Winners of Chesterfield College's Derbyshire Young Artist of the Year announced

The competition was open to schoolchildren in Year 4 to Year 13, who were asked to produce an illustration, a painting or collage, photography or a 3D sculpture on the theme of ‘the environment and me’.

Now in its third year, a record number of entries were received.

Isobel Greene, winner of the Visual Arts Year 7-9 category, created a striking acrylic painting on canvas of planets in outer space with a single red balloon floating in the sky.

She said: “To follow the theme I wanted to create something about how I feel about the fact we’re ruining the environment. When you let go of a balloon it escapes all that, but we’re still trapped down here. I wish I could be that balloon escaping. I worked on my piece at home but I have chosen to do Art GCSE at school next year. If I could be an artist one day I would. It is really nice to win this competition.”

Evie Burgon, winner of the 3D category, said: “I created the earth using a balloon and papier-mâché. I asked my cousins to put hand prints on the earth to represent the younger generation protecting the earth. For the back panel I used my mum’s footprints to represent the older generation’s carbon footprint. I wanted the contrast between the negative impact and the positive and that it isn’t too late to do something about it. I started by collecting newspaper cuttings of headlines about the environment and I’ve used them on the sculpture. It took me about two weeks to create it. It feels good to have won.”

Harry Bell, winner of the Visual Arts Year 4-6 category, chose to create a painting using acrylics inspired by a view of a beach out to sea with a stormy sky from the Tate Gallery in St Ives.

He said: “St Ives is one of my favourite places to go. We went to the Tate when we were there in the Easter holidays and when I saw the view out to sea from there I decided I wanted to paint it for the competition. My mum took a photo and when I got home I started using acrylics on canvas. I wanted to create texture so I mixed sand from the beach in the paint and mixed colours to show the stormy sky and sea. Winning this competition gives me a lot of confidence to paint a lot more.”

Finalists of each category are:

3D category

Winner: Evie Burgon

Finalist: Martha Bramwell

Photography

Winner: Christian Spence

Finalist: Neve McMahon

Finalist: Ellie Mae Cooper

Finalist: Daniel Azoulay

Visual Art category, Years 4-6

Winner: Harry Bell

Finalist: Charlotte Faulkner

Finalist: Kyle D

Finalist: Stephanie Wells

Visual Art category, Years 7-9

Winner: Isobel Greene

Finalist: Tansy Hoyland

Finalist: Mason Chapman

Visual Art category, Years 10-13

Winner: Courtney Lewis

Finalist: Mia Dickerson

Finalist: Kira Cooper

The exhibition is open to the public until June 28 and forms part of the college’s Arts Festival which celebrates the work of art, design and fashion students.

The college’s annual fashion show is on the June 26 at 7pm, tickets can be bought at www.chesterfield.ac.uk/event/fashion-show-2019/2019-06-26/2/