GALLERY Yr Oriel in Newport has hosted an art competition for the last three years for students in the West Wales area.

In 2015 and 2016 the age group was for young artists from 16-25yrs and in 2017 it was the turn of the junior artists to shine.

The idea came from starting an initiative called Welsh Art Week, which exhibited local artists in London over St David’s Day week.

In 2015 the gallery started Welsh Art Week in London and opened a St David’s Day Exhibition in the city with seven days of art events, book launches and welsh cultural evenings.

“The idea was to open a premier art gallery in Newport to show and promote work mainly from Welsh artists and artists who had connections with the area,” said gallery owner Helen Manley Jones.

“After a successful first season we decided to take and promote Welsh art from the gallery first to Brand Exchange in the city in 2015, then to Woolff Gallery in London’s Fitzrovia in 2016 and 2017.

“It was a great success and attracted many people from the London Welsh scene over St David’s Day week to see Welsh art in the city. Seeing a lot of young people attending the exhibition we decided to run the West Wales Young Artist competition for young adults aged 16–25.”

Running alongside the continuous exhibition at the gallery, young artists from all over West Wales entered the competition hosted and organised by Helen, who saw an opportunity to encourage young artists from the local area to apply their talents with a view of showing in London at Welsh Art Week in March 2017.

This year the age group focused on seven-12-year-olds, and so it became the West Wales Junior Artist Competition with an unprecedented 377 entries from schools and individuals from across the area.

Helen said: “The judges were represented by three well-known artists and an art collector, Alice Tennant, Duncan Fitzwilliams, Gillian McDonald and Steve Wilson, and they found their task quite challenging with such a fantastic array of varied art on the theme 'Glan y Mor'.

“We felt it was a fun competition to run and encouraged students to present their work in a focused way, with the number of entries indicating how important events like these are for young people.”

The top prize winners of each age group will be on show at the Christmas Show on Friday, December 1 at 6pm at the gallery in Newport and everybody is welcome to attend.

“There will be a lot of excitement around presenting the winners with certificates, and in addition, I will be presenting each school with a certificate of excellence for the standard of work entered in the competition,” added Helen.

The results in age groups;

Age 7 - joint 1st: Scarlet Robinson Ysgol Bro Ingli, and Gwen Phillips of Ysgol Eglwyswrw; joint 2nd: Lowri Davies of Eglwyswrw and Jonah Jones of Bro Ingli; joint 3rd: Marley Ellis Williams of Ysgol Glannau Gwaun and Chloe Bevan of Roch Primary School.

Age 8 - joint 1st: Jakey Thomas of Ysgol Ger Y Llan and Ela Humphries of Ysgol Llandudoch; joint 2nd: Shannon Goellnitz of Llandudoch and Finn Sutton of Eglwyswrw; joint 3rd: Lois Morris of Ysgol Casblaidd and Ruth Morris of Ger Y Llan.

Age 9 - joint 1st: Megija Kalnina of Ysgol Ger y Llan and Gweni Edwards of Ysgol Maenclochog; joint 2nd: Mail Richards-Jones of Ger y Llan and Iestyn Creese of Maenclochog; joint 3rd: Jude Brown of Eglwyswrw and Kai Lewis of Holy Name School Fishguard.

Age 10 - 1st: Lleu Hedd of Ysgol Llanychllwydog; joint 2nd: Lydia Berry of Maenclochog and Andrew Johnson of Llandudoch; joint 3rd: Carys Rycroft of Ysgol Wdig, Zoe McCarthy of Ysgol Casmael and Cerys Evans of Llanychllwydog.

The gallery is open Monday to Saturday 10am-5pm and has shows throughout the year, visit thegallery-yroriel.com