Certificate Student work selected for the RA Summer Exhibition

Jun 13, 2018

We are delighted to report that Stella Davis a student on our Certificate course has not only had a piece of her work accepted for the RA Summer Exhibition but it has also Sold! Many Congratulations to Stella! Her Artist statement follows:

'Having grown up in an artistic family, I came late to it myself and didn’t start my formal art training until my own family left home. I studied Drawing, Painting and Graphic Design and taught myself Printmaking with Open College of the Arts. Printmaking was the process I fell in love with and I supplemented my studies with Courses at Gainsborough’s House Print Workshop in Sudbury, Suffolk and annual trips to meet professional printmakers exhibiting at Printfest in Ulverston, Cumbria.
After too many years of working alone, in 2016 I took the decision to forfeit the Degree, claim my Diploma in Creative Arts, and spend the money saved for my final year doing the Certificate Course at Curwen Print Study Centre near Cambridge. It is a decision I have not regretted for a minute as I feel I have really found my feet as an artist and Printmaker. My confidence, skills and inquisitiveness have grown immensely. Coming from career of teaching adults, I have led many art for well-being workshops, but I am very pleased at the moment to be focussed on making my own art.
Collagraph, Lino and Screenprints are my preferred techniques, but more than that, I am excited by pattern, dimension and light and am moving into cutting, folding and 3D presentation of my work.
“Journey” represents the path I have travelled to arrive at this point, and the launching into new areas of work. I am absolutely thrilled that it has been understood and included in the “Radical Geometry” Gallery of the RA Summer Exhibition 2018 curated by Conrad Shawcross RA. Even more excitingly, my work was sold on Day One! The last month for me has had its highs and lows. I have turned 60, taken voluntary redundancy from work, been treated with Chemotherapy following surgery for breast cancer; my RA success has come at just the right time and boosted my confidence to see what the future holds.
It was a great privilege to attend Varnishing Day on 4th June, a real ceremony for artists with steel band, thoughtful and exciting church service and champagne reception. The exhibition in the newly extended RA premises is beautifully created this year and spacious throughout. The new Print gallery is superb and varied and a huge improvement on previous year’s displays.'

Stella Davis June 2018