One of the youngest competitors in a major student art competition has been awarded one of two top prizes.

Art student Emma Carrion Moschen, 15, was awarded the first prize in the public vote category during the 2019 Sovereign Art Foundation Isle of Man Students prize presentation, earlier this week.

Emma, a pupil at the QEII High School, Peel, was just 14 when she submitted her work to the arts prize, which is normally aimed at A level art students.

However, following a month long exhibition at the Kensington Road Youth Arts Centre, where the ten final pieces were put on display, Emma’s portrait, entitled ’Courage’, attracted the most votes earning Emma the £1,000 prize.

Also awarded during the evening was the first and second prizes for best picture selected by a panel of judges, including Dr Jeremy Paul, Anna Clucas, Eve Adams, Carola Rush and Maureen Kennaugh.

Ballakermeen High School student Elizabeth Cowin, 18, was awarded the top prize of £1,000, with £1,500 being awarded to the school, and Kyra Rimmer, 17, from Ramsey Grammar, came second.

Sandy Koh, from the Sovereign Trust, who ran the art foundation prize, said that both the judges and public votes were very close and each entrant should be proud of their work.

’The judges scores were all so close, which just shows that all the finalists were all of a constant level of quality that made the final choice difficult,’ said Sandy.

’There were only one to two marks determining who came first second and third and also, the public votes were also very, very close.

In all cases, one more vote or score would have changed the results.

’I wanted to stress to all of the entrants this year that as the scores were so close, they should all feel like winners tonight.’

Sandy said that this is the third year they have held the awards, and that each year the standard of entries gets higher.

’I think the results are always surprising because I’m not a professional judge or artist,’ she said.

’But you never know how the judges or the public will vote.

’It was really nice to see that the public vote went to the youngest entrant that we had, as Emma was only 14 at the time of submission.

’Most of the times our submissions are in A level work, so it is amazing for Emma to win and we are thrilled for her.’

The 2019 Sovereign Art Foundation Isle of Man Students competition was held in conjunction with the Youth Arts Isle of Man, which run various arts and youth community groups from the Kensington Road centre.

The awards were presented by Lieutenant Governor Sir Richard Gozney at the company headquarters.

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers