Jackson's Painting Prize 2023

My painting ‘Pause (II)’ has made the longlist for the Jackson’s Painting Prize 2023 competition.

Pause (II). 2022. A recent painting. Acrylic on wood panel. 30.4cm x 30.4cm. A response to experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The competition organisers said:

This year's competition saw a record 11,225 entries, 452 of which have been longlisted. We want to extend a huge thank you to all of the artists who entered the competition this year, we appreciate how much effort goes into every submission. We continue to be amazed by the talent year on year. The shortlist will be announced on the 30th of March. View the longlist and vote for your favourite artworks to win the People's Choice Award here. By voting, you will automatically be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win a £150 Jackson's Gift Voucher.

Voting for the People’s Choice Award ends on 6th of April and you if just want to vote for me the direct link to my painting is here. You do have to register but hopefully that won’t take too long. Thanks!

Jackson's Open Painting Prize 2019

I’m happy to share that I've been included in the long list for the Jackson's Open Painting Prize 2019. In addition to that, if you have 5 mins, you can vote for my TWO paintings in their People's Choice Award. (You do have to register, though).

Here are the links to 'People' and ‘Market’ in the "Scenes From Everyday Life" category. Thank you! 

People

People

Market

Market

The Poster Prize for Illustration 2019: London Stories

My illustration Paint In the Street is included in a new group exhibition of images at the London Transport Museum.

Matt_Bannister- Paint In The Street-.png

Organised by the Association of Illustrators and the London Transport Museum, the show contains the work of 100 selected creatives who have all responded to the idea of a London story. This might be an historical event, a local legend, a scene from literature or even a narrative of the artist’s own creation. This last approach is how I came up with my poster Paint In The Street.

The image depicts the moment when a delivery driver accidentally spills an order of paint across a busy London street. Typically, the Londoners fail to stop or negotiate the mess and carry on their respective journeys, leaving an attractive (almost abstract) trail of colour across the road. The spillage never happened in reality, but I think this image draws attention to the deliberate and random road markings we can see all over London’s transport networks.

 
 
Me at the London Transport Museum at the opening of the London Stories exhibition.

Me at the London Transport Museum at the opening of the London Stories exhibition.

The image was created first with acrylic paint on a board. I built up a series of textures using a variety of brush strokes, splashes and flicked paint to help create the backdrop of pavement, kerbstone and tarmac road surfaces. In order to get the crisp, bold shapes for the lines, paint and characters, I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and merged the whole thing together, adding more shading and colour.

Some people have not noticed immediately what is happening in the scene. My mum thought the splashes of paint were strange bodies in the road, for instance, and others have liked the abstract shapes only to see the figures and tyre tracks later. Looking at it now, I think the paint spills remind me of Matisse’s paper cut-outs but I hadn’t planned that at the start - you can’t escape your influences!

Poster Prize for Illustration 2019 – an exhibition of 100 artworks on “London Stories”
London Transport Museum, Exterion Media Gallery, Covent Garden, London
Open 8 February – 14 July 2019

London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London, WC2E 7BB, United Kingdom

#LondonStories