Arts Editor IT SEEMS fitting that in the week a blockbuster show of David Hockney’s new landscapes opened at the Royal Academy, a young artist who calls herself his “biggest fan” should win the 2011 Saatchi Gallery/ Sunday Telegraph “Art Prize for Schools”.
Julia Whiting, 18, of St Margaret’s School, Exeter, was on Tuesday night announced as the winner of the annual award, for her three-painting installation Trees: A sense of Place.
It may lack the garish colour of Hockney, and may take its inspiration from the woodlands of Devon, not Yorkshire; but the large leafless trees recall Hockney’s landscapes.
“Like Hockney, I’ve always loved walking in the woods with my sketchbook,” said Julia, whose ink-on-cartridgepaper trees are installed in such a way as to encourage visitors to pass between them.
“Hopefully people will get their very own sense of walking through woods.”
Julia is currently studying an art foundation diploma at the University of Falmouth and hopes winning the prize will strengthen her application for an undergraduate illustration degree in September.
“It was such an unbelievable surprise to win,” said Julia, who plans to spend some of her £2,000 prize money on an art course in Florence this summer.
Around 13,000 children entered this year’s competition, with the work of its 20 finalists on show at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, west London, until tomorrow.
James Wallis, 13, of Woodcote House school in Surrey, was one of two runners-up, for his First World War painting The Untouched.
“I’d love to become a painter when I grow up,” he said. “And not just any old painter: a powerful painter.”
Inspired by seeing War Horse at the theatre and a school trip to the Somme, The Untouched is powerful indeed. It depicts six soldiers arriving at the Western Front for the first time: black silhouettes trudging across a field of thickly-brushed mud.
“The figures’ emotions are unclear,” said James.
“They’re all in this together. As much as fear or anxiety, I wanted to show their bravery and camaraderie too.”
James’s mother Jacqueline is understandably proud of her son. She said: “He’s been drawing for as long as I can remember,” she said.
“As a young boy, giving him a pencil and pad was the only sure way of keeping him happy.”
Entry to the Saatchi prize was open to children of all ages, working in any medium, anywhere in the world. Paintings predominated this year, and the youngest finalist was eight-year-old Joel Steele, of Benton Dene Primary School in Newcastle upon Tyne, with his canvas Monkey.
The pupil who came from furthest afield was Joseph Bounds, 18, from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
“My art teacher is English and she suggested I enter,” he said.
“The competition is so strong that when I heard I’d made the shortlist, it was mind-blowing.
“I knew instantly I had to make the trip to London (for the opening) if I possibly could.”
Mu-chun Chiang, 18, of the Leys School in Cambridge, was the second runner-up.
Her penetrating portrait of her outdoor pursuits teacher, Mr Roberts, has more than an echo of Lucian Freud.
“Mr Roberts is quite a strict man on the surface, ex-army, but I tried to bring out his inner vulnerability,” said MuChun, who did the painting as an A-level student last year and is now studying medicine. “Sadly, my busy lecture schedule doesn’t allow too much spare time for art. But I grab every opportunity I can.”
Mu-chun plans to specialise in psychiatry, for which she will doubtless draw on all the psychological insight exhibited in Mr Roberts.
Now in its seventh year, the standard of works in the 2011 exhibition is “as high as ever”, according to Rebecca Wilson, director of the Saatchi Gallery.
“The Art Prize is one of the most inspiring events in our calendar,” she said. “It’s so refreshing to hear visitors to the gallery saying: ‘I can’t believe an eight year-old did that’ rather than ‘My eight year-old could have done that’.”
Miss Wilson was one of five judges for this year’s prize, along with Marc Quinn, the artist; Kaye Umansky, the children’s author; Alistair Hicks, the art adviser to Deutsche Bank, which sponsors the competition, and Alastair Smart, The Sunday Telegraph’s Arts Editor.
Miss Wilson hopes that being shortlisted will give all budding artists a boost in confidence. She said: “We’ve seen
Mr Roberts is quite strict. I tried to bring out his vulnerability I’d love to become a painter – a powerful painter
ourfinalists go on to art school and graduate with fantastic degrees.
“Hopefully our support will encourage this year’s 20 to pursue their commitment to art and help them become the very next Hockneys and Hirsts,” she said.
Julia Whiting, for one, is well on her way.
The Art Prize winner Julia Whiting , with ‘A sense of Place’. The runners-up were Mu-chun Chiang, top right , with ‘Mr Roberts’ and James Wallis with ‘The Untouched’