Gearing up to enter the Derwent Art Prize 2020?

If so, then before you get your entry in, take a few moments to introduce yourself to the Selectors. As these are the people who will be judging your work, it’s good to know both what inspires them and what has influenced their work/vision.

We’ll get you started…

CHARLES AVERY

‘We want you to stop drawing because you know how to draw. Drawing is not a masterable art.’ (The Independent, 2015)

This is what Charles Avery’s art school tutors told him shortly before he was thrown out of Central St Martins after just six months of study. Since then, Avery has been featured in The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Scotsman, Frieze, Apollo, FAD Magazine and A-N.

Avery is best known for a long-term project called The Islanders. Frustrated by his inability to pull all of his interests together into one artwork, Avery conceived a fictional island within which he could both connect and explore them. The Islanders has been exhibited widely – it represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale in 2007 – and ‘It is undeniably wonderful. Avery’s draughtsmanship is exquisite and his images of island life are full of wit and flair, enough to intrigue and enchant even the most casual visitor to his exhibitions.’ (The Times, 2015)

VICTORIA POMERY OBE

Victoria Pomery OBE is the Director of Turner Contemporary, an art gallery in Margate that presents a rolling programme of temporary exhibitions. Founded in 2001, the gallery has been a catalyst for the regeneration of Margate and East Kent, welcoming over three million visitors to date.

In 2012, Victoria was awarded an OBE for services to the arts. In 2013, she was made a Kent Ambassador, received an Honorary Masters Degree from the University for the Creative Arts, and judged the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. Victoria is Chair of the Contemporary Visual Arts Network (South East) and is a board member of the Area Council for Arts Council England South East.

Victoria believes that the arts play an integral role in our society, and stresses the fact that both the arts and the people who deliver them must adapt to changing audiences and changing times: ‘The arts are so important to society and we need to ensure that the UK has the infrastructure to enable artists across all disciplines to thrive. We also need to make sure the arts are relevant to diverse audiences, in a changing and rapidly evolving world.’ (Arts Council England, 2019)

ALICE RAWSTHORN

Alice Rawsthorn is an award-winning design critic and critically acclaimed author. In her most recent book, Design as an Attitude, Alice explores how design is positively and resourcefully responding to the social, political and environmental turbulence of recent times. She warmly demystifies the field, revealing how the emerging generation of designers are embracing new technologies and rethinking the objects and spaces that we use every day.

From 1985 to 2001, Alice worked as a journalist for The Financial Times, pioneering the FT’s coverage of the creative industries. Alice was Director of the Design Museum, London from 2001 until 2006, when she became Design Critic for the international edition of The New York Times. She is Chair of the Board of Trustees at both Chisenhale Gallery, London and The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire.

An influential public speaker on design, Alice has participated in important global events including TED and the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Her TED talk on pirates, nurses and other rebel designers has been viewed by close a million people worldwide – why not give it a watch yourself?

To enter the Derwent Art Prize 2020, please go to ‘Enter Award’ above, where you can fill in an online entry form and upload your images once you have paid the entry fee. The deadline is 17 February 2020.

Following exhibitions at Mall Galleries, London and Trowbridge Arts in Wiltshire, the Derwent Art Prize 2018 will continue its UK-wide tour, opening on 15 November for a 2 month period at the Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria.

The exhibition features artwork by 20 artists from the North of England alongside the four individual Prize-winners: French artist France Bizot; Jovanka Stanojevic from Serbia; Royal Academy Schools alumnus Anna Gardiner; and Emma Bertin Sanabria who, like France Bizot, is an alumnus of L’École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Martyn Burdon is amongst the UK based artists presenting work at the landmark venue. His hyper-real drawing ‘Kathryn’ captures a candid moment in which the subject is looking away from the artist. The relaxed pose suggests an ease between artist and sitter and there is an elegance in the simplicity of the drawing’s composition. Burdon says ‘I just try to capture truthfully what I see when I meet someone…  I just try to be honest.’. On the importance of drawing in his creative practice, he said ‘I probably spend more time drawing than I do painting. I really love to draw, and whether it’s using pencils or charcoal, drawing is predominantly focused on just light and shade. I love the bold simplicity of it. My painting style maybe owes a lot to my fascination with drawing.’

Artist and scholar Patricia Cain will be showing her large scale mixed media drawing ‘Languages which are made to die’ alongside Burdon. She explores, visually and in writing, the role of drawing in the creative process and its relationship to thinking. Within her selected work, flat plains of colour contrast with delicate lines rendered in pencil – it appears intuitive and fresh, as if the artist is drawing as a form of embodied thinking.

RIBA Selsa Prize-winner James Eagle, meanwhile, underlines the creative scope of architectural drawing with ‘Dining Room – CaCO3 Depositional House’. The highly complex work sits at the intersection of art, architecture and ecology, and is a culmination of Eagle’s rich research areas – biological architectural systems and surrealism.

The Derwent Art Prize continues to showcase drawing in all its diversity and a visit to Cumbria’s Pencil Museum is guaranteed to inform, inspire and expand visitor’s understanding of the drawing techniques and mediums utilised by creatives across the world today.

The exhibition is open to the public from 15 November 2018 – 31 January 2019. Please click here for more information.

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is currently on tour and open at Trowbridge Town Hall Arts until 10 November. The diversity of drawings, of which there are 67 spanning pencil, coloured pencil, graphite, charcoal and pastel, is evident against the backdrop of the historic, monumental building.

Trowbridge Town Hall was built in 1887 to coincide with Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee and was funded by William Roger Brown, a local and hugely successful mill owner. It officially was opened in 1889 by HRH the Duchess of Albany for “the benefit of inhabitants of the Town”.

Since Trowbridge Town Hall Trust was formed in 2012, the arts venue has continued to thrive with a myriad of creative outlets from exhibitions including the 2016 and 2018 Derwent Art Prize, to short-courses for artists, theatre workshops and artist talks such as 2016 Derwent Art Prize exhibitor Rosie Snell’s recent presentation on contemporary drawing.

For more information about the Derwent Art Prize exhibition at Trowbridge Arts, please click here.

The exhibition will subsequently tour to The Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria (15 November 2018 – 31 January 2019).

Join the conversation and share your images of the exhibition on instagram – @trowbridgetownhallarts @derwentpencils #DerwentArtPrize

Derwent ®, internationally renowned artists’ materials brand, are proud to present the Derwent Art Prize 2018, on display at Trowbridge Arts from 29 September – 10 November 2018, showcasing the very best 2D & 3D artworks created in pencil, coloured pencil, pastel, graphite and charcoal. The exhibition includes work by artists from 10 different countries – France, Germany, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, and the UK, and highlights the broad spectrum of drawing methodologies being utilised by creative practitioners across the world. The works, which range from gestural abstracts to photorealistic portraits and sculptural drawings, were shortlisted from 3299 submissions from 64 different countries, the highest number of entries in the history of the Prize.

The 67 artworks which make up the 2018 exhibition were selected by an expert panel comprising Gill Saunders, Senior Curator, V&A; Chris Sharratt, Art Critic; and Clare Woods, Artist.

Speaking of the selection process, Chris Sharratt said “being a selector for this year’s Derwent Art Prize was the kind of challenge that you can’t help but enjoy. The diversity of drawing practice and the energy, thought and skill displayed by so many of the artists was exciting to see and meant that some very good work didn’t make the final selection. However, in the end I think that, after an intense process of discussion and careful consideration, this year’s exhibition provides a fitting overview of contemporary drawing practice.”

The Derwent Art Prize exhibition is accompanied by a dynamic events programme, which includes a presentation at Trowbridge Arts by 2016 exhibitor and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Bath Spa University, Rosie Snell. The artist talk will take place on 18 October 2018 at 6pm. Please click here to book your place.

Subsequent to the exhibition at Trowbridge Arts, the Derwent Art Prize 2018 will tour to the Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria (15 November 2018 – 31 January 2019).

Derwent Art Prize 2018: 29 September – 10 November 2018, Trowbridge Arts, Wiltshire

Please click here for venue opening times.

This year’s Derwent Art Prize at the Mall Galleries was accompanied by a dynamic events programme comprising a series of artist demonstrations and a one-day life drawing workshop, all of which took place against the backdrop of the show.

2018 exhibitor Ian Robinson launched the artist demonstration series on Tuesday 18 September, setting himself up in the centre of the Threadneedle Space with an easel and a table laden with sketches, photographs and a selection of Derwent Graphic Pencils.

Ian is interested in depicting objects which, as a result of cheaper and less cumbersome digital alternatives, are in danger of becoming obsolete. Ian spent the day working on a drawing of a pile of hardback books, the photo-realist quality of his work adding an ironic dimension to his interrogation of the digital world.

Wednesday saw 2018 exhibitors Lesley Doyle and Philip Hood carry out two very different demonstrations.

Whilst Lesley worked on a soft pastel portrait, suggesting form and depth rather than rigidly delineating it, Philip demonstrated a drawing technique which was much more architectural in quality.  Already, then, three very different drawing techniques had been demonstrated, reflecting the diversity of contemporary drawing practice as encapsulated by this year’s exhibition.

In a continuation of this trend, Pablo Castañeda Santana took on the role of artist demonstrator during the Private View on the evening of Thursday 20 September.  As a result of the way that he paints – ‘backwards’, painting the foreground first and then covering it with layer after layer of background until he can peel the entire flexible sheet of acrylic paint off the glass, giving him a mirror image of his original idea – Pablo’s works are both ‘paint and painting’. His subjects often appear as composite or hybrid – evidence of his keen interest in the hybridisation effect of the internet – and this is true of the figures that populate his drawings, too.

The events programme concluded with a full day life drawing workshop led by 2016 prizewinner Tim Wright.  From 2011-13 he was engaged as a painting consultant by Film Director Mike Leigh and taught actor Timothy Spall to paint in preparation for his performance as the titular artist in the biographical drama Mr Turner.  As an artist, Tim’s practice encompasses two strands: the portrait and figure painting.  Currently, Tim is interested in the way in which people present themselves and groups interact, in notions of stillness and display, and also in the clothed and unclothed.  His latest work depicts contemporary figures acting out poses and scenarios derived from baroque and rococo models.

Tim’s workshop was designed to introduce artists to new ways of capturing energy and movement.  From instinctive 2-minute sketches to stacked drawings and more detailed studies, the workshop encouraged participants to watch the life model rather than their pencil, resulting in work which much looser and more organic than most of the artists typically produced.  At the end of the day, having been stood at their easels for the best part of six hours, the artists left exhausted but brimming with a new confidence in their ability to suggest and capture kinetic energy.

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 will be on display at Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge from 29 September – 10 November, before moving to the Derwent Pencil Museum, Keswick, where it will be available to view from 15 November – 31 January (2019).

Subsequent to the exhibition at Mall Galleries, the Derwent Art Prize 2018 will tour to venues across the UK including Trowbridge Arts (29 September – 10 November 2018) and the Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria (15 November 2018 – 31 January 2019).

There will be an artist talk with 2016 exhibitor Rosie Snell at Trowbridge Arts on 18 October 2018, 6pm. Please click here to book your ticket. 

Derwent ®, internationally renowned artists’ materials brand, are proud to announce the Prizewinners of the Derwent Art Prize 2018. First Prize (£6,000) has been awarded to France Bizot for Madame Bovary – a figurative coloured pencil drawing made inside a found vintage book. Bizot, who lives and works in Paris, seeks to blur the line between the real and the virtual in her pop culture inspired drawings. Backslash Gallery, Paris described her technique as ‘impeccable’.

Serbian artist Jovanka Stanojevic is the recipient of the £3,000 Second Prize for Hair 2, a detailed portrait that depicts only the subject’s hair and shoulders. Though the face is not visible, the pencil drawing reveals much about the subject’s demeanour – the artist says it is ‘a celebration of a woman in all her uniqueness’.

The Third Prize of £1,500 has been awarded to Royal Academy Schools alumnus Anna Gardiner for her tonal charcoal drawing Washday. Through her drawings and paintings, Gardiner explores our collective relationship with landscape and home. Though the places she conveys may feel very specific, and perhaps even familiar, none really are. They are archetypes, constructs of a nation’s memory.

Paris based artist Emma Bertin Sanabria is the recipient of the Young Artist Award (£750), for an artist under the age of 25. The Prize recognises and celebrates emerging artistic talent such as Sanabria who is an alumnus of L’École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris and New York’s prestigious School of Visual Arts (SVA). Her prizewinning coloured pencil drawing Noé is a delicately rendered portrait in which the male sitter appears immersed in the artist’s process – her drawing picking up the myriad of textures and folds in his clothing, as areas of saturated colour evolve into singular pencil lines.

The People’s Choice Award of £750 gave the general public an opportunity to vote for their favourite shortlisted artwork via the Derwent Art Prize Facebook page. The Prize was awarded to Hong Kong based artist Kin Choi Lam for his coloured pencil drawing Morning Assembly. Like much of his work, the drawing highlights mysterious elements within everyday situations.

The Prizewinning drawings, which are amongst 67 shortlisted artworks making up the 2018 Derwent Art Prize exhibition, were selected by an expert panel comprising Gill Saunders, Senior Curator, V&A; Chris Sharratt, Art Critic; and Clare Woods, Artist.

All shortlisted works will be on display at Mall Galleries, London from 18 – 23 September 2018. The exhibition will be accompanied by a dynamic events programme, including a one-day drawing workshop with 2016 exhibitor Tim Wright, focused on capturing the human figure in movement. In addition, 2018 exhibitors Ian Robinson, Lesley Doyle and Phillip Hood will give live demonstrations against the backdrop of the exhibition; and Spanish painter Pablo Castaneda Santana will showcase Derwent ®’s recently launched fade-resistant Lightfast Pencils at the 2018 Prize-giving. Visit www.derwent-artprize.com for full event details.

Subsequent to the exhibition at Mall Galleries, the Derwent Art Prize 2018 will tour to venues across the UK including Trowbridge Arts (29 September – 10 November 2018) and the Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria (until January 2018).

18 -23 September 2018, Mall Galleries, London

Derwent ®, internationally renowned artists’ materials brand, are proud to present the Derwent Art Prize 2018, on display at London’s prestigious Mall Galleries from 18 – 23 September 2018, showcasing the very best 2D & 3D artworks created in pencil, coloured pencil, pastel, graphite and charcoal. The exhibition includes work by artists from 10 different countries – France, Germany, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, and the UK, and highlights the broad spectrum of drawing methodologies being utilised by creative practitioners across the world. The works, which range from gestural abstracts to photorealistic portraits and sculptural drawings, were shortlisted from 3299 submissions from 64 different countries, the highest number of entries in the history of the Prize.

The 67 artworks which make up the 2018 exhibition were selected by an expert panel comprising Gill Saunders, Senior Curator, V&A; Chris Sharratt, Art Critic; and Clare Woods, Artist.

Speaking of the selection process, Chris Sharratt said “being a selector for this year’s Derwent Art Prize was the kind of challenge that you can’t help but enjoy. The diversity of drawing practice and the energy, thought and skill displayed by so many of the artists was exciting to see and meant that some very good work didn’t make the final selection. However, in the end I think that, after an intense process of discussion and careful consideration, this year’s exhibition provides a fitting overview of contemporary drawing practice.”

The Derwent Art Prize exhibition is accompanied by a dynamic events programme which will see 2016 exhibitor Tim Wright deliver a one-day drawing workshop focused on capturing the human figure in movement; 2018 exhibitors Ian Robinson, Lesley Doyle and Phillip Hood will give live demonstrations against the backdrop of the exhibition; and Spanish painter Pablo Castaneda Santana will showcase Derwent ®’s recently launched fade-resistant Lightfast Pencils at the 2018 Prize-giving.

A total of £12,500 will be awarded in the private awards ceremony on 20 September 2018. These include a First Prize of £6,000, Second Prize of £3,000, Third Prize of £1,500 and the Young Artist Award of £750 for an artist under 25 years of age. There is also a People’s Choice Award of £750, which gives the general public an opportunity to vote for their favourite shortlisted work via the Derwent Art Prize Facebook page. Voting for the People’s Choice Award will close on 4 September 2018.

Subsequent to the exhibition at Mall Galleries, the Derwent Art Prize 2018 will tour to venues across the UK including Trowbridge Arts (29 September – 10 November 2018) and Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria (until January 2018).

Derwent Art Prize 2018: 18 – 23 September 2018, Mall Galleries, London SW1

10am – 5pm daily, Admission free

Header Images (from left):

Philip Hood, Garden at Fenton House; Lesley Doyle, First Day; Edo Fuijkschot, Portrait of Artist’s Daughter; Jung Sunghun, Fountain; Ron Logan, Graphite and Colour

Following the announcement of the Derwent Art Prize 2018 finalists, Derwent ®, internationally renowned artists’ materials brand, have launched the People’s Choice Award, a dedicated online poll allowing you to vote for your favourite shortlisted artwork. The artist whose drawing receives the most votes by 4 September 2018, will be awarded the £750 Prize in a private ceremony on 20 September 2018. Click here to place your vote and choose your winning artist, or visit @welovepencils on Facebook.

In addition to the People’s Choice Award, there will also be a First Prize of £6,000, Second Prize of £3,000, Third Prize of £1,500 and the Young Artist Award of £750 for an artist under 25 years of age.

The exhibition of 67 shortlisted works will be on display at London’s prestigious Mall Galleries from 18 – 23 September 2018, showcasing the very best 2D & 3D artworks created in pencil, coloured pencil, pastel, graphite and charcoal. Collectively they reveal the varied approaches to drawing employed by artists across the world, from Paris based Emma Bertin Sanbria’s portrait Noé, which has been built up using a range of dynamic mark making techniques; and Hong Kong artist Kin Choi Lam’s delicate yet complex pencil drawing depicting a Morning Assembly; to London based Aishan Yu’s hyperreal works of domestic objects and scenes. The drawings were selected by an expert panel comprising Gill Saunders, Senior Curator, V&A; Chris Sharratt, Art Critic; and Clare Woods, Artist, following an international open call.

Subsequent to the exhibition at Mall Galleries, the Derwent Art Prize 2018 will tour to venues across the UK including Trowbridge Arts (29 September – 10 November 2018) and Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria (until January 2018).

Click here for the People’s Choice Award terms & conditions.

Derwent Art Prize 2018: 18 – 23 September 2018, Mall Galleries, London SW1

10am – 5pm daily, Admission free

Join the #DerwentArtPrize conversation

Facebook: @welovepencils

Twitter: @derwentpencils

Instagram: @derwentpencils

Derwent ®, internationally renowned artists’ materials brand, are proud to present the Derwent Art Prize 2018, on display at London’s prestigious Mall Galleries from 18 – 23 September 2018, showcasing the very best 2D & 3D artworks created in pencil, coloured pencil, pastel, graphite and charcoal. Following an international open call, 1278 artists from 64 different countries submitted a total of 3,299 artworks, the highest number of entries in the history of the Prize. Submissions were judged by an expert panel comprising Gill Saunders, Senior Curator, V&A; Chris Sharratt, Art Critic; and Clare Woods, Artist.

Together, the judges selected 67 artworks which celebrate drawing in all its diversity. Derwent ® are delighted to announce the 57 shortlisted artists:

Jonathan Alibone / Margie Andrew-Reichelt / Jemma Appleby / Malcolm Ashman / Maura Barreto / Victoria Clare Bernie / Emma Bertin Sanabria / Jean Paul Beumer / France Bizot / Kate Black / Su Bonfanti / Martyn Burdon / Patricia Cain / Adelina Canolli / Neide Carreira / Sarah Carvell / Lewis Chamberlain / Phil Clark / June Collier / Catherine Creaney / Paul Crook / Lesley Doyle / Sarah Duncan / James Eagle / Edo Fuijkschot / Frankie Gao / Anna Gardiner / Paul Gladstone / Duncan Godfrey / Laura Guoke/ Barton Hargreaves / Martyn Hill / Jennifer Ho / Philip Hood / Maree Hughes / Sunghun Jung / Hooi San Koh / Aleksei Kosarev / Kin Choi Lam / Andrew Lansley / Debbie Lee / Ron Logan / Alex Maczkowski / Lee Madgwick / Hipkiss (artist duo Alpha and Chris Mason) / Rachel McDonnell / Liana Moran / Simon Parish / Elizaveta Poluyanskaya / Julie Rafalski / Ian Robinson / Iona Rowland / Leo Santos-Shaw / Casper Scarth / Emma Seach / Jovanka Stanojevic / Aishan Yu

The shortlisted works offer an overview of international contemporary drawing approaches, from Seoul based artist Sunghun Jung’s surreal geometric drawing Fountain, to the panoramic depiction of Lagoa de Fogo drawn onto a saxophone reed by Portuguese artist Maura Barreto. French artist France Bizot’s intricate hand drawn books illustrate one way in which drawing can be realised in three dimensions, whilst Lithuanian artist Laura Guoke’s large scale portrait There you are, the Journey has almost Begun highlights the facility of graphite, charcoal and coloured pencils to create hyperreal imagery with a digitised aesthetic.

Speaking of the selection process, Chris Sharratt said “being a selector for this year’s Derwent Art Prize was the kind of challenge that you can’t help but enjoy. The diversity of drawing practice and the energy, thought and skill displayed by so many of the artists was exciting to see and meant that some very good work didn’t make the final selection. However, in the end I think that, after an intense process of discussion and careful consideration, this year’s exhibition provides a fitting overview of contemporary drawing practice.”

In addition to the selected artworks being hung in a public display at Mall Galleries, prizes totalling £12,500 will be awarded in a private awards ceremony on 20 September 2018. These include a First Prize of £6,000, Second Prize of £3,000, Third Prize of £1,500 and the Young Artist Award of £750 for an artist under 25 years of age. There is also a People’s Choice Award of £750, which gives the general public an opportunity to vote for their favourite shortlisted work. The poll will launch on the Derwent Art Prize Facebook page on 25 June 2018.

Subsequent to the exhibition at Mall Galleries, the Derwent Art Prize 2018 will tour to venues across the UK including Trowbridge Arts (29 September – 10 November 2018) and Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria (until January 2018).

Derwent Art Prize 2018: 18 – 23 September 2018, Mall Galleries, London SW1

10am – 5pm daily, Admission free

Rosie Snell’s work documents how 21^st century living impacts the far reaches of our planet. Her current work has developed out of different research trips to Switzerland and Greenland. These have led her to explore snow and icescapes in all their different facets, from avalanches in the Alps to the ablation zone of melting glaciers.

Rosie Snell completed her Masters in Norwich in 1995. She has since had major shows in London, Milan, Norwich and Berwick. Her work is featured in many collections and publications. She is a Senior Lecture at Bath Spa University.

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

Jason File is an artist, university lecturer in Fine Art, and United Nations War Crimes Prosecutor. Amongst other things, his multimedia art practice investigates the use of law as an artistic medium, and overlaps with the fields of history, politics, human rights and armed conflict. He is currently examining institutional contexts where the language and forms of drawing, print, sculpture, performance and videography are expressed for alternate purposes, such as testimony, evidence, mapping, economic exchange and the exercise of political power.

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

Shirley has a profound interest in the figurative. She is from an illustrative background and takes inspiration from many sources (film, theatre, the written word…) but is essentially drawn to subjects that contemplate the absurd and delve into the nature of the mind. Her work revolves around drawing, painting and 3 dimensional pieces with the mood and dramatic effect being of equal significance across them all.

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

Laurence Antony is a visual artist from Montreal. His artistic practice draws inspiration from new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing and artificial intelligence. His view, however, is that of a classical artist as he frames these subjects through baroque and realist painting techniques, using oil paint and drawing mediums. He therefore depicts the questions surrounding technological advances from an outsider’s perspective, but with an insider’s knowledge of the field through his work in the tech industry. Although the social impacts of 21st century technologies are Laurence’s main subject, his work can also be considered as an artistic record of their evolution and of our time.

Top tip for those entering the Prize this year: ‘I think a good tip is to challenge yourself. Some artists may already have had their pieces ready to submit, but I made mine at a time when I was abroad and had limited space to work in the way that I am used to. So I took the initiative and made it my goal to apply to the Derwent Art Prize without any expectations of the outcome.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

Mayumi Yamakawa started her professional career as a graduate fashion designer before she entered the art world as a painter and graphic artist. Mayumi favours ‘sumi-e’, a form of Japanese ink wash painting in which she has developed her own modern, abstract style, blending the Japanese art tradition with the European sense of art. Of her sumi-e works, Mayumi says that they ‘reflect the Japanese phrase “a white horse on a white background”, meaning that what you see exists more in imagination than in reality – less is more.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

‘I am a Berlin-based artist who studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art, as well as at Kyoto City University of Arts, Japan.

I am driven by process, experimentation and innovation – I use whatever mediums or materials that come to hand. I like a challenge, so if something is difficult I am drawn to it. I work with sculpture, photography, drawing, printmaking, tattooing, yoga and live art. I am interested in the basic principles of mark-making and how we humans continually develop creative ways of capturing, exploring and redefining the world around us.’

Top tip for those entering the Prize this year: ‘Trust your instincts. When an image is really working you know – you get an excited feeling in your stomach.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

‘I am a visual artist based in Leith, Edinburgh. Working in a variety of mediums, all my work begins with observational drawings from life…I am currently exploring printmaking and using this to find ways to expand my drawing vocabulary. Currently, my work is concerned with thresholds, boundaries and in-between places, in particular the way in which nature fills the gaps and patches up what is overlooked within urban environments.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

‘To create you need to have an open mind, a wild spirit – be able to let things flow with no frames, no limitations.’

Antoon began his artistic career in theatre and television where he worked on various set designs. Keen to consolidate his learning, he went on to study Arts at Rietveld Academy (Amsterdam), before leaving the Netherlands to travel the world, experience different cultures and religions and allow them to inspire his practice. Today, Antoon’s practice involves ‘transcribing dreams onto canvas and paper’, creating ‘camouflaged compositions of my world’ that are distinguished by their fearless use of bright colour.

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

Anja Sušanj is an illustrator originally from Croatia. She now lives and works in London where she recently graduated with an MA in Illustration from the University of the Arts London. With a love of books and the written word, she is mostly interested in editorial, conceptual and narrative illustration. Often tackling the whimsical and peculiar, she tends to combine odd elements to create unique compositions. She loves stories of old and often illustrates Slavic myths and legends as well as anything that revolves around Nature, as it is both one of her main artistic inspirations as well as her go-to place for some much needed ‘soul feeding’ relaxation.

Top tip for those entering the Prize this year: ‘I honestly didn’t think about what I should do, but rather what I wanted to show; I thought the work chosen needed to be mature pencil work, but not necessarily any particular style because one can approach pencil in so many different ways while still creating a concise and developed piece.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

‘Methods of researching, disseminating and re-purposing knowledge lie at the heart of my practice, the content of my projects being informed by interdisciplinary dialogue charged by socio-political concerns.

My output includes drawing, painting, film, floor and furniture design, and a technique I developed involving engraving directly into gesso panels, then applying oil paint in order to reveal the composition. The surfaces of the panels bear many different marks: the traces of sanding, carefully etched lines, deeper gouges and painterly interventions. The conventional technique of printmaking is flipped, as the image bearer refuses to yield any copies of itself.

As information passes through a liminal space, it is subject to mistranslation, misinterpretation and manipulation. The fundamental intention of my practice is to explore the malleable nature of truth in the early years of the digital age, and what role or responsibility artists have in searching for or representing the idea of “truth”.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

‘Through my art I have always attempted to comprehend the essence of being human. I appropriate subtle gestures and body shapes to interpret certain topics – relationships, independence, eternity, faith… By creating artwork, I explore the private part of the soul.  The individuality of each human being is the most beautiful and unique part of being human.’

Top tip for those entering the Prize this year: ‘Be yourself.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

‘As an artist my practice is all about squeezing it into the gaps. What I mean by this is that I work pretty much full time for other more successful artists and galleries and have two young children, so my “practice” has to fit into that. I have no set studio, I have a desk at home and when I work overseas I have a hotel room. I have a computer and an A3 & A4 sketchbook. My text drawings can be created in a nice hotel room when I’m away and no kids will come and ruin them! That’s me.’

Top tip for those entering the Prize this year:  ‘My top tip is just to try, that’s all I have ever done. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but you will never know unless you try.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

Following the launch of the fourth instalment of the Derwent Art Prize in November 2017, Derwent – internationally renowned fine art brand – are pleased to announce details of this year’s selectors.

 The Derwent Art Prize aims to reward excellence by showcasing the very best 2D & 3D artworks created with any pencil or coloured pencil as well as water soluble, pastel, graphite and charcoal by British and International artists. The 2018 selection panel is comprised of Gill Saunders, senior curator, V & A, Chris Sharratt, Frieze contributor and editor of the a-n news website, and Clare Woods, internationally renowned artist. 

Gill Saunders is Senior Curator of Prints at the Victoria & Albert Museum, in the Word & Image Department (WID), which is responsible for the Museum’s collections of prints, drawings, paintings, photographs, designs, digital art, books and archives, including eight of the V&A’s eighteen national collections.  Gill specialises in 20th century and contemporary prints and drawings and her publications include Prints Now (2006); Walls are Talking (2010); Recording Britain (2011); In Black and White: prints from Africa and the Diaspora (2013) and Vintage Travel Posters: Journeys to the Sea (2018).  Gill teaches, lectures and broadcasts regularly.

Chris Sharratt is a freelance arts writer and editor based in Glasgow. A contributor to Frieze and Art & Education, he is also editor of the a-n News website. With over twenty years of journalistic experience, he has written for a variety of publications including The Guardian, The Sunday Times, New Statesman,The Face and Manchester Evening News. Formerly executive arts editor at Metro and editor of City Life, from 2012-14 he was a producer for Sync, a progressive technology programme for the Arts in Scotland.

 Clare Woods is a painter who is essentially concerned with sculpting an image in paint and expressing the strangeness of an object. Originally trained as a sculptor, much of Woods’ work is an exploration of physical form. This understanding of sculptural language and a preoccupation with forms in space, translated into two-dimensional images, underpins her pictorial practice. In much of her previous work, Woods’ concern with landscape has been paramount. However, since 2011 her images have been increasingly preoccupied with conveying the human form. Clare holds a BA in Fine Art from Bath College of Art and an MA in the same from Goldsmith’s College, London. Her recent shows includeLady Midnight at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; The Drama Triangle at Martin Asbaek Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark; and Victim of Geography at Dundee Contemporary Arts. She is currently exhibiting Reality Dimmed at Mead Gallery, Warwick; History in the Making at Alan Cristea Gallery, London; and Rehumanising at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong.

The deadline for entries is 5pm on Tuesday 8 May.  To enter, scroll to the top of this page and click on ‘ENTER AWARD’.

Image: Clare Woods in her studio. Courtesy: the artist

‘Being both an oil painter and etcher I draw a lot. Drawing is the essence of all imagery: it activates the gateway to a free-flow of imagination where things darkly sensed have to find their own, often unexpected language. Recently I have been making pencil drawings on gesso board with washes. My main subject matter concerns what lies beneath the shiny veneer of civilization that allows people to go about their business without thinking about or questioning the horrors that lie a step or two away from the lives that most of us live. For me, an artist’s responsibility is to make people think and reflect.’

Top tip for those entering the Prize this year: ‘Never make a drawing for any other reason than for the adventure of it.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

KV Duong is a London-based abstract painter and action artist. His work focuses on personal identity, sexuality and human relationships. He draws from personal experiences growing up in Saigon, Toronto and London where he experienced both the integration and conflict of Eastern and Western cultures and values. Drawing on a background in structural engineering, KV constructs layers of paint, paper and mixed media to investigate texture, form and materiality. In his body paintings, he further extends self and emotional expression by embodying the physicality of space and movement through the use of monochromatic acrylic paint, exploring the intimacy and interaction of skin, canvas and paint.

Top tip for those entering the Prize this year: ‘Have the courage to experiment and break free from the norm.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

Mirry’s love of narrative remains at the heart of all the projects she undertakes. Based in London, her work has evolved in various forms comprising 8mm film, animated theatre, drawing, printmaking and large-scale light, sound and time-based installations. Mirry has worked as an illustrator for Tate, been selected as Artist in Residence at The Arts Depot Gallery, London, directed animated theatre and films for Les Marionettes Festival, Paris, and choreographed performance art shows alongside Marvin Gaye Chetwynd at The Royal Academy of Arts. In 2016 she graduated from The Royal College of Art with a Masters in Visual Communication. Undoubtedly, all these endeavours have worked their influence on the artist Mirry is today.

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

‘I have worked in both the fine art and design fields and have lectured in many London art schools. The Derwent Art Prize is a unique event in the art calendar as it covers a tremendous breadth within the field of drawing practice by displaying work ranging from narrative illustrative work to fine art works. My current work explores inner space – the subjective side of memory – using the physical act of painting and drawing to reconstitute a memory. Within that process of rendering and remembering the memory becomes modified, romanticised and probably idealised into an archetype of a person or place or both. I try to avoid limiting interpretation by using words to describe what I paint or draw: ultimately you just need to look and reflect. Just as when you stare at a flower you don’t question what it is about; it just simply “is” and it seduces you into your own floral memoirs. I guess I‘ve made a display of dried flowers that hint at symbolic archetypes, twisted and rooted in the meanders of some romantic past. I try to make “beautiful”, open, poetic things that are evocative of person and place, with the intention of being sincere and romantic, to the point of embarrassment beyond words.’

Top tip for those entering the Prize this year: ‘You can draw a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead… Be original.’

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.

Ana is an Assistant Professor at the Academy of Arts, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia. She has shown work in numerous exhibitions – both solo and group – in Europe and further afield, and has won several awards for her work. She has also given several public lectures and run several workshops at a range of cultural institutions, museums and galleries. Combining traditional with modern media, Ana uses optics, light, raster, mechanics or heat to create her work, often using drawing and printing techniques in interaction with video and performance.

The Derwent Art Prize 2018 is now open for entries. Select ‘ONLINE ENTRY’ at the top of this page to begin your application.