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Top draw at Hatfield Art Exhibition

(8 July 2005)

This year’s Hatfield Art Exhibition was somewhat special, because judging entries of the annual competition was The Guardian art critic and writer, Bill Varley. The exhibition, which is organised by the Hatfield Art Society in conjunction with Hatfield College Senior Common Room (SCR), awards prizes for work in three categories: painting and drawing, photography, and 3-D work.

Winner of the category for painting and drawing was Ancient History and Archaeology student Edward Cole, with his painting of Durham Cathedral. Bill Varley was impressed with the work as “the best paintings draw you into the foreground, which is exactly what Edward’s painting does.” Mr Varley added that there was a mood to it, which captured the Cathedral perfectly, in his opinion, “a very deserving prize winner.”

The photography category was won by Katrina Black, reading Politics and History, for her portrayal of two children collecting water from a stream under the shadows of the dense undergrowth in East Ghana. Varley explained the brilliance of it with a quote from Robert Doisneau, the French photographer famous for the ‘kiss by the Hotel de Ville’. “To suggest is to create, to describe is to destroy.” Mr Varley went on to explain that a photograph is a lot less interesting if you can see every little detail. The dimness of the African women, which Katrina managed to create perfectly, leaves the imagination to interpret.

Katrina said that she was thrilled to win, but above all she was pleased to be able to display her work, and have it recognised as art. “Often people see photographs simply as snaps, and fail to appreciate the artistic side of photography.”

The winner of the 3 dimensional work category was Geography undergraduate Ruth Holiday. Having been inspired to take up bookbinding whilst studying at Banbury Art College, Ruth made a book combining different artistic techniques such as continuous line drawings, sketching and collage. To do these she used a variety of materials such as biro, fine liner, pen, tipex, graphite, inks and various scrap papers and card. She created a star book, which is exhibited by fanning out the pages to make a ten point star.

All the prizes, which were £50 for each category were kindly donated by local businessman Tom Baker, who is a member of the SCR. Additionally, each prize winner received a certificate signed by Bill Varley in recognition of their fantastic achievement.