Dear Editor,
The accepted entries in the eighth biennial competition were mounted and opened to the public on Friday, October 22 at the National Gallery, Castellani House. I viewed the show one week later, and I found it enjoyable, although confusing in terms of the results. There was a myriad display of talent with a variety of interesting styles, some of which bordered on illustration and some which were definitely fine art.
I first make mention of an entry in the teen category – by an individual of immense and considerable talent, Stephen Craig, who earned a special prize. His style already embodied a mature element, and one has only to await the major scope of his development, and see in which avenue he will direct his talent. His piece was an integration of dancing figures – ‘Hurt the floorboards’ – done with lines that were strong and clean. His form and tone were outstanding, and his presentation was first class.
The top two winning adult entries contradicted my interpretation of artistic procedures, because they fell outside the category of drawing, and fitted more into that of painting. That they should have won the highest awards in a drawing contest is – arguably – amazing. Their techniques included the use of silver and opaque paint, which could be seen, and which were outside the pencil, crayon, pastel, pen and ink, and oil crayon directives of the contest.
The entries by Dominique Hunter, a third place awardee, showed an imagination of surrealistic inclination. In all three of her pieces, though, there was a slight problem with tonal strength. Personally I think a better understanding of chiaroscuro (light and dark) would give her work more punch. Her drawing though showed proper proportion, and her composition was without flaw. I would suggest that instead of using graphite pencils, she should get accustomed to conte pencils (they are sometimes called crayons) and from them she could truly get ‘black,’ which is very important in establishing and producing highlights.
Other artists of mention included Travell Blackman, Oliver J Smith, Josefa Tamayo, Anna Correia, and Francis M. Bailey. One aspect of the contest which I found questionable was the fact a gallery executive asked that the final scores of the judges should be tallied in pencil, and then submitted for their review and approval. Pencil is easily erased, and in this instance there was a subsequent recalculation of the award placements which in turn created a controversy. Nonetheless, the show exhibited a promise of things to come and was worthy of being mounted. What I would like to see is better training being supplied to the students of the Burrowes School of Art who were featured in the show, especially in differentiating between illustration and fine art and the application of tonal modelling. Illustration is a pictorial form of explanation and description of an idea, and is far removed from the aesthetics of fine art.
Yours faithfully,
Jorge Bowenforbes
