College Art Competition winners discuss their entries

A wire sculpture of a rearing horse, a colour print of a horse rider in the dusty Santa Cruz mountains, and a photo of winter sunlight filtering through trees are just some of the impressive winning entries in this year’s St John’s College Art and Photography Competition.

Over 100 undergraduate and post graduate members of St John’s took time out from their studies to get creative and enter the popular annual competition, submitting a variety of photographs, sketches, paintings, sculptures, and digital films.

Junior members were able to submit up to two entries in six different categories; three categories under Photography - black and white prints, colour prints, and College photography - and three under Fine and Applied Arts - paintings, drawings or prints, sculpture, and digital film. All competition entries were put on public display in the College Library, and the entries were judged anonymously.

The winning entry in each of the Photography categories received a £100 prize, and the winners in the Fine and Applied Arts categories were awarded £200.

Christina Farley, winner of the College photography category, entered a photograph taken on her mobile phone of the sun filtering through the trees during a winter afternoon walk. “I think St John’s is a very photogenic College,” said Christina, third year History of Art undergraduate. “The contrast of the bright light with the very dark silhouettes of the trees and the gate really made a very beautiful picture.”

The winner of the colour transparencies or prints category was Chris Watkins, second year Social Anthropology undergraduate, with his photo of his sister riding a horse in the San Jose area of California where he is from. “The thing that struck me about this particular scene was the fact that the light was coming directly towards the camera but was diffused by the trees,” said Chris, “but it was also was shining directly on the dust clouds, so you got that dramatic luminary effect behind the horse.”

Tomos Prŷs-Jones, Research MPhil student in the Department of Zoology, was the winner of two separate categories: paintings, drawings and print, and sculpture. His painting of an old man with dazzling blue eyes and wrinkled face won him the prize in the former category. “I like expressive faces,” explained Tomos, “and often those of older people who have more texture to their face and more contrast.”

Tomos’s creation of a rearing horse made out of wire won him the sculpture prize. Originally from rural North Wales, he explained that horses have always been of interest to him. “When I was young I was told that if you can draw or sculpt a horse it was a good sign,” he said. “I’ve used wire quite a lot as my medium in sculpting, which started in my art class in school - this is a culmination of just experimenting with some wire I found!”

Prize winners in the remaining two categories were second year undergraduate Giles Barton-Owen for his entry in the digital film category where he created a film portraying St John’s in a surreal dreamlike state, and second year undergraduate Ian Loo for his entry in the black and white print category. A full list of the winners as well as the highly-commended runners up can be viewed HERE.