A York schoolteacher has had one of her paintings selected for London’s prestigious 2012 Cork Street Open Exhibition.
Lesley Birch, teacher of English at St Peter’s School, had her piece entitled “The Midnight Boat” chosen by a board of judges from over 2000 rival pieces.
Lesley said: “I was really excited and proud to be selected. The reception was a real eye-opener, with hundreds of people attending.
“My paintings are connected to my love of the Romantic poets, in particular Wordsworth, and the selected painting The Midnight Boat is based on his poem, The Prelude.”
The purpose of the Cork Street Open Exhibition is to provide an opportunity for emerging and established artists from around the world to exhibit and sell their work, while benefiting a selected charity. The charity this year is called Crisis; an organisation that helps single homeless people.
Cork Street is home to many major art dealers and has long been regarded as a thriving hub for the British commercial art world. However this year’s Open Exhibition was something of a swan song; as dealers spread out across London, several of the Cork Street galleries are to be closed.
Judges in the competition included Edward Lucie-Smith, a renowned poet whose work Lesley has taught in the classroom over the years; Bridget Coaker, night picture editor on the Guardian and Observer newspapers; Louis Singh, Director of Beaux Arts Gallery in London and Sergei Reviakin, co-author of The International Art Market Guide to Collectors and Investors.
Though Lesley is an English teacher, this is not her only success as an artist. She has also been preselected for The Royal Society of Marine Artists at the Mall Gallery, London.
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– The attached picture is “The Midnight Boat” by Lesley Birch. High-res versions available from lesley_birch@btinternet.com
– Event website: www.corkstreetopenexhibition.com