A striking photograph of a young County Durham boxer has been named as the winning entry in The Northern School of Art’s inaugural Foundation Art Prize competition.

Josh Pine’s image, titled ‘Calum’, pictured below, was chosen from over ninety entries to the competition, which was devised and overseen by the School’s Middlesbrough campus Foundation Art Diploma course to celebrate the talents of young creatives in the North East and Yorkshire and Humber regions.

The 17-year-old photographer from Stanley in County Durham explained that the subject of his image, Calum, is a teenager from County Durham who has Down Syndrome and has been attending boxing training for a year at a local gym.

“I wanted to work with him to promote diversity and tell Calum’s success story,” Josh, pictured below, added. “He is very sporty and active within his local community. He is achieving his dreams by doing something he loves and becoming an ambassador for the gym showing you can achieve great things if you put in the effort.”

Josh’s winning entry was one of a shortlist of thirteen finalists selected from all the entries by the Foundation Diploma course teachers at the Newport Road campus.

An independent judging panel member for the Prize, Newcastle-based visual artist Nick Kennedy, was then tasked with choosing the winner and two runners up from the finalists’ entries.

A former student on the Foundation Diploma, Nick’s practice spans drawing, sculpture, installation and performance and he commented that there were “some really interesting shortlisted works and  it was difficult to select one winner but there were three pieces that really stood out for different reasons.”

“It is fantastic to see young people who are clearly very engaged in their interests and exploring how to express themselves through making,” he added. “I’m so impressed by the commitment of all the shortlisted artists to their craft.”

Reflecting on why he chose Josh’s entry as the winner Nick said: “The photograph Josh submitted has real character. Even without his description, I was drawn in by it and it had me pondering the context for it and how Josh came to make it.

“His explanation helped me to understand that Josh is clearly interested in working with communities and seems to do so with real empathy and intrigue. Not only is it a technically strong photograph, but it has a depth to match its beauty. I will look forward to seeing a larger body of Josh’s work. Congratulations.”

Two runners up prizes were also awarded for a photograph by Iris Raine, an 18-year-old photography student from Darlington, and a pencil drawing by 16-year-old Isabel Houghton from Bishop Auckland.

Untitled by Iris Raine

‘Doing my hair’ by Isabel Houghton

Iris described her work as, “supporting my current photographic project surrounding the theme of sound, this image explores the scientific art of cymatics: a technique in which frequencies are played through water to fabricate a range of shapes/patterns. This process enables something invisible and audible to become visual and tangible – creating art simply through sound itself.”

Nick Kennedy commented: “I loved this image by Iris – it shows someone who has found an original area of research that straddles art and science. There is some mystery about the process of making that I enjoyed and I think this work shows real promise.”

Isabel explained that her piece, called ‘Doing my hair’, “depicts my dedication to realism and capture an intimate moment in a captivating way. I chose this particular subject in order to display my skills and hard work as I improve. I wanted to show through this piece the significance in which societal expectations have on teenage girls and the lengths that we go to adhere to such standards. However, I chose to add imperfections (such as the hair falling on the face) to showcase how always looking glamorous is in fact unrealistic and unattainable.”

Nick commented: “Isabel is a drawer with plenty of ability (and patience). It’s a great example of a meticulously made photo-realist portrait drawing, but I also liked that she was able to communicate emotion through the drawing.”

Josh, Iris and Isabel joined other finalists of the Foundation Art Prize at a special reception held as part of The Northern School of Art’s Middlesbrough campus end of year Summer Show where images of all of the finalists’ submissions were displayed.

The Northern School of Art’s Foundation Diploma teacher Andrew Edwards said: “We asked for a wide diversity of work to be submitted that reflected the individualism of our Foundation Diploma course and we were completely blown away by the quality of the entries.

“We are very proud of how our Foundation Diploma course gives students the opportunity to spend a year exploring and developing their creative skills and interests and the Prize was a perfect way to highlight and reward some serious future talent.”

Details of the other finalists

• Lucy Dargavel, (age 17), Harrogate, North Yorks ‘Untitled costumes’

This piece is inspired by anatomy representing the intricate networking and structure of the human body. The main techniques of this piece were free hand machine embroidery, which I used to carefully draw a detailed symmetrical pattern over a white chiffon fabric with a range of bronze and gold toned shiny embroidery threads blended through one another. I then further developed the dimensions of my dress by creating a skirt using a range of chiffon thrills. The bodice is created using 6 separate panels with adaptions made to the shape, such as a creation of a neck piece and open back, which were carefully embroidered into to ensure that each piece lined up perfectly, the pieces were joined, and a rolled seam was added to form a sophisticated and clean finish.

• Emelia Dobson, 2007 (age 16), Newcastle Upon Tyne, ‘Stardust’

This is a short film which explores costume, makeup, movement, and cinematography and how David Bowie used them all to explore gender expression. Growing up as a young queer person, I found solace in artists such as Freddie Mercury, Pierre La Roche, Kansai Yamamoto, Suzi Quattro, and many more, but none quite as much as Bowie. His wild nature and colourful expression inspired me to pursue my passion for art, performance, and film whilst exploring my own identity. I created this film as an extension of my own self-growth as not only a person, but as an artist and hoped to create a visual spectacle in the form of a short film, a media form I was entranced by but hadn’t fully explored yet. Designing and making all the costumes, makeup, filming and editing, I fell in love with filmmaking and hope that this passion bleeds through my piece.

• Katherine Every, 2006 (age 17), North Ferriby, Hull ‘Apple’

I have created this piece by using oil paints. I was originally inspired to do this piece as I was looking into lots of varying close-up artists such as Sherry Egger, Robbie Honey, and Sarah Graham. I really admired their way of bringing the smaller intricate details that you would not typically be able to see from a normal perspective by being able to view things from an up-close perspective. I was also intrigued to paint the apple as it can have multifaceted symbolism behind it. It could be perceived from a biblical reference, in particular, where Adam and Eve stole the ‘forbidden fruit.’ As it is from the concept of scarcity, which is the idea that things or experiences that are provided as sacred or difficult to obtain are more valuable and desirable. However, in its simplest form, it could just be viewed as an apple.

• Jesse Foalle, (age 17), Newcastle Upon Tyne, ‘Three siblings’

My piece is an A1 oil painting on canvas, set outside of York Minster, it shows 3 siblings appreciating the city and the view of the cathedral. The viewers eye is guided from the central figure, to her two younger brothers behind her, then finally to the couple and structure, which is York Minster, in the background. The inspiration behind this piece is the beauty of a simple life, with most paying attention to the majestic grandeur of the cathedral, just as I initially was, they overlook the beauty of the moment. The three siblings spending time together, making memories, is in my eyes equally as beautiful as the gothic-style cathedral behind them, therefore I chose to let the cathedral blur into the background, not adding as much detail as the rest of the work to make them and their relationship the key focus of the piece.

• Jenny Hardcastle, (age 17), Middlesbrough ‘Drutmir, Protector of Earth’

Drutmir is the god I have created for my final major project at college. Wandering around the overgrown New York City sometime in the 1950s, he is almost as big as the Empire state building. However, usually he is taller, as he once carried a giant tree on his back escorting souls to their final judgement, branching off into “Heaven” and “Hell”. This piece of concept art is just for his own build.

• Emily Mooney, 2005 (age 18), Healing, NE Lincolnshire, ‘Scott Major of Chromia costumes’

This piece is inspired by the character Scott Major from Empires SMP. Scott is the ruler of the colourful kingdom of Chromia, however is also an ex – adventurer who makes his own clothes. This inspired me to design and create a patchwork costume using only scrap materials. The entire piece – minus the boots – was handmade and took 4 months to complete.

• Katie Peacock, 2005 (age 18), Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough. ‘invisible string’

This work is about my research into the red string/invisible string theory, it was shot on film and edited in postproduction, I am currently looking into the most important relationships around me, thus the reason for the connections between each image.

• Henri Readman, (age 17), Spennymoor, County Durham, ‘Mania’

This piece of work is meant to express the contemporary depictions of mania within life. The construction of the figure was meant to install an office workers motif appropriate within the garments produced for the stop motion character and the selective choice of black and white monotones to depict the boredom that comes within a contemporary lifestyle. The abstract masks were inspired by Trestle masks, depictions of a simplified theatre emotions meant to conjure the three emotions composed within the piece, with the figure going through a nuanced approach towards a manic episode caused by the extremist depictions of the highly mundane work life co-existence.

• Oliver Redman, 2006 (age 17), Morpeth, Northumberland, ‘La Sagrada Familia’

My recreation of ‘La Sagrada Familia’ was inspired by a recent trip to the city of Barcelona. On this visit, I was taken back by the sheer intricate beauty of this historic building. The continued construction of the cathedral is a testament to not only the work of Gaudi when he was alive, but also the evolution of architecture, as new sections take form in different styles. This links to my project in A-Level art based on architecture, and therefore a detailed tonal drawing seemed fitting.

When I heard about the competition, I knew it would be a struggle to complete in time, but with much hard work and countless hours spent completing the piece, I was able to finish before the deadline. In a way, it feels topical that this piece would take so much from me, as it was the essence of Gaudi’s life’s work, and took him so long, he was never able to see it completed himself.

• Yeseniia Serdiuk, 2006 (age 17), Hull, ‘Lost Souls’

This is a model that was inspired by the history of Hull, it consists of a trawler, trawlermen and the sea. It represents all the lives of people that were lost at sea and also the strength of the trawlermen.

The UAL Foundation Diploma in Art & Design course is one of a number of college-level creative courses offered by The Northern School of Art. Further details are available at www.northernart.ac.uk or visit one of the School’s college level open days at its Middlesbrough campus in Newport Road. Further details and dates are available at www.northernart.ac.uk