RP at the graduating show this year.

Note that I did not open every thumbnail - just the ones that appealed.

The Distance Drawing Course (weeks 1 - 4)

 The Rokeby Museum has been posting blogs posts about a Distance Drawing Course.
The course is inspired by a correspondence course about drawing undertaken by 13 year old Rachael Robinson Elmer (1878–1919) and taught by Courtney Clinton, Rokeby Artist in Residence

From 1891 to 1893 Rachael studied illustration with a New York artist named Ernest Knaufft (1864–1942) through the Chautauqua Society of Fine Art. The course cost $5 dollars a year and offered instruction in freehand drawing and the pen and ink technique used for book and magazine illustration at the time — with today’s inflation that’s still a bargain at $150.

There are six lessons in total and they are posted every two weeks.

• Below you can find the links to the first four lessons - and a note at the end about the two still to be posted.
• The posts include some simply wonderful drawings - of their time - which can be appreciated without reading the accompanying text. However that is also worth a read - particularly if you want to learn more about drawing.
• Don't skip the interesting historical documents - also worth a read!

WEEK 1: VISION

This is the link for Vision

Seeing Rachael’s drawings and writing side by side gives us a new way to think about the practice of drawing. In her sketchbooks, Rachael uses drawing to take visual notes. With her art, she is recording and testing her understanding of nature.

For this week’s exercise I invite you to start a sketchbook practice. Over the next two weeks, go for walks with a sketch book and make small sketches of the different things that you see. Try to do five botanical sketches a week.

Don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, we are in this together! Below is a step by step guide to start your first sketchbook.

View this post on Instagram

In my first #RokebyDistanceDrawing lesson I invite students to start a sketchbook and develop a practice of engaged observation. Don't worry this doesn't require any deep breathing. ;) . . Through this exercise I want to challenge the idea of art as a kind of creative expression and instead present art as a kind of visual research. . . Most young artists assume that because they know the world around them they also understand it. When asked to put pen to paper and draw something as simple as a tree most flounder and draw a 🌲 not an actual tree. Many assume that this means they don't have any artistic talent. . . With first lesson my aim is to throw out this idea of talent and get students to start thinking about the connection between observation and drawing. . . Learning to draw is about training your eye. It means sitting in front of your subject for a sustained period and working out it's structure and mechanics. . . Of course the ultimate aim of art is expression but this research into observation will allow a young artist to better articulate and inform their ideas. . . For the lion's share of this course we will focus on training our ability to see. Near the end of the course we will shift our attention to creative expression. I can't wait for you to see how all of this time spent looking will fuel your creativity! . . Lessons are free and materials are kept simple (paper and pencil). Each lesson comes with step by step instructions! The course is hosted on the @rokebymuseum website! . . #artcourse #draw #drawing #sketch #sketching #sketchbook #artist #art #arttraining #creativity #artist #art #CanadianArt #canadianartist #vermontart #museumart #fineart #illustration #illustrator #outdoorart #landscapeart #pleinair

A post shared by Courtney Clinton Artist (@clinton.courtney) on Jul 28, 2020 at 6:42am PDT

WEEK 2: COPYING

This is the link for Copying

In the same way that Rachael learned to work with magazines by emulating her father’s career, she learned art theory (proportions, shading, and line quality) by copying the works of accomplished artists.

The Best of The Drawing Year

On Friday morning I went to a preview of The Best of the Drawing Year 2018/19 in the Duke Street Gallery - a selling exhibition of over 100 drawings and wrks on paper by contemporary artists and teachers from the Royal Drawing School - at Christies

I've put an album of my photos of the exhibition on my Making A Mark Facebook Page 

preview of the exhibition

Venue: Duke Street Gallery, Christies, 5 King Street in London
Dates: 8 – 12 November 2019
Hours: Monday to Friday 9am–4.30pm, Saturday & Sunday 12pm–5pm
Admission: no appointment necessary / free admission

It's an exhibition which I commend to those interested in

• contemporary drawing 
• and/or interested in the courses held by the Royal Drawing School and in particular their postgraduate level course of The Drawing Year.

Every time I visit it is different - reflecting both the participants on the course that year and who has been teaching them.

This year I saw rather more artworks which were leaning hard towards painting, which I understand are works created as part of the individual's practice outside the course.

I felt on the whole I'd rather see:

• MORE works in the exhibition which are much more about the drawings produced during the year - and which are a reflection of the studies during the course of the year
• their personal practice diverted to other exhibitions - where I frequently see them - given the number of Drawing Year alumni who pop up as selected artists in various art competitions and open exhibitions in London. 

After all there's lots of places to see the work of an artist as they continue on their journey but only a couple of opportunities to see work produced during the drawing year. 

Below you can find out about

• the purpose of the exhibition - and see some images from the exhibition (but see also the album of my photos)
• profiles of three graduates in 2019
• details of The Drawing Year - notably the fact it a year of drawing is offered for free - no tuition fees and studio space for free
• the NEW BOOK "Ways of Drawing: Artists Perspectives and Practices" by the Royal Drawing School.

Purpose of the Exhibition

The exhibition comprises over 100 paintings, drawings, prints and works on paper by the 30 students of The Drawing Year 2019 at The Royal Drawing School - on the Shoreditch/Hoxton boundary - who graduated in 2019.

The Drawing Year is the equivalent of an MA Course of postgraduate study.  These are the best of the over 300 drawings by The Drawing Year which will be on show at the Royal Drawing School in Hoxton between 29 November 2019 and 15 January 2020.

sketchbooks

Three graduates in 2019

I met three of the graduates from the 2019 Year.

15th National Students' Art Exhibition - Review

Yesterday I visited the 15th National Students' Art Exhibition. It opened yesterday at the Mall Galleries and continues until 3pm on Saturday 15th July - so quite a short exhibition.

This is a review of what I found - plus some suggestions (at the end) for how next year's exhibition might be made even better, more accessible and more rewarding for school students nationally.

The National Students' Art Exhibition

The exhibition is the only national competition for the display of artwork by secondary school students across the UK.  Artists range in age from 11 to 18 years old and come from schools, colleges and academies.

Students' Artwork in the Threadneedle Space

It has a very basic website and is held under the patronage of the Royal Society of British Artists.

we welcome work from Years 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13, all types of media including sculpture and pure photography

I wasn't entirely sure what I expected to see. However seeing an exhibition fill all the spaces in the Mall Galleries with conviction got me thinking about

• what are its main characteristics and 
• the main differences between this exhibition and the others that I see in these spaces.

This post provides images of the exhibition - and some conclusions about my conclusions as to what were the main similarities and big differences. (You can see more gallery views of the exhibition in an album on its Facebook Page)

Overall, I found the exhibition impressive given the age of the students - and one which might give some other exhibitors some pause for thought in terms of how to get noticed!

Given the exhibits are all by children and young people, the links are to their schools rather than individuals.

This exhibition is......

• more colourful 
• more emotional 
• more energetic and vibrant (some of the paintings were bouncing off the walls)

View of the Main Gallery

Main Gallery exhibits

It includes:

• artwork exhibiting imaginative approaches to how to treat a subject and how to create artwork. It made me think that it's a great exhibition for demonstrating how staid and safe some artists / exhibitions have become.

Through the Trees by Reece Beech (Astor College)
Mixed media lightbox

A very unusual 3D work using perspex, slides and a lightbox.

At Home with dad by Annabelle Trew (Highworth Grammar School)
oil

I loved the perspective of this one - suggesting keeping an eye on Dad!

• unabashed political statements - providing a commentary of the state of the world today (I wish I saw more of these in the exhibitions typically seen in these galleries)