At the end of the summer term, the winners of the annual Trinity Open Art Awards were exhibited in the Shaw Gallery.
The art competition is open to the whole Trinity community, and encourages students, staff and family to freely create a piece of work – with no set theme or medium enforced.
The result was an inspiring range of pieces including quilts, ceramics and pencil drawings as well as collages, papier-mâché and crochet!
The overall winner of the competition, for the second year in a row, was Third Year Art Scholar Jamie who entered a striking pencil drawn self-portrait, exploring the theme of anxiety around exams. Read more about his piece below.
Congratulations also to the family winners: Violet Lumb with a collage entitled ‘Death by Vanity’, Ryan Pink’s ‘Octopus’ painting, and Isaac Wibberley’s ‘Bello’.
The Lower School winner was First Year Jacob and his brother Fifth Year Thomas was the Middle School winner.
Mr Hutchings, Head of History and Politics, was this year’s staff winner for his large applique quilt and papier-mâché heads.
Jamie said, “Although I’d started this piece earlier in the year, I scrapped it as it had no message or representation. We then started doing portraiture in Art, so I used the reference photo I’d taken earlier to try again. During this time, it was End of Year exams, and there was a lot of self-pressure and anxiety, so I decided to incorporate that theme into my art.
“The hands represent your own worry and anxiety, the darkness represents the unknown of the exams and your results, and the entire piece showcases the state that your brain undergoes in stressful situations. The artwork is intended to shed a light on how dangerous stress and pressure can be.
“I generally enjoy portraiture as it does not always require deeper meaning or complex themes; when time is spent on it and when you get it right, portraits can capture the essence of a person and their emotions, or they can remind you of someone. Most of my portraits are of people that I admire, David Attenborough for example.
“It feels incredible to have won this year and I’m really thankful to the art department for all the help they provided. I hope that this inspires other students to participate in the open art contest.”
Ms Stevens‑Lewis, the head judge for the Open Art Awards, said, “Thank you for all the fantastic entries we received, the standard of work was incredible. It was lovely to receive quality entries from the whole family – from parents and younger siblings – it made the judging very enjoyable.”
Well done to everyone who took part.
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