The Drawing Year 2014–15 End of Year Exhibition

The Royal Drawing School presents the end of year postgraduate exhibition which includes over 300 drawing by 28 students.

The exhibition offers a range of work, rich in observation, imagination and storytelling. The graduating artists come from a range of backgrounds and artistic disciplines including painting, printmaking, sculpture, illustration and animation. Drawing is a crucial route to innovation across the creative disciplines and beyond, from fashion, fine art and animation to filmmaking, product design and engineering. Drawing is a primary language natural to all human beings, and fundamental to all aspects of learning and thinking from childhood onwards. The highly subscribed postgraduate course offers all 28 students a full scholarship to spend a year on an intensive MA-level course, taught by a faculty of over 55 practising artists, providing high-quality drawing teaching to young contemporary artists.

Featured artist Christabel Forbes was so determined to get on the course, she hitchhiked from Falmouth where she was a studying on the Fine Art BA course, to London to attend the open day when the Dawlish Railway had collapsed into the sea in February 2014.  Artists also include James Albon, whose illustrations have appeared in The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal, Caitlin Stone, a video and installation artist and a previous graduate of Goldmsiths BA Fine Art, who produces hyper sensitive and detailed drawings. Not all graduates have come from a fine art background, Douglas Farthing previously served in the British Army Parachute Regiment with no formal art training before The Drawing Year – the acute perception of the tension and beauty in life acquired as a soldier now serve him well as an artist. 

HRH The Prince of Wales founded the Royal Drawing School (previously The Prince’s Drawing School) along with artist Catherine Goodman in 2000. The School has a long heritage of esteemed artists and creatives supporting its mission and the work of the students. David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, David Shrigley, Sir Peter Blake, Cornelia Parker and Sir Quentin Blake are among those who have shown their support to the School as visiting artists and lecturers, while Christopher Le Brun President of the Royal Academy and Andrea Rose OBE CMG, former Director of Visual Arts at the British Council for over 20 years, both sit on the board of Trustees.