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

Derwent Art Prize 2014 - ineligible drawing wins first prize?

I have two beliefs about art competitions.

• The first is that if you put your work into an art competition with a significant money prize, then you are putting your work up for critique. I therefore feel able to comment on artwork in major art competitions in a way which I might not for normal open exhibitions.
• The second is that the work entered should be original and the artist should be able to assert copyright over their artwork. In other words the work should not be a derivative image.

Put simply - I have no time for people who copy other people's photographs.  There are far too many brilliant artists who create excellent original images to bother with those who copy the images selected and executed by others.

This evening I am very sad that the Derwent Art Prize 2014 has been won by somebody who has

• copied a photograph taken by another person.
• [update] submitted a work which was NOT completed in the last three years (based on the evidence from his website) 
• both of the above render it ineligible for the competition according to the rules of competition

I am particularly sad because

• the competition got off to a really great start last year with a truly original drawing in pencil winning the Derwent Art Prize 2013; and 
• there is some really outstanding work in this year's exhibition at the Mall Galleries - which I shall review tomorrow, when I will also highlight the other prizewinners.

Copyright and Originality

Below is the correspondence I had with the organisers, Parker Harris, after an artist contacted me with information about one of the drawings which had been selected.

This is my email dated 30th July 2014.

Dear Derwent Art Prize

An image which appears on your gallery for all works submitted in the Derwent Art Prize competition appears to be breaching copyright and has been reported to me.

I'm somewhat well known within the online art community for highlighting breaches of copyright in relation to competitions hence people tend to tell me rather than the organisers. This very often happens because the person raising the query is also an entrant in the same competition.

I highlight images which breach competition rules merely because it's so unfair to other entrants when images are selected which are either not original and/or breach copyright. My purpose is to encourage people to read the rules and to learn what they can and cannot do - and that sometimes includes the selection panel when they appear to be ignorant of the rules of the competition they are judging.

I'm absolutely not in the business of creating any embarrassment for competition organisers. My preference is to ask the competition organisers for their comments first - with respect to use of a copyright image - before commenting on my blog. I'd also add that the nature of the response tends to influence whether and/or how I comment.

Please would you comment on the eligibility of:

• this image http://www.derwent-artprize.com/looted-mine-1945-vermeer-artist’s-studio

• this image http://www.derwent-artprize.com/looted-salt-mine-1945-manet-winter-garden

the two photographs which have been copied by Brian Fay are included as part of the publicity material released by the Monument Men Foundation. Click the link to publicity material on this page and you will see the original http://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/contact-us. (The images are also available on a number of other sites including the BBC and Pinterest Boards which have highlighted these publicity photos)

Does Brian Fay have permission of the US Government and/or the Board of Trustees of the Monuments Men Foundation to copy and reproduce these official photographs?

Is the Derwent Art Prize saying it's OK to

• copy photographs which are still within copyright that are found on the internet? 

• make copies of works despite the fact that the Derwent Art Prize rules make it clear that copies of works are ineligible? 

What do you propose to do about these selected images?

If the Derwent Art Prize prefers not to comment, please note I will be commenting on the similarity of images which are in plain view on the Internet and reviewing these within the context of the competition rules.

I'd also add that, in my experience, these matters are very rarely spotted by only one person.

Regards
Katherine Tyrrell

Below is the reply I received from the competition organisers, also dated 30th July 2014.

Derwent Art Prize 2014 - Selected Artists

The exhibition for the Derwent Art Prize 2014 opens on the 15th September at the Mall Galleries and I'm going to the Preview tomorrow  evening at which the prizewinners will be announced. (Thanks to Derwent for the invite!)

The announcement of the Derwent Art Prizewinners in 2013
Mall Galleries | Photo © Katherine Tyrrell

The exhibition includes 79 works in pencil by 61 artists.  Unfortunately the website has taken down ALL the works by selected artists after the deadline for the People's Choice Award so it's not yet possible to review them. Hopefully they'll be putting it back up on Monday.

Selected artists for Derwent Art Prize 2014

This is the list of selected artists for the Derwent Art Prize Exhibition 2014. Links in their names are to their websites (if these can be found)

My general impression is that both the entries and selection have moved up a gear this year. Perhaps because of the nature of the artwork selected for exhibition last year and the work selected for a prize? This is a link to a slideshow of selected artworks in the exhibition

Note that the competition is open to international artists and this year some of the selected artists come from outside the UK.

Gabriela Adach - (no website)

Thomas Adam  - graduated with a BA in Drawing and painting from Edinburgh College of Art; also selected for the Catlin Art Prize 2012 and currently without a working website

Margie Andrew-Reichelt - also selected for the Threadneedle Prize 2013 (no website)

Dennis Angel - an American artist who lives in Las Vegas and is currently a professor of painting and drawing at the College of Southern Nevada. He produces drawings I like in coloured pencil or silverpoint

Claire Anscomb - recently graduated from studying Fine Art at the Winchester School of Art, gaining First Class Honours for her work. Using archival material she recreates them in graphite. In 2013 she was selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibition. This year she has also been selected for the Threadneedle Prize exhibition. This is her Tumblr blog clamscomb

Catherine Anyango - she currently works as a tutor in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art.

What's the payoff for a degree in art? (Plus a new POLL)

It's coming up the beginning of a new academic term in higher education. So what's the payoff for a degree in art?

Plus a new POLL! - See the side bar for the new poll - Education and art: which route did you take? - for some really silly reason which Polldaddy really needs to sort out, you can only vote if you view the results first!

The poll will run to the end of September.  I'll do a report back on the results at the beginning of October.

Below you can see an infographic about Pathways after a Bachelor's Degree in Visual Arts. These are the nature of the choices people make who achieve some sort of Bachelor's Degree in Visual Arts in terms of what they do next and its financial outcomes over a lifetime. The infographic has been created by the United States Census Bureau. It was based on a census done in 2010 and it was first published in 2012 - so a little out of date.

In a nutshell it asks how much can you expect to earn over a lifetime if you follow different career pathways.

One of the aims of the exercise is to demonstrate that what look like small differences early in your career become magnified over time as the differences in earnings begin to stack up. That, in due course, has a major impact on our economic wellbeing in later years in terms of pensions etc.

Some art graduates go on to higher degrees and some go on to occupations in the visual arts field. The infographic is based on the numbers who have achieved the highest level of degree they finished with. (In other words - those who got an MA or a PhD are not counted in with the BAs)

It suggests that:

• there is a clear financial payoff for all those who go on to an advanced degree - particularly if it has a professional orientation - or pursue a professional path related to art.
• art teachers have a mixed picture. Artists do better than elementary art teachers! However if you teach in a secondary school or higher education, on average you do better than full time artists.
• those who work in design and marketing do best of all those who have careers in areas related to art.

What do you think of the picture it paints?

Personally, I'd like to see more up to date data and I'd also find it very interesting to see the same sort of data for people doing degrees in different countries.

Pathways After a Bachelor's Degree  - Visual Arts image
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]
Click to see a larger version

Read Creation of the Synthetic Work-Life Earnings Estimates for Field of Degree Brief and Infographics to find out how they calculated the work life earnings for different pathways

Synthetic Work-life Earnings are a way of looking at how small differences in earnings can add up to big differences over an extended period of time. For example making $12 per hour more adds up to $480 per week or $25,000 per year or $1,000,000 in a 40-year work-life. While this way of looking at earnings is very useful one should note that these estimates are based on many assumptions, discussed below, and they should be used for illustration purposes rather than an exact projection of a persons earnings.

Video and review: Florum 2014 Exhibition

Part of the Florum exhibition 2014 at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve.
Two of my macro drawings of succulents are second from the right on the front panel
all artwork: copyright - the artists

I initially had some difficulties with my video of the Florum exhibition - hence why it wasn't posted earlier this week. However they seem to have resolved. Maybe I just didn't quite understand how long it took for the video to get off imovie and into my folders?

Anyway - here's the video - and you can see the exhibition yourself until 5pm on Saturday 13th September.



It was only when I watched it all the way through that I realised I had inadvertently omitted one very good wall my mistake!  The fact that it included two of my drawings which I really liked was also pretty galling! However you can see the wall at the bottom front of my photo (above) and these are my drawings below.

(top) Echeveria Laui
(bottom) Tesselation #2 (Agave victoriae)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The exhibition is in a fairly small space but the ladies who do the hanging do a great job of getting all the artwork hung in a very short space of time prior to the Private View!

One of the panels in the centre of the room

My only comment this year is I think the far wall when you walk in could have done with a stronger motif to attract the eye - and I couldn't understand why two really excellent and colourful works by Susan Christopher Coulson and Billy Showell were located at the bottom of the stairs. These are both artists who are very popular and have a strong following - and their artwork needs to be easy to see!

IMO, this are the set of six paintings we should have seen on the far wall as we entered the exhibition. 

The artists who stood out for me this year were as follows.

I loved Rachel Munn's very small drawing of a Shoo Fly Plant - which I've not got a proper photograph of - but it showed me what can be done when using pen and ink and coloured pencil and crystallised for me what I've had in my head for a long time with respect to where I should take my pen and ink and coloured pencil sketches in terms of fine art drawings. Thanks to Rachel for providing the insight as to what is possible.

The show includes artwork which was awarded a Gold Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society at the RHS Show in Malvern earlier this year. These are:

• the wonderful watercolour paintings of hydrangeas of Gael Sellwood whose mother Christine Flintham provided the image for the exhibition website page.
• some fascinating pencil and coloured pencil drawings of different varieties of apples - by Julia Craig-McFeely. Julia is the daughter of another botanical artist Joanna Craig-McFeely

I loved both both sets which scream 'quality' at you as you view them.

Two of the apples drawn by Julia Craig-McFeely

The RHS Gold Medal winning artists
Three of Gael Sellwood's hydrangea paintings
Plus two more of Julia's apples.

One of the aspects of the show is embraces all forms of artmaking related to plant life - the jewellery for example is very popular with purchasers. A second room includes all the 'not botanical' artwork of flowers and plant life. This year Barbara Valentine's oil paintings on panels were particularly 'standout' - and were joined by a great oil painting of Autumn Bounty by Linda Wallis

four oil paintings by Barbara Valentine and one by Linda Wallis

Finally it was sad to see the late Wendy Cranston's small square paintings in gouache for one last time. Wendy sadly died in July.

Paintings of fruit and vegetables (gouache) by the late Wendy Cranston

If you have the opportunity to go and see the show I highly recommend you do so. All the visitors on Sunday when I was stewarding had been most impressed with what they saw.