Winners announced of Newbury portraits of inspiring women competition for young people 7-21

OVER the summer The Base launched the Inspiring Portrait Competition in anticipation of this autumn’s exhibition, 20 Historical Women who Change the World by Chinwe Russell, currently running in the gallery until November 19 to celebrate the many wonderful women influencing our everyday lives.

Open to aspiring artists between the ages of seven and 21 years, the brief was to artistically capture a woman in their life who inspires them.

One winning portrait has been chosen from three age groups from 7-9 years, 10-14 years and 15-21 years. The overall winning artist won a one-to-one workshop with portrait and Base resident artist Ellie Kerr-Smiley.

The winning artwork is currently being displayed in the Runway Gallery.

Overall Winner: Angela Stoyanova, age 17

Title: Maika

“For my portrait I decided to draw my mother from a photo taken from when she was the same age as me – 17.

“Within my work, while being semi-realistic, I have also worked to a more impressionistic style, sketching her hair to slowly cross hatch further and further from her face.

“My mother has been my inspiration for my whole life, always listening to me, always supporting me and always loving me.

“The reason why I chose this certain reference is because of the similarities I believe I shared with my mother at the same age – we both have a deep passion for art and everything artful, and both wished to study it to a further level in the future. Without my mother’s constant and never-ending support for my love of art, I truly don’t know if I’d be the same person I am today.

“So, this is why I decided to capture her in this way in the portrait. Gazing out towards the future we both wanted so – one spent loving art.”

Runners-up:

7-9 years

Eleanor Dunn, age 8

Title: Inspiring Portraits

“My portrait is a picture of my cousin Georgia who is 16. I have used felt tip pens to make an abstract drawing in lots of different colours being red, green, orange, yellow, pink, turquoise, blue, brown, grey, black and purple.

“These represent Georgia’s emotions of happy, amazing, supportive, kind, sporty, loud, respectful, responsible, helpful, bossy and hard-working. I like my picture because it is really colourful just like Georgia and the way that it’s laid out.

“Georgia is inspiring to me because she does rugby and she is really good at it.

“She looks after me sometimes and plays with me and takes me to the park and on walks. Sometimes she comes to meet me after school and always makes lots of time for me.”

10-14 Years

Winnie Zama, age 10

Title: Frida’s Wings

“Frida Kahlo really inspires me because although she had a damaged leg, she used it as art. She drew lots of pictures of flowers, but also her foot.

“She always used to say, ‘Feet? What do I need you for when I have wings to fly?’ For me she was a very inspiring artist, and so I drew her with a great big pair of wings, and flowers.”

15-21 years

Fyodor Hamilton, age 16

Title: The Vampire Anne

“I have represented Anne Rice, an author who is well-known for her Vampire Chronicles. She’s an inspiration to me for her genius book-writing and her strong will. Rice was determined to write her books in her own way and even refused to have any editors work with her at one point.

“During her life, she was known also for being an advocate for the LGBT+ community which means heaps to me as someone who is part of the community.

“Rice even went as far as to say that she ‘feels like [she is] gay’ and had a ‘gay sensibility’.

“I have done my best to honour this brilliant woman by the means of oil paints.”