Falmouth Fine Art lecturer scoops national recognition

Lisa Wright, a part-time Fine Art lecturer at University College Falmouth, has won first prize in The National Open Art Competition 2009 for her work, Shadow of a King.

Now in its 13^th year and with a prize fund of £40,000, The National Open Art Competition, Chichester, was the brainchild of the Duke of Richmond and is open to all artists, both professional and amateur, across the UK.

The selectors, chaired by Gavin Turk, a founder member of the Young British Artists Movement and one of the foremost contemporary artists in the UK and supported by Catherine Lampert, former director of the Whitechapel Gallery, James Stewart of Zimmer Stewart in Arundel, and David Barrie, had the difficult task of judging the submissions of work by 1300 artists from all corners of the UK.

Lisa, who studied at the Royal Academy in London, painted Shadow of a King, during her two-year tenure as artist in residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). A powerful, evocative, oil on canvas, Shadow of a King is part of a body of work entitled, The Histories, a collaboration with the RSC where Lisa's unique style has succeeded in creating an epic collection of arresting works.

Three graduates of University College Falmouth also had work selected for the competition.  Michael Donnelly, who graduated from Falmouth College of Arts in 2004, and who won the Regional South West Prize 2009, and Una D'Aragona and Jayne Anita Smith, who both graduated from University College Falmouth earlier this year.

For further information about The National Open Art Competition, please visit http://www.thenationalopenartcompetition.com/

Lisa has also been awarded one of five runner-up prizes of £1000 in the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize for her work, The Secret Place, which is currently part of the Prize's' exhibition on show at Painters' Hall, City of London until 30 November. 

"It is the first time that I have entered this competition, so I was absolutely thrilled to have been selected and to have won a prize," said Lisa.  "The prize champions creative representational painting and promotes the skill of draughtsmanship, something that I am passionate about and feel should underpin all good art."  Lisa continued, "The Secret Place is from The Twilight Series, and was the largest of the 82 works selected from 800 entries to form this unique exhibition. It was wonderful to see it hung in Painters' Hall."

The judges this year were artists Mick Rooney RA, Daphne Todd OBE PPRP NEAC and Susan Wilson; Director of the Flowers Gallery, Angela Flowers and Andrew Wilton, visiting research fellow at Tate Britain.

Lisa has been selected for the Threadneedle Art Prize, which showcases the best in contemporary painting and sculpture, for the last two years and won second prize in the 2008 National Open Art Competition. In 2003 she was awarded first prize in The Hunting Art Prize.

Lisa is represented by the Beardsmore Gallery, London.

For further information about BA(Hons) Fine Art at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/fineart, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214376.

University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name.  It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing.  The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2012/2013 that will be unique to the South West.

The College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

Ends

For further information about The National Open Art Competition, please contact Louisa Higgs, Press & Media on 07956 455322 or email louisamhiggs@googlemail.com

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email:  jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk  

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