I’ve just finished writing an article for The Artist about an art competition/exhibition that I’m particularly familiar with (of which more at a later date this year).
It made me wonder what makes people enter art competitions.
I know a lot of people find them very scary – which is one of the reasons why I write “calls for entries” posts to demystify some of the aspects which frighten people.
My first art competition
I then remembered that I won an art competition I didn’t even know I had entered. However I was six at the time!
That’s a great way not to get nervous!
This very fine painting of a Squirrel enjoying a nut while sat on the branch of a tree with lots of smaller branches won my age group in a competition run by the Hale National Savings Committee. Children were asked to develop a painting based on the word “Saving”.
I think the idea was to introduce children to a good habit and maybe get some artwork for use in promoting savings in the area! I’ve got a feeling my painting went on to the national finals.
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| I won first prize in an art competition in 1960 – age 6. |
The odd thing is I have a very clear memory of the infants classroom in which I created the painting – and how much my teacher liked it.
I can remember virtually nothing of my infant school days – apart from doing this painting.
Which is, of course, the other great thing about paintings. They help you remember where and when you painted it.
Drawing development in children
See also this post from the archive about Drawing development in children (courtesy of the Wayback Machine – because the original website is no longer online)
This says that age 6, the child arrives at The schematic stage
The child arrives at a “schema,” a definite way of portraying an object, although it will be modified when he needs to portray something important. The schema represents the child’s active knowledge of the subject. At this stage, there is definite order in space relationships: everything sits on the base line.
I think, despite being 6, I had gone past that stage. The next one is described below
The child finds that schematic generalization no longer suffices to express reality. This dawning of how things really look is usually expressed with more detail for individual parts, but is far from naturalism in drawing. Space is discovered and depicted with overlapping objects in drawings and a horizon line rather than a base line. Children begin to compare their work and become more critical of it. While they are more independent of adults, they are more anxious to conform to their peers.
I’ve definitely got overlapping objects!
By way of contrast, Betty Edwards perspective on the 6 year old was as follows
The Landscape
By five or six, children develop a set of symbols to create a landscape that eventually becomes a single variation repeated endlessly. A blue line and sun at the top of the page and a green line at the bottom become symbolic representations of the sky and ground. Landscapes are compose carefully, giving the impression that removing any single form would throw off the balance of the whole picture.
followed by, age 8
The stage of complexity
At nine or ten years, children try for more detail, hoping to achieve greater realism, a prized goal. Concern for where things are in their drawings is replaced by concern for how things look– particularly tanks, dinosaurs, super heroes, etc. for boys; models, horses, landscapes, etc. for girls.
