This year’s theme was ‘Metamorphosis’ and over 1,100 artworks were submitted for consideration by the judging panel who had the difficult task of selecting the 140 artworks for the exhibition. In addition, they also had to choose which artworks received the coveted prizes.

The first of these was The Creative Pod Prize worth over £2000 which went to Thomas Treherne for his oil painting ‘Rising Sun’. He studied at The Royal Drawing School and The Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University.

The judges felt that ‘Rising Sun’ was a beautiful observation that showed a deep understanding of a natural environment and the cycles within it that had been delicately committed to paper.

The second award was The Preston Insurance Brokers Prize worth over £1000 went to Ben Wade for his charcoal drawing titled ‘The Casual Crowd’. This is the first time Ben had worked with charcoal and from a distance it could easily be mistaken for a photograph.

The judges commented that Ben’s work showed an unbelievable skill with the material, and a deep understanding of tone and perspective.

The final prize awarded was The Sussex Contemporary Photography Prize which went Jonathan Lamb for his moving black and white photo entitled ‘Mum with Dad with Dementia’. The picture sparked many discussions amongst the thousands of visitors to the exhibition. Jonathan generously donated his prize money to Dementia UK.

At the time of writing there is still one prize to be announced which is the People’s Choice Prize kindly sponsored by Whitespace. Visitors to the exhibition were encouraged to vote for their favourite artwork.