Christopher Wheeler and Oliver McConnie in upcoming exhibitions

Christopher Wheeler

Christopher Wheeler (Drawing Year 2009) has an exhibition of recent etchings coming up in April. He would like to extend an invite to the private view on Thursday 7th April (7-9pm). The exhibition is curated by Steph Hirst. More info here. 

Window Prints at ‘The Gallery Café’, 07 April - 03 May 2016 

Address: St Margarets House Settlement, 21 Old Ford Road, E2 9PL

Oliver McConnie

Oliver McConnie (Drawing Year 2014) is exhibiting in a show at ‘The Chopping Block’,Peckham alongside artists Ben Branagan, Nelmarie du Preez and Paul Elliman.

‘As We Know It - Future Mythologies of the End’, 31st March - 7th April

Private View: 31st March 7pm. Address: 22a Blenheim Grove, Peckham, London, SE15 4QN

Carl Randall on the BBC

Carl Randall (Drawing Year 2003) was recently interviewed about his Japan paintings by the BBC World Service: World Update. The article 'Carl Randall - Painting the faces in Japan's crowded cities' can be viewed here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mt7rn

Benjamin Andreas wins prize at Lynn Painter Stainers 2016

Benjamin Andreas, Hoxton square daytimeOil on board, 118 x 118 cm
Congratulations to Benjamin Andreas who won a prize for the above painting at the Lynn Painter Stainers 2016 Exhibition. 

Save the date: The Sir Denis Mahon Exhibition 2016

Rosie Vohra: To Prepare a Face

The Sir Denis Mahon Exhibition 2016

Private View Tuesday 26th April, 6 - 9pm

Exhibition dates: 
18th to 29th April 2016
Open Monday to Friday 9 am to 9 pm,
Saturday 9,30 - 4,30 pm

Address:  
The Royal Drawing School, 
19-22 Charlotte Road, 
London EC2A 3SG

Rosie Vohra studied BA (Hons) Fine Art at Leeds College of Art (2010–13) where she was awarded the Leeds Student Exhibition Award. She then took part in ‘The Drawing Year’ postgraduate programme at The Royal Drawing School (2013–14) where she was awarded The Sir Denis Mahon Award 2015/16. Selected group exhibitions include: Forever Say, Forever Always, Gage Gallery, Sheffield (2015); One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, Assembly House, Leeds (2015); Hand in Hand, Leeds College of Art (2014). Rosie is currently living and working in Leeds and is actively involved in the work of ‘Precious’ Art Collective.

My practice encompasses painting, sculpture and textiles with the act of drawing being key to the exploration of form. A significant aspect of my work involves drawing from the marrying of my imagination and observation and how this allows me to create an intuitive and conscious response to reality.

I often begin drawing from observation and adjust scenes with reoccurring characters, Indian mythology, pattern and colour. The suggestion of a narrative in these works provides a backbone to the arrangement of objects and images that are made in a variety of ways. Within these arrangements I aim to address how a piece of work has the ability to demand a physical space. I believe negative space defines our relationship to an object or another person and is an element that exists in both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional work, whether it is a figure on a page or sculpture in a room.

Being half Indian, I have always been fascinated by Indian culture. Although I have a good understanding of it, it is a side of myself I don’t feel entirely familiar with. The Sir Denis Mahon award has provided me with the opportunity to visit India for the first time, which has been an insightful period to identify, observe and confront the underlying themes of my work. The award has also allowed me to prioritise my practice as my prime daily concern with the direction of working towards an exhibition at the end of the year.

The work that will be on show at ‘To Prepare a Face’ will include embroidered wall hangings, drawings, sculpted heads and paintings on objects, all of which I consider to be an exploration of drawing. 

    

Click here to be redirected to the artist's website.

An Evening with Harry Parker (Drawing Year 2015)

An evening with former soldier and debut novelist Harry Parker (Drawing Year 2015),

Thursday, 10 March, 6.30pm

Venue: The Rifles Club, 52-56 Davies St, Mayfair, London, W1K 5HR. Ticket price: £10 (includes a copy of the book and a beer). Book here: 

http://www.faber.co.uk/faber-shortlist-presents-harry-parker.html

Harry Parker’s forthcoming book has already been praised by the likes of Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall) and General (Ret) David Petraeus, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, 2010-11.

In his book Anatomy of a Soldier, Harry Parker tells the heart-stopping story of Captain Tom Barnes who is leading British troops in a war zone. The story opens with one catastrophic act of violence, and on all sides of the conflict people become caught up in the destruction - from the man who trains one boy to fight the infidel invaders to Barnes' family waiting for him to return home. We see them not as they see themselves, but as all the objects surrounding them do: a bicycle, a drone, an exploding IED, a beer glass, dog tags and weaponry.

Harry Parker joined the British Army when he was twenty-three and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is now a writer and an artist, and lives in London.

Harry's book has been reviewed by the Guardian, Reader's Digest, the Evening Standard and the FT.

15 RDS Artists in Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2016

15 artists are representing the Royal Drawing School in this year’s edition of the  Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize.  

RDS Faculty Julie Held, Susan Wilson, Cherry Pickles and Melissa Scott-Miller and RDS Alumni Benjamin Andreas, Timothy Betjeman, Nicholas Bush, David Caldwell, Daniel MacCarthy, George Colley, Phoebe Cope, Tyga Helme, Francis Martin, Daniel Shadbolt and Jennifer Smith have work in the exhibition which opens to the public on 7^th March and continues until 13 March 2016. See images of the artwork here  

Address: The Mall Galleries, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5BD

Image: Susan Wilson’s painting ‘Anita in Albanian dress’. The model for the painting is RDS Alumna Anita Kavaya (Drawing Year 2012).  

The Columbia Threadneedle Prize

Congratulations to our Alumni who are included in this year's Columbia Threadneedle Prize for figurative art, currently on show at The Mall Galleries, London (3 - 20 February 2016). Four RDS Alumni have work in the exhibition: Oliver Bedeman (Drawing Year 2008), Alison Boult (Drawing Year 2013), Rebecca Harper (Drawing Year 2013), Coll McDonnell (Drawing Year 2008). Laura Smith (Drawing Year 2004) is among the 6 artists shortlisted for the prize. 

If you visit the exhibition, look out for three small paintings by RDS life model  Thomas Doran, who many of you will know well from Susan Wilson's class 'Drawing the Body Clothed'. The exhibition is open 10 – 5 pm. Address: The Mall Galleries. The Mall, SW1, London

  

You can view images of all the work in the exhibition here:

 http://www.threadneedleprize.com/page/3262/The+Exhibition

The Royal Drawing School's inaugural U.S. exhibition

'Love is in the Air' by Paul Gopal-Chowdhury

Jan. 23, 2016 – Feb. 7, 2016

Christie's, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, USA

Following on from the recent exhibition at Christie's London, the Royal Drawing School was invited to curate a large exhibition of drawings at Christie’s New York, to run alongside Master Drawings Week 2016 and the Christie's Old Master and British Drawings sale. The exhibition spans three rooms and includes over 70 drawings from alumni, faculty and artists closely associated with the Royal Drawing School.

List of Exhibiting Artists:

Sarah Armstrong-Jones, Jeanette Barnes, Alison Boult , Kirsty Buchanan, Lilias Buchanan, Meg Buick , Richard Burton, Claudia Carr , Sophie Charalambous, Daniel Chatto, Perienne Christian, Michelle Cioccoloni, David Dawson , Constanza Dessain, Ann Dowker, Clara Drummond, Jonathan Farr, Kristian Fletcher, Laura Footes, Jake Garfield, Catherine Goodman, Paul Gopal-Chowdhury, Florian Graf, Christopher Green, Rebecca Harper, Linda Heathcoat-Amory, Tyga Helme, Timothy Hyman RA, Claerwen James, Olivia Kemp, Melissa Kime, Justine King, Tarka Kings, Christopher Le Brun PRA, John Lessore, Jessie Makinson, Charlotte Mann, Kathryn Maple, Ishbel Myerscough, Thomas Newbolt, Humphrey Ocean RA, Stuart Pearson Wright, Sarah Pickstone, Claire Price, Carl Randall, Pippa Ridley, Fraser Scarfe, Alice Shirley, Phoebe Stannard, Charlotte Verity, Rosie Vohra

Fred Clark Open Studio

Fred Clark is having an open studio this weekend. Starting tonight. He will be exhibiting a selection of drawings from Burma. There's a winter market and lots of other artists opening their doors including Frank Bowling RA. It's a great place to see a whole host of different crafts and arts in London. 

Address: 10 Peacock Yard, Iliffe street, SE17 3LH 

Friday 6-11, Saturday 11-6, Sunday 11-6 

Drawing in the Prado

Olivia Kemp and Clementine Moyes, recipients of the 2015 Richard Ford Travel Scholarship, have just returned from Spain where they spent two months making studies of the works in the Prado museum. Still full of excitement from her recent trip Olivia says that 'working in The Prado has been an amazing experience.' 

'I have discovered the work of artists I had never heard of such as Melendez, Murillo and Zurbaran. Mostly it has forced me to analyze why I love certain paintings but would probably never draw them and why others are instantly appealing. This in turn has taught me a lot about my own work and what I’m looking for going forward.'

 

(above) Olivia Kemp, drawing after Jacopo Bassano's "The Animals entering the Ark" 

 

(above) Olivia Kemp, drawing after Rubens' "The Adoration of the Magi"