Artists & Illustrators Art Student 2017

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ART STUDENT The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd. Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place London SW3 3TQ Telephone: (020) 7349 3700 www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk

contents SHOULD YOU WORK AS AN ARTIST’S ASSISTANT?

EDITORIAL Editor Sally Hales Art Editor Alicia Fernandes Digital Editor Natalie Milner

F R E EE M AG AZ

BOOST YOUR PROFILE ONLINE & SELL YOUR ART

5 Autumn showcase Be inspired by the best exhibitions

FIVE STEPS TO ATTRACT GALLERY INTEREST

Art Student

10 The world’s biggest art dealer How to get the best from Instagram

IN

14 Back to college The products you need for the new term

WITH THANKS TO Estelle Lovatt, Rosalind Ormiston, Louise Hagger, Hannah Ivory Baker, Tom Dunkley, Anya Rice, Alice Wright, Jayde Perkin, Sonny Ross

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16 Art in the open air o y ay on ho to set u outdoors

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

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18 Ways of seeing Mark Bradford on a great artwork

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20 The 21st-century artist’s assistant he enefits of or ing hile studying

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Cover photo: Louise Hagger. Products provided by GreatArt .

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23 Winner’s game The top art competitions for students 25 The best new books 5 great reads to inspire any art student

Art Student is published by the makers of Artists & Illustrators (ISSN 0269-4697), which is published every four weeks.

We cannot accept responsibility for loss of, or damage to, unsolicited material. We reserve the right to refuse or suspend advertisements, and regret we cannot guarantee the ona fides of ad ertisers. eaders should note that statements by contributors are not always representative of the publisher’s or editor’s opinion.

29 How to approach a gallery Top tips to win representation 30 The last word areer ad ice from amie outley

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Leighton House Museum

Leighton House Museum is the former home and studio of the leading Victorian artist, Frederic, Lord Leighton.

It is unique among the capital’s museums in combining an exceptional collection of Victorian art with the intimacy of a private home.

12 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, LONDON W14 8LZ £9 | £7; CLOSED TUESDAYS www.leightonhouse.co.uk

VISIT LEIGHTON’S ‘PRIVATE PALACE OF ART’ AND JOIN OUR EXCITING SERIES OF PUBLIC EVENTS INCLUDING:

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exhibitions

blockbuster SHOWS

Be inspired by our pick of the best gallery displays this year

From the creators of Artists & Illustrators_ArtStudent 5

ARTIST ROOMS TATE AND NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND. LENT BY PRIVATE COLLECTION, COURTESY OF THE ROY LICHTENSTEIN FOUNDATION 2015 © ESTATE OF ROY LICHTENSTEIN/DACS 2017

Howard Hodgkin: India on Paper 14 October 2017 to 7 January 2018, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath Esteemed British painter and printmaker, and Turner Prize inner o ard odg in first visited India in 1964 and returned almost every year, creating pictures rich in tone and colour.

Never intended as a memorial display, this show nevertheless shortly follows Hodgkin’s death in arch and is a fitting homage to a country he loved.

View personal, Indian-themed works on paper; see processes involving vegetable dyes on handmade Khadi paper, bought from the Gandhi paper mill across from where he worked; as well as a selection of gouache paintings, editioned prints and hand-coloured impressions created across half a century. www.victoriagal.org.uk

ABOVE Howard Hodgkin, Indian Tree, 1990-1, hand-coloured etching with carborundum from aluminium plate, 92x121cm RIGHT Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel, 6th version 1964, bicycle wheel mounted on painted wooden stool, 126x64x31.5cm BELOW Roy Lichtenstein, Reflections: Art, 1988, oil and acrylic on canvas, 112.4x193.7cm

PHOTO © OTTAWA, NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA / © SUCCESSION MARCEL DUCHAMP/ADAGP, PARIS AND DACS, LONDON 2017

Artist Rooms: Roy Lichtenstein in Focus 22 September 2017 to 17 June 2018, Tate Liverpool A pioneer of the 1960s’ pop art movement, Roy Lichtenstein is best known for his paintings based on comic strips and advertising.

By way of documentation and parody, Lichtenstein aimed to recreate in aint the sim lified printed imagery found in romance and war comics, and so turned to a printing technique that mimics the Ben-Day dots seen in comic books and commercial newsprint.

This display will focus on a key body of work, featuring painting, sculpture and video. www.tate.org.uk/liverpool

© HOWARD HODGKIN

Basquiat: Boom for Real 21 September 2017 to 28 January 2018, Barbican, London ean- ichel as uiat first came to the media’s attention in 1978, when he teamed up with a classmate to gra ti enigmatic statements across New York. By 1982, he had become one of the most celebrated artists of his generation. See more than 100 dynamic works focusing on the artist’s relationship to music, riting erformance film and tele ision in the first large-scale UK exhibition of his work. www.barbican.org.uk

PREVIOUS PAGE Jean-Michel Basquiat, Self Portrait, 1984, acrylic and oilstick on paper mounted on canvas, 100x70cm

DON’T MISS!

Dalí / Duchamp 7 October 2017 to 3 January 2018, Royal Academy of Arts, London This show unites two of the 20th century’s most famous artists in dialogue. Although at odds in style, Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dalí shared attitudes to both life and art.

Taking their friendship as a starting point, this exhibition will demonstrate their aesthetic, philosophical and personal connections through more than 80 paintings, drawings, sculptures, readymades’ hotogra hs film and archival material.

Divided into three sections, explore ‘Identities’, ‘The Body and the Object’ and ‘Experimenting with Reality’. www.royalacademy.org.uk >

From the creators of Artists & Illustrators_ArtStudent 7

EXHIBITIONS

LEFT Paula Rego, Hey Diddle Diddle, etching with aquatint, cm BELOW Modigliani, Jeanne Hébuterne, 1919, oil on can as . cm

DON’ T MISS !

Jasper Johns: ‘Something Resembling Truth’ 23 September to 10 December 2017, Royal Academy of Arts, London anning si decades this as er ohns sho at the oyal cademy is the first com rehensi e sur ey of the merican artist’s or in the UK for 40 years. ince his first solo e hi ition in New York in 1958, Johns has held a central osition in merican art using accessi le and familiar motifs ith ease to create a ne oca ulary in ainting.

Explore 150 paintings, drawings, rints and scul tures that demonstrate curiosity and experimentation, from his use of o ects to a stract atterns and themes of memory and sexuality. www.royalacademy.org.uk

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK

© THE ARTIST. COURTESY MARLBOROUGH FINE ART

Paula Rego: The Boy Who Loved the Sea and Other Stories 21 October 2017 to 7 January 2018, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings Internationally renowned artist Paula Rego has a new tale to tell in her latest ody of self-re ecti e paintings, drawings and scul tures ins ired y lia Correia’s 2005 folk tale The Boy Who Loved the Sea. ith dra ing ey to her rocess she used family and friends as models for characters as ell as mani ins or dollies’ hich ring a new quality to her work. n anuary ego suffered a fall out of hich came a series of fi e stri ing self- ortraits. lus The Depression Series re eals thera eutic astel dra ings ne er intended for exhibition. www.jerwoodgallery.org

Cézanne Portraits 26 October 2017 to 11 February 2018, National Portrait Gallery, London oth atisse and icasso called zanne the father of us all . is method of building form with colour and his analytical a roach to nature in uenced the u ists au ists and a ant-garde artists.

But he was also a dab hand at ainting eo le com leting almost ortraits including of himself and 29 of his wife.

See 50 of these likenesses and trac the de elo ment of the rench ainter’s ortraiture as he experimented with new styles and methods in a quest to understand resem lance and identity. www.npg.org.uk Modigliani 23 November 2017 to 2 April 2018, Tate Modern, London In 1917, Modigliani’s only solo e hi ition as censored y the olice on the grounds of indecency. his ne sho rings together the largest group of his nudes e er sho n in this country to re-e aluate ho they modernised figurati e ainting among almost or s including ortraits and scul tures. he artist ushed the boundaries of art during his time and his career as one of continual e olution. www.tate.org.uk

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Instagram

The world’s biggest art dealer The social media platform is now the most important online space for artists and art buyers alike.

Estelle Lovatt looks at how to make it work for your art. Illustrations: Jayde Perkin

t doesn’t matter here you uy art talent is talent ut nstagram offers great e osure fast. rt collectors see it as a uni ue ay to uy art directly from artists. o do olly ood stars eonardo i a rio sa an art or from oulsen a o enhagen- ased allery at ulse air on nstagram and ought it o er the hone. ome artists ma e nstagram or commercially y connecting ith other artists in a rofessional usiness-li e manner li ing each others’ or commenting and uilding relationshi s. his ta es time and effort and it should e included in your studio ractice. usan umford founder of e mart out rt and the ssociation of omen rt ealers says nstagram is still cited y industry rofessionals as the num er one social media latform for the art orld. ha e come across real-life stories of artists ho ha e attained re resentation y galleries and artists and dealers ho ha e sold ieces to ne and e isting clients. a ing an acti e role is aramount. nstagram esmarta outart and omenartdealers

I

Curated content a e nstagram interesting y ee ing it highly curated so you re resent yourself in the est ay. ost only high- uality images that sho your or -in- rogress and

final images your ision rand’ ins iration and studio shots. hotogra her and isual artist ristina che notes n today’s orld an artist not only needs to create art ut focus on romoting their art. y nstagram account is a mi of the many hats ear a lend of fine-art hotogra hy commercial hotogra hy oo s and magazine co er illustrations short films and e site design. y curating such a ide ariety of my or and s ills get the ord out and ha e had commissions coming ia nstagram. t’s good romotion. ross- romotion et een fello artists is also ery hel ful and can e entually lead to o ortunities other ise una aila le in traditional net or ing settings. nstagram cristinasche

On brand ainter and art school director aul egan says he osts on nstagram to let eo le no ’m still ainting this is im ortant for me as many eo le only see me ith my director of nsight chool of rt’ hat on. e adds share my methods and rocesses and here my ins iration comes from as a ay of chec ing-in ith my ractice. ost art-related things that interest me hich reinforces my rand’. also use nstagram to chec in ith artists and galleries.

10 ArtStudent_From the creators of Artists & Illustrators

ou learn a lot y seeing hat others are doing. nd it moti ates you to ma e and sho or . find aintings that get the most li es are the same ones eo le li e hen they see them for real so it’s a good ay to measure the success of your or . nstagram aulregan

Exposure nstagram is essential for getting e osure and sales and uilding a >

“Instagram is still cited by industry professionals as the number one social media platform for the art world�

From the creators of Artists & Illustrators_ArtStudent 11

INSTAGRAM

career, but it’s also important to art uyers ho use it to find the ne t big artist – before they cause a sensation. It allows artists to build relationships with buyers because it is simple, direct and can translate instantaneously in to sales.

Or not. Yes, Instagram is a wonderful platform for artists to sell art but it’s not guaranteed.

Mixed-media artist Ash Naghouni says: “I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s an absolute must, but the use of social media goes a long way to directly connecting artists with their audience outside the gallery

space and exhibitions. And I use it to announce upcoming events and communicate the process by which my work is done.”

(Instagram @afshinnaghouni)

Digital journal Instagram is visual. It works well for reticent artists who hate ‘art speak’ and explaining their work. Artist and communications consultant Fiona Wilson says: “As an image-led social network, Instagram is the obvious choice for artists. It doesn’t generate the same le els of e site tra c as other networks but, as a standalone community, it has proved a powerful tool for sales and commissions. I use Instagram as a digital journal – allowing me to create a visual snapshot of my progression as an artist. It enables me to be judged on my work and processes, not my personal background situation. It’s also a place I view and appreciate others’ work, learn and draw inspiration from, and connect with a diverse community.” nstagram fi ils

Self-promotion Abstract painter Julie D Cooper adds: “Instagram is an excellent platform to promote artwork. I post images twice a week, usually late afternoon, to reach a wider audience. I always frame my work with the use of an app. This provides an understanding of composition and workings of colour integral to my abstract

practice. I also include information of size and medium. Plus I pay attention to hashtags, which need to be consistent. This ensures I have interested followers.”

(Instagram @juliedcooper) Some might say buyers aren’t going to as many small or midsize galleries but instead shop on Instagram. In America, Daniel Rolnik, aka ‘the world’s most adorable art critic’, says: “Instagram has created a dichotomy between the famous artist and the successful artist.

Having 100,000-plus fans doesn’t necessarily translate into sales. But it makes the gallery less relevant to a younger consumer who can be directly targeted by an artist based on their ‘likes’. For art buyers, Instagram is epic because they can DM the artist directly and commission something for less than would’ve been possible through a gallery. They can also search hashtags of artists they like and DM other collectors to acquire works without a middleman.”

(Instagram @danielrolnik) So Instagram isn’t just a place for selfies. nd you don’t ha e to e a starving artist battling with elite art dealers. I think Van Gogh would have sold more than the one painting during his lifetime if only he’d had an Instagram account. as Estelle Lovatt is an art critic and lecturer. Instagram: @estellelovatt

“It makes the gallery less relevant to younger consumers who can be directly targeted by an artist based on their likes” 12 ArtStudent

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Total prize pot value of over £6,000 including books from Batsford Theme: Craving Colour Open to undergraduate & postgraduate students Deadline for submissions 26th March 2018 For more information about Batsford and how to enter, visit:

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The Columbia Threadneedle Prize The Pastel Society Royal Society of British Artists The Rome Scholarship Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Royal Society of Portrait Painters New English Art Club Royal Society of Marine Artists Society of Wildlife Artists Royal Institute of Oil Painters

Call for Entries Exhibitions, Awards, Prizes and Bursaries

For information and inspiration visit:

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GreatArt’s vast online and in-store range has everything you’ll need. Photos: Tom Dunkley

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT reat rt’s art su erstore in horeditch ondon is a great lace to re lenish su lies and hang out

Whatever kind of art you make, it all starts with the right materials and finding the roducts you need at a great rice is one of the first hurdles you’ll face as a student. reat rt has the ’s largest catalogue of uality fine art materials ith a range of roducts. rom ainting framing a er gra hic arts rintma ing ceramics scul ture and more its online store has the art orld’s fa orite rands letting you access the idest range at the est rices in one sim le ste .

14 ArtStudent_From the creators of Artists & Illustrators

f you need ad ice and ins iration or ust ant to ro se efore you uy head to reat rt’s agshi art su erstore in ondon’s horeditch. ere you can access the full online range with its in-store Click & ollect ser ice as ell as en oy its comforta le seating area ith com limentary tea or coffee hile feeling art of the city’s li ely art community. ou can even leave your mark in their customer Doodle Area.

I LOVE ART his year reat rt’s o n o e rt rand hich offers high- uality materials at a great rice is adding ne roducts to hel you get ac to school in style. hese essentials might e ust hat you need to ta e the ne t im ortant ste ith your art. www.greatart.co.uk

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: I LOVE ART TEAR-OFF PAPER PALETTE Available in two sizes and suitable for acrylic and oil, from £3.95 / I LOVE ART SOFT COVER DRAWING BOOKS Convenient for travelling, from £0.70 / I LOVE ART WATERCOLOUR SET Includes 24 pans, a watercolour brush and filla le reser oir brush, £12.50 / I LOVE ART MIXED MEDIA PADS Ideal for combining wet and dry techniques, from £4.50 for an A4 pad. www.greatart.co.uk

Competition

WIN £200 of Great Art vouchers The new term can be an expensive time. To get you started on your art in style, GreatArt is offering two lucky students the chance to win £200 worth of gift vouchers which can be spent online or in store. Selected at random, our rst prize winner will recei e a £150 oucher, while our second prize winner will get a £50 voucher.

HOW TO ENTER Enter online at www.artistsand illustrators.co.uk competitions by noon on 6 October 2017. Alternatively, ll in the form and return it to ART STUDENT COMPETITION, Artists &

Illustrators, Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd., Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ. TERMS & CONDITIONS Prize ouchers are only redeemable against merchandise in GreatArt stores or at www.greatart.co.uk. Cannot be exchanged for cash or used to buy gift vouchers. Full terms are provided on the back of the prize oucher and all sales subject to GreatArt’s terms and conditions, available in-store or online at www.greatart.co.uk. For full terms and conditions visit www. chelseamagazines.com terms

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Telephone Please tick here if you subscribe to Artists & Illustrators Please tick here if you like to be contacted by GreatArt The closing date for all entries is noon on 6 October 2017.

From the creators of Artists & Illustrators_ArtStudent 15

art in the open

Life’s a beach With studio space at a premium, it pays to think outside the box. Artist Toby Ray explains how he turned a hut on the Cornish coast into a studio and gallery.

Interview: Alice Wright. Photos: Anya Rice

How did your studio come about?

I came to Treyarnon Bay for a walk in 2015 and saw this old ice-cream hut.

It’s owned by the youth hostel next door so I spoke to the manager about it and he asked if I wanted to use it. I got it open for February half-term 2016 and was given a test run until Easter. It went well, so we worked out a deal. I give a percentage of takings to Breaks for Kids, a charitable fund run by YHA to hel children from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. I’ve renovated the hut, which is now known

Art Shack has allowed me to paint more and I can make money at the same time round it gets darker. You notice all these changes in colour throughout the day. And that works in my favour when painting back at home.

as the Art Shack. It is rustic and beaten down, and it keeps needing new paint jobs because it’s open to the elements.

You also have a studio in your garden t ome t re t e benefits of working at the Art Shack?

It’s allowed me to paint more and, because I’m here and everything’s on show, I can make money at the same time as being productive. And if no one’s here to buy, it doesn’t matter because I’m still doing what I’d be doing at home in my garden studio.

What’s it like painting from the same spot so often?

It becomes familiar. You get to know each different roc you no hich bit of shadow is going to be where at each time of day. The sea colour changes dramatically, too. In the early morning it’s a tur uoise lue li e crystal, and then as the sun moves

Treyarnon Bay is a tourist hotspot. Do you enjoy having so much interaction with customers and passers-by?

It’s great. There are kids everywhere so they ask to see what I’m painting and then their parents come over and have a loo too. don’t start off thin ing about selling work but I the conversation gets around to that. You get surprises. People you think are the least prepared to spend money will suddenly buy something. There’s a real cross section of people. You have wealthier people with holiday homes here who come down for a couple of weeks a year. And then you’ve got people camping in tents who don’t have much of a budget and might buy a couple of cards.

You’re also a keen surfer. How has that inspired your work?

I see a lot of paintings involving the sea and waves that are more of a romantic ie . hey’re uite stylised.

But, for me, the form of the waves, and the colours in them, is important. They have to be just right. I take my camera out with me when I surf and hang it in a waterproof case around my neck.

Last year it was my main tool for a series of paintings I did on maps, which were painted from sea level.

My seascapes from land are more commercial, and I like doing them, but the ones from the sea are much more personal. I can remember each moment of that particular surf session.

The paintings are more exciting too – as soon as they drop down into the waves I’m using more impressionistic paint marks.

Your work is quite eclectic, spanning traditional seascapes and mixed-media paintings using old maps and shipping charts to paintings on salvaged wood.

I’ve never settled down. I’ve concentrated on maybe one or two mediums but then I will always get distracted. I like painting in thick oils with a palette knife and that tends to bring me good results as the medium fits the coastline. t’s uite rugged.

What I love is a fusion of paint with bits of collage and silk-screening – a mishmash of ways of making art. That’s interesting to me. It’s probably the direction my work will go but, at the moment, I’m concentrating on the paintings on maps and charts.

See more of Toby’s art at www.tobyray.co.uk as > From the creators of Artists & Illustrators_ArtStudent 17

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND HAUSER & WIRTH JACKIE NEALE/ MARK BRADFORD IMAGE: KATHRYN HURNI © THE MET

In focus

Ways of seeing

GIFT OF MRS CLYFFORD STILL © 2017 CITY & COUNTY OF DENVER. COURTESY CLYFFORD STILL MUSEUM/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK

Mark Bradford looks at Clyfford Still’s ‘Untitled’, to reveal what artists see when they look at art...

CLYFFORD STILL, UNTITLED, 1950 Oil on canvas, 284x430cm Interlocking areas of colour are juxtaposed rather than overlapped and paint is rigorously applied with a palette knife wielded with what Still described as “tense slashes and a few thrusts”. Eliminating representational imagery and any sense of illusionistic space, he concentrated on physical aspects of paint. Underlying rhythms permeate his compositions, creating what he called a “living spirit”.

18 ArtStudent_From the creators of Artists & Illustrators

LEFT TO RIGHT Mark Bradford; the artist’s Crack Between the Floorboards, mixed-media collage on canvas, 335x305cm

“To use the whole social fabric of our society as a point of departure for abstraction reanimates it, dusts it off”

Being an abstract painter, I am fascinated by that moment in s e or hen stract ressionism egan. lyfford Still pushes back against intimacy. It’s big. It’s not easel painting that was containable and something you snuggle up around and get cosy with. When I see a mark that’s being repeated almost obsessively I ask myself, what is he trying to get to?

There’s a conversation that he’s having with that surface and with himself, and probably with art history and his peers. He’s leaving little markers, guideposts, for us. As an abstract painter, I do the same thing: I leave bits of the conversation.

The canvas itself almost becomes a colour, a pigment. It doesn’t feel as if it’s just a background. There’s an agitation at the edges, and it feels as if the whole surface was torn away. You can tell Still used a palette knife and he laboured.

I’m amazed at how he’s able to control the temperature emotionally. It doesn’t look like madness.

Still ground his pigments, determining the vibrancy, hue and texture. He was able to take a colour that’s loaded and hot and reduce it do n. hat find fascinating is his use of blacks. Black was his favourite colour. In the 1950s!

He is like, “I’m a 1950s white male and black is not terrifying, and I’m going to use it constantly. And I’m gonna talk about the colour.” You don’t know if he was being political. But, at the same time modernism and the civil rights movement were going on, how can you separate that from the baggage?

The artist taking responsibility and control over his own destiny is something I respect, but you know there’s always going to be slippage. As a 21st-century African American artist, when I look back at Abstract Expressionism, I get the politics, I get the problems, I get the theories, I can read his manifestos; but I think there are other ways of looking through abstraction. To use the social fabric of our society as a point of departure for abstraction reanimates it dusts it off. ust find that chilling and amazing.

This is an edited extract from The Artist Project: What Artists See When They Look at Art, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, published by Phaidon, £49.95. www.phaidon.com as

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work

Does helping out pay off?

The role of the assistant is rapidly changing. Rosalind Ormiston explores the positives and negatives of offering your services to a working artist in a 21st-century studio

nderta ing a fine arts degree brings with it practical opportunities to spend time in a professional studio, working as an assistant. Some students prefer to wait until they have graduated; others plunge in during their degree for the work experience.

The Chapman Brothers worked as

U

assistants to Gilbert and George.

In an interview, they recalled that it involved colouring in prints and menial jobs, but no engagement in artistic input.

Some artists, such as David Hockney, involve a team of assistants, and jobs include driving to locations, setting up, preparing materials, but Hockney creates all the artworks. He famously put a

sign next to his works in an exhibition saying, “All the works here were made by the artist himself, personally” to make the oint that he didn’t ass off assistants’ work as his own. Other artists involve assistants in the creation and development of a work but without recognition, which mirrors the Renaissance masters’ studios where assistants produced works that carried the signature of the workshop master.

The kudos of working for a well-known artist can block out negatives and bring rewards later, but what is the value of being an assistant?

Talking to former assistants, reasons ranged from studio experience and a salary, to increased knowledge and use of a studio for projects.

Sculptor James Napier studied at Charles H Cecil Studio in Florence.

After graduating, he worked as assistant to sculptor Nic FiddianGreen. The world-renowned sculptor is known for monumental sculptures of horses, which grace squares and piazzas across the world, including London’s Marble Arch. James laughs, recalling the

20 ArtStudent_From the creators of Artists & Illustrators

The kudos of working with a well-known artist can block out the negatives and bring rewards later on experience. “I was a dogsbody mainly,” he says. It was partly financial ut also to gain studio experience. “It was just doing any kind of job: angle-grinding, cutting clay, pouring the bronze in a homemade furnace, chasing the bronze, helping out. It made it worthwhile for him, and he paid me to do it. It gave me a good insight into what sort of person you need to be to be a sculptor.”

James now has his own studios, the London Atelier of Representational Art (LARA), in London and Bristol, teaching a structured approach to skill-based drawing, painting and sculpture from life. He has a team of tutors – and assistants – to help. Many who graduated from there have come back to assist and tutor. Artist Lucy yffe studied at us in chool of ra ing and fine art at the University of Oxford before joining LARA as a full-time student three years ago. She now trains two days a week at the atelier, and works part-time as the school’s

ISTOCK

mar eting o cer as ell as eing assistant-tutor during term time. ucy found her circumstances changing during her studies. ust to ard the end of my training my li ing situation changed had to ma e my o n rent. o after lots of con ersations ith ames it ecame a arent needed a art-time o . e needed some ody to run the social media. ma or art of ucy’s assistant role re ects the needs of a st-century art school and studio. rite content for the e site and ill e oo ing ell- no n artists for or sho s. ther students assist one does the admin another ro ides content for social media hile another student-tutor assists in getting the studio ready. ucy’s role is com letely different to ames’ e erience. n her o there is no re uirement to order materials re are can ases or aints cut clay or our ronze. or ing on-site adds to her understanding of the role of the

tutor in an atelier en ironment. er art-time o re ects the changing role of an art assistant. oday an understanding of social media latforms is essential. tudents and tutors sell or ia nstagram ith henomenal success and e ages are e t u dated daily. o is eing an assistant orth it or ucy it’s a definite yes for the e erience of or ing ith an artist in a studio en ironment. he o mo es an undergraduate or ost-graduate into the commercial orld to e erience hat goes into li ing as a rofessional artist. nd if ames returned to or full-time as a scul tor ould he ha e an assistant h yes. www.rosalindormiston.com as

ISTOCK

CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT students at or in the studio alettes ucy yffe or ing as a teaching assistant maintaining materials can e art of the o

Reasons for being an assistant ranged from experience and a salary to increased knowledge rom the creators of rtists

llustrators ArtStudent 21

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prizes

In it to win it The exposure that comes with winning an art competition is not to be sniffed at – and a cash prize couldn’t hurt. So what are you waiting for? Get painting!

BP PORTRAIT AWARD Submissions deadline: TBC Artists aged 18 to 30 entering this prestigious competition are automatically considered for the BP Young Artist Award. www.npg.org.uk/bp DERWENT ART PRIZE Submissions deadline: April 2018 For works in pencil, whether water-soluble, pastel, graphite or charcoal. The Young Artist Award

© ALAN COULSON

THE ALFRED TEDDY SMITH AND ZSUZSI ROBOZ AWARD (PS) Submissions deadline: 3 November 2017 Artworks using pastels, oil pastels, charcoal, pencil, conté, sanguine or any dry media can be entered for this £5,000 prize for under-35s. www.mallgalleries.org.uk/ call-for-entries

for the under-25s comes with a £500 prize. www.derwent-artprize.co.uk

ABOVE Shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2017, Alan Coulson, Honest Thomas, oil on wood panel, 85x 61cm

LAURA QUINN HARRIS, EVERY CLOUD, OIL ON BOARD, 41X61CM

ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS ARTISTS OF THE YEAR 2018 COMPETITION Submissions deadline: noon 3 November 2017 Artists & Illustrators magazine’s competition offers national exposure, a £1,000 First Prize and the chance to work towards a solo exhibition with Panter & Hall. The 50 shortlisted works will be exhibited at London’s Mall Galleries. www.artistsand illustrators.co.uk/aoty

THE DE LASZLO FOUNDATION AWARD Submissions deadline: 8 December 2017 This £3,000 award for the best painting from life by an artist under 35 forms part of The Royal Society of British Artists prize. www.mallgalleries.org.uk/ call-for-entries

PRIZE Submissions deadline: December 2017 TBC This prize of £30,000 highlights creative representational painting and drawing, plus there’s a £4,000 Young Artist Award for under-25s. www.lynnpainterstainers prize.org.uk

ROME SCHOLARSHIP Submissions deadline: 6 January 2018 A young or newly graduated artist will spend four weeks at The British School in Rome. www.mallgalleries.org.uk RSA OPEN EXHIBITION Submissions deadline: March/April 2018 TBC The Royal Scottish Academy’s annual sho offers rizes suitable for under-35s including the RSA Latimer Awards (for Scottish artists) and RSA Meyer Oppenheim Prize. www.royalscottishacademy.org YOUNG MASTERS ART PRIZE Submissions deadline: spring 2019 TBC For artists who pay homage to the skill of the Old Masters. The winner takes home £2,000. www.young-masters.co.uk

From the creators of Artists & Illustrators_ArtStudent 23

Drawn from the past | Skills for the future LARA London | New Clapham North location LARA Bristol | New studio!

‘Barry’, charcoal and chalk drawing by LARA student Max West

Are you looking for somewhere which teaches skills and techniques?

Do you have great ideas but lack the ability to express them in pencil or paint?

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Full-time and part-time Atelier Programme | 1 year Foundation and 3 year Diploma Short courses, Masterclasses, Saturday School, Drop-In Life Drawing, evening sessions Call us or visit us to see where representational art training might take you.

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read

inspiring new art books

The Hidden Cézanne: From Sketchbook to Canvas, edited by Anita Haldemann, Prestel, £45 Gain an insight into the master’s everyday practice as a draughtsman. Brought together from the Kunstmuseum Basel’s collection of Cézanne’s drawings, which, despite possibly the most significant collection in the world, are rarely exhibited due to the drawings’ fragility. The sketches and studies show which works he copied at the Louvre and reveal portrait studies from his studio, trees in Provence, and drawings of his son and his wife at home. www.prestel.com Why Are We ‘Artists’?, 100 World Art Manifestos, by Jessica Lack, Penguin, £10.99 This selection of 100 artists’ manifestos from across the globe brings together activists, anti-colonialists, surrealists, socialists, nihilists and a host of other voices, too. Some have never been published in English before, while others were written in climates of censorship, yet they are united by a belief in the power of art to change the world. www.penguin.co.uk Artists: Their Lives and Works, foreword

by Andrew GrahamDixon, DK, £25 harting in uential artists across seven century-focused chapters, this fully illustrated reference guide makes a useful

addition to any bookshelf. With artists’ biographical details, the techniques and creative visions they pioneered presented alongside timelines, historical context and directories, it will ensure you’re always in the know. www.dk.com/uk Co-Art: Artists on Creative Collaboration,

by Ellen Mara De Wachter, Phaidon, £24.95 Artists at all stages of their careers understand that the basis of creativity is most often an individual’s struggle to express themselves.

Yet, that’s not always the case: in recent decades collaboration has grown in popularity. This book takes a tour of 25 leading art-world partnerships, from duos to collectives, to find out hat or ing together can bring to the creative process. www.phaidon.com The Books That Shaped Art History, edited by Richard Shone and John-Paul Stonard, Thames & Hudson, £14.95 Across 16 incisive cha ters an in uential work from the canon of 20th-century art history is reassessed by a leading art historians, curators or promising young scholars. These cross-generational contributions come together to create a varied and invaluable look at the status of the history of art. www.thamesand hudson.com

From the creators of Artists & Illustrators_ArtStudent 25

promotion

Hand

LET TE RING

With the launch of its Hand Lettering Pad, HahnemĂźhle explores the world of lettering with artist Mia Warner

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I moved from the Gloucestershire countryside to Brighton to study graphic design, became obsessed with typography and realised I preferred working with my hands, so moved to London to do that for a living.

What is hand lettering? And what is the i erence bet een n ettering c igr p n t pogr p ?

26 ArtStudent_From the creators of Artists & Illustrators

PHOTOS: SADIE OSBORNE/COLEMAN SIGN & DESIGN

Hand lettering is drawing and creating letters, words, phrases and arrangements with your hands, drawing them individually as illustrations rather than writing or typing. Although there are links with calligraphy and typography, there is much more freedom involved in terms of style and construction. Typography involves fonts and typefaces. Type Designers construct letters of the same style to fit together in one al ha et the font or ty eface hich is used y gra hic designers.

Calligraphy also follows certain rules because of the tools involved. Hand lettering often uses the thick and thin calligraphy forms and certain styles can be inspired by existing typefaces, but the fact it is made with brushes, pens, pencils and chalk means there is more freedom with the design. It is so much fun to experiment.

“Hand-drawn letterforms have gone through a massive resurgence as people are rediscovering the value of having something created by a human”

o

o

o

escribe o r st e of

or ?

I don’t have a set style. I work with hand lettering, calligraphy and signwriting, and no two projects are the same. I switch my style regularly. At the moment, I lo e or ing ith long o ing calligra hic ords.

o

oes

n

ettering f re in t e rt

or ?

t’s definitely gro ing. and-dra n letterforms ha e gone through a massive resurgence as people are rediscovering the value in having something created by a human. There is a certain amount of soul injected into every piece of lettering created by hand.

t pro ects o o

e on t e go?

I’m just starting to teach, which is incredibly exciting.

I’m hoping to run some small lettering workshops in the not-too-distant future.

The Hahnemühle Hand Lettering Pad ering ent si sts first c ss fo n tion for t eir rt n e e ope it n ettering rtists nem e s ne n ettering s been t i ore to t eir nee s s b sis for o tst n ing ettering r s pens fine tip pens n penci s g i e cross t e p per re imin r s etc es c n be e si r bbe o t n t e c ose s rf ce tr ps co o rs

n pre ents b ee ing e bri i nt ite p per ens res ibr nt co o rs monoc rome n m tico o re motifs st n o t n c n be e si sc nne n processe igit e p s o er perfect bsorption n r ing be io r for br s pens fine tip pens n fe t tip pens e p per eig s gsm n p s top bo n s eets re i b e in n form t

t specific p per for n

ities o o ettering?

oo for in

smooth eautiful sil y finish that ena les my en to almost oat across the to hile doing long o ing ourishes. nd a uality that ensures the in on’t leed.

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lo e the satin sil y finish and so do my tools. t ena les pen nibs to glide across the surface, and also makes it easy to get arying mar s from different ressure le els from a pencil. This means I can experiment more than I would be able to on certain types of paper.

o o e n pe r s of n ettering rtists?

is om for b

ing

Keep creating. There will be times when it feels like you may be drawing for no obvious reason, but every piece you create has soul and purpose. Whether you’re drawing for a client or for yourself, each piece teaches you something new. So they’re as valuable as each other.

www.hahnemuehle.com From the creators of Artists & Illustrators_ArtStudent 27

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How to

Talk to galleries When it’s time to show your paintings, approaching people in the right way will boost your chances of success. Artist and gallerist Hannah Ivory Baker lets you in on her top tips. Illustration: Sonny Ross

4

1

Take good photographs

Do your research

Make sure your photo is an accurate representation of your work. Images should be taken straight-on in good light, and not be blurred so colours match your work as closely as possible. Only send images of finished or not work-in-progress.

Don’t send information to a gallery that specialises in ceramics if you are a painter. Look at what they exhibit and consider whether your or is a good fit in subject, style and price.

2

5

Call the gallery Find out if they are accepting submissions from artists seeking representation. Some galleries ask you to attach a CV and artist statement, others will ask for two or three images and a small amount of information.

Also, you can often get a contact name to address your email to or, even better, a direct address.

Follow up

3

Avoid long emails and big attachments Keep descriptions of your art brief. Details about subject, style, size, medium, price, awards or exhibitions should be included, as well as links to a website or social media account. Make sure image files are small enough not to clog up someone’s inbox.

Keep descriptions of your art brief.

Details about subject, style and medium should be included, as well as links to a website or social media

Galleries receive dozens of emails from artists every day. Allow at least a week before emailing again or placing another phone call.

Often a gallery will ask to see work in the esh efore gi ing a definiti e ans er.

See Hannah’s art at www.hannahivory baker.com, on Twitter @hib31_art, and at The Drang Gallery www. thedranggallery.com as

From the creators of Artists & Illustrators_ArtStudent 29

the last word

Jamie Routley The award-winning portrait painter talks about the value of atelier training and building your profile as an artist. INTERVIEW: Sally Hales PHOTO: Tom Dunkley

You studied illustration before going to an atelier in Florence. What sparked the change?

When I started my illustration degree I didn’t know which direction I wanted to go.

I had no idea there were ateliers and art schools that offered a thorough training in drawing and painting from life. I happened to read an article in Artists & Illustrators magazine during my first year that profoundly changed my work and my life.

It featured a painter who had just returned from Florence. It wasn’t the work that caught my attention; it was the practical and philosophical aspect of the atelier.

You’ve won the BP Young Artist Award at the National Portrait Gallery, among other accolades. What do you think are the benefits of entering competitions?

The BP Portrait Award changed everything, but not in the way I thought it would. The doors you expect to open stay shut or, at most, open ajar. It is a slow burn, but one that continues to yield a good amount of work.

I’m proud of the awards I have received and it brings a quiet satisfaction and boost to one’s self-confidence. If you win or are selected, excellent. Be proud. But don’t see it as an indicator of where you are as a painter – that understanding has to come from you.

As a young portrait painter, do you have any advice for those considering it as a career?

You need a dogged work ethic: the 10,000-hours rule applies. And you need to develop a thick skin. Without these things you won’t survive. I’m just about managing to make it work, so I can tell you it isn’t easy. That said, it is an interesting life. as www.jamieroutley.com

30 ArtStudent_From the creators of Artists & Illustrators

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