1 Scholarship – 2012: Painting (93306) Examples of Candidate Work

2 Outstanding Scholarship This submission creates a post-apocalyptic world that is a reflection of our own contemporary society. Central to the ‘story’ are underpinning ideas of futility and labour; all characters/figures are engaged in physical work, but to no productive end or significant income. Such deliberation in assembling an argument and a ‘cast’ of kind ensures clarity of purpose right from the beginning of the investigation. The work is also founded on good resourcing of pictorial imagery from a variety of sources - magazines, historical paintings and imagery, as well as personal photo shoots. These, are combined with painting styles from an established repertoire - abstraction, realism, street art, pop, surrealism, performance, ‘outsider’ genres. From the outset the candidate delineates a clear set of enquiry guidelines. They venture out into the world of imagery to find ways in which this type of subject matter has been represented within art contexts and further afield. The cobbling together of a myriad of found interpretations and invented versions of their own create a wealth of generated ideas. Compositional devices of stacking, floating, scale shifts, perspectival montage and conscious colour combinations produce a complex set of paintings and message. Images are synthesised into the candidate’s own compositions, not led by source material. Photo shoots are also productively incorporated with the generation of further subject/image, such as inclusion of themself through self-portrait; photographed, rendered and then incorporated into a painting. Some imagery (subject/motifs) operate as signifiers between works creating conceptual links, for example, the seat and head in the painting on the bottom of board 2 and the trike on the top of board 3 operate similarly. This recurring use of motif arrangement/strategy builds and adds depth to the magnitude of the topic. Scale games within compositions are effectively managed to suggest meaning, to manipulate preconceived notions, and/or to create metaphor. Consider for example the device of the rope in the work on the bottom right, on board 1. Such devices are brought to life through conceptual skill and technical mastery across a range of media, drawing and painting. The candidate shows understanding of the use of gesture and figures in action, to depict emotion and tension. In the workbook, the candidate outlines processes of knowledge building. There is evidence of the testing out of ideas to create understanding, such as “what constitutes an outcast in society”. Drawings in the workbook are later used and translated into paint on the folio. Evidence of research is evident in the candidate’s symbolic translations of subject matter from the Renaissance to contemporary sources to popular culture. Interestingly, some studies were made solely to create background and environments for situation. This demonstrates the candidate’s attention to detail in truly representing their conceptualised notion of the state and subsequent self-implosion of, the post-apocalyptic world.

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16 Scholarship This submission presents a solid exploration based on the candidate’s experience of digital games. The premise is established early on with visual identification and integration of the digital world and animals through drawing and painting sketches. The candidate engages in an intelligent use of digital media to inform the work. They see digital media as a reference tool for the paintings, but also extend it for their own use. They don’t just sit with the design identity of Minecraft, but then create their own colour palette. Developmental processes include effective integration of contemporary and traditional art forms, such as Bill Hammond versus Blue Reiter (Franz Marc), M.C.Escher versus Minecraft games. This contextual knowledge is implemented through a translation process that authenticates the candidate’s own ideas into quite original works. Artist references are used as a conceptual starting point to launch the candidate’s own thinking. The candidate’s workbook provides strong analysis to support the proposition and documents all decision-making with clear rationale and self-analysis. Colour is an incredibly active component. The acid yellow translates as a highly digitised surface on the picture plane. The flattening of surface and plane alike locates the viewer inside the frame and inside the screen and virtual space of the painting. This is activated in part of by the impasto treatment, applied particularly to this colour rather than to the entire painted surface. This innovation creates an imaginary field or a digital dimension. Control is exhibited exhibited in the painting style and technical understanding of paint. There is good understanding of both illusion (3D) and flatness (2D). The flat and modeled interplay is very successful. Compositions in terms of design options are made to reflect changes in format, revealing an inventiveness of approach. The animals and their integration into the digital environment become another formally rendered element, part of the positive negative interplay in the scheme of the design in the final works. This is a very considered well laid out folio that merges painting, illustration and digital media into a hybridised form positioning a credible and worthwhile proposition.

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