We’re delighted to announce that Gavin Watson has scooped the third ‘Visitors’ Choice Award’ of the New Light Prize Exhibition with his work entitled ‘Lucky Jim’. With well over 1000 votes cast the award, sponsored by The Inter Group, certainly had the people of Cumbria talking.

Gavin lives and works in rural Northumberland and is inspired by the region, its history and the rich variety of wildlife inhabiting its landscape. His paintings explore the relationship between human and animal, and the internal and external worlds they share. Delighting in word play, his work hints at a larger narrative beyond the scenes they represent.

Visitors to Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery proved their love of the animal world, as Jo Taylor’s dynamic drawing ‘The Escapologist’ came second.

Carlisle-based landscape painter Janet Kenyon had great local support as her watercolour depicting Edinburgh came in third.

A huge thank you to all those who voted, both at Tullie House and online… we wish we could give every artist selected a prize!