Articles tagged with visual artists association - Artlantic

LONGLISTED – VISUAL ART OPEN 2026

Shelley Thornton — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 14:44:18 +0000

I’m really excited to be longlisted for the Visual Art Open.

The Visual Art Open competition is open to both amateur and professional artists worldwide. Its mission is to celebrate and showcase the diverse talents of artists at every stage of their journey, from emerging talents to seasoned professionals.

It is judged by an expert panel from the contemporary art world. The esteemed judges span commercial galleries, museums, art media, and academia, ensuring a wide range of expertise and perspectives.

The VAO art competition is currently running in its eleventh consecutive year.

It’s great to be longlisted out of the many thousands of entries. As the VAO said: “The standard and volume of submissions this year has been outstanding, and reaching the Longlist is a significant achievement.”

Next stage results will be announced soon. Fingers crossed for the next round.

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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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Longlisted – Artist of the Year, 2025

Shelley Thornton — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 13:15:43 +0000

I’m really excited to be longlisted for Artist of the Year 2025 by the Visual Artists Association.

The Artist of the Year competition is in its current form for the second year – previously having been run as the Professional Artist Award for a more limited category of entrants. I was delighted to have been longlisted for the PAA in 2023. Given the much greater number of entrants to the Artist of the Year Award, it’s fabulous to be longlisted in 2025.

The body of works selected for judging are from my Harbour Co llection . Three of them were highlighted by the VAA and are shown below.

It’s great to be longlisted out of the many thousands of entries. Next stage results will be announced soon.

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LONGLISTED – VAA PROFESSIONAL ARTIST AWARD 2023

Shelley Thornton — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 16:45:54 +0000

I was delighted to be longlisted for the VAA Professional Artist Award 2023.

The Visual Artist Association developed the VAA Professional Artist Award (to be renamed VAA Artist of the Year Awards in 2024) with working artists in mind.

Artists often struggle to gain visibility and momentum in their careers, despite their skills and dedication so the VAA Professional Artist Award supports the work of professional artists.

The competition celebrates creativity and talent at all stages and honours artists’ dedication, passion, and unique visions.

One of 60 artists from thousands of entries, I was delighted to be longlisted in my first year of applying.

Artists submit a number of works that represent their current professional practice. I submitted works including the Solitude artworks that had featured in Thompson’s Galleries in Marylebone, London, the previous summer.

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