At the time of writing, there’s 20 days left in which you can still enter the 2009 EAC Art Awards competition for amateur artists over 60. If you paint, draw, etch, print, take photos, sculpt, knit, embroider, create installations, indulge in decoupage …well in short, if you are creative, then you still have time to put in an entry.
This year entries to the EAC Over 60s Art Awards have been coming in by post and online since the first week of July. Although the traditional postal entry still dominates, it is most encouraging to see that alongside the numerous 60+ and 70+ year-olds who have entered online, there are also a fair number of 80+ year olds and two ninety-two year-olds. The website has also brought the Awards to the attention of artists living overseas, and there are so far ten pictures submitted from France.
Looking through the online entries, it is clear that the Art Awards mainly attract artists, in the sense of painters in oil, watercolour, acrylics etc. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and only what you might expect in an art competition, and we’re delighted to welcome all entries. But where are the knitters, the embroiderers, the sculptors, the carvers, the print-makers, workers with enamel and mosaic, who are also invited to enter their work into the Awards? Figures for the online entries so far (and I’ve no reason to believe postal entries are very different) suggest that approximately 75% are paintings/ drawings and 20% are photographic. Which leaves 5% representing all other mediums.
So, whilst we want to encourage as many entries as possible in the last twenty days of the 2009 competition, we especially want to encourage the embroiders and sculptors, the 3D artists and collaborative installation makers, the knitters and print-makers to have a go, and send in an entry! To find out how to enter, and to enter online, go to www.eacartawards.org.uk and go to Art Awards 2009/ Online Entry.
Anne Hamilton's 2007 embroidery 'Pebbles on the Shore'
Anne Hall's 2007 sculpture, "El Secreto"
Joan Seabrook's prizewinning 2008 entry, 'Tea in the Garden'
Wilson Reddish's 2008 prizewinning "Marble Ring"
