Hundreds of Suffolk primary school children are having their work admired by peers, parents and public at a special exhibition this weekend.
The youngsters are taking part in Young Art East Anglia’s annual competition and exhibition, which raises money for Cancer Research UK.
This year the theme is Nature’s Delights, giving the children’s imagination plenty of scope to produce some wonderfully creative and colourful artwork for the three-day exhibition staged at the Peter Pears Gallery in High Street, Aldeburgh.
The exhibition is on today (Saturday) from noon to 5pm and tomorrow (Sunday) from 10am to 4.30pm. Prize giving for winners and highly commended artists will be at 11am today.
The winning entries are being chosen by Suffolk artist Ania Hobson, a contemporary portrait painter who has exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ Annual Exhibition, at the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries and at the Royal Society of British Artists.
She is currently exhibiting with the National Portrait Gallery at the BP Portrait Awards.
On judging the competition, Ania said, “I feel so privileged to be taking part in an event supporting young artists and giving them the confidence to take their art further.
“I really enjoyed seeing how the children interact with their surroundings and with their art.
“They are clearly a generation of children who’ve been encouraged to look with their eyes open and take in what they see.”
Young Art East Anglia has the twin goals of inspiring young artists by giving them a chance to see their work mounted in an art exhibition at a professional gallery and encouraging them to use their artistic talents to raise money for Cancer Research UK.
This year 56 schools have taken part, covering the length and breadth of Suffolk – and organisers said there were 400 more entries than last year, taking the number of entries up to nearly 2,000.
In all, some 360 paintings were chosen to be hung in the exhibition at the Peter Pears Gallery.
Each exhibited artist receives a certificate to mark the occasion and postcards of all exhibited work are for sale at the exhibition and the paintings are also available for purchase.
In the past few years the weekend exhibition has raised more than £10,000 each year and since 2003 Young Art East Anglia has been able to give more than £100,000 to Cancer Research UK.
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