Hunts Art Group

The 2024 Annual Palette Competition will be held
in April - subject "Structure"

Every year the Hunts Art Group hold a members' competition for the Palette Trophy. Members bring along one work of art based on the selected theme for the year. These are usually judged by a local professional artist at our meeting in the early part of the year when the artist provides an interesting and informative critique of the submitted works before selecting the winner. The judge for 2024 will be Amanda Holland.

The competition is open to members only. Members should bring their entry, suitably framed or mounted, to the April 27th meeting at 10am. Judging will commence at 10.30am. We hope the subject will be interpreted in a variety of ways.

The 2023 competition was won by Sarah Slee. The theme was "Decay" and Sarah had painted a lovely watercolour of an old tractor.

In 2022 the competition theme was 'Sky' and was won by Gill Taylor. Gill's atmospheric painting of a sunrise was chosen by judge Phil Gregory.

The winner of the 2019 competition was Tracey Dilorenzo with her watercolour entitles 'Space (on a train)' - everyone loved the characters sitting on a London Underground train with one space left between them.

The 2018 winner was one of our newest members, Caroline Cleghorn, with her painting of Syrian refugees. See picture below which shows the judge with the trophy and Caroline holding her winning entry. Runners up were John Burton with his abstract picture inspired by a blue mug and an apple and Jennifer Horn with her seacape inspired by the shades of blue in the seas around Cornwall. This year the competition entries were of very varied styles and subjects under the theme "Blue" including a blues saxophone player in acrylics, a delicate watercolour of a ballet dancer and a turquoise blue mixed media abstract vortex.

The winner in February 2017, was Brian Duck. His attractive watercolour of a trout ideally interpreted the theme "Aquatic World." The 2016 winnier was Gill Harwood with her picture inspired by the book "The Velveteen Rabbit" by Margery Williams, first published in 1922.

In 2015 the winner was Jennifer Horn with her acrylic on canvas painting of a barn owl, it's white feathers catching the moonlight in a shadowy corner of a field. The judge was John Storey. The winner of the 2014 competition, subject "snow", was John Burton with his atmospheric oil painting inspired by a snow covered garden. The entries were judges by Teresa Gabriel. The subject of the 2013 competition was "WOOD". The entries were judged by John Dillistone. The winner was Stepahie Robertson with her watercolour painting of a woodland. The theme for the 2012 competition was "Water" and the entries were also judged by John Dillistone. The winner was Gill Harwood with her unusual interpretaion of the theme - a beautifully painted watercolour of a fire hydrant sign. 2011 Palette Competition: The theme was "Entrances" won by Jennifer Horn with her watercolour painting of a Tawny Owl entitled "My Gate." 2010 Palette Competition: The theme for the 2010 competition was "Rubbish"won by Gill Harwood with her delicately coloured watercolour of the River Ouse (complete with discarded shopping trolley).