A painting depicting battery farm cruelty, a graphic print expressing alienation and a fine-line drawing of a Mad Hatter-themed dream world took the top prizes at the Sovereign Art Foundation’s school art competition.
The prizegiving at this year’s Sovereign Art Foundation competition. Left to right: Stephen Hare, managing director of Sovereign Trust, College of FE art teacher Alice Coggins, Jonah Gillingham, Mathilda Green’s parents Shaun and Vicky, Lt-Governor Vice-Admiral Sir Ian Corder, Ladies’ College head of art Emma Clements, Paige De La Mare’s parents Karen and Vince and La Mare de Carteret head of art Dee Shillingford. Inset, winner Mathilda Green. (Picture by Chris George Photography)
The annual prize, which is open to 11- to 18-year-olds, was established in 2015 in a bid to increase school-age opportunities for young people with an interest in artistic expression.
Some 70 pieces of artwork, a maximum of 10 per school or college, were reduced to a shortlist of 12 by a panel of judges.
The top three were then chosen by public vote, with Mathilda Green the winner and Paige De La Mare and Jonah Gillingham finishing second and third.
Mathilda, 18, who is known as Tillie, is now studying politics at the University of Liverpool. She said 30 hours of work had gone into her oil painting of a chicken behind wire mesh. ‘It was part of my exam piece at A2. We were given 12 themes to choose from and I chose to do mine based on how art can relate to the way food is made,’ she said.
The chicken is looking face-on through the chicken wire, which the former Ladies’ College pupil stapled onto the front of the canvas.
‘It is meant to encapsulate the cruelty behind battery farming,’ she said.
Both she and Paige, who created a Alice in Wonderland-themed artwork based around the freedom of dreams, were in the UK at the time of the ceremony.
Article by the Guernsey Press. https://guernseypress.com/news/2017/10/02/public-vote-decides-winner-of-contest-for-young-artists/
