Call for Entries: John Moores Painting Prize 2025

The John Moores Painting Prize is a biennial and very prestigious biennial competition and award for the best contemporary painting. It has a £25,000 First Prize. It opened to entries TODAY.

First the summary - then the history and a note of famous past winners - and finally the details.

SUMMARY

• The John Moores Painting Prize is open to all UK-based artists working with paint.
• You can only enter online (i.e. no postal entries). Payment is also online only.
• Those who can enter are 
• aged 18 years or above on 24 March 2025 and 
• live in the UK or are UK-based.
• The deadline for an entry is 5pm Monday 24 March 2025
• All entries need to be for sale.
• All entries are judged anonymously over a two-stage selection process - but I strongly recommend you take a look at the Judges profiles first.
• It culminates in an exhibition next year at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (Saturday 6 September to Sunday 1 March 2026).

In the absence of all those art competitions which have fallen by the wayside in recent years, this is one art competition that all painters should take very seriously - not least because who has won it previously.....

History of the Award

The John Moores Painting Prize is the UK's most well-known painting competition, bringing together the best contemporary painting from across the UK to Liverpool.

The John Moores Painting Prize is named after its founding sponsor and local philathopist Sir John Moores in 1957. It always had very strong associations with the City of Liverpool. This internationally renowned prize competition is organised in partnership with  and continues to support artists and bring the best contemporary painting to Liverpool. 

Besides running the Littlewoods Empire, which made him one of Britain's richest men - even richer than the Queen, John Moores was also a keen amateur painter who had trouble finding places to exhibit his paintings - so he founded this competition to find others with the same predicament who he could then exhibit locally with. 

The John Moores Painting Prize competition has awarded more than £700,000 in prize money across 32 exhibitions, showcasing more than 2,400 works of art.

• It presents a rich history of post-war painting in Britain. 
• The first exhibition was held only six years after the Walker Art Gallery re-opened following the Second World War. 

The continuation of this art competition with its valuable first prize - when others are falling by the wayside - is because it continues to be sponsored by the John Moores Painting Prize Trust.

The winning work and short-listed pieces are always exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery as part of the Liverpool Biennial festival of visual art

John Moores with David Hockney
His first prize was £1,500, which he used to send his parents on holiday to Australia

It's had some very notable past prizewinners and paintings which won including:

• 1959 - Patrick Heron Black Painting - Red, Brown and Olive : July 1959 (now in a private collection)
• 1967 - David Hockney Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool Presented to the Walker Art Gallery by John Moores in 1968
• 1972 - Euan Uglow Nude, 12 vertical positions from the eye
• 1993 - Peter Doig - Blotter

‘Blotter’ won the John Moores Painting Prize in 1993. This was a turning point in Doig’s career and he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1994. ‘Blotter’ is regarded as one of his best works.

• 2014 - Rose Wylie - PV Windows and Floorboards

See a virtual exhibition of John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition - Winners since 1957

2025 Prizes and Jury

Prizes

• The John Moores Painting Prize (First Prize):  The First Prize winner will receive
• £25,000 and 
• a prestigious solo display at Walker Art Gallery
• The Lady Grantchester Prize, offering £5,000, with a residency and £2,500 worth of art materials supplied by Winsor & Newton. Applications from artists in their final year of study or within five years of graduation are especially encouraged to apply for the latter award.
• EACH ARTIST chosen for the John Moores Painting Prize exhibition will receive an exhibiting fee.

Graham Crowley wins John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Last week it was announced that Graham Crowley, age 73, has won the John Moores Painting Prize 2023 with his painting of 'Light Industry' (see below). 

The John Moores Painting Prize 2023 (£25,000)

The award brings a prize pot of £25,000 and a  a solo display at the Walker Art Gallery in 2025.

Light Industry by Graham Crowley

I'm surprised.

I can only reiterate what I thought when I reviewed all the paintings when they were shortlisted

I've got the big versions of the images of these paintings and this one has been produced by wiping paint in different directions to create a background - and then drawing into it while it's still wet. It's a neat and effective painting technique and worth highlighting - but I'm not sure it does enough to merit winning the first prize.

I haven't changed my mind.

I know the judging is anonymous - but one does wonder.....  However I am now inclined to believe the prize might be in part be not so much to do with an individual painting so much as maybe recognition of an artist who has been repeatedly selected for the John Moores Painting Prize - having had a painting selected 10 times over FIVE DECADES - in each of these years: 1976, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1993, 2004, 2006, 2016 - and 2023!

"Light Industry" was apparently inspired by a visit to a motorcycle dealer in Framlingham, Suffolk – which the artist describes as part workshop, part counter-cultural ‘museum’.

Graham Crowley commented as follows

“The John Moores Painting Prize is without doubt the UK’s pre-eminent painting competition and exhibition. One of my ambitions, apart from painting the best paintings I possibly can, has always been to win. Exhibiting as part of the prize in the past has played a significant part in establishing my reputation as a painter. This is important as I, like most practicing painters, am not represented by a gallery or commercial interest.”

“The prize has an authoritative history of post-war painting in the UK, and its credibility and longevity are testament to the anonymous judging process. I am thrilled to be the first prize winner this year.”

About Graham Crowley

Graham Crowley in his Studio

• Born in Romford, Essex in 1950
• Art Education:1968 – 69 Foundation Studies, St Martin's School of Art, London
• 1969 – 72 Diploma in Art & Design, St Martin's School of Art, London
• 1972 – 75 MA (RCA), Royal College of Art, London
• 1978-85 – Visiting lecturer in painting, RCA.
• Crowley worked originally as an abstract painter but began to paint figuratively in the 1970s.
• His work has been shown extensively in England and Europe, including exhibitions at the Venice and Paris biennales and at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
• He is included in a number of public collections and has also completed several large-scale public commissions.
• He has been living and working in Suffolk since 2014.
• This is his CV

Other Prizewinners

Shortlisted Artists (£2,500 each)

By way of introduction (from me)

• there are four "technique paintings" (for want of a better term) - only one of which interests me
• and a genuine original which has both substance and impact.
• my favourites are by the two youngest painters.

The four other shortlisted artists who will each receive £2,500 are: 

• Social Murder: Grenfell In Three Parts by Nicholas Baldion, 
• Stochastic 14 by Emily Kraus, 
• Other Light by Damian Taylor and 
• Champagne Cascade I by Francisco Valdes.

You can see details of  these artists - and their paintings - in my post Five artists shortlisted for John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Lady Grantchester Prize 

This award (supported by Winsor & Newton) has been developed to support artists in the early stages of their career. 

This is the first time this prize has been awarded. It comprises £5,000, a residency and £2,500 worth of art materials for her work.

Emma Roche in her studio knitting her acrylic!

Emma Roche won the Lady Grantchester Prize.  Her work is made of knitted acrylic painting on wooden panels. She commented as follows

“I really value this recognition and support from the John Moores Painting Prize. I am interested in pushing painting to its limit through the different processes that I use, so the work is not always immediately recognised as painting or as paint. I was thrilled to find out that I made it through to the exhibition stage and to be a prize winner is surreal. I feel very grateful.”

Emma has B.A. in Fine Art Painting, N.C.A.D., Dublin, 2006; an M.A. in Visual Arts Practices, I.A.D.T. Dublin, 2010; and attended the Turps Banana Art School, London 2016-2019 

Comment

So one painter in his 70s wins the big prize and one much younger artist wins the "support the career prize". 

In my view, I'd have preferred to have seen a Lifetime Achievement Award for an older painter and the big prize going to somebody much younger.

There are those of us who think somebody winning a very major prize in the early part of their career is actually the best possible support to the future career of an artist. There's a fair few painters who have won this one early on who can support that view.

Visitors' Choice Award (£2,023)

Visitors to the exhibition are now invited to vote for their favourite painting to win the popular Visitors’ Choice Award, sponsored by Rathbones. The winning artist will receive £2,023

The Exhibition

The John Moores Painting Prize is the UK's most well-known painting competition, bringing together the best contemporary painting from across the UK to Liverpool.

The 70 paintings - selected from a record 3,357 entries - included in the John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition are now open to view at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool 16 Sep 2023—25 Feb 2024.

I'm guessing the record entries are in part generated by the demise of several other art competitions with serious prize money.

REFERENCE

Previous blog posts

• Call for Entries: John Moores Painting Prize 2023
• Selected artists for the John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Five artists shortlisted for John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Five artists have been shortlisted for The John Moores Painting Prize 2023 - and this post:

• tells you who they are - and provides a judges summary plus a profile
• shows you the image of the painting which has been shortlisted
• shows you images of the selectors and the selection process
• and finally.... you get my prediction as to which work will win the £25,000 First Prize and a Solo Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in 2025.

The John Moores Painting Prize is the UK's most well-known painting competition, bringing together the best contemporary painting from across the UK to Liverpool.

The exhibition of all the artists selected for the longlist will be held at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool between16 Sep 2023—25 Feb 2024. 

The Shortlisted Artists

Paintings by Nicholas Baldion, Graham Crowley, Emily Kraus, Damian Taylor and Francisco Valdes shortlisted from more than 3,000 entries.

Links to their websites are embedded in their names below.

Those not winning the first prize of £25,000 will each be awarded £2,500.

The Selectors gave each painting careful scrutiny

The 2023 jury - Alexis Harding, Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE, Marlene Smith, The White Pube and Yu Hong – chose the prize winners and the long list of other exhibiting artists from more than 3,000 entries – the most the John Moores Painting Prize has ever received.

From large scale canvases, bold in brush strokes and colour, to exquisitely detailed pieces, the exhibition covers a wide range of styles, united by their use of paint.  

By way of introduction (from me)

• there are four "technique paintings" (for want of a better term) - only one of which interests me
• and a genuine original which has both substance and impact.
• my favourites are by the two youngest painters.

Selected artists for the John Moores Painting Prize 2023

The selected artists for the John Moores Painting Prize 2023 have now been announced and are as detailed below - name plus title of the artwork plus links to websites or social media sites of some.

The Jury

“It’s a real privilege to have been able to soak up and absorb a snapshot of British painting as part of the jury. It’s so dynamic, exciting, and wrought with a lot of debate and discussion. The anonymity factor allows us to get straight to the factuality of the painting, and being able to see each painting face to face has been a delight.” juror Alexis Harding - first prize winner in 2004

The John Moores Painting Prize 2023 Exhibition opens at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool on Saturday 16 September 2023. 

The first prize winner will receive 

• £25,000 and 
• a solo display at the Walker Art Gallery in 2025.

Always the bridesmaid ...about 3000 enter The John Moore's Painting Prize and about 300 get chosen for stage two, then around 67 make it to the exhibition. Kinda chuffed I got chosen for stage two. Next year I'll smash it Lolly Golding

 

Selected Artists - John Moore Painting Prize 2023 

If your website or Instagram / Facebook can be found in 5 seconds you have a decent chance of getting a link below. If you've also created a decent summary of who you are and what you do, you might just get referenced too. But I don't bother with those not keen on marketing their art or themselves. Plus I'm afraid I don't do guessing games on those who have common names. If you want a link let me know via the post associated with this one on my Facebook Page.

• Dale Adcock - Wall - classic example of somebody who's not looked at the CV on his website in a while
• Tim Allen - Dancing the Future Melting the Past 
• Linda Aloysius - The First Painting in History To Be Recognised By a Public Museum as Painted By a Working-Class Single Mother Artist  
• Tahira Asghar - TAKE IT ALL TAKE IT ALL TAKE IT ALL 
• Nicholas Baldion - Social Murder: Grenfell in Three Parts 
• Mollie Balshaw - My studio is on the bus 

• Ella Belenky - Spell Lulu Bennett - Float 
• Richard Burton - Simulac 
• Danny Cameron - Madonna & Child 
• Deepa Chudasama - Cluster Series with grid 
• Noemi Conan - Sheela Na Gig 
• Daniel Coombs - Woman in the Park 
• Rhys Coren - Slicing Time Differently 
• Mark Corfield-Moore - Sweet Tooth 
• Martyn Cross - The Comin' Through 
• Graham Crowley - Light Industry 
• Richie Culver - Untitled 
• William Drummond - Here's Looking At You - a Petworth based artist with a focus on animals and landscapes. William studied fashion at New York’s FIT before working for a range of designers including Tom Ford, Marchesa and Theory before teaching himself to paint.
• Ryan Durrant - Untitled (HW) 
• Jack Foster - After Fra Angelico 
• Ray Gill - Slide 
• Magdalena Gluszak - Holeksa - Her husband didn't die, he just became beautiful b.1990 in Polnad. Lives in Hertfordshire. Studied MFA Fine Arts at University of the Arts London, Wimbledon College of Art
• Matt Golden - Ladders (Dark Blue) 
• Gina Hammersley - Smile for the Camera 
• Christopher Hanlon - Untitled 
• Christopher Hanson - Ama 
• Dereck Harris - Web Zeal 
• John Wood & Paul Harrison - Not a painting kind of painting 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by John Wood and Paul Harrison (@woodandharrison)

• Harriet Mena Hill - Taplow Shadows: The Aylesbury Fragments 
• Leo Holloway - Untitled 
• Ben Hughes - They'd had ten years to plan their revenge ... 
• Reece Jones - Phantom A and Phantom B - absolutely zero about the artist on his website!
• Betsey Kilpatrick - Love Vortices 
• Helen Kincaid - Stage ll 
• Emily Kraus - Stochastic 14 
• Michael Lacey - I Met A Traveller From An Antique Land 
• Dale Lewis - Garden Party 
• Angela Lizon - Horseman - BA(Hons) in Fine Art; Post-graduate scholarship funded by the Polish government and the British Arts Council for study at Krakow Academy of Fine Art in Poland; Elected Academician at Royal West of England Academy, Bristol; Studio holder at Top Floor Studios, Spike Island, Bristol
• W.K. Lyhne - Stabat Mater 111 
• Henry Miller - Fun Boy Three - Tunnel of Love 
• Chris Milsom - Mirror Mirror 
• Reuben Murray - Ada 
• Richard Phoenix - The Ladder (The Choice) 
• Emma Price - British Values II 
• Yin Yung Sabrina - Pun Emergency Order Convention 1 
• Samantha Rebello - At the King's Table: The Queen's Habit (Blancmange) 
• Phil Redford - Exodus 
• Zachariah Riley - Untitled (Dummies no.3) 
• Emma Roche - Hurl 
• Francisco Rodriguez - The Golden Hour 
• Stevie Ronnie - Thirty Hours or So of Being Awake 
• Michael Samuels - Big Exit 
• Elinor Stanley - Big Babe 
• Amy Steel - Because I Know so Little I Grope for More 
• Alan Stewart - I Hear Them Coming 
• Damian Taylor - Other Light 
• Mimei Thompson - Weeds at the End of the World (Ultramarine, Magenta) 
• Emma Tod - Ludic 
• Francisco Valdes - Champagne Cascade I 
• Covadonga Valdes - Homeland 8 - landscape painter; 1988-92 BA (Hons) Chelsea College of Art, London; 1992-94 MA The Slade University College, London
• Jack Vickridge - Untitled 
• Lorna May Wadsworth - Salvator Mundi 
• Julian Wakelin - LBGE - TBGE 
• Casper White - Saint Michael the Archangel Andrea Della Robia filmed at The Met with pleated kilt by @aria.puga
• John Whitehill - Island Sanctuary 
• Joanna Whittle - Forest Shrine (Witness) 
• Suzy Willey - Just like that!…there! 
• Reed Wilson - Book Stack 
• Tom Woolner - Internal Weather (Idyll)

About the John Moores Painting Prize

The John Moores Painting Prize has awarded more than £685,000 in prize money across 31 exhibitions, which have showcased more than 2,350 works of art. It presents a rich history of post-war painting in Britain. The first exhibition was held only six years after the Walker Art Gallery re-opened following the Second World War.

Previous winners of the John Moores Painting Prize have included artists such as

• 1959: Patrick Heron - "Black Painting - Red, Brown and Olive: July 1959
• 1967: David Hockney - Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool
• 1972: Euan Uglow - "Nude, 12 vertical positions from the eye"
• 1993: Peter Doig - "Blotter"
• 2014: Rose Wylie - "PV Windows and Floorboards"

See a virtual exhibition of John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition - Winners since 1957

REFERENCE: see my post about Call for Entries: John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Call for Entries: John Moores Painting Prize 2023

The John Moores Painting Prize is a very prestigious biennial PAINTING competition - with a £25,000 First Prize - plus a £5,000 prize for an emerging artist.

• It opened for entries for the 2023 exhibition yesterday.
• The Prize is open to all UK-based artists working with paint.
• The deadline for an entry is 24 March 2023
• All entries are judged anonymously over a two-stage selection process - but I strongly recommend you take a look at the Judges profiles first.
• It culminates in an exhibition next year at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (16 September 2023 to 25 February 2024).

In the absence of all those art competitions which have fallen by the wayside in recent years, this is one art competition that all painters should take very seriously - not least because who has won it previously

Exhibition

The John Moores Painting Prize (JSPP) 2023 Exhibition will be on display at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool from 19 September 2020 - 14 February 2021

Kathryn Maple - who won the JSPP in 2020 - also has an exhibition Under a Hot Sun by Kathryn Maple at the Walker Art Gallery between 11 Feb 2023—30 Apr 2023

About the John Moores Painting Prize

The John Moores Painting Prize has awarded more than £685,000 in prize money across 31 exhibitions, which have showcased more than 2,350 works of art. It presents a rich history of post-war painting in Britain. The first exhibition was held only six years after the Walker Art Gallery re-opened following the Second World War.

Previous winners of the John Moores Painting Prize have included artists such as

• 1959: Patrick Heron - "Black Painting - Red, Brown and Olive: July 1959
• 1967: David Hockney - Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool
• 1972: Euan Uglow - "Nude, 12 vertical positions from the eye"
• 1993: Peter Doig - "Blotter"
• 2014: Rose Wylie - "PV Windows and Floorboards"

See a virtual exhibition of John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition - Winners since 1957

Aims of the JMPP

The competition is named after the sponsor of the prize, Sir John Moores (1896 – 1993). It was originally intended as a one-off, however it's now a biennial event and this will be the 32nd exhibition since its launch in 1957.

The original aims of the John Moores Painting Prize was:

'To give Merseyside the chance to see an exhibition of painting and sculpture embracing the best and most vital work being done today throughout the country'

and

'To encourage contemporary artists, particularly the young and progressive'

Now the aim is

Supporting artists from all over the UK – whether they’re undiscovered, emerging or established in their careers – the prize provides a platform for artists to inspire, disrupt and challenge the British painting art scene today.

Hence the competition aims to support artists who paint with two important dimensions:

• all entries are judged anonymously
• to bring to Liverpool "the best contemporary painting" from across the UK

and after that it's whatever the members of the jury care to place an emphasis on.

In terms of "anonymous entry and judging" this competition is much more thorough than most. During the Stage 1 Review of the digital images the process is completely anonymous

• all artists are allocated a unique entry number
• jurors are not given the names of the artists
• jurors are only provided with information about the title, size and medium of the painting.

You can read more about the The Judges for the 2023 JMPP at the end of this post.

Prizes

All paintings included in the exhibition are eligible for a prize. The jury will select a final shortlist of five paintings and award the prizes.

• The first prize winner will receive £25,000 and a solo display at the Walker Art Gallery in 2025. 
• A shortlist of four other paintings will also be awarded £2,500.  
• Plus a NEW £5,000 Lady Grantchester Prize for emerging artists (see below) PLUS 
• a month-long residency and display space at Elephant West in West London  plus local accommodation and a basic allowance if the artist lives outside LondoN; and 
• £2,500 worth of art materials from Winsor & Newton.
• Professional mentoring by Winsor & Newton
• The Visitors’ Choice Award (worth £2023) sponsored by Rathbones. - Visitors to the  JMPP 2023 exhibition will be invited to vote for their favourite painting to win the popular 

New for the 2023 edition of JMPP, the Emerging Artist Prize has been re-named in honour of the late Lady Grantchester, an avid and loyal supporter of the John Moores Painting Prize, which was created by her father, John Moores in 1957.

The Lady Grantchester Prize is open to recent graduates, who are within two years of graduation, and students who are currently in their final year of a UK-based arts-related course, degree (eg. BA, MA, PhD) or alternative learning programme. 

Call for Entries

Summary of information provided by the organisers can be found on

• This the Guidelines for Artists page.
• This is the Terms and Conditions Page
• This is the Registration Page - which very oddly has no reference to or links to other important information about the competition!!
• The website - below is very difficult to navigate - as you an get very easily stuck on one page with no exit or backwards link. You MUST use this link to get back to this screen https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/jmpp/john-moores-painting-prize

Above is the short version. Below are the details.

Who can enter?

The last edition of the show had almost 3,000 entries including works by both established and early career artists.

Artists MUST be:

Count the number of art competitions that no longer exist....

The only thing that is certain in this world is "change".

Which is why, one of the things that is certain in the art world is that art competitions change over time.

What's surprising me right now is just how many of the more major competitions in the UK have completely disappeared in recent time. 

• I last wrote about this prior to lockdown back in early 2020 in The Disappearing Art Competitions 
• Since when we've had confirmation more have been lost and the art competition 'maketplace' has changed significantly in the UK.
  

I thought it was time for AN UPDATE. Below I list those art competitions

• which will not be taking place in 2021
• which still exist and will take place
• those replacing past competitions
• minor art competions

plus why art competitions are important to artists.

By way of a preamble, I am absolutely convinced this is all about two things:

FIRST we're still experiencing coronavirus interruptus syndrome, i.e. the very long "stall" associated with not knowing when things are going to get back to normal. Right now I don't expect thing to approach normal until 2022 - but I do also expect people to be planning for this right now!

SECOND there is an absolute DEARTH of key components for a prestigious art competition. These are:

• key people whose networks enable them to prize out sponsorship money from corporate bodies which can afford it
• strategic thinking within some regional museums - in relation to the traffic which can be generated by a good art competition
• organisations which want to be associated with significant art prizes.
• organisations with expertise and practical experience in developing efficient and effective art competitions with significant prizes (i.e. why are we losing all these top art competitions?)
  

By way of contrast, I am also noticing that some national art societies are getting very good at generating / replacing very good levels of sponsorship for prizes for their open exhibitions.  

• I now highlight clearly those national art societies which people should take a close look at on the basis of prize money alone.
• This should make artists think about whether they are applying for the right  open exhibitions!  PROMPT to my recent client: this is what I was talking about! :)

Art Competitions that no longer exist in 2021

BP Portrait Award

The last BP Portrait exhibition in the NP

Kathryn Maple wins £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize

Many congratulations to Kathryn Maple who has been awarded the First Prize of £25,000 in the John Moores Painting Prize 2020 competition.

The Common, 2020
Acrylic on canvas, 222 x 246 cm
Kathryn Maple

I'm pleased that her painting won. I've been saying for a very long time that it is a great pity that almost all painters totally ignore the scope for adding people in groups into paintings. 

View of all the shortlisted artists with Kathryn Maple in the centre

The John Moores Painting Competition - held on a biennial basis at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool - is an extremely prestigious competition and previous winners of the John Moores Painting Prize have included artists such as

• 1959: Patrick Heron - "Black Painting - Red, Brown and Olive: July 1959
• 1967: David Hockney -  Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool
• 1972: Euan Uglow - "Nude, 12 vertical positions from the eye"
• 1993: Peter Doig - "Blotter"
• 2014: Rose Wylie -  "PV Windows and Floorboards"

I haven't always liked all the choices made by the varying Judging Panels in recent years - but knew as soon as I saw Kathryn's painting of "The Common" in the Virtual Tour of the Exhibition that it had an excellent chance of winning first prize.

The Common in the exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery

The Common evokes the quiet moments of urban mundanity, where observed and imagined worlds cross paths. Kathryn describes it as a ‘...meeting place, an intersection, people seemingly aware of each other, but minds elsewhere – all sharing an open space...’. Kathryn’s work frequently returns to ideas around these ‘resting places within a city’, where nature is seen and celebrated.

You can watch the announcement of the award, which happened this afternoon, in this video - which also includes:

• comments by the Judges on every painting and why they shortlisted it - something of particular interest to anybody wanting to submit work for the next competition in 2022. Of Kathryn Maple's paintings they said that it resonated

"perhaps because it depicts the very thing we are currently unable to share: the painting resonates with movement and communality, and embodies the deeply social nature of humans,"

• the faces of all five artists as they wait for the announcement of who has won
• the very sneaky way that they announced who had won with none of the usual - "and the winner is" followed by a long pause - as it was obvious!

The Common will now join the permanent collection of the Walker Art Gallery, and will be among 67 entries on display when it is able to reopen.

About Kathryn Maple

I first met Kathryn Maple at the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 2014 - when she won first prize. (see my blog post Kathryn Maple wins Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014)

Winner of the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2014

Fatboys Diner (88cm x 64cm )

by Kathryn Maple

She won the SRWC first prize AGAIN in 2016 with another watercolour painting of her trip to India. (see my blog post Kathryn Maple wins Sunday Times Watercolour Competition for second time)

View five prizewinners and the paintings selected for the John Moores Painting Prize 2020

 You can now:

• view the paintings selected for the John Moores Painting Prize 2020
• see who's been shortlisted for the £25,000 First Prize
• find out who has won tomorrow , Thursday 4th March, at 4pm

This post follows on from my two earlier posts relating to this exhibition:

• Selected artists for John Moores Painting Prize 2020
• Call for Entries: £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize 2020 + NEW Prize

A Virtual Tour of the Exhibition

As lovely as it would be, to be able to open our doors and welcome you in to enjoy #JMPP2020, you can experience all of it virtually from wherever you are.

Drop in 👉https://t.co/pfp2NUSVan pic.twitter.com/f9rpONFiPY

— John Moores Painting Prize (@JMPaintingPrize) February 28, 2021

The Walker Art Gallery has got one of the best approaches to viewing art hung in an art gallery.

So for the exhibition of the John Moores Painting Prize 2020

• they're using the Matterport video system for a Virtual Tour via online viewing
• it has all the normal options (dolls house, floor plan, full screen) 
• you can just press go and it will take you round the exhibition. It takes you round at a reasonable pace i.e. fast enough you scoot past the ones you're not impressed with - with scope to stop and take a closer look when a painting captures your fancy!
• or you can navigate yourself 
• it ALSO has each individual painting identified with the artist's name running below the virtual view of the gallery (and superimposed on the paintings). You can use the up down (tail less) arrow bottom left to switch this on and off
• plus a price list for all the paintings with all the artist's names, thumbnail, title of the painting and price

The John Moores Painting Prize brings together the best in contemporary British painting right now.

Supporting artists from all over the UK – whether they’re undiscovered, emerging or established in their careers – the prize provides a platform for artists to inspire, disrupt and challenge the British painting art scene today.

All entries were judged anonymously over a two-stage selection process by our panel of judges.

Prizewinners

The five prizewinners (clockwise from top left):
Robbie Bushe, Michele Fletcher, Kathryn Maple, Stephen Lee and Steph Goodger

The longlist i.e. the names and artworks selected for the exhibition - was announced last November.

The five prizewinners eligible for the £25,000 First Prize (or the consolation prize of £2,500 each) were announced in February. 

• This is a film about them
• They are listed below - with images of their selected painting.

Selected artists for John Moores Painting Prize 2020

The Judges have worked their way through 3,000 entries and just 67 artists have got a painting into the biennial exhibition of the John Moores Painting Prize 2020, the UK’s oldest painting prize.

Past prize winners have included include David Hockney (1967), Peter Doig (1993), and Rose Wylie (2014). Sir Peter Blake, winner of the junior prize in 1961, is patron of the Prize.

The John Moores Painting Prize is organised in partnership with the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust. The exhibition will be held at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool between 12 February – 27 June 2021 as part of Liverpool Biennial 2021, the largest festival of contemporary art in the UK, taking place across the city’s public spaces, galleries and museums from 20 March to 6 June 2021.

I wrote about the exhibition in February this year in Call for Entries: £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize 2020 + NEW Prize and this post tells you a lot more about the background to the prize and how it works - which I'm not going to repeat here.

All images © Robin Clewley 

Selection Process

In its more than 60 year history the Prize has evolved but one fundamental rule has remained the same; paintings are judged anonymously, allowing the works to speak for themselves and giving the process and final exhibition a unique authenticity.

The Jury for the 2020 Exhibition are:

• Michelle Williams Gamaker - an artist working with moving image and performance.
• Jennifer Higgie - staff writer and Editor-at-large of Frieze magazine, and the writer and presenter of Bow Down; the podcast about women in art history.
• Gu Wenda, an artist born in Shanghai. 
• Hurvin Anderson, a painter whose work explores spaces occupied by Caribbean immigrants
• Alison Goldfrapp - a British-based artist who studied fine art at Middlesex University before embarking on a career in music that has spanned more than 26 years.

The jury also 

• select a final shortlist of five paintings, from which the £25,000 first prize winning work will be chosen and four additional prizes of £2,500 will be awarded. 
• identify the recipient of the first £2,500 Emerging Artist Prize, supported by Winsor & Newton.

The names of the five prizewinning artists will be shared in January 2021

The names of the first prize winner and the Emerging Artist Prize will be announced at the opening of the exhibition.

John Moores Painting Prize 2020 judges.
From left to right, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Hurvin Anderson, Gu Wenda and Jennifer Higgie.  

For the first time in the history of the Prize the judging was all done online. 

High spec cameras, screens, speakers and AV software allowed judges to appreciate the scale, texture and detail of the works in real time (see below)

“Judging the John Moores Painting Prize this year at a distance presented a new challenge in the Prize’s history. Instead of standing with the artworks we zoomed right in, carefully scanning the surface of each painting. Ultimately our decisions were based on a number of themes that emerged and resonated with the other jurors in our collective discussions. We were deeply inspired by all of the artists from Stage 2 who showed clear commitment, talent and love for painting. We could feel this through the technology, that enabled us to view the work, and it was so inspiring to see artists achieve this, particularly in these uncertain times.”  Michelle Williams Gamaker

 

Selected Artists

67 paintings were  longlisted for the exhibition from almost 3,000 entries.  All the images below were taken during the selection process. You may see your painting - but it also gives people an idea of the sort of paintings that are entered.

The artists selected to exhibit paintings in the John Moores Painting Prize 2020 are as follows. I've highlighted artists I've previously featured on this blog - plus added in those who have tweeted about the selection

B

• Dohyun Baek - Mom's Birthday Follows the Lunar Calendar
• Nicola Bealing - The Horse
• G L Brierley - Untitled (Corpo)
• Rory Biddulph - Smoker
• Louise Bristow - Citizens
• Hannah Brown - Hedge 4
• Lindsey Bull - The moors
• Robbie Bushe - The Neanderthal Futures Infirmary

C

• Mary Castle-Millner - Man with a Hose
• Leah Michelle Cayol - Lickkle Man
• Lara Cobden - A Year of Ghost Wishes
• Noemi S Conan - Las, Laska, Lass (Hilary Emerging)
• Paul Crook - Yellow Escalator

D

• Peter Davis - Wetin dey
• Pedro De Siqueira - Note to Karen from finance: can power transcend?
• Sam Douglas - Standing Stone
• Michelle Dovey - Bird Tree 2019

E

• Sarah J Earnshaw - Hazel Grundy, 1988
• Liz Elton - Tender

F

• Maria Farrar - Pearl Necklace
• Alan Fears - The Paper Tiger
• Michele Fletcher - Compost
• Max Fletcher and Andrea Celeste La Forgia (collaboration) - Postcard to A.G.

G

• Tricia Gillman - MOMENTS 1: Mind's Eye
• Rachel Glittenberg - Night Swimmers
• Melanie Goemans - Hawthorn (triptych)

Some wonderful news to share #MelanieGoemans painting ‘Hawthorn (triptych)’ has been selected as part of the prestigious @JMPaintingPrize 2020
Huge congratulations to Melanie, seen here at Cornwall Contemporary with two of her exquisite paintings, which can be seen on our website pic.twitter.com/1gI7kPW6qi

— CornwallContemporary (@sarah_cornwall) November 5, 2020

• Steph Goodger - The Motherland
• Massimiliano Gottardi - Jung /Jungle (spatial crease)
• Robin Greenwood - Untitled

H

• Christopher Hanson - Mother
• Lily Hargreaves - Didn't That Used to be Part of the Fun?
• Rebecca Harper - Between Two Worlds
• Georgia Hayes - Proboscis Crossing
• Michael Hempstead - Dead Soul's Boogie-Woogie: Dancing Now

J

• David Jacques - Sargasso
• Alison Jones - Connoisseur (my 1970s)

K

• Caroline E Kent - Two Minute Silence
• Sally Kindberg - Hang Loose
• Matthew Krishanu - Riverboat

L

• Laura Lancaster - Invocation
• LANTAIN - HORTUS CONCLUSUS: Le Rouge et le Noir
• Stephen Lee - March
• Brendan Lyons - Plasticity Horizon - an artist based in Liverpool.

M

• Kathryn Maple - The Common - Kathryn won the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition Winner 2014 and 2016 (see my blog posts for 2014 and 2016). She now works in acrylic and oils.
• Peter Matthews - Summer Sequoia
• Barry McGlashan - Klavierkonzert
• Robert McPartland - Field 2. Grapefruit.

O

• Pat O'Connor (Mrs Walter Lang)
• Laurence Owen - A Plant Fizzing with Air Bubbles Bursting in its Plumbing
• Sikelela Owen - The Knitter

P

• Shanti Panchal - The Terrace - Shanti was one of the five artists shortlisted for the Prize in 2018. moved from India to work in Britain in 1978 and has developed a unique approach to watercolour painting which means, for me at least, his painting style is one of the most recognisable I know. He has been selected for numerous art competitions

During my early years in London, and while travelling to Europe and America, I observed that, historically, the potentials of watercolour had not been explored to the same extent as those of oil and acrylic. Watercolour paintings were too limited to pretty flowers and sweet landscapes. It was a very frustrating experience. I was not prepared to accept the conventional limits of the medium.

I started working obsessively, even to the point of damage, from 12’x6′ canvas to 12″x6″ paper. To achieve depth, the colour has to penetrate the paper. I do not mix colours on a palette but directly on the paper itself. Through the process of hammering and scraping the surface, shifting images and ideas, working and reworking, my success and failure have become an integral part of the painting. I use layers and layers of colour – layers and layers of life’s experiences injecting into the very fibre of my existence, so ecstatic and at the same time so suicidal.

• Mandy Payne - Remnants of a Welfare State
• Lyle Perkins - O.R.B
• Katie Pratt - Darnington

R

• William Riding - The Geometer
• Philippa Robbins - Cactus Against a Blue Wall - Also selected - with 3 artwork - for the ING Discerning Eye 2020

S

• Miho Sato - Windy Day
• Brian Sayers - Encounter
• Caroline Streatfield - Portal
• Annika Ström - I am Curious Pink (no.1 of The One Hundred) 2020
• Edward Sutcliffe - Floral Painting 1 - Edward won the BP Portrait Travel Award 2014

V

• Nicholas Vaughan - Tunnel of Tusk
• Kiki Xuebing Wang - Untitled (Loafer)

W

• Harry Whitelock - I'll Break My Neck For You
• Charles Williams - Watercolourist Mask - Artist, writer, lecturer, illustrator and Venice Biennale participant (Website | Instagram | Facebook). Charles won Heat 1 in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2020
• George Wills - Paranoia

Y

• Fleur Yearsley - To The Moon & Back

“This exhibition is an extraordinary chapter in the John Moores Painting Prize’s long history. From the Call for Entries which launched just weeks before the first national lockdown, to the challenge of bringing together hundreds of paintings from across the UK, we’re delighted to have got to this stage and to finally have a truly exciting longlist."
Sandra Penketh, Director of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool