How to Ace Your Fine Art Personal Statement, Portfolio, and Interview in 2024
Fine Art Application Guide:
Whether you're applying for a Fine Art degree at Oxford, or other top UK Universities, this guide is designed to help you excel in every aspect of the Fine Art application process. From Fine Art personal statement tips to crafting a compelling portfolio and acing your interview, we cover everything you need to stand out as an applicant. You'll find advice on exploring art history, connecting your work to art theory, curating your Fine Art portfolio, and how you can demonstrate your passion for the subject beyond the classroom. Read on to find our guidance and tips for each stage of the Fine Art application process!
Researching your Fine Art Personal Statement:
You Fine Art personal statement is your first opportunity to showcase yourself as an artist to the university you are applying to. In your future career as an artist, you will have lots of opportunities to write statements about yourself and your work; see this as the first one! In your Fine Art personal statement, you need to demonstrate your interest and engagement with Fine Art and what inspires and motivates your own art practice.
For any strong Fine Art degree personal statement, it’s crucial you show an awareness of art beyond just your own artistic practice. You should show an interest in art and its historical and theoretical context. A great way to do this is by exploring the subject through independent reading and research.
Here are some useful resources you can use to carry out some independent research for your Fine Art personal statement:
The Ruskin has a great range of podcasts available, where artists talk about their work.
To get a broad overview of key themes and periods in art history, try:
Tony Godfrey, The Story of Contemporary Art (2020)
Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New: Art and a Century of Change, also available in the form of a BBC documentary series!
For a great overview of critical theory relevant to Fine Art, try: Anne D’Allev, Methods & Theories of Art History (2012)
Some more short reads introducing you to new interesting perspectives on art and its role in society:
John Berger, Ways of Seeing (1972) : vital reading on the way we look at art
Susan Sontag, On Photography (1977) and Regarding the Pain of Others (2003): interrogates the moral and aesthetic issues of photography
Some exciting podcasts to listen to:
The Great Woman Artists
The Lonely Palette
Art Detective
Talk Art
Meet Me at the Museum
Fine Art Personal Statement Tip: As you read, make sure you pay close attention to the visual characteristics of each period. If you are invited to an interview where you need to respond to an unseen artwork, this will be incredibly helpful prep!
It’s also really important to demonstrate your enthusiasm and interest for art in your Fine Art personal statement by engaging practically with the subject. You could:
Visit galleries or exhibitions
Keep an eye on websites of local galleries for new and interesting exhibitions, especially ones which combine art with other disciplines. You could sign up to the Minds Underground Humanities Newsletter to receive a useful roundup of humanities resources to your inbox at the start of each month, including art exhibitions!
When you visit exhibitions or galleries, take your sketchbook with you. You should make sure you are engaging critically with what you see: note down things that interest you, practise sketching. Pay attention to the curation of the exhibition: what is the story or argument being put forward? How have they hung the artworks? What is the design? What do you like/dislike?
See if the exhibition sparks inspiration for a new piece; it’s great if you can link a piece of work in your portfolio with a critical commentary on an exhibition you went to visit!
You may also be interested in our article “Why Trips To Art Galleries Should Be On Every Student’s Curriculum”
Listen to Fine Art Talks and Lectures"
The Slade School of Fine Art regularly has interesting lectures open to everyone. Keep an eye on their site.
The National Portrait Gallery also has unique talks and conversations throughout the year.
Enter Competitions
Keep an eye out on university or gallery websites for any art competitions they have going on. Another great way to show your motivation and develop subject knowledge for your Fine Art personal statement is by entering Minds Underground’s History of Art essay competition. Past questions have included “Can art always express something? Is there something to be said for the art of saying nothing?” or “Why is the Mona Lisa so famous?”.
Relevant Work Experience
It can really make your Fine Art personal statement stand out if you can demonstrate relevant work experience, especially if it gives you a unique opportunity to include, for example helping date a painting through mass spectrometry, or assisting with the restoration of a medieval fresco! Try and find interesting work experience opportunities that might give you access to a more hands on approach to art.
Writing your Fine Art Personal Statement
After all your preparation, reading and research, you can finally start thinking about writing your Fine Art personal statement.
When it comes to including your research and experiences, think about what it was about each of them that inspired you. Your reading and your own work should not exist in isolation from each other. You should be able to show a path of investigation and interest that winds between theory and inspiration to your own creative output. Draw attention to the evolution of your work, to the different people and places that have shaped and influenced it, and how. Remember that your work is unique, and will be uniquely informed by what you’ve researched and explored. This is a great opportunity to highlight your ability to be analytical and explain why you chose to engage with a certain piece in a certain way.
A strong Fine Art Personal Statement will be cohesively woven with your portfolio. There should be a theme in your personal statement that naturally carries into your portfolio. What is this theme? Why is it important to you? How have you engaged with it in different ways, both in and out of the studio? How is your work a critical/creative response to what you saw in an exhibition? Let your fine art degree personal statement work with your portfolio to demonstrate your boldness and creativity, both in your ideas and your work.
Demonstrate your ability to self-reflect and think critically about your own work in your personal statement. How have you learned from previous projects? How do you respond to constructive feedback from teachers or tutors? This is a really important skill Fine Art tutors are looking for that demonstrates your potential as a Fine Art student.
You may like to work with a Fine Art tutor while crafting your Fine Art personal statement. A tutor can help direct your independent research and reading to develop your areas of research and can review your personal statement before submission, either on or offline. Find out more.
Crafting an Oxford Fine Art Personal Statement
The Oxford Fine Art course places an even stronger emphasis on art history, theory and criticism, seeing these as integral to the development of your own work. This means your independent reading exploring these areas is even more crucial for an Oxford Fine Art personal statement. Make sure you devote lots of time in your personal statement to engaging with your reading and beyond the classroom exploration and creating work that responds to it in innovative ways for your portfolio.
To explore art history and theory in more depth and one-on-one with an experienced Oxford Art tutor, you could take an Art or Art History research project with one of our specialist team. This would enhance your knowledge of the subject and allow you to demonstrate a more complex engagement with art history and theory in your personal statement for Oxford Fine Art.
It’s important to note that the Ruskin strongly recommends that candidates take an Art Foundation course and achieve a Foundation diploma in arts before applying. This gives students the opportunity to try Fine Art as a degree and to develop their ideas and explore different media. In an Oxford Fine Art personal statement, you should emphasise your experiences studying a Fine Art foundation: what has it allowed you to explore? What have you learned about yourself as an artist? What challenges have you encountered? All of these are important to reflect on before writing a personal statement for Oxford Fine Art.
Looking to bolster your Fine Art Application?
Our co-curricular division, Minds Underground, runs an Art History Summer School, giving students the opportunity to engage in-depth with art theory and history of art. This is a great way to enhance your knowledge of Art, offering an overview of Art History from antiquity to the avantgarde. The course will introduce students to first year university level material and hone essential critical analysis skills which are key to studying Fine Art at university.
Particularly for students applying for Oxford Fine Art, this is a great opportunity to showcase your knowledge of art history, theory and criticism, an integral part of the Oxford course.
Curating your Fine Art Portfolio
As mentioned above, it’s important your portfolio maintains the narrative thread established in your personal statement. The research and exploration suggestions included above should also serve as prompts for pieces to include in your Fine Art portfolio. Engage critically and creatively with your reading and exploration, and use whatever inspires you as an opportunity to create. Your Fine Art portfolio should include work you’ve completed out of your own initiative, not just your A Level set work!
Fine Art Portfolio Tips
Include works in progress
Your portfolio should represent the journey you’ve taken to get to your pieces, not just the outcome. By including some works in progress alongside finished works, you can demonstrate your development processes and visual thinking.
Tell a story
Your focus in your Fine Art portfolio should be on communicating a theme of your work (one that runs on from your personal statement!). Admissions tutors don't want to see a random assortment of works. A strong portfolio should tell a story, with each piece of work illuminating part of the narrative.
Show your range
While it’s natural to have a preference for certain media, make sure your portfolio showcases your ability to work across a range of media, as you will be expected to do so at the start of a Fine Art degree before specialising in later years. If you’re also interested in fashion or set design and you believe this represents your work, you can include this too.
Include observational drawing
Not all applicants include observational drawing in their Fine Art portfolio and it’s a really important way to showcase your visual thinking and skills. Make sure you practise doing drawings from life. The National Portrait Gallery runs both drop in drawing sessions and portfolio reviews regularly, so try and attend some of these if you can!
Be bold and experimental
This is an opportunity to showcase your style and your creative vision, so don’t be afraid to do just that! Try and do this by building on your research and inspiration in new and innovative ways that will impress admissions tutors, but don’t be afraid to break the rules.
The presentation of your Fine Art Portfolio is also absolutely crucial. This means thinking about how best to order your pieces to build a narrative with your work, but also including basic information about your artwork: what are you looking at, what is it made of, and what dimensions is it. It’s also important to make time to photograph your Fine Art portfolio well for online submissions. Try and find an uncluttered, white space with good lighting, or take pictures outdoors (with the sun behind you to avoid shadows!)
Oxford Fine Art Portfolio Tip: Human anatomy is a key and unique compulsory module in the first year of the Oxford Fine Art course. Take some time to build up your anatomy skills through life drawing practice, and make sure to include some of these sketches in your portfolio!
Preparing for a Fine Art Interview
You will likely be asked to talk about your portfolio in your Fine Art interview. Be prepared to talk through your portfolio and get confident talking about your processes, work and reflections as much as possible. You can do this with a parent, friend, teacher or a tutor who can offer constructive feedback and interview tips. Try and predict questions about your work that admissions tutors might ask you. This is where the works in progress you included in your Fine Art portfolio give you a great opportunity to reflect and talk about development.
Equally, be prepared for questions on your personal statement and questions assessing your motivation to study Fine Art. Make sure you have an answer prepared for the question Why Fine Art? and especially, why Fine Art over another arts degree! Know details of the course to impress your interviewer!
For an Oxford Fine Art interview in particular, you may be asked to carry out a visual analysis of an unseen artwork. This question is testing how you approach looking at an artwork and what information you can gather just from looking: When might it have been painted? Who might have commissioned it? Why has the artist chosen to paint their subject in this way? A great way to practise this activity is by buying some postcards of artworks and giving yourself 5-10 minutes to analyse and discuss them.
U2 Tuition runs Oxbridge Mock Interview days where you are paired with specialist subject tutors who carry out two mock interviews in your subject. After the interviews, you’ll be given in-depth written feedback, including further reading suggestions and practice questions to help you continue your preparation. These are a great way to get familiar with the interview format and to have the opportunity to present your portfolio in an interview environment and receive feedback, as well as to get to practise responding to some of the more challenging and less predictable questions that might come up! Find out more.
Before your interview, it’s also important to be aware of current fine art news and debates going on in the world of art theory and beyond. These are the kind of topics that you’ll likely be asked to engage with in a Fine Art Interview:
What is art? Covering everything from 'material culture' (objects of cultural or historical significance that weren't originally intended as artworks) to contemporary art and art in the digital age, this question gives you plenty to think about!
Questioning the canon The Artistic canon has historically excluded women and people of colour, alongside many other groups. Have a look at Linda Nochlin’s essay ‘Why Have Their Been No Great Woman Artists?’ as a starting point, as well as Katy Hessel’s revisionist history The Story of Art Without Men.
The value of art What determines the value of an artwork? Is it driven by the market, its provenance, or the quality of the piece? The Salvator Mundi case provides an interesting example to explore these questions, as is the shredded Banksy painting.
Example Fine Art Interview Questions
What is the definition of ‘art’?
Why is art important?
Talk about a recent book or exhibition that led to you approaching your art in a new way.
If you had to save one piece of art in the world, what would it be and why?
You should also be prepared for questions on visual culture testing your ability to think critically:
e.g. Tell us about a recent advertising campaign you’ve seen. What did you find interesting about it and why?
Looking for support with your Fine Art Personal Statement or other areas of your application?
U2 is here to support every aspect of your Oxford Fine Art application. Our tutors, graduates from the Oxford Fine Art course or other top UK Fine Art degrees, are perfectly positioned to guide you through personal statement preparation, portfolio development, interview mentoring, and more.
How we can help:
Portfolio Preparation: Your portfolio is a crucial element of your Fine Art application. A U2 tutor can help you curate and refine your work, ensuring your portfolio showcases both technical ability and conceptual depth. Our tutors provide guidance on presenting a cohesive body of work that reflects your artistic journey and meets admissions’ requirements and expectations.
Personal Statement Preparation: A U2 tutor can assist you in crafting a compelling Fine Art personal statement. We help you reflect on your creative practice, incorporate independent research, and ensure your statement has a clear narrative that highlights your artistic interests and stands out to admissions tutors.
Independent Research Projects: To deepen your understanding of the Fine Art course and develop your knowledge of art history and theory, a U2 tutor can lead you through an independent project. This tailored research will enhance your subject knowledge and allow you to explore a new area of interest within Fine Art. Tutors will guide you through all stages of the project, enhancing both your research and artistic skills while providing valuable material to discuss in your personal statement or interview.
Mock Interviews: Practising mock interviews is a great way to build confidence and experience what an Oxford Fine Art interview might feel like. We also offer Oxbridge Mock interview days where students receive two subject-specific interviews with a specialist Fine Art tutor. Afterwards, students receive detailed feedback on their performance, alongside further reading and creative practice suggestions.
History of Art Summer School: U2 also offers a History of Art summer school as a way for Fine Art students to further expand their knowledge of art theory and history and really impress Oxford admissions tutors in particular. This immersive programme is designed to deepen your understanding of key art movements, artists, and historical contexts. The summer school provides an excellent foundation for Fine Art applicants, helping you contextualise your artistic practice within wider historical narratives, which can strengthen both your personal statement and interview discussions.
You can book an initial Fine Art consultation or find out more about our Oxbridge mentoring programmes, here.
Sessions start from £70/h + VAT.