An artist from Essex has been shortlisted for this year’s prestigious Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, the UK’s leading competition for British contemporary representational painting and drawing.
The artist is:
Katherine Lees from Mistley for her work Open Cupboard
81 artists have been shortlisted for the Prize out of 1,191 who entered this year’s competition. This represents the highest level of entries in the Prize’s 14-year history.
The eventual winners will be selected from these works and announced on 5 March at an evening event at the Mall Galleries in London.
Ian Rowley, chairman of the organising committee, said: “This year, we’ve been bowled over by the quality of the entries. There’s a tremendous diversity to the works combined with some very bold approaches and techniques.
“A record-breaking 2,400 works were submitted by over a thousand artists, which shows that representational art in the UK is in better health than the art establishment might surmise.”
The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize for representational art – art that seeks to capture the real world – offers total prize money of £30,000,
First prize in now worth £20,000 plus an engraved gold medal; the second prize is £4,000; the young artist prize is also £4,000. In addition to the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize itself, the competition’s organisers have introduced the Daphne Todd Prize worth £2,000 which Daphne will select from the exhibition shortlist. The Brian Botting Award for outstanding representation of the human form is worth £5,000.
The competition is open to any artist, professional or amateur, resident in the UK and painting or drawing works of representational art and over 18-years-old. The competition aims to promote and support fresh new talent.
