A 17-YEAR-OLD Jersey College for Girls student has won this year’s prestigious Fox Open Art Competition.
Edie Le Blancq was announced as the outright winner of the 41st Channel Island competition with her painting Second Prize in a Beauty Contest, described by Yorkshire-based judge Tom Wood as “an ambitious painting full of visual opportunities”.
Ms Le Blancq’s work was selected as the most outstanding entry among the work of 120 artists across the Channel Islands who submitted almost 200 works. It is the second time in the past three years that a 17-year-old has taken the top award in a competition judged anonymously by an artist from outside the Island. Previous winners include some of the Island’s most respected artists including Jason Butler, David Henley, Ian Rolls, Martin McDowell and Kevin Pallot.
For the student, who is currently studying A-level art, it was a surprise.
“I was like: Are you sure? I got the voice-message and thought I’d won the under-18 section but it was the whole thing,” Ms Le Blancq said. “I thought that’s brilliant. I was really chuffed because it did take my whole summer.”
Second Prize in a Beauty Contest presents the artist and two friends engaged in a game of Monopoly.
But realistic as the piece appears, with its wealth of detail, closer inspection reveals it to be an imaginary or “nonsense” game, the details do not have any real meaning, according to the artist.
For Ms Le Blancq, art is “incredibly important”.
“I’ve got that kind of brain. I love art – it’s my favourite subject and I love other aspects of art like music. Music played a massive role in this piece because I listened to so much. It powered me on. Art is my favourite thing – it’s so lovely to do and really helpful to me,” she said.
De La Salle student Ned Dixon took the Jock Russell award for entrants aged 12 to 18 for his painting The News, a piece which “is not a nice painting but [is] deeply relevant”, the judge observed.
At a prize-giving ceremony conducted by Stuart Fox, managing director of J.J. Fox International, last week four other Jersey artists – Michael Humpage, John Waters, Peter Thomson and Ray Banks – were also recognised for their highly commended work along with Guernsey artist Susanna MacInnes.
This year’s exhibition comprising almost 30 of the pieces selected by the judge are on show in the Arts Centre’s Berni Gallery until Saturday 11 November when they will transfer to Guernsey’s George Crossan Gallery for an exhibition running from Monday 21 to Saturday 25 November.
