Young painter wows the art world (From Penarth Times)

Young painter wows the art world

THE WORK of a young Penarth artist is currently being displayed at National Portrait Gallery in London.

Gran Turismo, a painting by Megan Davies, aged 33, a former pupil of St Cyres School, is one of the entries to the BP Portrait Award on display at the gallery until September.

Megan's painting was one of 53 chosen to go on show out of over 1000 entries.

Megan said: "This is the first time I have entered this competition. It is something I have always wanted to do but have never had enough time to dedicate to a piece.

"I was able to finish Gran Turismo while on maternity leave."

Megan, who was an art teacher in London, is now concentrating on working as a professional artist.

She said: "I already had a number of commissions before the exhibition but it has raised my profile and led to quite a few more."

In a review of the exhibition, The Times wrote: "This is not to say that the mainstream works on show are not perfectly decent: the artists between 25 and 35 who preponderate have clearly learnt their craft well. There is the ritual obeisance to minority cultures, but some pieces which might have come under that heading, such as Megan Davies's portrait of an Asian family, Gran Turismo, are gratifyingly vivid in their own right."

The BP Portrait Award was won by a 36-year-old artist Dean Marsh with a painting of his girlfriend.

Megan Davies was student of the year at the national Eistedfodd in 1991 and she also won a national award for her A-Level design work.