Paint Out Wells People’s Choice Prize

As part of Paint Out Wells 2015 some 100 competition artworks by the artists were displayed during a weekend Exhibition at which members of the public were encouraged to vote for their favourite artist’s work on display. Hence the prize was both democratic and not influenced by either the judges or team. The winner by a fair margin was Chris Daynes to whom a £200 prize has been awarded.

Other artists in the top running, as voted for by the general public, were Richard Bond, Tom Cringle, Lara Cobden – the overall winner, Jane Hodgson, Tony Robinson, and Will Topley – who also won recognition for having captured the spirit of Wells-next-the-Sea. For other artist prize awards at Wells see here.

Artist Chris Daynes

Chris Daynes competed in both Paint Out Wells 2015 and Paint Out Norwich 2014 – at which he won the second prize. Chris is a seasoned en plein air painter who works all over England in all weathers, “always a challenging and sometimes uncomfortable experience, very social and never dull”, he says.

Chris was born in Hove, Sussex but educated in Norfolk in the 1960s – a place he still describes as his “spiritual home“. An Honours Degree in Fine Art at Leeds College of Art followed. Since giving up teaching in 2001 he has been fortunate to be able to paint full time. He is a former Prize Winner at the Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Show at the Mall Galleries, London.

He describes himself as “an ‘on the spot’ painter, making sketches and informative visual notes in oils as work in its own right and also resources for working up into larger pieces” whose “work aims to reflect or react to the many sensations received over a period of time in the landscape when different events occur – flights of birds, noises, visiting people, changes of light and times of day.”

Chris’s Paintings at Wells

Chris painted five works at Wells-next-the-Sea of which the first two below were particularly commended by Exhibition visitors.