Paintings with a view to £25,000 prize

AN ARTIST who paints landscapes on wooden objects which he finds in markets and antique shops, and a painter who creates colourful visions of factories and oil refineries, are among those shortlisted for the largest privately funded art prize in the UK.

Seven artists, aged between 22 and 56, have reached the shortlist for the Jolomo Bank of Scotland Awards 2011, which has total prize money of 35,000, including a top prize of 25,000.

The awards, made every two years, were founded by Scottish painter John Lowrie Morrison - known as Jolomo - in 2006 to encourage the painting of the Scottish landscape. The winner will be announced at a dinner at Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow, on 23 June.

The shortlisted artists are David Cass, 22, from the Borders, Calum McClure, 24, Jenny Mason, 46, Beth Robertson Fiddes, 38, and Allan Robertson, 56, all from Edinburgh, Katie Pope, 26, from Glasgow, and Susie Lee, 45, from Aberdeenshire.

Jolomo, who chairs the judging panel, said: "The entries were of a high standard this year. In my opinion, the standard has been getting higher year on year.

"We're looking for people who are doing something just a wee bit different from the landscapes that have been done in Scotland traditionally. This work is varied in media and vision, showing maturity in both."

Cass hunts through markets and antique shops for wooden objects which he uses to paint on, while McClure, another recent graduate from Edinburgh College of Art, paints country houses and formal gardens, with a particular focus on the Cammo estate.

Pope paints large, vigorous pictures of Glasgow rooftops and motorways, while Robertson Fiddes uses a multi-layered technique to create powerful images of rocks and water. Lee captures moments of weather and memory, and Mason paints sea- and skyscapes.

Morrison said: "The strength and depth of all our shortlisted artists shows that Scottish landscape painting is thriving. I couldn't have said that six years ago."