The people of Oxfordshire have voted Caroline Ritson’s work ‘Greenman found on Wittenham Clumps’ as the image which captures the spirit of Oxfordshire in The Big Oxfordshire Artweeks Poll run by local web publisher, Artistpublisher.com.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Oxfordshire Artweeks, Artistpublishers.com launched an Oxfordshire-wide public vote for a piece of work being exhibited during Artweeks which summed up living in the county. More than 600 votes were placed between 2nd April and 27th May with Jane Tomlinson’s work ‘Towards Uffington’ coming second and Anna Dillon’s work ‘Devil’s Delight’ third. As her prize, Caroline will receive £300 worth of printing from Artistpublishers.com in the form of greeting cards or prints and runners-up will each receive £100 worth of printing.
The winner of the voters’ prize draw was Barry Teague, who voted for Jane Tomlinson, wins a print of his choice.
Caroline Ritson exhibited at Chipping Norton Theatre from 5-12 May as part of the 2012 Oxfordshire Artweeks along with two other artists. Caroline who lives in Abingdon is inspired by the myth of the greenman and paints in rich detail the faces that she finds in hedgerows and foliage. She works mainly in acrylic, layering and texturing her work, and voters commented ‘Think Oxfordshire and I think of greenery’ and ‘This piece has mystery and lots of energy – I love it!’
Caroline Ritson said: “ I am thrilled to win The Big Oxfordshire Artweeks Poll. I love to paint the rich flora of Oxfordshire and feel that my painting sums up both the beauty of Oxfordshire’s natural areas and the underlying spirit of an older belief in Mother Nature. I am very pleased to win the prize from Artistpublishers.com and will be using it to print cards made of my paintings. I have been inspired by the quality of the cards and hope it will get my work to a larger audience.”
Simon Nutbrown from Artistpublishers.com said: “We were delighted with the response to and interest we had in the competition from people living in Oxfordshire. The standard of entries was extremely high and hopefully this competition has helped raise the profile of the wonderful artists and their art in Oxfordshire. I am glad Artistpublishers.com can help make this wonderful art more accessible to everyone through greeting cards and prints.”
For the full story, download the press release below.