Portrait painter Alexander Talbot Rice launches his academy of art and scholarship programme at ancestral home Dinefwr Park and Castle, Wales. Awards prizes to winners of drawing competition at reception hosted by the National Trust.
Dinefwr Park and Castle, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire: Monday, June 16, 2008 Alexander Talbot Rice, 38, the accomplished portrait painter and proponent of classical fine art training for young talent, today announced the winners of his Welsh schools drawing competition. The nine winners were awarded prizes during a reception hosted by the National Trust at Newton House, Dinefwr Park and Castle on Friday evening, June 13. Eight secondary schools in Carmarthenshire took part in the competition which received over 200 drawings entries by students aged between 11 and 18 across the region.
The drawing competition heralds the launch of the Alexander Talbot Academy of Art and Charity Scholarship Program which is designed to give talented children, who might otherwise not have the opportunity to pursue a career in fine art, to develop their skills at centres of excellence around the world.
Alexander Talbot Rice said, ‘The entries exhibited in this competition are a testament to the enthusiasm and talent this initiative has generated. Thanks to The National Trust, at Dinefwr Park and Castle, we have the opportunity to initiate the scholarship programme at Dinefwr, whose soil is soaked with magic and history. It is not only my ancestral home but a place I love, where Welsh law was written and the first Eisteddfodau organised. My vision is to create an artistic community here that will be international in scope. By providing young students with the opportunity to train at academies around the world, we intend to revolutionise contemporary art.’
The competition entries were judged on May 19 by the distinguished Welsh historian Professor Prys Morgan, Alexander Talbot Rice and The Hon. Alexandra Foley, a Friend of the Academy. The first prize winners, selected from three age groups, were Carys Jones (Tregib School), Aloysia Letitia Barnes (Tregib School) and Alex Glover (Pantycelyn School) These winners, along with the thirty five runners up, will be interviewed for the opportunity to be amongst the first five children to gain scholarships funded by the Academy Scholarship Charity. The first Academy Scholarship programme will take place in Florence during the Summer holidays in 2009.
Professor Prys Morgan said, ‘It is opportune that this place, with its age-old tradition of patronage of the arts in Wales, should once again have new pulsating life through the patronage of young Welsh people who will be the artists of the future.’
Dinefwr Castle, built in the 12th century, is steeped in Welsh history and was the seat of the first Prince of South Wales, Lord Rhys, a direct ancestor of Alexander Talbot Rice’s. It is also home to the famous white cattle of the Lady of the Lake legend. The Dinefwr Historic Landscape Restoration Project is being taken forward by the partnership of three organisations - The National Trust, Wildlife Trust South West Wales and CADW, and is funded by the Wales European Funding Office and the Heritage lottery Fund. As part of the project the National Trust is restoring the courtyard buildings at Newton House. In the future the inner courtyard will hopefully house a range of rooms that will be used as classrooms, lecture rooms and art studios, all celebrating art culture. The Fine Art Courses offered at the Academy will help to raise money to foster young talent in fine art and the ongoing work of The National Trust.
Alexander Talbot Rice gained a scholarship to study classical portraiture in Florence before becoming the first Briton to study at the famed Repin Academy in St. Petersburg where he was invited to paint Altynia Asylmoratova, the former prima ballerina of the Kirov ballet. Three months after leaving St. Petersburg, Talbot Rice was asked by Buckingham Palace to paint HM The Queen. His other commissions include HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Westminster, the American society hostess Mrs. Winston (C.Z.) Guest, and the late Bobby Short.
The winners in the 5+ top category were:
In the years 7-9 (11-14 year olds)
- Winner: Carys Jones, Tregib – Portrait of a Girl by Moonlight
Runners Up:
- Bethan Thomson, Llandovery College – Portrait of a Young Girl (second place)
- Lowri Roberts, Bro Myrddin – Old Man Reading Newspaper (third place)
- Lottie Williams, Tregib – Still Life of Apples in Bowl (fourth place)
Years 10 and 11 (15-16 year olds)
- Winner: Aloysia Letitia Barnes, Tregib – Dinefwr Keep
Runners Up:
- Thomas Perdran James, Bro Myrddin – Portrait of Girl with Flower in Hair
- Georgina Young, Tregib – Langan Bay
- Xien Witt, Tregib – Welsh Mountain Landscape
Years 12 and 13 (17-18 year olds)
- Winner: Alex Glover, Pantycelyn – Babe in Arms
Runners Up:
- Emma Grace Brabook, Maes-y-Yrfa– Profile Portrait of Woman
- Scott Morgan, Maes-y-Yrfa– Self Portrait
- Carwyn David, Maes-y-Yrfa - Bruce
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