About six years ago I made the decision to start entering art prizes on a semi regular basis. Since then I’ve had a couple of good runs of being hung in things, followed a year or more or rejections. I’m kind of used to this randomness by now and don’t try and read too much into either success or failure. As I say to my students, enjoy it when it happens, don’t worry when it doesn’t. Or to quote the very wise Kevin Connor ‘To be hung amongst a limited number is never good luck, but not to be hung is often bad luck. Judging art prizes is not an exact science.’
Anyway, at the moment I’m on a good run; Highly Commended in the Norvill Prize for Landscape Painting, followed by the Paddington Art Prize (I’ll give the Dobell Prize its own entry).