Shortlisted – Artist of the Year Awards, 2025

Shelley Thornton — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 12:13:09 +0000

I’m thrilled to be shortlisted for Artist of the Year 2025 by the Visual Artists Association. It was great to be longlisted (again) but to go this extra step out of thousands of high quality entries is brilliant.

The VAA Artist of the Year 2025 Award celebrates artistic excellence, and is open to both emerging talent and established professionals, based in the UK and internationally, and is judged by a distinguished panel of industry experts.

The VAA is a leading professional body dedicated to supporting visual artists at every stage of their careers and, as the fastest-growing artist support organisation globally, it represents a thriving community of over 25,000 artists.

The body of works selected for judging are from my Harbour Co llection. Three of them were highlighted by the VAA but Rust Never Sleeps is the painting that particularly caught the judges’ eyes. It is inspired by the elements to be found in a working harbour. On a deeper level, it represents the aging and decaying process and emotions evoked by ghosts of the past from the fishing industry. I’ve used found materials – sand and rust – to reinforce the harbour setting but also to embed the artwork with lived histories.

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Shortlisted – Artist of the Year Awards, 2025