The 2009 EAC Art Awards exhibition opened on Tuesday 1st December, at The Bankside Gallery, in perfect December weather.
It was fascinating to see the real artworks for the first time, after many, many days of viewing them online. On the whole, the colour reproduction online was remarkably accurate, with one or two notable exceptions, but nothing can prepare one for the size and drama of some of the artworks: Richard Benjamin’s  “Big Market Newcastle”, Hugh Cannings’  “A Shop in Provence,  Mick Beale’s “Forest Walk”, Nickie Jones’ “Sophie”, and Valerie Biddulph’s “Untitled 1” , to mention just five, were all larger than life and so much more eye-catching than they had even been on screen.
Other artworks were far more intimate and required the viewer to get up very close to appreciate the fine detail, eg. three very different but beautifully intricate embroideries, by Judy Dames, Mary Roscoe and Joan Speare.

This year EAC arranged for professional filming and photography of the event, and a number of the afternoon and evening visitors were interviewed about their work. The resulting video and photographic record will be made available on the website before Christmas.

The following prizes were awarded during the evening event:
The Girlings Prize for Landscape / Seascape to Alan Bowering for “Tranquillity – Mevagissey”
The Caring Homes Prize for Still Life to Judy Dames, for “ A Beane not Open, a Beane Open”
The Peverel Prize for Watercolour to Barbara Hughes for “Dubrovnik, Pearl of the Adriatic”
The EAC Prize for Drawing to Nancy Howie for “Ex Libris”
The EAC Prize for Oil Painting to Sarah Maria Rhys for “Last Dance”
The EAC Prize for Portraiture to Sandra Smith-Gordon for “Self Portrait at 70”
The EAC Prize for 3D work to Jeff Perks for “Chicken in a Basket”
The EAC Prize for Photography to Carol Allen for “The Point””
The Leisure Painter Subscription Prize to Gillian Flack for “Onions and Blue Vase”
The Artist Subscription Prize to Brian Collins for “A Shady Spot, Luxor”,
The Earnley Concourse Prize to William Belshaw for “Making Sandcastles”
The EAC People’s Choice Award to Gordon Morley for “Downham Village, Lancashire”,
The Angela Farnell Memorial Prize to Richard Benjamin for “Big Market, Newcastle”.

Our grateful thanks to all our prize sponsors - Abbeyfield, Girlings Retirement Options, Caring Homes, Peverel Retirement, Earnley Concourse, The Artist and Leisure Painter magazines - for their generosity, and particularly to Abbeyfield for also sponsoring the preview event.

This, the 16th EAC Art Awards is proving itself to be a resounding success, with one of the highest entry rates in recent years, and the high standard of work, as always, impressing and delighting all those who participate, not only by visiting the real exhibition in London, but also by viewing online.

And the fun is not over yet! Keep your eyes on the website. The new video of the preview event, and a selection of photos will shortly be uploaded.

Don’t forget, you can still visit the exhibition between now and Sunday 6th December. The Bankside Gallery is open from 11am until 6pm each day and admission is free. The closest tube station is Southwark.

A number of pictures are already sold, but it is still possible to buy excellent original works at very reasonable prices!

There are now only 5 days of voting to go in the EAC People’s Choice Award. 2405 votes have been cast, and 750 comments submitted, with 77,620 page views on the site since 9th November when the online voting was launched. We are absolutely astounded and delighted at the take-up!

Voting will end at 9pm on Monday 30th November, so that those who wish to watch the exciting conclusion don’t have to stay up half the night to do so.  The winner of the EAC People’s Choice Award will be presented with his or her well-earned prize, at the preview event at The Bankside Gallery, London, on Tuesday evening, 1st December.

In a previous blog, I remarked that “the Top 5 have been remarkably stable”. No longer! Gordon Morley’s “Downham Village” has been knocked off its first position by the original front runner, Gerald Hudson’s “Venice”. Meanwhile, Nickie Jones’s “Sophie” first entered the Top 10 six days ago, and has moved steadily up the ranking, until it is now challenging the top 3.

It’s going to be a very interesting five days!

On a practical note, it would seem that 1350 people have registered on the site, but not all have yet voted. Some may be saving their votes for the last few days, but others may have experienced problems verifying their email accounts and or passwords. If this is the case, please contact us, using the ‘Contact Us’ page on the website. For those not too familiar with computer logging in and emails, please be very careful to type in your exact email address; one wrong letter and the system won’t work.

Lastly, a big thank you to all those who have shown such an interest in the EAC Art Awards, taken the time to vote, and most particularly, to submit comments on the 101 art works on view from this year’s competition. Some commentators have been generous enough to offer feedback on almost every page, and we feel sure that the praise, support and encouragement have been highly valued by the artists themselves.

The brand new EAC People’s Choice Award, which will be awarded for the first time in 2009, looks set to be a very popular addition to the EAC Over 60s Art Awards prize-giving ceremony, to be held this year at the Bankside Gallery on 1st December.

There have now been 12 full days of busy online voting, with another 9 to go before voting closes late on Monday 30th November.

There are 101 finalists’ artworks in the online gallery, representing painting, drawing, print-making, collage, photography, textiles, sculpture, glass and enamel-work, with artists' ages ranging from 60 to 95.

So, where’s the voting up to?

1931 votes have now been cast and 456 comments posted.

There have been 4,600 visits to the website since 9th November when the online voting was launched, and 62,090 page views, indicating a healthy interest in the website, which is very encouraging for the future.

The Top 5 have been remarkably stable almost from the beginning, with Gordon Morley’s “Downham Village” currently established in 1st position, just ahead of Gerald Hudson’s “Venice”, and Diana Hudson’s “ Big Ambitions”. (they are not related, as far as I know) However, with nine days to go, anything can still happen; strong contenders that have suddenly appeared in the Top 10 over the last week include Joan Speare’s “Van Gogh Landscape” and Nickie Jones’s “Sophie” and if they have done it, so can others.

Thank you to all those who have voted and particularly to those who have also taken time to add a comment. Many finalists have themselves visited the site and offered feedback on others’ work, which must be the best kind of support for artists themselves.

One thing that the website might develop before next year is the capacity to offer a forum, where artists can hold a two way conversation, whereas this year there is only the facility to comment on individual art works….and to read this blog. So, as a half-way measure, how about using the Contact Us page on the website to submit more general reflections, comments, suggestions, ideas (constructive please!) and I’ll include them in several blogs that I’ll post over the next week.

Meanwhile, it may be raining outside, but enjoy the art gallery inside, and take the opportunity to vote in the next few days. It may well get very busy over next weekend.

Last week was extremely busy for the Art Awards team. The closing date of 26^th October was followed two days later by the first round of judging. Our two judges, Sally Bulgin, editor of The Artist Magazine, and Tom Coates, artist, spent all day going through over 2150 entries. Such a high number of entrants was very pleasing, as was, once again, the quality and range of entries, from artists of 60 to 99 years of age. Of course, such high numbers made the competition all the tougher, with The Bankside Gallery only offering space for approximately 100 works of art to be exhibited. This dilemma has been addressed by the return of the once-popular Highly Commended section. Those artists who receive a Highly Commended will have images of their work  (rather than the works themselves) displayed within the gallery, thus offering the opportunity to celebrate the work and talent of an additional 60+ artists.

Parker-Harris, the consultancy which runs the Art Awards on EAC’s behalf, has already posted out letters, with e-mailings to follow tomorrow. Visit this blog tomorrow for a full listing of artists chosen for exhibition and artists awarded a Highly Commended.

Online Voting for the EAC People’s Choice Awards will begin as soon as possible, once the images and data have been imputed; at the latest…fingers crossed…by Monday 9^th November. Don’t forget to visit the website to cast your vote!