The Young Artist Scholarship was awarded at the Ceredigion National Eisteddfod 2022 to ceramic artist Elin Hughes from Dolgellau.
This scholarship was established to promote arts and crafts in Wales. The scholarship is awarded to the most promising candidate to enable them to follow a course at a recognized art and design school or college or attend master classes. The scholarship is open to those under the age of 25.
In addition to the scholarship of £1,500 Elin will be offered a space to exhibit her work in Y Lle Celf at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Llyn and Eifionydd 2023.
The selectors, Julia Griffiths Jones, Peter Wakelin and Catrin Webster said: "The Young Artist Scholarship was awarded to ceramic artist Elin Hughes.
"We were captivated by the sculptural sensitivity, witty and civilized features of her pots, which take traditional forms and turn them into something new. She studies historic ceramics and earlier makers and she takes abstract forms and ornaments to pay homage to while analyzing them imaginatively. She looks at her process as a metaphor for renewal.
"We will keep a close eye on its development."
Describing her work, Elin said: "The dishes start on the wheel but they are put together by hand, distorted, broken, torn and put back together, until that they are completely different from their original forms.
“The making is a difficult and perilous battle against gravity, and not one I win every time, so as a result these objects are in a perpetual state of vulnerability."
Elin is certainly making a name for herself. Originally from North Wales, Elin currently still lives and works in Dolgellau, Gwynedd.
After graduating from BA (Hons) Ceramics at Cardiff School of Art and Design in 2019, Elin made the shortlist for the Maylis Grand Ceramics Young Masters Award and was one of ten artists selected for the 'Young Artists of Wales' MOMA Machynlleth exhibition in 2020
Since submitting work to the Eisteddfod she has had her first solo exhibition, at Oriel Plas Glyn-y-weddw in Llanbedrog, and she has exhibited at the London Art Fair and at an event by the Crafts Council in Liberty's, London.
The scholarship is awarded to the most promising candidate to enable them to follow a course at a recognized art school or college or attend master classes. The scholarship is open to those who are under 25 years of age on 31 August.
The shortlisted candidates are expected to prepare a portfolio and submit an application explaining how the scholarship is intended to be used. Consideration will be given to showing the work presented in Y Lle Celf. In addition, consideration will be given to offering space to the winner of the scholarship at Lle Celf the following Eisteddfod.