Woolhampton CE Primary School pupil wins the Open Studios' INSIGHT exhibition competition

A young artist has had her painting printed on a set of 20 postcards after she won a competition put on by a local artists' collective.

Orianna Stretton, a seven-year-old student of Woolhampton Primary School, won the Open Studios’ under-18s competition after painting a re-creation of her favourite artwork at this year’s INSIGHT exhibition.

Orianna’s chose to paint a version of Paul Forsey’s ‘Combe Gibbet’, a landscape painting featuring the famous local landmark, which she saw when she visited the exhibition at The Base, Greenham in May.

Orianna, who was nervous but excited about winning the competition, said a reason she was drawn to Mr Forsey’s work is because of all the colours he used and because “it had a lot of sparkles on it”.

Her re-creation, which beat more than 20 other entries, was a bright and colourful interpretation of ‘Combe Gibbet’, featuring some of the linear shapes prominent in the original.

Mr Forsey was impressed by Orianna’s re-creation and how she picked up on his interest in the engineering of the landscape by farmers.

He said: “She actually saw that really clearly which came through in her painting which I thought was great! It was really, really good.”

Woolhampton’s headteacher Kath Burns said: “She loves doing her artwork. We are really proud of her winning this competition. She’s an incredible artist.”

Orianna’s mother Tilly revealed the family bought Orianna a brand new set of colouring pens after she won the competition so she could continue exploring her passion for art.

“She loves her art; it’s her favourite subject,” Mrs Stretton said.

Mr Forsey said it was a shame that he couldn’t visit Woolhampton Primary School to present Orianna with her prize of the set of postcards last Friday as he had tested positive for Covid.

He wanted to give some advice to the budding artist and said: “Keep going, and don’t let people put you off from what you want to do.

“There’s only one real judge of the work and that’s you. With your work it’s your opinion that counts because you’re holding the paintbrush.”