I’ve had a couple of lovely surprises, regarding my art, this last few weeks and it’s been great to finish the year on such a positive note.

First of all I was selected as ‘one of 50 finalists out of thousands’ by Artists & Illustrators magazine Artist of the Year 2016 competition, for my painting ‘Flight’ (below). 

As one of the finalists ‘Flight’ will be exhibited in the Mall Galleries, London, in February. There will be several prizes awarded, including the Readers’ Award, which is still open for voting, which I’d very much appreciate.

I also found out this week, that I’ve been accepted for Cley Contemporary 2016, which is part of the North Norfolk Exhibition Project (NNEP). This highly-regarded contemporary annual art festival is held in the beautiful St Margaret’s Church in Cley-next-the Sea, showing artwork by a selection of national and regional artists. I’ve tried unsuccessfully in the past to get in, so I’m delighted to be accepted this time. Especially as the guest curator for 2016, Hugh Pilkington, has said:

… I thought it would be interesting to identify what is the contemporary art being made in Norfolk today, how large is the audience and who are the patrons that might support that work. 

​Who are the artists who could make up a new Norfolk or Norwich School? Who are the successors of Cotman and Crome; of Self and Ackling; of Emerson and Payne Jennings? Who are the landscape painters? Who are the abstract painters? Who are the sculptors? Who works in other interesting and challenging formats? …

We will be given the brief for the work for Cley Contemporary in February. The work will be site-specific which will be an interesting challenge as Cley has a beautiful stretch of Saltmarsh coastline – one of my favourite subjects, as you may have noticed on this blog!

Areas of Light. One of the images in my submission for Cley Contemporary 2016. Mari French 2015

Cley Marshes. © Google Maps.

Lastly, I’d like to wish all my readers a wonderful Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year! See you in 2016.