SEVEN artists, who were all prize winners in last year’s Open Competition, get 2019 off to a flying start with an exhibition at Ilminster Arts Centre.

Somerset based artist Nancy Farmer, who scooped the top prize with her painting ‘Sinking to New Depths’, says of her return to the Arts Centre, “I’m delighted to be taking part in the Open Prizewinners’ exhibition, and will be bringing my paintings of underwater swimmers in watercolour, twinkling with the occasional fragment of gold leaf, and accompanying them with some of my digital drawings, which twinkle rather with the humour of this mad pursuit of swimming outside in the cold, in Somerset, in the winter.”

Also taking part is Perry Chapman, a sculptor and community artist living in South Somerset, whose work draws on his love of classical sculpture and Britain’s rich history. Perry won the 3D prize for his plaster of Paris work ‘David’.

There’ll also be work by Mark Stevens, the Chard based artist who won the coveted ‘People’s Choice Award.

Joint runners up Leo Davey and Michael Tarr will also be contributing work, as will the three highly commended painters Gary Cook, Margaret Micklewright and Annie Musgrove.

The show runs January 2-19; admission is free.