Sir John Hurt & Sworders Art Prizes

Sir John Hurt Art Prize

Sworders Emerging Artist Prize

Sworders Young Artist Prize

Shortlisted Works 2023

Exhibition Thursday 20th - Saturday 29th July

Glandford Studios

Manor Farm Barns

Glandford, Nr Holt, NR25 7JP

Egg tempera on Italian gesso board 40 x 30cm Plain painted

Existing in the physical world, journeying through time, involving inevitable, continuous parting, as with the waves of sea, a flowing of changes and adjustment over the passing of time.

Parting can bring great changes in thoughts and feelings, new ways of seeing and acceptance of ‘what is’. The white crow in the foreground represents gained wisdom and knowledge. The figure, a self portrait of the artist is walking the landscape on the cliff at Cove Hithe in Suffolk. An eroding landscape in constant change through erosion by the wind and sea tides, truly reflects this complex journey of existence.

Diana Ashdown

Three Seasons

Solar plate print

72 x 37cm

Framed

This solar print takes elements from three seasons of growth. Foliage in spring, flowers in summer and winter seed heads.

£230

Anna Badar

Night Crystal

Mixed media on canvas

40 x 50.5cm

White wooden frame - St Ives style

Ideas well-up from an experience of places that I know and love, especially the magnificent night skies over Dunwich, which always fill me with awe and wonder. I like to use media that allow an element of random chance, experimenting with inks, acrylics, collage, oils and texture pastes on a range of different grounds, wood, canvas, hessian, paper and monoprints. Marks, colours and textures are given as much time as they need in order to evoke the sensation of place I am searching for.

£1,500

Peter Baldwin

The First Wave Oil

75 x 68cm

The work is based on the remains of the pier at Walberswick which was for some time the home of Philip Wilson Steer. The interface of land and sea represents the edge of our being and the subject base provides the prospect of a strong sense of presence.

Landscape Elements 5

Drypoint and carborundum

40 x 30cm

Natural wood stained

Based on my observations of the landscape. Using drypoint and carborundum to create a small edition of three prints.

Phil Barrett

Rugged Geometry – Conversations in Wood

Wood marked with graphite

61 x 76cm

4 roughly-cut Icosikaihexagon’s (26 sided objects) made out of 9cm cubes of wood, placed on a wooden shelf 51cm x 12.5 cm

Using discarded remnants of wood, often determines, not only the subject but also the size and finished quality of work being made. Part of an on-going playful conversation with methods, material and processes, as well as the work of other artists, living and dead, these pieces are about cutting and shaping not carving, and I hope suggest a range of resonances, not limited to any one interpretation or meaning.

Offers

Self-Portrait

Oil on card

125 x 82cm

At 19 years-old, both a teen and an adult, I sit in a playful pose, my face screwed up in thought as I wonder what next to paint. The bookshelf behind me is full of beautiful, antiquarian books inherited from my dear Grandpa. The necklace shows a sign of my faith which I hold very close to my heart. I’m wearing my painting clothes; my favourite outfit to be in! The high heel captures my girly side that loves to dress up and the trainer shows my adventurous side which loves to walk, run, cycle and be outdoors!

£650

Autumn Glide (River Ouse)

Acrylic on board

12.5 x 12.5cm

White box frame

Autumn Glide refers to the surface of a river, in this case the Ouse, as it carries autumn leaves downstream amongst the darkening shadows of trees and bank side vegetation. It also references a stretch of water that a float may be trotted down whilst fishing for autumn Roach. Despite the use of photos, drawings and memory as reference tools, I tend to begin a painting from an abstract starting point with no plan as to how the painting will look. The process becomes like fishing for ideas and the final image.

£300

Jeremy Bevan

Salthouse Heath

Mixed Media

13.5 x 19.5cm

Cradle frame

£195

A mixed media painting based on concentina sketchbook drawings on Salthouse Heath in North Norfolk.

Bloated

Textile-bedding, acrylic paint, stuffing, thread, metal hook

120 x 10cm

Just like Clogged, this work questions the clean and the comfortable. Here, the stuffed piece gives a quilting effect. Referencing the internal body through its bumpy surface and sewn pattern. Due to its association with the internal body space, we see the piece as unclean. This is contrasted by the metal hook which pierces through the skin of the sculpture. Contrasting the stained fabric with its shiny metal qualities. From this, the work plays and confused our ideas of the unclean. The stained internal space feels less unclean and more enticing. As we notice its soft materiality and intricate patterns. It feels comforting.

£450

Things are Rarely as They Seem Acrylic on Panel 32 x 61cm

“There is rain on her face. A lost treasure found. A line of deep rich black against the silvery white; an epiphany wrapped around the trunk of a tree. Things are rarely as they seem.“

My paintings reflect upon the impermanence of life and the forces of nature.

Listening to words flow across the landscape I weave my poetry into layers of jewel-toned colours exposing the overlooked and hidden. I paint brilliant light and deep shadow, the far horizon and the passing of time. I am drawn to the delicate, the broken, the most fleeting, these are timeless and possess a powerful resonance. At the crossroads, beauty remains.

£875

Alex Boardman

Self Portrait, Newlyn, No 2, 2023

Oil on board

13 x 18cm

Dark grey floating tray frame

£250

Alex Boardman

Self Portrait, (Chubbly) G&J’s garage, 2022

Oil on board

16 x 14cm

Dark grey floating tray frame

£240

Alex Boardman

Self Portrait, Half profile with cap, 2022

Oil on board

11 x 10cm

Dark grey floating tray frame

£220

Margie Britz

Helianthus 1, Zinnia

Acrylic on canvas

83 x 83cm

Unframed

£1,500

Indian Summer: After the Flood

Acrylics

71 x 71cm

Custom painted wood

£600

Julie Brooks

Christine Brownrigg

Passing By

Oil on canvas

70 x 100cm

Plain frame

£1,000

Gabriella Buckingham

Cookie Cutter

Acrylic

60 x 60cm

Handprinted grey wood frame

Cookie Cutter is a still-life painting whose main subject is colour. Objects were chosen for their beautiful colour combination and variety of surfaces against a plain background. Created with a mix of palette knives and brushes on a wood panel with acrylic paint, it has a beautiful warm Spring palette and an interesting texture with pops of citrus yellow, pink and a warm peachy background.

Emma Buckmaster

Burmese Days ll

Sugar lift etching with Burmese gold leaf

48 x 75cm

Oak frame

Burma has a dark history but everywhere that you go there are the most beautiful temples. The local people decorate them with gold leaf, which they painstakingly hammer into sheets and sell at the temple gates. I bought some gold from them and used it to decorate my picture of the temples. This is a limited edition sugar lift etching.

Ruth Butler

Reflection

Acrylic, pencil on canvas

30 x 29cm

Wooden tray frame

£375

The Divided City

Recycled card and greyboard, acrylic paint and LED lighting

60 x 48cm

Decorative black wood frame

A vertical city at night divided by class.

Inspired by the idea of the class divide, this 3D city at night aims to recreate the disparity between rich and poor, a physical cultural split. Poverty is represented on the left; a dystopian city, derelict industrial buildings, broken windows and dismal lighting. In contrast, wealth is portrayed on the right; comfortable houses, an artisan bakery and green spaces, all displaying the riches available.

Between the broken society of the rich and poor are small connections; bridges, washing lines and bunting, that represent hope for an eventual class reconciliation.

Sascha Chopra

The Dark Within Us

Print of indian ink

29.7 x 42cm

Simple frame

The Dark Within Us, a piece about loosing ourselves within the darkness of our own thoughts and emotions.

£375

Antonia Clare

Figs & Pomegranates

Acrylic/mixed media on paper

58 x 56cm

Simple black wooden frame

£750

Inspired by the lushness of figs and pomegranates on a Mediterranean holiday.

Still Life Oil on canvas

75 x 100cm

Gilt frame with linen liner

In Still Life, a hare reposes in the undergrowth, its open eye and vibrant fur somehow at odds with the fact of its death. The painting invites us to look closely, intimately even, at a beautiful animal usually glimpsed in movement from afar. We experience the shifts of colour and texture across the fur, the materiality of the limbs - but above all the specificity of the animal. This hare, the painter appears to tell us, is particular and unique. The title, recalling the formal works from the golden era of 16th and 17th century Dutch painting, appears however to be a piece of misdirection. As the eye wanders through the encroaching jungle of grass, thickly rendered and bustling with insects, we glimpse into a world teaming with life. In its close mixing of life and death, the painting therefore serves as a memento mori. As the undergrowth advances, the hare, a symbol of rebirth and renewal, is embraced and returned to the vibrant indifferent stream of life.

£15,000

Ross Copping

Hitting the Sea Wall January Cromer

Oil Paint

60 x 60cm

Hard wood thin dark tray frame

Multi-layered paint with gold leaf trying to capture the magical energy of an angry sea.

£480

Adam Cornish

Down from Raginnis Acrylic on plywood

32 x 75cm White timber frame with floating mount

Down from Ragannis represents a relationship with the landscape and more specifically with that of the hinterland between the sea and the land. Evoking the ‘genius loci’, it explores how our perception of place changes as we travel through an environment. The painting explores a journey down into Mousehole - how the relationship with the sea and land changes; how the environment has been formed by its inhabitants; the harshness of the weather and the sea; and the protection of both natural and man-made structures, culminating in a harbour that affords shelter and calm from the Atlantic beyond.

Pool Jump 4

Charcoal on paper

52 x 42cm Black wooden frame

By manipulating a mesh of generic stock images, a fictitious exotic location is created to provide an ideal of what consumers should want, playing on the advertising ideal of trying to recapture the freedom of youth, unburdened by everyday life, where anything is possible. The work mimics the way adverts lure us to that escapism, free from responsibility, yet the imminent disruption to be caused by the pool diver hints at an artificiality behind the confines of the image.

Identi-Tee

Biro pen ink on cotton fabric shirt

Size 8-10 Womens T-Shirt framed in 84x 59cm. If hung from wire hanger dimensions are 65x 58cm may shrink from free-hang.

Identi-Tee Is a worn sports shirt illustrated onto with biro ink from my time at school. The illustration is based on my experience there, from bullying to physical abuse to nightmares which haunted me. Naturally the details and condition have started and will continue to fade away, requiring frequent maintenance, as do most of my works as I continue to explore the relationship between familial materials and their purpose. This preservation choice is a relation to decomposition, allowing changes or “updates” to the design, referencing how we as individuals are continuously undergoing metamorphism within our identity.

A Cold Winters Way and the Road Home Oil, household charcoal

84 x 103 x 4cm

Description of a landscape in winter in which the feel of cold / distance etc is more important than realism as such.

£1,500

Key

Mezzotint on fabriano 16.8 x 12cm Black frame

Key stemmed from an investigation into the process of mezzotint. The mezzotint was made on a copper plate, the surface of which has been scraped and polished to give areas of shade and light respectively. The technique was much used in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries and isn’t attempted by most people due to how time consuming it is. I wanted a challenge, so I illustrated a key from my imagination using a burnished and scraper.

Self 2023

Oil on tattooed steel

62 x 46cm

Unframed

£500

This self portrait was created by layering oils onto steel and then scratching down through the layers with a tattoo machine to build up the image.

Alex Egan

Let the Beast Stride Out

Acrylic and oil on panel

61 x 41cm

Dark grey floating frame

Encounters in the garden.

£900

Lorna Fellas

Transition

Acrylic on panel

102.5 x 102.5cm Black frame

Transition my work explores autobiographical and personal narratives developed from ideas concerned with journeys, emotional and physical.

£2,200

Caroline Forward

A Quiet Meander

Oils and cold wax on cradled panel

23 x 18cm

Painted white tray frame

Lines and marks on the rock surface revealed at low tide, home to untold stories. Quietly meandering across the beautiful surface I wonder at the ancient history contained within.

Denise Franklin

A Spirits Dance

Oil, cold wax and mixed medium on paper

61 x 51cm

Plane frame

Abstract seascape water spray against the land.

£675

Kate Giles

Bride I (Cherry and Oak)

Oil on board

30 x 38cm

Framed in ash with oak stain

£1,500

Kate Giles

Bride II (Holly and Oak)

Oil on board

30 x 38cm

Framed in ash with oak stain

£1,500

A Sense of Place

80 x 60cm

Atmospheric manipulation of a landscape photograph on high gloss aluminium, allowing the viewer to imagine being there, wherever ‘there’ is.

Photograph on aluminum

Katya Granova

French Coastline 2

Oil on canvas

50 x 70cm

£2,400

55 x 65cm

Narrow white-painted frame

£695

Sandy Horsley

Venus Anadyomene

Block print

38 x 31cm Black wooden frame

Block print (original print)

Print 1 from a limited edition of 30 Venus rising from the sea.

£125

Caroline Houchell

Autumn Evanesce

Mixed media

30 x 30cm

Black wood tray frame

Capturing a brief moment, a fleeting glance of autumnal hues and organic remnants amongst the debris of winter.

Monotype on Abaca tissue using plant materials collected from the garden surrounding my studio layered over hand printed collage and ephemera on cradled panel.

Susan Isaac

Igniting the Green Fuse

Acrylic and oil on panel

72 x 72cm

Wooden float frame

I experience this view every morning, returning from my walk in our orchard. I’m always struck by the verdant wave surging over the trackway, especially in spring, with the sudden greening of the hedgerows. I look forward to seeing each species come to life - from foreground nettles and Russian Comfrey to distant collapsing Goat Willow.

Having grown up in a rural environment, I’ve always been mindful of nature. Expressing something of its inestimable strengths and its fragility seems increasingly important. Although living in the heart of the countryside, there are echoes for me here of Hokusai’s Great Wave

£1,300

On the Shingle Bank

Linocut

67 x 67cm

Glazed in a black timber frame

A caterpillar tractor stands, ready to assist fishing boats on and off the shingle bank along the North Norfolk coast, in this hand-burnished linocut.

Distant Horizon I

Watercolour and pastel pencil

28.5 x 67cm

Deep white frame

£295

Ben Kendall

Garden Flowers

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

90 x 90cm

A vibrant and free still life of garden flowers in a collection of vases.

Light and Shadows

Traditional Egg tempera on board

41 x 30cm

Unframed

Painted from a photo of holiday in Cyprus. Was sketching in my notepad and was captivated by the light streaming through the slats in pergola. I wanted to capture the contrasts in cool and warmth of the light and shadows and just the relaxed welcoming feeling you get when on your hols.

Walking Blickling, Crocosmia Weave III

Random weave with handmade cordage

40cm x 27cm

Box frame in natural wood

Growing up a few miles from Blickling Hall in Norfolk, we would spend hours playing in the gardens and woods. This piece explores connection to place and nature through walking, rediscovering paths and lanes, and tracing past footsteps. The act of walking, of slowing down and paying attention is echoed in the making process. Crocosmia leaves gathered in late summer have been dried, split and made into a handmade cordage. The cordage is randomly woven, taking the ‘thread’ on a journey. The work also considers our relationship with nature, and the value we place on the materials we take and use every day.

£1,500

Victoria Kurrien

Cherries

Oil on canvas board

18cm x 30cm

Set into a repurposed box oak frame

Still life with cherries in a Japanese bowl. Oil on canvas board, set into 1 cm oak box frame.

A new toy that spins straight #1 and #2 Ink and charcoal on collaged Hanji 60x90x5cm(Each)

Unframed

What I want to visualise through my work is not an identity that has settled in one place but a record of my identity that cannot be defined and is being redefined and explored every moment. Through the undefinable creatures in my work, I want to record the image of myself that I portrayed at that moment —to be changed and redefined into another embodiment.

£4,000

Bay Tree and Box Tree Hedging

Photographic C Type print

61 x 91cm

No frame. Print mounted on Dibond with battens to hang.

The work explores the resonance in the space surrounding the bay tree and box hedging. Created using light, movement and photographic techniques.

Mary Mabbott

Skinhead Self Portrait

Lino cut

40.64 x 30.48 cm

is a

£40

This

lino printed artists self portrait using white ink on black paper.

Caroline Mackintosh

Reydon Marsh

Oil and cold wax

70 x 113cm

Deep white wood tray frame

A painting built up in layers of oil, oil and cold wax and oil bars, scratching into the surface to reveal early layers and graphite marks. This painting was produced in my studio from sketches made on sight. Marshes are a recurring theme and passion of mine. I love the simplicity of the landscape, and strong shapes and lines that can be found there.

£2,250

Ruth McCabe

Several Shades of Grey

Watercolour

50 x 89cm

White frame

Contemporary, abstract watercolour.

£900

Shoreline

Print

Alison McFarlane

21 x 59cm

Black wood frame

Drypoint, collagraphy and monoprint on watercolour paper.

£175

On His Feet

Pencils on paper

28 x 35.6cm Black frame

On his Feet is a commissioned drawing that refers to the future of a person I really like. I was trying to imagine how beautiful his future could be from his new perspective that was not easy to get, not even for him so I imagined him on his feet that tries to see the world from this new view, full of flowers instead of dark and grey buildings.

Acrylic on canvas

50 x 50cm

Wood, no glass

£450

Peter Norton

Eyes of Wind

Photograph

75 x 75cm

The effect of wind on reeds reflected in a drainage dyke, Holkham Marshes – February 2022, (undoctored)

£550

Michael Nunn .11 On Circles

Oil on board

54 x 44cm White wooden frame

This work is based on technical drawings of engineers/architects and the amalgamation of my previous work of an overarching theme of construction. I’ve set up and approached this piece in a very methodical and thought-out way, using blocks of colour to build up the form, space, and light of the still life, hopefully turning it into something beautiful and captivating.

The Visitor

Pen and ink with watercolour

24 x 24cm

Small glazed box frame

One of an ongoing series of drawings exploring the domain of creatures that inhabit the soil. One such is mole, often dismissed as an unwelcome guest in the garden, but whose determined endeavours play their part in life underground.

Using fine pens in both black and white ink, crosshatched and interwoven with touches of watercolour, the drawing is embedded in carefully layered hand-made papers to create the hole where Mole lives.

Drawn at night, these small drawings combine the artists’s deep association with the soil as a grower, and her personal reflections on daily events.

Fran Raison

My Lonely Heart

Mixed media: ink, paper collage, emulsion, pastel

38cm x 38cm

Float mounted hand stained wood

£525

Gavin Redwood

Anywhere

Oil on canvas

51 x 61cm

Unframed

Inspired by images of destruction that plague towns and cities across the world. Sometimes caused by humans, sometimes natural. Lives are turned upside-down in an instant, and all that is left are small reminders that people once existed there, and a realisation that this could happen to anyone, anywhere.

£3,500

Kirsten Riley

Meditation on a Map

Mixed media, oil and cold wax

30 x 30cm

Painted wooden tray frame

Remembering an exploration with its faded intensity.

£350

Peter Rodulfo

A scene from Great Yarmouth. £1,800

Tracey Ross

Release

Acrylic and mixed media

60 x 60cm

Framed

£1,000

Anna Sims

The Horses of the Basilica Venice Oil 60 x 80cm

Alexander Soskin

Horse

Goauche and ink on paper

30 x 45cm

Framed

A horse in motion. Best in show.

£1,150

Purple Reign

Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas

85 x 65cm

Opulence is the word that came to mind when creating Purple Reign. Rich, velvety, purple irises are the star of this painting and they have been rained on with liquid gold. The mottled grey background gives the effect of a stormy sky, which further sets the scene. The combination of purple and gold feels very regal, which is why I named the painting Purple Reign, and is also of course a reference to Prince. The painting has been finished with gold leaf around the edges of the canvas, adding another layer of luxury to the piece.

£1,000

John Thomson

Bird Cage Ink and watercolour on canvas

15 x 15 x 4cm

Wood frame with copper fixings

From a series of ‘caged’ heads. Depicting the animal and human conditions resulting from industrial farming and controlled ‘medical ’ environments.

John Thomson

Simian Cage

Ink and watercolour on canvas

15 x 15 x 4cm

Wood frame with copper fixings

From a series of ‘caged’ heads. Depicting the animal and human conditions resulting from industrial farming and controlled ‘medical’ environments.

Corrin Tulk

Subside

Oil and canvas

30cm x 30cm

White border style frame

£525

A seasonal interpretation of the East Anglia coastline formed by layers of oil paint applied in part with palette knives.

Luke Underwood

Ascension

Acrylic on linen

100 x 60cm

£1,250

Peter Valori

At the End of the Wood Red chalk

13.8 x 19.5cm

Framed

£300

Deconstruction I Oil on canvas

41 x 41cm Box frame

Deconstruction I: a complex composition created by taking a much larger older painting of trees of Blickling Woods, de-constructing and reconstructing it into an abstract detailed presentation. It was painted during covid lockdown and proved to be a great ‘mindful’ experience.

Sue Welfare

Last Year’s Apples Reduction Linocut

30 x 30cm Slim, black contemporary frame

Robert Wibberley

As The Fire Burned They Simply Hung Around and Threw Stuff Oil and acrylic on wooden panel 76cm x 51cm

An imagined portrait of the local young people doing all that is available to them. £425

Lizzie Woods

Oil on paper

33 x 41cm

Brown wood frame

£450

Trevor Woods

Colours of Morston

Acrylic on canvas

54cm x 43.5cm

White tray frame

Inspired by the flaking paint on the decaying boats around North Norfolk, this painting captures the coloured layers of history.

Dragons in the Sand #2

Oil, mixed media + rusted steel on canvas

34 x 124cm

Plain grey painted wood floating frame

Dragons in the Sand #2 is part of a series of pieces inspired by my long relationship with the eroding cliffs and fallen trees littering the beach at Covehithe on the North Suffolk coast. Using rusted steel as an integral part of the process, along with detritus collected from the location, references the corrosive effects of the North Sea. The use of oil colours introduces a more traditional technique, offsetting the experimental, spontaneous approach in my practice – which sometimes includes spontaneous use of paint dripping, pouring and incorporation of unexpected materials such as dust from the studio floor.

£1,200

Paul Zawadzki