This season, we celebrate the spirit of curiosity, contemplation, and a lifetime of learning. We examine the ways that study frees the mind to wander and dream, and consider the creatives and thinkers who take an experimental approach to the fundamentals.
To celebrate our Autumn Winter 2025 collection, we invited our community to respond to our seasonal theme, The Curious Mind, with sketches, illustrations, and other creative works, sharing the results on social media. One by one, a stream of imaginative pieces was posted – each distilling the concept of curiosity into brushstrokes, lines on a page, or expressive collage compositions.
We had two runners-up and one winner for this year’s competition. Our winner is Samantha Coutinho, an artist living in Dubai with roots in Goa, India. Our two runners-up are poet Charlotte Oliver, from Scarborough, Yorkshire, and Bethany Holmes, a Manchester-based artist.
Samantha Coutinho
Samantha’s watercolour, ink, and charcoal sketches earned her the winning place in our competition. The fluid lines and intuitive approach to form capture the inquisitive spirit of our Autumn Winter 2025 concept.
“My submission was inspired by everyday life and the ordinary objects that surround me. I am fascinated by how these objects relate to and connect – their shapes, textures, patterns, and the subtle details of their interactions. Curiosity guided me to explore these connections through sketches, studies, and experiments.”
Samantha interprets curiosity as “experimentation and play”, grounded by observation – a practice that is central to her artistic expressions. “I carry a notebook with me at all times, a small sacred companion, where I capture sketches and document observations. I also spend time in spaces that naturally invite curiosity, such as bookshops and museums, allowing questions and fresh perspectives to emerge organically.”
Charlotte Oliver
Charlotte also carries notebooks everywhere, filling them with moments, fleeting thoughts, and fledgling poems. Her shortlisted work, “11 Ways of Seeing a Notebook”, explores this intimate habit with rhythmic simplicity.
“I'm never without a notebook – as it's always to hand, I also jot down shopping lists and reminders. As a result, my notebooks are full of poems and elaborate descriptions alongside random scribblings. I often think this could give rise to some novel poetry…”
Charlotte practices curiosity by “always reading” and tuning in to her surroundings. “I like to free-write around a subject to generate a range of thoughts that I can then explore. As soon as I started thinking of different ways of seeing a notebook, I was fascinated to see where I could take this idea.”
Sarah Feinmann
Sarah, an artist based at Rogue Art Studios in Manchester, explores liminal spaces and themes of transience through her mixed-media practice. She creates intricate “carousel books” – sketch-filled works whose flexible design allows any page to be folded into a cover.
“I make the books from parchment paper with a good weight and red lines, which sometimes become a feature in the work. I use acrylic paint, watercolour, and graphite stick, incorporating collage from my archive to honour the different phases of my practice.”
Her submission reflects a recent shift towards more “ordinary” subject matters. “I have been exploring perspectives in everyday, seemingly mundane scenes, encouraging me to subconsciously look for things that stand out. For me, curiosity means examining detail and textures.”
Thank you to everyone who entered our Art Study competition. You can view all of the entries through the hashtag #TOASTartstudy.
Image 2: Courtesy of MSC1Photography.
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