Cymraeg | English

Kyffin Williams Drawing Prize 2009 ~ Introduction

Introduction | E-Exhibition | Artists | Winners | Guest Book

One of the many things that Sir Kyffin railed against during the latter part of his life was the fact that art schools rarely taught drawing. In part, that is why the Kyffin Williams Trust decided this year to offer a Drawing Prize. In the Open section the response was terrific, in numbers and quality; in the Student section not so.

 Drawing underpins the visual language with which artists make art. It is what enables them to record what they see, it is what allows them to understand the nature and essence of their subject-matter, and it is what allows them to identify their imaginative interpretation of that subject. When we say that the use of drawing books is the best method of recording visual language, we immediately emphasise the fundamental importance of drawing. The mastery of drawing is what leads artists, through knowledge and thought and philosophy,  to achieve a style that is at once an exploratory technique and an interpretation of life. The imagination which interprets life is what enables men and women of artistic talent to transcend the material world and recreate it emotionally and experientially. It is because of its power to imagine things transcendentally that many of us seek and revere art.

In many art schools and faculties drawing – from the figure, for example – has been dismissed as a useless occupation. As a result, generations of visual artists have graduated from colleges without visual language, the basis for confident imaginative interpretation. Drawing needs to be reinstated as a fundamental element of the education of artists.

The fact that only a handful of Student entries were considered worthy of inclusion in the Exhibition reflects what is happening in art schools and testifies to our concern. They were interesting works, but they lacked authority, lacked imagination. The judges unanimously agreed not to award the Student Prize.

The large number of entries for the Open Prize demonstrated a distinctive range of artists who construct powerful visual languages of their own. There were some examples of ‘obsessive’ observation of the highest order, a few examples of accomplished artists seizing momentary impressions in modestly sized images associated with the drawing book, and some major pieces which were complex and large in scale.


“Deep Inside” by Louisa Theunissen, which receives the First Prize, captivated the judges with its power and poetry. It is a drawing which creates an intense, sombre glow, a drawing that at once defines the dread of death’s doom and articulates some other awe.

The Second Prize is awarded to Dafydd Hedd ap Hywel for his “Self Portrait.” Taking classic models as his starting point, he is bold and expressive in his draughtsmanship. With a freedom of hand that is also disciplined he creates and loses form, and invents additional textures which have an intuitive freshness.

Sir Kyffin would have been delighted with the range of work selected for the Prize Exhibition, and would have appreciated and enjoyed its quality. We are proud to have had the honour of judging this Drawing Prize.

PAUL JOYNER
CHRISTINE KINSEY
ELERI MILLS
DEREC LLWYD MORGAN
MAURICE SHEPPARD