WELBECK.- The search for Britain’s most exciting artists has been launched by The Harley Gallery on the Welbeck estate in Sherwood Forest.

Artists of all ages and experience are invited to enter their work into ‘The Harley Open’, which has a top prize of £1000 for the biennial competition. Encouraged to let their imagination run riot, entries can be serious or funny, detailed or abstract, traditional or contemporary, but must be able to be wall-mounted and have been made by the artist in the past two years.

Entry is open to both professional and leisure artists working in any medium. Artworks must be submitted between 2-6 January 2019 before judging by an expert panel who will choose the prize winners. Around 140 of the entries will be selected to go on show in a special exhibition running at The Harley Gallery from 19 January until 24 March and expected to attract more than 25,000 visitors.

Director of The Harley Gallery, Lisa Gee explained: “One of the great things about The Harley Open is that the entries vary from traditional works to unexpected, unconventional pieces, and are from people with a huge range of backgrounds - from those who are art school trained to self-taught artists. This competition really is wide open to everyone – whatever your experience, as long as you enjoy making art, we’d like to see it! We get to display work by some fantastically creative and talented people and the competition provides a great gallery space for them to show and, often, sell their work.”

The Harley Gallery has exhibited contemporary work by artists such as David Hockney, Grayson Perry and Sir Peter Blake. It also holds a purpose-built gallery space opened in 2016 to house the masterpieces of The Portland Collection, assembled over 400 years by the Dukes of Portland and including works by Michelangelo and Van Dyke.

As well as The Harley Prize of £1000, other prizes include The Judges Prize of £500, sponsored by Welbeck Estates Company; and The Storycatcher’s Prize worth £250. The ‘People’s Prize’ is voted for by the visiting public and announced at the end of the exhibition.

Jéréme Crow was the Winner of The Harley Prize in the 2017 Open Exhibition with ‘Dom with Indian Yellow’ and will have his own exhibition at The Harley Gallery running in parallel with the 2019 entries. For this exhibition, he will be showing works inspired by historic portraits – including the Van Dyck portraits in The Portland Collection. These paintings will be accompanied by portraits of employees that Jéréme encountered on his research trips to Welbeck.