Success for MA graduate in international book launch competition
Dawn Christien, MA Fine Art, was selected by author and art historian James Cahill and CBE British artist Maggi Hambling as the standout winner of the book launch competition for debut novel Tiepolo Blue.
In tandem with the release of Tiepolo Blue by art historian James Cahill, artists around the globe were asked to engage with the novel in a competition celebrating the book’s launch.
Artists were required to create original artworks responding to the subject matters and themes within the novel, with the winner receiving prize money and the opportunity to exhibit in London and across the UK as part of the launch of the book.
MA Fine Art graduate Dawn Christien won the competition with her fresco panel painting “Allegory for The Waterboys”, which was selected by the author and renowned CBE British artist Maggie Hambling as a “clear standout”.
“Encouragement from tutors led me to enter the Tiepolo Blue competition. As a sculptor, entering a 2D-only competition was a challenge, however innovation is now so prevalent in my practice that I submitted a highly textured fresco panel, somewhat blurring the lines between painting and sculpture.”
About the book
Tiepolo Blue, released in June 2022 by international publisher Sceptre, follows the encounters of a revered Cambridge art historian navigating the highs and lows of an anarchic 1990s British art scene.
“The book’s subject matter really spoke to me; a complex riff on the Icarus tale, which I reimagined through colour and suggested movement within textured plaster.”
Dawn’s work is now being exhibited at Red Lion Books in Colchester.
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