Sovereign Art finalists enjoy a brush with visiting artist
FINALISTS for the Sovereign Art Foundation Student Prize were inspired by Russian artist Dimitri Permiakov yesterday during his visit to the island.
Each year, Art for Guernsey brings over an artist for the summer and puts on an exhibition of some of their work from home and pieces they created in Guernsey.
Founder of Art for Guernsey David Ummels said: ‘The most rewarding thing is seeing Dimitri and the other artists we have had over in previous years inspire the children and motivate them to express themselves differently in art.’
Art for Guernsey teamed up with the Sovereign Art Foundation to give two finalists of the 15-18 year-old category the chance to win an all-expenses-paid two-week scholarship at the Royal Drawing School in London.
Mr Ummels said: ‘We are adding value to what [the Sovereign Art Foundation] has already created in their talented students.
‘All of the finalists here have taken something valuable away from this but the two winners which Dimitri selects will have an amazing experience at the Royal Drawing School.’
Mr Permiakov said: ‘When I was in the early stages of studying art I was made to do 100 pencil drawings per week and I have studied art almost all my life.
‘I wanted this experience to be about learning, the final result does not matter. I want the students to be free with their work, experiment, have fun, be naughty and feel a sense of freedom from the final painting.’
Each of the students were able to add to the oil painting Mr Permiakov was doing to teach them to paint with freedom and not be consumed by what the final piece looked like.
He added: ‘It doesn’t matter if we throw this away afterwards, as long as you try to express something different on the paper.’
One of the finalists, 16-year-old Jana Shrigley, said: ‘Dimitri taught me to be more free with my brush strokes and use more paint and more colours in my work.’
Elizabeth Grafton from the Sovereign Art Foundation said over 70 had entered the competition and artists and art collectors selected 20 finalists aged 15-18.
‘There was an amazingly strong standard and all the finalists have had a prize today in being here with Dimitri,’ she said.
Molly Le Pavoux, 15, said: ‘I have learnt to be more daring with colours and how I place them.’
A free exhibition of Mr Permiakov’s work runs until Saturday in the Inner Market.
Much of the work in the exhibition has been sold but is still on display. A portion of profits from the sales go to the artist and the rest – which goes to Art for Guernsey – is reinvested into the community and donated to local charities.
