Maritime painter John Stobart created The Stobart Foundation with Kensington Stobart Gallery to help young artists make the strongest transition from art education to a professional career. Stobart recognizes the unique needs of that period in an artist’s development, and the grant is designed to help the artist focus on painting directly from life to develop the necessary skills that will serve them in their career.
The foundation recently launched a new, and very beautiful, website providing more information and an online application for their grant. The sums awarded can be as high as $10,000 per grant.
The Foundation takes applications all year long but they award the grants every May.
The website presents a history of the foundation, and as is true of John, this history is not only informative, it’s educational for the artist.
In pursuing his career, Stobart practiced working on-site and directly relating to the model or nature itself and developing the finesse to capture a moment in time on canvas that paved the way for his artistic growth. Stobart has said, “The habit of working regularly on the spot, if kept up throughout a career, will pay immeasurable dividends. For the studio-bound painter, it will be a catharsis which can only result in adding life and vibrancy to future work.” The Foundation realizes the seminal step for an artist to move from student to professional occurs when each artist learns to use passion and sensitivity to shape the technical skills mastered as a student into a mature and independent visual language recognizable as one’s own. This imperative step is unfortunately most frequently encountered just after leaving the protective environment of the program, and before the artist has a body of work able to be self-supporting in the professional art world. During this time of transition, with the least time and energy available to the fledgling artist to give the required focused attention on this important development, many deserving young artists turn to other methods and opportunities in order to make ends meet. Recognizing this, The Stobart Foundation offers financial support to the qualified artist in the form of The Stobart Foundation Grant in order to aid and encourage development during this very important period.
Visit The Stobart Foundation website for more information and to apply.
