John Lowrie Morrison tells how he was inspired by Van Gogh as awards launched

SCOTLAND’s largest art prize has been launched with artist Jolomo urging emerging talent “not to be afraid of a blank canvas” and that entering the competition could change their ­future.

The Jolomo Bank of Scotland Awards 2013 – founded by John Lowrie Morrison, known as Jolomo – gives three winners the opportunity to win a total prize fund of £35,000 for excellence in landscape painting. The awards are also the largest privately funded art awards in the UK.

Speaking at the Scottish ­National Gallery in Edinburgh, Mr Morrison said the judges were looking for artists displaying innovation and passion for Scottish landscape painting, now that the genre had returned to a healthy state after being overtaken by other art forms in recent years.

“My fervent prayer now is that Scottish art schools will again become places of excellence for landscape painting,” Mr Morrison said.

“But developing artists need to be supported and promoted. It has always been my earnest hope that the Jolomo Bank of Scotland Landscape Painting Awards will help shortlisted artists and winners with their individual painting ambitions which otherwise may have been restricted or even stymied completely through lack of funds.”

Mr Morrison said that when he was a student at Glasgow School of Art, he had been inspired by a letter Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in October 1884 which said: “Many painters are afraid in front of a blank canvas…but…the blank canvas is afraid of the real passionate painter who dares…and who has broken the spell of ‘you can’t paint’…once and for all”.

“This is the kind of painter we are looking for in the 2013 ­Jolomo Bank of Scotland Landscape Painting Awards,” said Mr Morrison who was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Years Honours List for services to art and ­charity.

This is the fourth Jolomo Award with the competition, established in 2005, being held every two years.

John Leighton, director-general of the National Galleries of Scotland, who is on the awards judging panel, said he had been impressed by the ­diverse interpretation of the word “landscape” with entrants’ work ranging from gritty inner city landscapes to interpretations of the Scottish Highlands and ­islands.

“Scotland is fortunate to have an incredibly rich tradition of landscape painting. From its origins in the 17th century right through to the present day, artists have found limitless inspiration in the breadth, variety and sheer breathtaking beauty of our extraordinary surroundings in this country.

“The Jolomo awards are now well established as an important means to encourage artists to nurture and develop this tradition and the National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to be working in partnership with the Jolomo Foundation to launch the 2013 Awards.”

The Scotsman is a media partner supporting the Jolomo Awards.

HOW TO ENTER

Entrants submit a CD-ROM of their work, a CV and application form to The Jolomo Foundation.

They must be living or working in Scotland and beaged 18 or over on 1 January this year.

They should have studied or be studying at a college of art, or in an art discipline at a university, further education college or independent art college.

However, those with no formal qualification can enter, backed by a referee.