Guernsey Students Prize 2023

A self portrait exploring the emotions behind trauma, inspired by the examination theme “Our World”.

This painting is based on the topic of everyday objects. I painted it with acrylic paint and spent multiple months completing it. I love food and wanted to create a bright eye catching piece with tons of fine details.

Fascinated by the colours of the jellyfish swimming in deep waters, I wanted to capture the brightness of this creature against the darkness of the water.

A representation of the five stages of grief in five portraits. Each stage is expressed through emotion and the underlining colour that shows feeling. The portraits get smaller showing how acceptance (the last stage) is further away mentally and seems hard to get to. Stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

I wanted to capture the explosion of colours you see in a field. The colours represent different celebratory emotions to make the viewer feel positive.

My aim for this graphite piece was to capture the atmospherical absence of human presence. I wanted to focus on how a scene can seem so lifeless and bleak despite the historical energy that it would have undoubtedly previously captured within the same architectural walls. Nature physically engorges these memories and the nostalgia that this greenhouse once contained. The result is a cold, almost eerie scene as the landscape waits for life to enlighten it once again.

This piece was part of my “Guernsey Occupation” art unit, for which I looked into differences between Guernsey now (2023) and then (1940s). This topic has fascinated me from a young age and I find it inspiring how the island has worked to preserve bunkers and Martello towers as a stark reminder of such difficult times. I believe this preserves our island’s history whilst highlighting the struggles of the islanders who stayed during the occupation. I have used black and white acrylic and the infamous photo of Nazi soldiers marching down the high street to try to capture the evocative juxtaposition of these themes, and prompt emotions about our beautiful island home.

From the theme title of “Exits and Entrances”. The concept is that for centuries, the Guernsey harbor was the main entrance to the island. I focused on key buildings in town.

The progression of a pomegranate rolling down the page and breaking open, so that you can look through the layers of the fruit.

I was studying portraiture, caricatures in particular and decided to bring a chalk pastel and colour pencil caricature drawing of my stepdad James to life. James plays the piano and organ and I did it in the grotesque style, emphasising certain facial features and colours.

I chose the combination of Koi Carp fish and mushrooms as I felt that the wings of the fish and the underside of the mushrooms have similarities. Nature has a habit of doing this which I find fascinating.

A portrait of my dog painted during my year 12 exam. I wasn’t sure where to take my project but knew I wanted to look at animals, so I painted a face I was familiar with.

This painting was a challenge to see if I could capture raindrops on the window pane on a grey day.

My work aims to portray and signify the isolation of homelessness. Painting onto cardboard represents a material often used by homeless people to keep warm and create comfort. I have also painted from the angle which means you can’t see the subject’s face, really isolating her from the world: she’s given up and this is now her reality.

I struggle a lot with anxiety. Whether it’s over small spaces, large crowds, or just what’s going on within my relationships. I know it’s all in my head but pulling myself out of that space sometimes feels impossible. I tend to think of it like I’m floating out in the ocean with nothing around me as if I’m not real. I have not a care in the world, but every so often a wave pushes me down under the surface of the water. That reminds me I can drown. I know everyone gets like this sometimes, but it always makes me feel alone and I end up pushing people away. Despite these feelings I am still trying, I am still here. For this project, I made a series of portraits informed by research into the work of Marlene Dumas and Rea Klein.

Inspired by “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo. I have tried to symbolise parental love and the idea that parents are life-givers. I placed my hand on the left (instead of Adam’s hand) and my mother’s on the right (instead of God’s hand). The hands reaching for one another symbolise the mother-daughter bond that draws us together and the longing to be in the presence of one another. Finally, the splash of colour represents our relationship and how our energies work together creating a varied range of emotions hence the range of colour. The hands are deliberately painted in detail with a monochrome palette to contrast with the expressive mark-making with the more free-flowing coloured paint.

“Alice in Wonderland” was my inspiration for this painting. I took some photographs of the Mad Hatter’s tea party and reflected this in the mirror. I love the chaos of the image against the majestic feeling of the ornate looking glass.

After studying life drawing for my A level art I continued to look into body language and how posture can convey emotion the arched back is a sign of anxiety stemming from in battle trying to protect internal organs. I found this posture fascinating as it could be seen as unnatural when looked at from this angle becoming hard to visualise how the body has been posed. I found reference for this image was really interesting in how the light flowed around the body highlighting muscles.

As part of my theme “A Sense of Place”; I love to look at the world of wild animals and in particular wild cats in their environment. The look of this tiger and the effect it has on the viewer inspired me to paint it.