Zoe Jones

Tiverton Art Society Student Art Bursary – 2025

We were delighted to be able to award 18 year-old TAS Junior Member Zoe Jones an art bursary of £575 just before she returned to Edinburgh University where she is a first-year art student.

She was more than able to satisfy the requirements for this award which includes being a junior member for at least 3 years, having exhibited in our exhibitions and being in full-time education.

Keith Benge (TAS President), Marietta Sully (Treasurer), Shirley Walton (Membership Secretary) and I visited her home at Ashley Court in Tiverton, Devon to present her with a cheque, with one of her extraordinary paintings as a backdrop.

TAS presenting Zoe Jones with her Bursary cheque 2025.

I asked Zoe to write something about her artistic journey and am pleased to reproduce what she wrote below

I have been a member of Tiverton Art Society (TAS) for over 3 years now and it has been a very supportive and motivating community to help me progress with my creative development and get to university. I have always been passionate about art but struggled academically. I was lucky enough to be able to pursue my interest in painting during lockdown by doing weekly online watercolour classes with Mark Entwistle, and lots of painting in my spare time with the Tiverton Art Society’s Summer Exhibition as an end goal to this body of work.

I did my English and Maths GCSEs alongside this which (alongside a good portfolio) allowed me to get into the Fine Art extended diploma course at Exeter College.

The TAS Summer Exhibition really boosted my confidence before this as everyone was very interested in each other’s work and while stewarding I had some very inspiring discussions with the other members about their creative processes as well as my own. I was delighted to have sold a few of my own works of art at my first exhibition!

Altogether it is a very comfortable environment for sharing work you are proud of and a great opportunity to get your work seen as well as an opportunity to do things for the first time like framing and hanging your work and seeing how the sales process works.

I then spent 2 years at Exeter College learning different techniques and branching out artistically. I developed a strong interest in surrealist film which was accommodated for and I had almost complete freedom deciding what I wanted to create. I ended up doing another painting for my final piece alongside 2 image transfers onto muslin. Even though these were a little more experimental than previous works and I was nervous about having them in the TAS exhibition after previously exhibiting conventional watercolour portraits, I received some very encouraging comments and was proud to have shown them at the exhibition. I find these sorts of things quite intimidating but the members of the TAS Exhibition Team were very accommodating and encouraging, giving me the push I needed to partake in such a wonderful opportunity. They also provided invaluable help with framing, hanging and exhibiting my work.

As a result I received three offers to study Fine Art (at UAL (University of the Arts London), Falmouth and Edinburgh University) and am now very happy in my studio at Edinburgh University. Considering the fact that I only have 2 GCSEs TAS has played a massive part in my artistic journey and I am grateful for the opportunities I now have. Even more generously of them I have now been awarded a grant to go towards my current projects. After the luxury of free materials at Exeter College I was a bit struck by having to supply myself with all my own materials. However, this grant will allow me to make full use of my studio space!

I have an end-of-year exhibition in the main sculpture court at the university and intend to put the money towards this as well as some other projects along the way. I might even treat myself to a few new brushes!

Thank you to the TAS members! I’m really excited about the Spring and Summer Exhibitions this year!

Zoe Jones

Phil Belsham
TAS Chief Coordinator and Exhibition Secretary