Gibraltar Students Prize 2021

Having studied a selection of figurative artists over the last few months I have been inspired by exploring the organic and natural form of the female figure.  I wanted to portray a projection of strength and beauty, despite the challenges and pressures the female body is put under throughout the consistent rhythm of life. 

This composition was created by the making of an architectural cardboard structure, which I then photographed under intense lighting. This then allowed shadows to be created over the “town”. I then proceeded to photograph and edit the images using procreate, which also let me add the figures into the composition.

Whilst exploring symbolism in my recent A-level art project ‘Tarot Cards’, I decided to create my own versions. My oil painting depicts a mushroom dressed as a clown. It is a play on the word fungi (fun-guy) and is my own recreation of ‘The Fool’.

I chose to create this piece as I believe it captures a person’s insecurities by showing the face stretched and flattened. It also shows how the human face isn’t perfect and is made to show faults and can change. It has a contrast of different colours as I believe it shows a positive side to the message being portrayed and shouldn’t be something to be ashamed of.

My work features a local petrol station which has stood unmoved through the changes in the immediate surrounding areas over the decades.  The petrol station it is based on is GibOil on Winston Churchill Avenue.  The ‘Llano’ was the kids park beside it, where St Anne’s and Notre Dame schools are now.  My mother told me stories about the park as she played there as a child and the older generation know it as ‘El Llano’.

 I am currently undertaking my photography GCSE at Prior Park School Gibraltar. I am exploring natural forms for my coursework where I have experimented by freezing flowers, using gels and refraction. In order to construct my piece ‘Growth’, I used a macro lens and an off-camera flash creating the technical effect of a black curtain. To me the flower bud of an aloe vera plant symbolizes my growth through photography.

I was inspired by the pomegranates which I was looking at for my art GCSE, I worked with trying out different ways to draw and represent pomegranates I really enjoyed trying out new papers and materials. I chose to work on this piece because I really loved the idea of having different materials overlapped and collages together. For the pomegranate on the left I thought of having the outside of the pomegranate and then inside,  large amount of  pomegranate seeds spilling out of the skin of the pomegranate.

Theis is part of series of three pieces are called Nature’s Hallway which depict the same perspective view painted with three different kinds of limited colour palettes.

My painting shows a brightly coloured Agama Lizard on a trees branch. I decided to paint this lizard as I love animals and the bright colours are more challenging to me to record. I am pleased with the way I have blended the colours into each other and I tried to add pattern to his body with the coloued spots. 

I painted a transcription of one of William Oxer’s pieces, Faith. I was particularly drawn to this one as it beautifully captures the light and warmth a person can bring into dark and bleak room. It was such an inspiring experience painting this piece mainly due to the contrast between light and dark which I feel represent life and death. When painting this, I was fascinated by the colours and the difference a background can make. For example, the earrings did not particularly stand out without the darker background.
Furthermore, my aim for this painting was to make it my own and to express my style through it, however, when looking to achieve a more realistic result, I did not find the same magic of seeing the paint and strokes which the brush makes. I believe the imperfection of the painting is what makes it unique and represents my style.

Acrylic paint used on square canvas

A digital collage of various architectures and buildings of Gibraltar, created on Photoshop and inspired by the work of David Schnell.

The image presented is a digital, photoshop edited, composition which encompassess my recent experimentation of light movement and motion, particularly during the night. I attempted to merge both portrait and cityscape photography to attempt to create a sense of identity and a dramatic atmosphere. The background image was taken at Europort Avenue road, in the direction of the St. Bernard’s Hospital, and It is a long exposure shot. After this, I took a self portrait in a dark room with one light pointing at my face to create a specific effect for my image. Shortly after, I changed the hue to create and adapt the mood and perspective of my image. 

This art work is one of my final pieces that I produced in my GCSEs. For my GCSE portfolio I decided to choose my topic based on the 70s era. I chose this topic as it holds many of my favourite things such as their music and fashion. My final piece was inspired by an artist’s style of work that I thought was very bright, colourful and overall emphasised this era the most, Michael Craig-Martin. I then used different popular items from the 70s, and the ones that meant the most to me, and painted them in my chosen artist’s style. 

“I’ve decided to shoot this photo ‘The Giver’ as an attempt to express my feelings on a topic that means a lot to me. The piece attempts to describe how even the smallest of changes in a relationship between two parties can lead to unforeseeable disturbing long-term effects.
Inspired by the ancient Chinese philosophy of “Yin and Yang”, I used the white colour to portray the positive and innocent party in this scene and the black colour to represent ‘The Giver’ of negativity, guilt or even anger. The posture of the hands assumes an established, open, and trusting relationship between the two sides which is slowly getting corrupted by the negative impact (black droplets of paint) one side has on the other.
The two depicted hands should be seen as a metaphor that visualises the unpredictable almost inevitable chaotic effect opposites exert on each other. It could be understood as the irreversible impact that bullying or other forms of abuse have on people, or how provoking statements by leaders could result in long-lasting differences between entire societies. I would like to believe that this photo speaks to everyone in a slightly different way.
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Painting inspired by artist Zeng Fanzhi.  This painting was part of my GCSE coursework.  I wanted to portray a tree of the Alameda Gardens and use the technique of the artist Zeng Fanzhi.  The painting is to transport you to the tree’s beauty despite winter and dark conditions.

I was inspired to create this piece after seeing a vintage poster advertising a car race.
My aim was to capture the excitement of seeing two epic cars battling each other, against the backdrop of the iconic Rock of Gibraltar.

Often when I would wander the woods, I found myself with a strange fascination with mushrooms, and wondered, in the woods I never truly felt alone, perhaps the constant movement all around me, but I always thought, that perhaps something was watching me. And when mushrooms grow old and wrinkled and begin to decay themselves into the earth once more, the folds built into their skin starts to look like an eye, that is tightly shut just before I could see the peering pupil that was starring at me when I could not see. So, when it came to creating a piece of art, I thought of a way to bring that idea to life and seeing how many ways I can interpret it in shapes forms and expressions, perhaps even skimming even further from a “human” eye and morphing it into something that purely suits the creature that was once a plain mushroom. And one day whilst in the woods once more, I saw a cluster of mushrooms, none the same, all looking as if they were fighting to escape the trunk they were slowly rotting, and the different shapes once more became faces and eyes that I made a reality in this artwork.