The 2016 plein air art competition saw 33 artists create over 150 works painted outside in changeable weather across 3 days including the public Tombland paint out.
16 prizes were awarded, the first of which went to Sue Mann, renowned for painting from a bicycle, who won this year’s Spirit of Plein Air Award for being the first to take the plunge and paint from a canoe.
This year we innovated again by running a ‘Freestyle’ larger form, 2-day, event alongside our classic Core event of 4 separate 3-hour painting sessions. Our groundbreaking Nocturne event returned for its second year with an increased number of submissions.
The new Freestyle event was won by Robert Nelmes for his widescale painting, “Norwich Market”, and the runner up second prize went to Brian Korteling for his very urban Magdalen Street flyover, complete with graffiti, “Waiting for the bus”. This prize category was sponsored by La Ronde Wright.
The returning Nocturne event was won by Tom Cringle for his “Untitled” spire at night, with Michael Richardson‘s “Night Time in the Lanes”, coming second. This prize category was sponsored by Sowerbys.
The Core event was won in Mixed Media by Alfie Carpenter, for “Guildhall Aglow”, with runner up Tom Cringle – who also won Second Prize overall, sponsored by La Ronde Wright, lifting his prize total to £500. In Watercolour, Richard Bond‘s painting of Norwich School playing fields, “Between the Showers”, won, with second place going to Andrew Horrod.
The Oils category saw second place go to Roger Dellar, and first place to Chris Daynes for “The Yellow Canoe” which also won the overall First Prize and a £1000 in total including his category win, sponsored by Strutt & Parker. We are also grateful to Archant for sponsoring several second placed prizes as well as the Watercolour and Mixed Media categories.
In addition, the three judges – David Curtis, Sue Grayson Ford, and Nick Holmes, also commended oil paintings by Jerome Hunt “Cathedral Facade Shadows”, Tanya Pawsey, “Swans from Bishop Bridge”, and the mixed media piece by Claire Stevens, “Oldest Iron Bridge”.
The Paint Out Norwich 2016 competition, with multiple categories, saw 16 awarded prizes in total, old and new locations, and continues to provide artistic challenges and opportunities for both seasoned plein air professionals and aspiring amateur artists. Over 180 artists registered an interest this year, with over 40 being accepted into the third-year of Paint Out Norwich. 33 took part, producing 140+ paintings in the exhibition.
The art exhibition runs from 19-29 October at the Norwich Cathedral Hostry, access is also open during other arts, literature, music, and theatre events of the Hostry Festival. Over 140 artworks are on display from the artists aged 26-75, some of whom – including a mother and daughter pair – took to Pub and Paddle‘s canoes to paint from the waterline of the River Wensum, discovering new and old views of the city alike.