This year’s inaugural Paint the Day on Scilly has been hailed an outstanding success with more than 100 entries on St. Mary’s (including around 50 students from the Five Islands School). The event took place last Saturday, 12th May, the first day of this year’s Art Scilly festival.

Supported by Scilly’s Creative Islands team, Paint the Day paintings had to be completed during an 8-hour time window on Saturday. They were then displayed at an exhibition at the Church Pavilion on Sunday and Monday when the winners of the competition were judged and announced following the end of the public vote.

The winners of Paint the Day 2018 are:

• Joint children’s judges’ prize: Hallie Shave for Shark’s Pit, and Poppy Jackson for Scilly View
• Judges’ prize: Jacob Kerssemakers for Porthcressa Bay Panorama
• Public prize: Steve Hicks for Silver Cloud.

Hallie and Poppy each take home a prize of £50, Steve wins £75, whilst the overall winner, Jacob, who hails from The Hague and who had travelled to Scilly for the World Pilot Gig Championships and decided to extend his stay for Art Scilly, wins £100.

“Paint the Day was a lovely, well-organised event and I feel privileged to have been awarded the jury prize,” Jacob comments. “I also really enjoyed getting in touch with all the other people taking part and appreciating their creations. I hope next year I can join in again after the gig weekend, just like this year!” Jacob has even written a personal description of his Porthcressa Bay Panorama and the technique he used.

“We’re absolutely thrilled by the response we’ve had – from artists and supporters alike - to this inaugural Paint the Day competition and by the incredibly high standards set,” says Jeremy Brown, Creative Islands Project Coordinator. “As one comment in the exhibition’s guestbook noted, it was ‘a brilliant way to bring all different ages and talents together to enjoy and interpret Scilly’. The judges found it impossible to choose between Poppy and Hallie’s paintings, so they were both awarded the children’s prize, whilst Jacob’s Paint the Day presentation – a black inked scroll of Porthcressa Bay - was simply outstanding. And of course, we’re delighted for Steve Hicks picking up the public prize since painting is a relatively new hobby for him having only recently retired as a boatman. All the paintings from last Saturday are a lasting memory for Scilly on 12th May 2018.”

Art Scilly continues until Saturday with many more artistic workshops to enjoy. You can pick up a programme at the Tourist Information Centre or check out the Art Scilly workshops online.

This year, Art Scilly has been supported by Creative Islands, one of 16 national Cultural DDestinationsprojects funded by Arts Council England which aim to encourage partnerships between the cultural and visitor economies, thereby enabling culture to become a prominent part of the visitor offer.

With just over a week to go, the countdown has begun for the start of Isles of Scilly’s annual celebration of local artists and creative talent, Art Scilly, which takes place across the archipelago from 12th - 19th May.

This year, Art Scilly is supported by Creative Islands, one of 16 national Cultural Destinations projects funded by Arts Council England which aim to encourage partnerships between the cultural and visitor economies, thereby enabling culture to become a prominent part of the visitor offer.

The programme, which extends across all five of the inhabited islands, includes a wealth of intimate workshops in all media, expert tuition from local artists, open studios and gallery soirees. Headlining the festival and new for 2018 is an imaginative competition and exhibition curated by the Creative Islands team, “Paint the Day”, featuring local established art-ists, students, and budding, visiting artists.

Professionals, amateur enthusiasts, visitors and young people are all invited to sign up and produce an original artwork in any medium that records any aspect of Scilly on just one day - Saturday 12th May. All artworks must be completed within an eight-hour time slot, between 9am and 5pm, and will then be exhibited for free in a pop-up gallery on St. Mary’s. Prizes will be awarded in three categories and all the work will be offered for sale, providing a unique souvenir of this amazing week.

Art Scilly also welcomes back to the islands Paul Dodgson, an eminent creative writer and TV producer who will host a fun, informal day-long Creative Writing Workshop to encourage all those wannabe writers to explore their inner author. He will also adjudicate the fringe St. Mary’s One Act Play festival which returns for another often hilarious evening with local writers performing rehearsed readings from original scripts.

Throughout the week, there’ll also be the usual masterclasses and workshops hosted by a variety of artists across the islands all using their preferred mediums - from watercolour with Stephen Morris and fused glass with Oriel Hicks, to acrylics with Liz Bray, linocut printmaking with Vickie Heaney, making of mandalas (Gail Payne) and silk scarves (Liz Askins), plus sketching with Sue Lewington and oil painting with Steve Sherris.

The island of St. Agnes will be hosting an arts afternoon at Pot Buoys Gallery, in the Island Hall and at the Church, Tresco Gallery will be showcasing the paintings and sculptures from various artists’ winter residency on the island, whilst on St. Martin’s there’ll be a satellite Paint the Day featuring the school children.

David Jackson, Executive Director of the Islands’ Partnership, says: “We’re really looking forward to this year’s Art Scilly festival and we’re delighted that our Creative Islands team, thanks to Arts Council England, has been able to support our local artists to offer even more on the programme this year. There is so much creative talent across the archipelago with artists attracted to Scilly for its sheer beauty, incredible colour contrasts, island heritage and stunning light. We hope that visitors coming to the islands for Art Scilly will be drawn to get involved and be inspired to take home some wonderful creations of their own.”

The full Art Scilly Programme can be viewed online at visitislesofscilly.com/artscilly. Printed programmes will also be available on island throughout the festival. For booking enquiries, particularly about Paint the Day, please contact the Tourist Information Centre on 01720 620600 or the Creative Islands team on 01720 620601.