From over 500 sketchbook submissions, the winners of SKETCH 2017 have been announced, with First Prize going to Leeds based artist Garry Barker. His pen and wash topographic studies are interwoven with the tales and stories of the times of their making, each drawing demonstrating outstanding draughtsmanship and mark-making skills. Garry was awarded a £500 voucher from internationally renowned materials brand Derwent at the Sketch 2017 reception, held at Rabley Drawing Centre in Wiltshire.

Second Prizewinner Lesley Hicks’ dynamic sketchbook hones in on and celebrates elements of the vista which are often overlooked. Highlighting the pleasure of discovery, her instinctive studies draw viewers’ eyes to structural features within the landscape – a watertank, a fence, an alleyway – revealing a myriad of colours and textures.

Beñat Olaberria was the recipient of the SKETCH 2017 Student Prize; he explores with great maturity, the edge and the space between forms in abstract compositions. The ambiguous images avoid any hint of landscape or perspective, encouraging viewers to find their own meaning within the pages of the sketchbook.

The Rabley Print Editioning Prize was awarded to Tom Cartmill who renders tides of lines across the paper to form strong, geometric shapes. The drawings appear to be in a state of flux - shifting between 2D and 3D, light and dark, flatness and depth.

In David Willetts’ highly commended sketchbook, the artist documents the interior and exterior spaces of Southwell Cathedral in Nottinghamshire. Using rich purples and yellows, David captures the stillness of the minster in the hours between twilight and night, alluding to an eerie solitude.

The prizewinning works were selected from a shortlist of 100 sketchbooks which have been brought together for the SKETCH 2017 exhibition, beginning at Rabley Drawing Centre in Wiltshire (21 May – 17 June 2017). The exhibition will subsequently tour to Black Swan Arts, Frome (22 July – 3 September 2017); Plymouth College of Art (9 September – 6 October 2017) and Peter Scott Gallery in Lancaster (20 November – 15 December 2017).

The shortlisted sketchbooks and prizewinners were selected by an independent panel comprising: Tom Hammick, painter and printmaker; Peter Randall-Page RA, sculptor and Gill Saunders, Senior Curator (Prints), V&A Museum.

‘I am surprised and delighted by the diversity of imagery in this year’s submissions. The handling of a sketchbook takes us to the heart of the space inhabited by the artist - the turning of a page brings a flow of ideas: fragments of images to come, references to places visited, experiences absorbed and thoughts provoked.’ Meryl Ainslie, Director, Rabley Drawing Centre and Founder of SKETCH

SKETCH 2017: Tour Prizes

The Black Swan Arts Solo Exhibition Prize has been awarded by the venue to Scarborough based artist Tracy Himsworth whose two and three dimensional sculptural drawings explore notions of cognitive mapping, behavioural geography and psychogeographic ideas. The Lancaster Arts Commission Prize and Plymouth College of Art Sketch Student Prize will be awarded by respective venues.