A University of Wolverhampton art graduate was short listed in this year’s Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year competition.

Lindsay Pritchard, 46, from Wolverhampton graduated with an Honours and Master’s Degree in Illustration in the Visual Communications department of the Wolverhampton School of Art.

Having worked in the financial sector for 20 years, she left banking in 2007 to pursue her interest in art and now works in the creative industries running workshops, exhibiting her work and taking commissions.

Lindsay entered the national competition and recently appeared as one of eight shortlisted artists on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2017 filmed at Knaresborough Castle in Yorkshire.

She said:  “My work is mainly focused on the urban environment with a particular interest in dereliction and decay so I spend quite a lot of my time in derelict factories and junk yards.

“It was an amazing adventure being short listed for such a prestigious competition.  All the artists had to set up and complete a landscape painting in one day whilst being filmed so the pressure was really on.  Then we had to wait for our work to be judged. Whilst I didn’t make it through to the next stage of the competition, the experience was incredible.

“Studying Illustration at the University really opened up a whole new world for me and helped me to harness my true potential as an artist.”

Lindsay is an active member of the Black Country Urban Sketchers whose aim is to encourage people to sketch in their local environment. She is also a member of the Wolverhampton Society of Artists exhibiting in their exhibitions and attending their regular meets.