Students from Bristol School of Art create bespoke RWA merch
For the second year in a row, RWA has teamed up with students at SGS Bristol School of Art for a special collaboration.
Last year, the students created a range of tea-towels that were inspired by the work of artists in the Annual Open Exhibition. They sold out in a matter of days.
Based on the success of last year’s pilot, this year’s Foundation students have created a new range of tea-towels inspired by the 172 Annual Open Exhibition.
The collaboration between SGS and RWA is all about exploring the journey of being an artist, from a fledging Foundation student at BSOA to a professional artist exhibiting at RWA.
The AOE invites artists from all stages of their careers to submit their work, with works being selected anonymously. Many of the artists, like the BSOA students, have studied for a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, including current exhibitor Jim George Grant, who graduated from BSOA this year.
The project took students through the full design process - from interpreting an initial brief, to sourcing inspiration, researching, ideating, art working and printing the final product. Along the way they received feedback on their ideas from the RWA.
A key part of the process has been communicating with the artists who inspired them. Working with the RWA meant that students had the opportunity to get in touch with the artists via email to ask questions about their work. They had the chance to learn about the artists’ journeys first-hand – how they moved from novice to professional artist exhibiting in a national gallery.
Three of the students chose Neil Adams' artwork, Citrus diptych. The artwork is acrylic on reclaimed plywood.
Marcia's tea towel design based on Citrus diptych.
Marcia: What inspired you to combine two subjects that are quite opposite in the industry, being maths/science and art?
Neil: I'm an engineer by training; I started my career in the building industry. I always found beauty in the mathematical constructions for geometric shapes, in architectural blueprints and so on. Most people find it hard to appreciate the beauty and elegance in things like mathematical proofs and methods, but I hope that putting things like this into artwork might help to at least provide a bit of a bridge.
Iris: What was the inspiration behind painting a diptych?
Neil: In all honesty, it didn't start out as one. I painted the orange first and I got a lot of positive comments from my art teacher and the Artful Weasels group that I paint with, so I decided to try another painting in a similar vein. It then made sense to enter them for the RWA as a single piece exploring the idea of deconstruction.
Marcia: I am interested in the work because there is a scientific aspect to this. Why have you picked lemons and oranges?
Neil: We can credit my art teacher for this. He made me do still life, which I
found that I started to enjoy more than I ever thought that I would. I got the idea for the first painting, the orange, while peeling a satsuma, so I just ran with it. I have a series of other paintings exploring deconstruction with fruit: apples being reframed with cubism, a banana as a construction blueprint and a strawberry cut as a gemstone.
The tea towels are available to buy in the RWA Shop over the festive period, with the students deciding as a group how to spend the money from the sales. Last year, the money was used to create end-of-year programmes.
The Foundation students are:
Anthony Westwood, Scarlett Rogers, Iris Low, Milo Capewell, Marcia Ferrari-Walker, Isla Holdstock, Tilly Trethowan, Evie Medcalf, Rosie Turvey, Bea Seviour, Tuula Potts Dawson, Ellie Oldham-Green, Anwen Lewis, Joad Ellis, Scarlett Stokoe, Isaac Lambert.
About SGS Bristol School of Art
The BSOA is located in the RWA building. The Foundation Diploma at SGS is a free, yearlong course for 17 to 18-year-olds. There are additional bursaries and financial support available: Foundation Diploma Art & Design (Queens Road)