The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize was created in 2005 by the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and the Lynn Foundation to encourage the very best creative representational painting and promote the skill of draughtsmanship. With prize money of £30,000, the Prize is one of the most prestigious awards to artists in the UK. The range and quality of artists entering and exhibiting in the exhibition has grown each year and its reputation amongst artists is outstanding. The call for entries is currently open, with a deadline of 16 December 2015. We speak with artist James Lloyd, one of a panel of judges for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2016. Lloyd graduated in the 90s with an MA from the Slade School of Fine Art and has won numerous awards. He teaches at the Royal Drawing School.

A: Is there anything in particular you aim to capture in your widely varied painting?
JL: The feeling that I’m trying to capture is the same as the one I’d like to feel when looking at other people’s work whether from the past or now which is a sense of someone being alive and really looking and their response to that being evident on the canvas.

A: Do you find any particular subject of representational painting the most captivating, both in your own practice and in the work of others?
JL: In my own practice and in the work of others the subject I’m most drawn to is the human figure and in particular the face.

A: What qualities do you initially look for in a strong contender while judging entries?
JL: The qualities I initially look for while judging a contender’s work would be firstly a strong aesthetic impact and a sense of truth- whether that be a truth revealed in the painting or the way the picture has been constructed or the paint applied being visibly truthful to the artist.

A: What is your favourite part of the selection process?
JL: My favourite part of the judging process is the feeling of finding something special (especially when the other judges haven’t spotted it) and having the opportunity to reward it. Having entered various competitions myself to varying levels of success I know only too well how encouraging it is to be selected and feel that you are on the right track after all.

The 2016 exhibition will be shown in the Mall Galleries from 7 – 13  March 2016 followed by a touring exhibition to Guildford House Gallery from  25 June – 7 July 2016.

For more information on the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize visit www.lynnpainterstainersprize.org.uk.

Discover James Lloyd’s work at www.jameslloyd.org.uk.

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Credits
1. James Lloyd, Red studio. Exhibited in Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2013.  Courtesy of the artist and the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize.