Northampton man shortlisted for best watercolour prize

Nathaniel Hornsby’s self-portrait has been selected for The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, the largest and most prestigious prize for contemporary watercolour painting in the UK.

The competition - in it’s 29th year - offers a generous total prize fund of £17,500, including a first prize of £10,000, second prize of £6,000, and the Smith & Williamson Cityscape Prize of £1,500.

A spokeswoman for the competition said: “The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition provides an opportunity for artists across the UK to redefine and celebrate the beauty and diversity of watercolour and water-based media, whether through abstract or figurative, contemporary or traditional painting.”

The 2016 judging panel includes Akash Bhatt, Winner of Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015; Sara Dudman, artist; Simon Oldfield, director of Simon Oldfield Gallery; Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, and Louis Wise, Critic and Writer, The Sunday Times.

The winners will be announced in the Culture section of the Sunday Times on Sunday August 28.

The shortlisted works will be shown at the Mall Galleries, London from 19 to 24 September, followed by The Smith & Williamson Tour to venues across the UK, including Parabola Arts centre, Cheltenham and

Guildford House Gallery, Guildford.