It’s a delight to see the entries pouring in now, and we hope you like the ‘taster’ idea on the website home page. We are only displaying a fraction of the entries, but we trust, if you’re one of the early entrants, that you’re pleased to see your image on screen. If you haven’t entered yet, we hope the sheer variety and styles of the entries in the taster gallery work as a spur and an encouragement to have a go!

Our oldest entrant so far is a lady of 90, with three 89 year-olds following in her wake. We also have several collaborative entries submitted from art therapy groups in residential settings. So far this year, as always, the vast majority of entries are paintings, drawings and photography. There are a small number of textile art and sculptural entries but we really need more! If you submitted a sculptural knitted tea-cosy you could scoop a prize! Remember Joan Seabrook’s winning entry in 2008? And, if you work in glass, in collage…in fact, in any medium whatsoever, please don’t worry. The EAC Art Awards want to be inclusive, and to celebrate and encourage the creativity of older people in all visual art forms…so…surprise us all!

Joan Seabrook 'Tea in the Garden' prizewinner 2008

We have been very busy behind the scenes, answering the phone, scanning in postal entries, planning for the exhibition in May (have you looked at the RBSA’s brilliant website yet, at http://www.rbsa.org.uk ?) and we have made some changes to the online entry form, which some entrants were finding a bit unfriendly. We are sure you’ll find it much more friendly now. If not, let us know!

Lastly…about EAC Art Awards on Facebook! We certainly pressed some buttons here, and we’ve had loads of emails from people who’ve visited the site, but can’t post a comment because they’re not members. Understandably they don’t want to sign up to something they don’t fully understand. So, no worries. We’ll use it for more frequent snippets of news to keep artists informed, and update this blog in addition, every week or so. So please keep looking. It’s our news board.

Don’t forget: The deadline for entries is 4th March and the initial round of judging is now scheduled for 10th March. Entrants will hear of the result of their entry by the 14th March…or perhaps a day or two later if they don’t have email.