OnFocus

During the period 1914-1916 Cheltenham-born Gustav Holst (1874-1934) composed The Planets, a seven-piece orchestral suite. Holst called his symphony ’a series of mood pictures’.

Your entry to this year’s Cheltenham Illustration Awards should be a personal visual response initiated by this arguably the best-known, best-loved and first Modernist piece of British classical music. Holst imbued each planet with characteristics which were representative of the human life cycle, from youth to old age, beginning with Mars, energetic and bombastic, ending with esoteric Neptune, alone, facing the mystical unknown.

We wish you to also apply the theme of ’Memory’ (the theme to the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 2013) to your response and avoid the obvious interpretations of Roman Gods, astrology etc. Instead, as this is a competition focusing on narrative illustration, your entry may be drawn from your own memory, experience or your own invented fictional response.

There are two prize categories:

• Student
• Emerging Talent

Up to five entries per person will be allowed. Entry fee: £13 (approx. 20 USD) per entry.

Eligibility

Entries are welcomed from recent graduates, previously unpublished artists/illustrators, and artists/illustrators who have not yet broken into mainstream markets (minimum age 16).

Prize

The selected winners work will be exhibited in October as part of the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival and in association with the Holst Birthplace Museum, and published in a full color Annual.

• Student prize: Apple iMac computer, Runner up prize £500
• Emerging talent prize: £1000. Runner up £500