An artist inspired by letters written to loved ones from the frontline has won an award after impressing judges with the “poignancy” of her work.
Hannah Murray won first prize in the annual SPD painting awards, set up four years ago to nurture local talent and bring art to the oil and gas community.
The 21-year-old, who is a student at the Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, used letters sent home during conflicts for inspiration, and entitled her piece Would to Heaven – a quote from one of the notes she read.
Miss Murray, who is originally from Inverness, said: “I was looking at the idea of hand writing and hand written recipes and their connotations of home, and was inspired by letters and writing during conflict. It is about considering this idea of an idyllic home life and how different things can turn out in reality.
She won £350 for the piece after the judging panel – made up of SPD Group HSEQ manager Stuart Insch and Laura Mylles, PA to the managing director – were struck by its uniqueness.
Mr Insch said: “It was the poignancy of the message that stood out for us, as well as the imagery and vivid colour, so we appreciated it on two different levels. It is quite a different painting to the others in the show in how it looks and it is different to anything that I have seen in the show in previous years.”
Emily Hill, 23, from Ballymena, was awarded second prize for her painting Cullybackey Sandpit, which was inspired by childhood memories of growing up in Northern Ireland. It is the second time she has been recognised as part of the awards, after taking third prize last year.
Katie Watson decided to highlight the Tree for Every Citizen scheme on Aberdeen’s Tullos Hill in her painting, Plantation, New Growth.
The 20-year-old said: “I just thought it was a brilliant idea and would like to draw more attention to the scheme through painting. Obviously it was quite controversial at the time, due to the fact that they had to cull a lot of deer to give the trees a chance to grow, so I have tried to capture both the positive side while acknowledging the most negative side of it as well.”
The paintings were picked out of 13 entries to the SPD Painting Awards exhibition.