Where Are They Now? | Evie Atton

See below a guest post by ex Fine Art and Photography student Evie Atton, who studied here 2014 - 2016 and has recently graduated with a first class honours in Fine Art at the University of Lincoln! Well done Evie! 

Within my time at Thomas Rotherham College I studied Fine Art, Photography and Geography before transitioning straight into university life. I chose the University of Lincoln due to its contemporary and modern outlook within the arts, from exhibition curation to catalogue design, the course provides understanding to professionalise your practice.

Art and photography at TRC helped me find my technique and style as I felt there was no boundaries, I was just pushed to create ANYTHING. I went from a traditional painting/drawing mindset to exploring other possibilities within installation and sculpture. With my already-made portfolios evidencing tons of different types of techniques, materials and ideas I was ready for my university interviews.

I have just graduated with a First-Class Honours after completing 3 years of Fine Art, within these years I have experienced catalogue design, solo and group exhibition curation, arts management, funding proposals and much more alongside building and creating my artworks.

My ideal goal is to become an art therapist/teacher for children with disabilities, so the next step is to apply for a PGCE (teaching course). Currently beside my art commissions, I am involving myself within art residencies, which are usually community run exhibitions to gain further experience before hopefully setting up my own business.

My website ; https://evehfrancesca.wixsite.com/evieatton

Images are from my most recent exhibition ‘PIE N EARS’. The piece ‘Sensorium’

is an immersive space that influences a participant to become more aware of their senses; focusing on individuality, first person experience and perception.

Exhibition and Awards Evening | 2019

This years Exhibition and Awards Evening was held on Thursday the 20th of June. During the day we welcomed students and staff from Clifton and Oakwood Academy, who were showed around by Sarah, Abi and Lyn, as well as our A2 students Tom and Laura who had volunteered to talk about their work to our visitors.

 

At 11.30 we were honoured to welcome the Mayor and Mayoress, who were greeted by Sarah, Abi, David Naisbitt and Dave Shaw. Their enthusiasm and support for the students work was incredible, we were so appreciative of their time and kind words about the exhibition. Thank you again to Tom and Laura for presenting their work, you should be really proud of yourselves, you did a fantastic job!



We were also visited by Sarah Champion, who was really engaged and interested in all the work and the stories behind it. Again, it was lovely to receive such a warm response about the exhibition and to hear someone else's interpretation of the art and what they thought of it. We are so humbled by both Sarah and the Mayor and Mayoresses's interest in our exhibition and we thank them greatly for their time. 



Then, after a busy day, we began the evening itself. It was so lovely to see so many of our A2 students come along and bring so many friends and family to see the work, by half past 5 the department was packed! Everyone who came was so positive and enthusiastic about the work, and everyone seemed to be having a really nice time. This is the evening our whole year pretty much revolves around, and it the day we look forward to the most. It's so wonderful to see everyone's hard work pay off, and it allows us to stand back and see all the skill, effort and determination our A2 students have put into their two years here at TRC. Congratulations to everyone that won an award, but also just a massive well done to all of you, you should all be really proud of yourselves!

 

All in all, we had a fantastic day, so we hope you all did too! Good luck for everything in the future, we hope to see you all soon.

 

This years awards were as follows:

Highly Commended In Fine Art – Hajrah Jawad 

High Commended in Graphic Communication – Mia Furniss

Highly Commended in Photography - Daisy Ward

Innovation Award -  Sophie Noble

Achievement across more than one endorsement - James Mellor

Exhibition Space Award – Klaudia Sobieska

Painting Award – Laura Turner

Photography Award – Georgia Whitham

Printmaking Award – Katie Hamilton-Midlane

Sketchbook Award – Tom Stocks

Written Personal Study Award – Olivia Hawley

Most Improved in Fine Art – Bushra Mahmood

Most Improved in Graphics – Emily Burgin

Most Improved in Photography – Rachael Sinclair

Life Drawing at ROAR | A2 Trip 2019

Yesterday we had our first ever experience of life drawing here in the TRC art department, and it was absolutely fantastic! The chance to do life drawing was such an unmissable opportunity for our students, it is an invaluable experience that we hope really inspired them and is something they will carry with them in their artistic endeavors in the future! 

Rotherham Open Arts Renaissance (ROAR) is an organisation funded by the Arts Council that is situated in the heart of Rotherham. They offer some really exciting opportunities such as artist talks and evening classes, so please check out their website for more information or follow them on Facebook to keep an eye out for any interesting events you could get involved in!  http://rotherhamroar.com/

So, at 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon we headed down into Rotherham, and by 2 we had arrived and were all set up ready to get started! The session was lead by our very own Lyn, who did a fantastic job squeezing a days worth of teaching into just 2 hours! We were so impressed by how engaged and up for the challenge all our students were, their enthusiasm, hard work and attitude in representing the department and the college never fails to make us proud!

Here are just a few snaps of what was a really fantastic trip, we already can't wait to go again!

Royal Academy A Level Summer Online Exhibition | 2018

This year we had 12 students submit artwork to the Royal Academy A-Level Summer Exhibition. This is a prestigious exhibition that receives over 2,000 submissions, and artwork chosen is featured on the Royal Academy website. The deadline to enter was on the 11th of May, and we encouraged all our students to submit as many pieces as they wanted.

We then received some news when the exhibition opened on the 12th of June....

Chosen from over 2,000 submissions, Maddie Noble’s piece ‘Fagility and Decay’ was chosen to be exhibited in the online gallery, and Elisa Hurley’s ‘Safety Blanket’ was one of 19 commended works shortlisted by the judges. Well done!! This is a huge honour and a fantastic accomplishment!

Madeline Noble

'Fagility and Decay'
'I gathered inspiration from my own experiences with mental health as well as from Dutch still-life paintings that focus on deterioration of physical substances. The mind is extremely temperamental and can deteriorate very quickly, which I have portrayed by incorporating decay in my portraiture.'

Elisa Hurley

'Safety Blanket'
'I interpreted the appearance of people hiding away in fear behind this protection barrier. This is the reason for me to recreate the window that acts like a safety blanket to take the impact of the destruction instead of damaging the freedom that people have. I chose to incorporate a large piece of fabric coated in plaster to represent a curtain that is set in place to eliminate the destruction from reaching into people's lives. As I have worked with plaster, it is a substance which can be broken easily. This represents the hope that people had when it came to them hoping that they would have been able to escape.'

This story was also covered by the Rotherham Advertiser, who came in to photograph Maddie and Elisa with their work on the exhibition evening as well as a group picture of all the students that had attended:

https://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/leisure/view,fear-and-decay-impress-art-critics_27627.htm