Ellie Davies: Winner of the Public Choice Award and the Charmian Adams Award

Sometimes things just stand out. Ellie Davies’s series of three photographs entitled Silent, Dark and Deep, one shown below, certainly did that, so much so that she was chosen both by the public (Public Choice Award) and by the critics (Charmian Adams Award) as the winner of this year’s New Brewery Arts OPEN competition.

Her pictures seem to draw the eye, to lure us in, the very real yet magical space within them receding as if it stretches beyond the surface of the photograph. Each photo seems ‘like a fish tank’ one visitor remarked. Perhaps we are drawn to them in a child-like way, fascinated at what lies behind the glass. Each photo seems beautiful and threatening all at once. It seems we can smell the earth, hear the autumn leaves crunching beneath our feet. Davies has captured our imaginations through the use of this modern medium.

Ellie Davies has enjoyed a flush of success, having been shortlisted for several prestigious international photography awards over recent years. If you would like to know more about her work and career visit http://www.elliedavies.co.uk/

Runners up for the Public Choice Award were Tracey Elphick, with her quirky collaged Scilly Fishing Boats and Jane Hunt with her beautiful small glass sculpture Connection Across the Void. The critics’ shortlist meanwhile consisted of Pauline Solven’s array of colourful glass pieces, Barney and Lucy Heywood’s DVD work The End and Louise Parry’s gem of a clock, Crossing Time.

Thank you to everyone who voted in the Public Choice Award. The interactive element to this exhibition proved enormously successful and with over two thousand of you casting a ballot, every artist in the competition had a healthy sweep of votes.

Ruth Burgon