A YOUNG artist from Wick has won a prestigious prize for his painting of a view from an art gallery in London. 

Kieran Naish, 22, will be awarded the Lynn Painters-Stainers (LPS) People’s Prize and £2,000 for his oil painting, View from the Tate Modern at a ceremonial dinner on Thursday, May, 25.

Unlike other awards which make up the national LPS competition, the winner of the People’s Prize is voted for by members of the public.

Reacting to his win, arts graduate Kieran, who recently moved to Beckenham in Kent to pursue his art career, said:“This is the biggest prize I’ve ever won.

"I only recently moved to London to pursue my career in art so this is an amazing start.

"I actually missed the phone call to let me know I’d won.”

The young artist’s prize winning entry was painted over two to three months last year, and is based on a photograph that he took from London’s world famous Tate Modern gallery.

Describing his inspiration for the piece of work, Kieran said: “I was on a university trip to the Tate when I took a photo of the view from one of the balconies.

“It’s one of my favourite views of London - St Paul’s just looked perfect.”

He added that he has a particular passion for painting urban “cityscapes”.

“I like to paint crisp landscapes which have structure and spareness in them, big skies with a thin strip of buildings," he said.

“I tend to work on quite a small scale with lots of detail.”

The young artist added that his dreams of becoming a successful artist began at the Yate Heritage Centre, where he won commendation in 2013 and first prize in 2014 for work submitted to the annual open art exhibition.

He said: “It’s crazy to think that this all started in Yate.”

Achieving a LPS prize is a big achievement for the 22-year-old, who only recently graduated from his course in Contemporary Art Practice at Bath Spa University.

He is now considering an MA course and is also working to support his art career.

Kieran’s painting was exhibited at London’s Mall Galleries in March alongside 105 shortlisted works for the LPS competition exhibition.

Now in its 12th year, the annual competition has exhibited over 1,000 works and has had over 13,000 entries.

Artists are asked to submit representational and figurative works that represent the real world.

 Daphne Todd, leading British artist and judge of both BBC One’s Big Painting Challenge and the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, said: “Despite what the critics say, there is a big ground swell of opinion in this country that loves figurative art.

“It’s a basic human desire to paint the world around us – to look at the world, interact with it, capture something and get it on canvas.”