Former Tameside College art student wins BP Portrait Awards second prize!

This years BP Portrait prize, has been awarded to the 57-year-old Dutch artist Wim Heldens for his portrait of a 25-year-old philosophy student, 'Jeroen'. Heldens portrait called 'Distracted' won him £25,000 and a commission to be decided by trustees at the National Portrait Gallery. In second place was the Manchester artist Louis Smith for his painting 'Holly', an allegorical re-imagining of the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus. Smith, (pictured), who won £8,000, is a former art student of Tameside College, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. Third place went to Ian Cumberland, from County Down, for his study called 'Just to Feel Normal'.