Huge self-portrait entered in competition
I have entered a huge portrait into Ruth Borchard Self-portrait Competition!
Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Competition
I have always been fascinated by portraiture (I do two portrait sessions a week) and also self-portraiture, which I have done periodically between leaving Art School and now.
A few years ago I heard about the Ruth Borchard collection and was interested to note it contained works by three of my collage lecturers and also another artist I have met recently. So when the opportunity to enter a piece into the open competition arose this year, I decided to have a go and produced ‘My Blue Shirt’, it measures 91 x 61cm (3ft x 2ft). The concept is based on ‘The Long Hard Stare’ associated with the artist searching for truth. I don’t expect to win but it would be great just to be accepted to hang in the exhibition.
When Ruth Borchard died in 2000 she had amassed a collection of around a 100 self-portraits dating from 1921 to 1971. Much to her heirs’ credit the collection has been kept intact and is shown every other year at Kings Place Gallery. In the interim year Kings Place Gallery is host to the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Competition and Exhibition, a national competition with a £10,000 cash prize. This competition is intended to reflect and celebrate the traditions which inform the Borchard Collection by encouraging the development of these ideas into British art of the twenty-first century.
The Competition and Exhibition, sponsored by the Borchard Family in association with Parabola Land and Piano Nobile Fine Art, will be held at Kings Place Gallery, Kings Place, London 14 OCTOBER – 25 NOVEMBER 2011, when details of the winning entry will be announced.
I am waiting with baited breath to see if I have been selected! So watch this space!
UPDATE: 7.10.2011
WOW! I have been selected to hang in the exhibition!!
I am really thrilled to have my work chosen to hang in the exhibition, which starts today. Now I have to wait until the 13th October when the winner will be announced at the Private View……
UPDATE: 5.11.2011
OK so I didn’t win the £10 grand and I didn’t have my painting bought by the Foundation but I have been hung in a prestigious London exhibition and I hope to enter again in 2013.
The winner was Celia Paul with her very sensitive little portrait in her individual style (below).
You can read the Press Release about Celia by clicking HERE!
Meanwhile I am happy that the painting has a great position at the bottom of the main escalator to the basement Theatre (see pic below) and lots of people will see it. The exhibition is on till 25 NOVEMBER 2011 so there is still time to visit a terrific and varied show and a must for anyone interested in portraiture!
UPDATE 5.12.2011
Have just collected the painting and it is now hanging in my studio again!