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The Guildford Arts/Clyde UK Student Awards |
The Guildford Arts/Clyde UK Student Awards are offered to Fine Art students completing their degrees at the University for the Creative Arts,Farnham. The awards are made available through the joint sponsorship of Guildford Arts and Clyde&Co, international solicitors, as an extension of the Art@Work programme.
The intention is to recognise and promote the artistic achievement of honours degree students who demonstrate an affinity with the goals of Art@Work which is concerned, particularly, to enhance the quality of the working environment and encourage a broader awareness of the visual arts.
The awards are given to a maximum of four students chosen by a panel representing Guildford Arts and Clyde&Co selecting from work exhibited at the degree show.
It is a condition of the award that the successful artists exhibit their work at two of the Art@Clyde&Co exhibitions during the year following the award. On the first occasion they show work derived from the degree portfolio. On the second they show work they have produced since qualifying.
www.ucreative.ac.uk/farnham |
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Josephine Nieves joint winner of the GA / C&Co Student Award 2011 |
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Josephine Nieves – Installation Artist
Josephine has come to a career as an artist in a strangely circuitous manner. Equipped with a degree in Geography she undertook an M.Sc. in Landscape Ecology. She followed this with a period in the Royal Naval Reserve while taking up a secretarial role. Her time as PA to the CEO of ‘Racing Post’ was interesting but, eventually, not satisfying so she embarked upon a law career by taking a conversion course at Guildford College of Law and, after completing her articles, she followed up with an LLM in Agricultural Law. Settled into a stimulating role within The National Trust she nevertheless decided to leave the workplace once her son reached school age so that she could be the ‘mother at home’ that she feels is so important.
And her art? She started with Local Authority classes followed by a Foundation Course at Weybridge and eventually 5 years part time study at UCA Farnham. Initially she was driven by her consuming interest in the boats and the sea (she lives near Lymington and sails with her family in a Lymington Scow) in a quite traditional way but has now moved to an interest in the extent to which Art can influence belief in the improbable. Her foray into installations is certainly distinctive. I suggest that you see her work at the next Art@Clyde&Co exhibition to be hung in August and hear her speak at the private viewing on 6
What next you may well ask? With such a fearless approach to new challenges, Jose could do almost anything. Her interest, though, is in teaching art to youngsters – especially the under 11’s who don’t think they have any artistic ability!
I think we can be confident that she will find a way to bring her artistic and considerable personality into the classroom. |
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Alannah Barker wins the joint GA and C&Co Award 2010 |
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 In 2010 one student was selected for the Guildford Arts/Clyde UK Student Awards.
Alannah Barker has an extraordinary ability to draw. She hails from Fareham (Hants) where she has lived ‘all her life’ and attributes her commitment to the visual arts to her father who is a successful amateur painter. She has been fascinated with drawing and painting from a young age. An attempt to do something ‘sensible’ at A-level – Business Studies – was not a success!
Having completed her foundation studies at Portsmouth School of Art she was attracted to UCA Farnham because of its ‘student centric’ approach to teaching and learning. Three years on and she is now facing the challenges of a working life. A role as an illustrator with its associated pressure of deadlines and the constraints of a brief is attractive although somewhere down the line she feels that running her own business with a gallery and teaching elements would be good. Her final year at Farnham has been hard work enlivened by opportunities to show her work at exhibitions – pretty well one a month since Xmas!
For further information and examples of Alannah’s work, see www.alannahbarker.com. |
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Mathew Vierra joint winner of the 2011 GA / C&Co Student Award |
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Mathew Vieira – Portrait Artist
Mathew belongs to a large family with a Portuguese heritage. He is the first to go to University and the first to seek to build a career as an artist. While going through school in London he was always actively involved in illustration and graphics. His commitment to portraiture really kicked in during his foundation course studies although his present style of painting only emerged during his final year.
His paintings are essentially ‘planar’ in approach with a desire to give quite minimal information to the viewer while capturing facial expressions. He uses blocks of colour, rather than blends, with a sensitive use of tones. His subject matter is all about watching people while they, in turn are watching! And the source of his approach and ambition – many hours spent in galleries studying the way in which successful artists have achieved their results!
Mathew is moving towards a more abstract style where he deliberately avoids giving the full story behind his images. He wants the viewer to ‘work it out’.
 Being realistic about the difficulties associated with establishing a life as a full time artist, he anticipates working as necessary to make his way and may well develop his ‘side line’ as a producer of customised clothes decorated with his own unique designs.
Mathew will be showing his work at the Art@Clyde&Co exhibition to be hung in November and will be speaking at the private viewing on 7th December 2011. |
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