Local man trying to bring prestigious London art prize to the Black Country
Local Dudley man, Dave Deacon, is aiming to win the prestigious London Graphics Centre & Theo Paphitis Art Prize 2024.
The theme for this years’ competition is JOY and the winner will be selected by a six judge panel and announced on 11 September at an exclusive VIP event.
With over 700 entries he is up against some very talented competition. Members of the public will be able to vote online for the People's Choice Award element of the competition between 5 and 19 August. The artwork awarded the highest number of votes by the closing date of 19 August will be awarded the People's Choice Award.
Dave is hoping to bring either the Judges’ Prize or the People’s Choice Award back home to The Black Country. Completely self-taught, Dave returned to his first love of drawing, after a 30 year hiatus of no drawing whatsoever, now focusing purely on pencil portraiture. His submission for the competition is of the actor Alan Cumming, he said: “I chose to submit my portrait of Alan because I felt his expression, and particularly the eyes, literally sparkled with joy fitting the theme perfectly.”
He went on to say “Art is universal and knows no boundaries, it would be just amazing to win the competition, not only for myself which I would love, but also to hopefully inspire young budding artists and show them that art just doesn’t belong in the grand galleries in the big cities.”
You can vote for Dave and his drawing, his submission number is 292, online at: londongraphics.co.uk/peoples-choice-award-entries.
By Natasha Barnes - Contributor
