A RYEDALE artist is celebrating winning a prestigious award, staving off competition from more than 3,000 other entrants.

Sally Taylor, who has her own studio just outside of Stonegrave, was awarded the Highly Commended prize at the internationally acclaimed Jerwood Drawing Prize which aims to showcase the best contemporary drawing artists across the country.

The York St John University fine art lecturer had her work, Confused Head 27, chosen from a total of 3,234 entrants to be part of the 51 shortlisted, and found out on the opening night of the exhibition that she had been chosen as the winner of the Highly Commended award.

She said: "The opening night when they announced it was just magical. It is just fantastic to be part of such a prestigious show and then to be awarded the Highly Commended prize was so exciting."

Other pieces of Sally’s work have been selected for previous Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibitions in 2011, 2009 and 2004 after she chose a piece to submit.

The 37-year-old was also recently shortlisted for the DerwentArt Prize at the Mall Galleries in London.

Her winning piece for the Jerwood Drawing Prize was done with a Posca pen, which Sally says draws with a texture similar to a combination of paint and pen, and was a collage on a book cover.

Sally said: "I tend to draw very quickly, impulsively and intuitively. I think moving to Ryedale from Portsmouth five years ago has really helped my work to progress as well."