AN ARTIST from Alveston won the public’s vote during a special golden jubilee exhibition.


Pauline Wilson-Smith, 68, exhibited her oil painting ‘Afternoon Shadows’ during Thornbury Art Club’s 50th anniversary exhibition earlier this month.


The exhibition, which ran from August 1 to 8 at Thornbury Methodist Church, gave visitors the chance to vote for their favourite piece, and art club member Mrs Wilson-Smith proved to be the most popular with 33 votes in total.


She beat over 100 other entries from the art club to the award and said she was extremely surprised with the result.


“There was a huge number of brilliant pieces of art on display which I thought were far more favourite to the public,” she said.


“When the exhibition was over and we cleared it all away, the votes were counted up and I was gobsmacked to find out I had won.


“The painting is based on a photograph I took with my husband John when we visited Dartmoor earlier this year.


“I have been a member of the art club for over 30 years, and have loved painting my whole life. Since I retired a few years ago, I’ve had a chance to do more painting – I taught art at Castle School previously.”


Tricia Latham, chairman of Thornbury Art Club, said: “Given the large number of paintings and the variety of styles it was quite a tall order but a huge proportion of our many visitors rose to the challenge of voting for their favourite piece.


“Whilst we had a good spread of votes across the board we had an outright winner with Pauline’s oil painting- she will receive vouchers to spend on art materials to create more wonderful paintings.


“What was remarkable was that quite a few people voted for paintings by people who had had a stroke and were exhibiting with the Stroke Support Group alongside our exhibition.


“We want to thank all those people who took the time to carefully choose their favourite painting.”


In second place was Valerie Verey's oil painting 'Misty Morning over Cromhall' and joint third place went to Harry Bell's acrylic 'Beach Girl' Anne McAllister's acrylic 'Eating Lychees',


Heather Morgan's batik 'Ballintore Beeches' and Wendy Titterton's pastel 'Lovely Lady'.