JAGS pupils take top prizes at Young Art

Millie – Printmaking Prize

Have you looked at much Pop Art?  

Yes, Pop Art was the predominant art style that influenced my work across this project. I was particularly influenced by the work of Andy Warhol and his ability to draw inspiration from ordinary and mundane objects. I love the elements of pattern and repetition that are common in Pop Art, which can be seen in the prints I made. 

Do you draw much?  

In my spare time I enjoy drawing and I have done since I was young. I like the flexibility it allows for and the huge variety of outcomes it can produce. Drawings are central to my GCSE projects as they are the basis of many of my early ideas and final outcomes. Despite focusing on printmaking for this project, I still had to begin by drawing studies of Coke cans and bottles in order to help guide my prints and later responses. By turning my drawings into prints, I was also able to experiment with a unique and interesting technique that helped me to achieve the goals of my project. It allowed me to achieve a sense of uniformity and regularity that a drawing could not.  

Does this relate to any of your other tastes?  

Overall, I believe that it reflects some of my tastes but not all of them. The central theme of my prints revolved around the idea of simplicity and finding art in ordinary objects, which I believe is shown in my architecture and design preferences. One of my favourite buildings is Falling Water by Frank Llyod Wright, which appears to be simple but is actually very intricate and detailed. Additionally, I love the work of the design company Alessi – which collaborates with a range of designers to create playful products that are simplistic but ingenious.  

Tilly – First Prize (Years 10/11)

Is this a dream of where you live?  

While the end product has a dream-like quality, my initial subject matter consisted of a few old buildings in my local area. When we look at the world around us, it’s impossible to know how everything would differ in another universe. Would perspective change? Maybe colour or scale? With this piece I wanted to play with this idea of changing the way that we perceive the things around us; to open our eyes to the potential that can be found in what we currently consider to be ordinary. I suppose this could be seen as a dream-like interpretation of the real world.  

Is it a montage of different impressions on a screen?  

Looking at my work now it’s difficult to tell that it all started by taking three photos of mundane, often overlooked buildings and junctions. I had the intention of drawing attention to the shapes and patterns found in everyday architecture, without explicitly replication the visuals we see every day – that is what led me to deconstruct and, in a sense, rebuild the architecture in the form of painting.  

Where does your colour palette come from?  

I started out by experimenting with Photoshop editing tools, changing the tint and playing with two-tones to exaggerate features and make the images as far from reality as I could possibly get, while maintaining the impression of the buildings. Suddenly the images became less like my local high street, and more like a surreal, illusory space. There is something special about the way that using vivid, unrealistic colour can transform a place, altering the viewer’s perception of the subject matter and giving it an entirely new meaning and impact.