Milford, by Lisa Henderson.

Open Art 2007 - The winners!

The Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford is pleased to announce the winners of the prestigious 2007 Staffordshire Open Art Exhibition, which is now open to the public.

The overall winner of this year's show is Stafford artist Lisa Henderson for her painting `Milford'. At a private preview and launch of the exhibition, Sara Pritchard, Director - Marketing of Pritchard Holdings plc, the shows' main sponsor presented Lisa with her prize of £1,000 and a stunning piece of contemporary glass made by Lestyn Davies of Stourbridge for Blowzone Studios.

The £500 Art of England Magazine prize was presented by Paul Bates from Art of England Magazine to Liz Astbury from Stafford for her painting `Float down the river'.
£250 Barnett Ratcliffe Partnership prize was presented by Martin G Ratcliffe, Director of Barnett Ratcliffe Partnership Ltd to Roxanne Gooderham from Wolverhampton for her painting entitled `Footbridge Number One'.
£250 SCHOTT UK prize was presented by John Meadows, Managing Director of SCHOTT UK Ltd to David Culshaw from Rugeley for his painting `Roof Garden'.
£100 worth of artist materials sponsored by The Paper House, Stafford was presented by Mrs Dalgarno from the Paper House to Bob Dew from Stafford for his print `Antiquarian'.

Ralph Cooke, Chair of Stafford District Arts Council, sponsors of the Under 16s category presented:

1st prize of £100 to Elena Roberts aged 13 from Stafford for her watercolour painting `Buttercups and Daisies'.
2nd prize of £75 to Molly Grace Pugh aged 5 from Brocton, Stafford for her painting `Woodland'.
3rd prize of £50 to Finley Banks aged 5 from Burton upon Trent for his acrylic canvas `Superhero Butterfly'

County Councillor Maureen Compton, Cabinet Support Member for Culture and Heritage said: "I would like to thank all the artists who entered work for the show. Their interest and enthusiasm ensures the well deserved success of the exhibition. The show is an extremely important event in the Shire Hall Gallery's calendar as it promotes new talent and provides an opportunity for newly emerging artists in the region to show their work, often for the first time. I would also like to thank our sponsors Pritchard Holdings plc, Art of England Magazine, Barnett Ratcliffe Partnership, SCHOTT UK Ltd, The Paper House, Stafford, Culturegen Arts & Creative Industries Development, Stafford District Arts Council and Staffordshire Life Magazine for their generous support this year, which has enabled us to offer even greater prizes."

This year the Gallery received an overwhelming 611 entries from 275 artists from all over the County. Selectors Danny Callaghan, Programme Manager for Culturegen and Neil Wood, Sculptor had the very difficult task of selecting the 101 pieces of work on display.

Danny Callaghan said: "The exhibition selected is a wonderful showcase of Staffordshire's artistic talent. It offers the audience an opportunity to view a fantastic array of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works. I hope these works of art inspire, challenge and entertain you."

Neil Wood added: "The selection process was far more difficult than I expected because the standard of work was so high. This meant we were at times, rejecting very good work in favour of work that we felt was, for some reason, sometimes only slightly better. The high standard and the high number of entries did however make the process feel very luxurious."

Visitors to the gallery will also be able to vote for their favourite piece of work in this year's exhibition. A `Visitor's Choice' award of £100 sponsored by Culturegen will then be presented to the artist who receives the most votes within this category. Closing date for visitor's choice nominations is 17 June. An announcement will be made after 18 June.

Also on this website: Shire Hall Gallery

Page Last Modified: 11/05/2007 09:18:10

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