Starting out as a young artist is a hard thing. As well as teaching yourself how to paint and draw you have to be able to lay your hands on materials. I was always lucky because I could nick my mum’s old tubes of paint and use her brushes. I hate to think how much of her stuff I used and probably ruined! As I got older I wanted to try to actually sell pieces, so I was also having to afford the costs of framing. Pretty difficult on pocket money.
Then I heard about some art competitions for young artists and I started entering them. While quite a few of the Rotary art shows have young artist awards, the best by far was the Dandenong Festival of Music and Art for Youth which was only for us and had a whole range of awards. The prizes ranged from fairly small to a respectable $600, but the categories were a challenge – drawing, painting, photography, portraits… with different sections for different age groups. Winning prizes was wonderful, but motivating myself to actually complete, frame and submit the work in the first place was a tremendous exercise and really made me try hard. It feels brilliant to win an award. It feels like being a proper artist to receive money and to see your work hanging in a gallery.
If you’re a young artist I really recommend looking up youth art awards to see what is out there. This is the final year of the Dandenong Festival for now so don’t miss this opportunity.
Check here for dates and details. You must be under 25 and submit entry forms and fees by April 24 so you’ll have to get cracking. Good luck!
