Community college students up for award

TWO students from Exmouth Community College have been nominated for a national art prize. Jamie Biddulph, 18, and Natalie Jenkins, 18, have made it into the top 100 shortlist for the Young Brits at Art competition, run by the Equality and Human Rights Com

TWO students from Exmouth Community College have been nominated for a national art prize.

Jamie Biddulph, 18, and Natalie Jenkins, 18, have made it into the top 100 shortlist for the Young Brits at Art competition, run by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The competition is aimed at 11 to 19-year-olds. The award ceremony takes place in London this July.

It encourages people to think about who they are and how they are perceived in society and convey this in their work.

More than 1,600 students from Scotland, England and Wales entered.

Jamie said he gained inspiration from famous American artist Robert Rauschenberg for his drawings.

"The main thing I like about his work was the way he layers his images to create a collage referring to the topic that he is using," added Jamie.

"This was the sort of thing I tried to do in my project. I found images and took pictures of the things I like and started to layer them on top of one another.

"My whole project is black and white because I like those type of pictures."

Natalie said she decided to use a range of different materials for her project.

"I incorporated money and sun glasses as they are both relevant to me.

"I think that my image is relevant to living in Britain today as it is very busy and vibrant which reflects life in Britain today," she explained.