Individual Competition: One entry is allowed per person.
Team Competition: Centres/Branches can enter a piece of Collaborative art, contributed to by a minimum of three members (no maximum).
Entrants must be a current Member of a Pony Club Branch or Centre in the United Kingdom or part of our International Membership.
Individual Competition: The drawing or painting should have a title suggested by this year's theme of " Friendship and Adventure". It should be a personal memory or idea, and if needed, references should be taken from your own or your family's collection of photos, and not from a magazine or published professional material (i.e. when the copyright for the image belongs to someone else.)
Team Competition: Centres/Branches can enter a piece of Collaborative art with the same theme as the Individual competition. This is a chance to work together to create a combined piece of artwork that represents your Branch/Centre, and Friendship and Adventure.
The judges will be looking for a well thought out, well painted or drawn picture/collaboration that successfully conveys the idea being pictured. They will be looking for originality, a flair for colour or drawing, and good use of materials. This year we will also accept artwork produced digitally, due to the increased developments in technology we are aware this medium is popular and can produce artwork to a high standard.
The subject of the work must be equestrian-related.
The piece must be entirely the artist's own work.
By entering the competition, entrants give their express permission to allow their work to be used for publicity if required.
There are three separate age categories: 11 years and Under, 12-16 Years, and 17 Years and Over.
Deadline for entries is midnight 18th February 2024.
Guidelines for Photography
Photograph your work outside in natural light, so the colours are true to life and there aren't any shadows caused by thick paint etc. Get someone to hold it if it is windy, or prop it up against a wall or other object.
If it is on paper, tape it to a board of some kind to hold it flat. Make sure there are no shadows across the work from bushes, washing lines etc. If it is really sunny, angle the picture so that the light is not too bright on the image. Make sure your painting is properly dry or it will shine.
To get a nice photo that is not distorted try to line up all the edges of the artwork with the edges of the picture and try to get close enough to fill the whole of the screen with the picture, especially with a mobile phone which will still focus when it is quite close to the picture. If you have a camera with a zoom stand back to about 1.5 - 2 metres from the picture and zoom in to just the picture cutting out the background that way. If you do this you don't have to edit the picture on the computer and it looks more professional. That way you can be sure you have the best possible photo and the least amount of background which is distracting and will spoil your picture.
Make sure the flash is turned off or this will leave a white blob in the middle of the photo where the flash bounces off your work back at the camera.
Judging
We have a diverse group of award winning, experienced judges lined up to be part of this competition. The Judges' names will be released throughout October, however please don't discuss or make contact with any of them in regard to your competition entry.
Initial Stage: Judging will be done using the images uploaded to the competition website. A total of five entries in each category will be shortlisted for the final stage of judging, and those entrants will be notified in the month of April 2024.
Finals: The five finalists in each age category will go forward to the final stage where the judging panel will decide upon an overall competition Winner and Runner-up.
Winner: The national winner will have the opportunity to have their artwork displayed within The Pony Club Central Office for visitors to view and at prestigious events. The Pony Club will ensure we recognise the talent of our winner in the best ways possible.
Presentation of Work
The size of the final drawing/painting must be no larger than A2.
We will be viewing the finalists artwork in person to select the winner. Therefore, we request the artwork is of a size and medium suitable to post. If you would like to frame your art for this stage that would be advantageous but not necessary.
Entries should be photographed digitally and uploaded to The Pony Club Art Competition portal at artcomp.pcuk.org (see guidelines and hints about taking good pictures above) together with the online entry form. The size of the uploaded image should be a maximum of 4MB (if it is larger, you will need to decrease its size in an image editing program before uploading)
