Award-winning art that looks like a building site

A LAWYER-turned-artist who finds her inspiration on building sites has won Scotland's biggest prize for new painting.

• Patricia Cain with Inscape 3, her Aspect Prize-winning painting. Cain's studies of building sites impressed the judges with the complexity of their subject matter and their 'strength and impact'. Picture: Complimentary

Patricia Cain last night won 15,000 for a series of works depicting construction sites in Glasgow. The 46-year-old mother of two said winning the prize would allow her to continue painting full-time.

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The Aspect Prize, which is sponsored by a London-based investment company, is the largest prize for Scottish art and one of Britain's biggest independently supported prizes for contemporary art.

The judges described Patricia Cain's studies of the interiors of unfinished buildings along the River Clyde as "assured and remarkable pieces of work".

The artist said she was drawn to building sites and scaffolding as subjects for her paintings. "I follow my eye to find subjects and I think it is the complexity that my eye is drawn to.

"There is something about construction that is very structured and organised, and that is what my eye finds for me.

"When a building is finished I lose interest."

Mrs Cain was awarded the prize by Taggart actor Alex Norton at a ceremony at The Fleming Collection in London yesterday evening.

The winning artist, who trained as a solicitor, said: "I feel really stunned but absolutely delighted.

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"It is really unexpected. I put in for the Aspect Prize at the last minute, two days before I got married."

Each of the shortlisted artists is awarded 5,000, with a further 10,000 for the winner. Artists must submit a body of work which will be on show at The Fleming Collection in London until 16 January.

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Although she attended St Martin's College in the 1980s, Patricia Cain, who was born in Newcastle, ended up training as a solicitor and ran a practice in Carlisle specialising in personal injury work. She moved to Glasgow in 2001 returned to her first love of art and was awarded a doctorate from Glasgow School of Art last year.

She said: "It has taken me almost ten years to take the decision to move from law to becoming a full-time artist and I have had to give up so much – not just financially.

"In the last five years, money has been my biggest worry. We really have been living on the breadline, as most artists do. I went from having a stable job to being a struggling artist.

"You have no idea whether your work will be well received, so to find yourself in this position is just wonderful."

Charles Jamieson, chairman and co-founder of The Aspect Prize, said: "Patricia Cain's complex and studied drawings and paintings of building projects which often focus on the patterns and structure of scaffolding are assured and remarkable pieces of work.

"The confidence and complexity of her paintings made Patricia a clear winner and although judging was difficult, in the end it was the strength and impact of the work itself which swung it in her favour."

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The other artists shortlisted for the prize were renowned stained-glass artist Alec Galloway, from Inverclyde, community art worker Paul Kennedy from Glasgow and Renfrewshire-born Scot Sinclair, who now lives in Louisiana.

To qualify artists must be born in Scotland or based here and must not have had a solo show in London for the past six years.

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This year for the first time work by all the winning artists will go on display at the Fleming Collection, a central London gallery devoted to Scottish art.

One of Patricia Cain's works will also be selected for the museum's permanent collection.

Selina Skipwith, keeper of art at the Fleming Collection and a member of the Aspect Prize judging panel, said: "We are delighted to be involved in this important award, which encourages contemporary Scottish art. This is in tune with the Fleming Collection's policy of supporting and buying the work of upcoming Scottish artists.

"For me, Cain was a clear winner, as I feel the work she entered will stand the test of time and provide future viewers with a historic record of the construction of this remarkable building on Glasgow's waterfront, which was designed by Zaha Hadid.

"As part of the prize, I have selected Cain's Riverside Museum Interior #2 to become part of the permanent collection of the Fleming Collection."

Analysis:

Duncan MacMillan: Cain's good – but I don't think she's the best of this talented Scottish bunch

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