MAKING A MARK: Derwent Art Prize 2014 - ineligible drawing wins first prize?

I find the situation highlighted in Katherine Tyrrell's blog post on this year's Derwent Art Prize highly disappointing. Essentially, the winning piece was a straight copy of a photograph in the public domain. There are no copyright issues, but the artist essentially used someone else's design, contributing only technique. The competition rules state "no copies", yet this is clearly a copy.



Although Derwent (the pencil people and sponsors of the prize) do not judge the competition, this still reflects badly on them if they do not react to an unfairly judged competition in their name.



MAKING A MARK: Derwent Art Prize 2014 - ineligible drawing wins first prize?

Doughnut

There were five doughnuts in the packet. One each, and one to paint. "But who is going to eat the last doughnut?" asked my daughter. Good question...

Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 cm

Profiteroles - SOLD

Yesterday's pudding... with a little exagerration.

Profiteroles
Acrylic on box canvas, 30 x 30 cm.

SOLD

Swan House

This painting was painted inside its subject.

Five Knives

Having painted some brushes and some pencils, it seemed only right that I should give my painting knives the same treatment.

Nib

This is a handsome pen - the barrel, which you can't see here, is made of walnut, and the gold nib has delicate scrollwork on it - but it's never really worked right. I'm changing the ink to wahable blue to see if that flows better, but in the meantime I think I have found an alternative use for the pen - as a subject.

Watercolour (with white acrylic for highlights) on paper, ~10 x 15 cm

People at an Exhibition

Painting inspired by Penlee House (Penzance); title inspired by Mussorgsky.

I recently visited Penlee House art gallery in Penzance, Cornwall, to see their splendid Model Citzens: Myths and Realities exhibition, which looked at the human subjects of the Newlyn School. While there, I made a couple of quick sketches - including a few of my fellow visitors:

I decided to work this up into a painting. Using a subdued palette (buff titanium, black, ultramarine, yellow ochre, alazarin crimson (hue), hooker's green and - finally - a little titanium white), I hoped to echo the colours of the Newlyn School paintings that were on show. Two of my people were from sketches made in the exhibition. The third is borrowed from one of the paintings.

The three Newlyn paintings are:

William Holt Yates Titcomb, 'Jubilee Day, St Ives, Cornwall (Good News from the Front)'
William John Wainwright, 'Mackerel in the Bay'
Henry Scott Tuke, 'All Hands to the Pumps'

 And finally, here are a few of my in-progress shots:

People at an Exhibition
Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 22 inches