Finedon artist wins national award for wildlife painting

An artist from Finedon came out on top from thousands of entries to win an award at the prestigious SAA Artist of the Year competition.

Melanie Henson's painting 'Probable Caws' won the Best Professional Animal or Wildlife category. It is a mixed media piece of collage and oils on canvas.

The Northamptonshire-based artist said: "It was so exciting, I just entered last minute. I saw the closing date was coming up and I hadn't realised it was so soon so I just entered.

Melanie likes to work from photos taken of wildlife in her native South Africa, like this one.

"Then they emailed me that I had won. It was such exciting news."

The SAA is a large community of artists and Melanie said it was one of the biggest national art societies. There were almost 5,000 entries for her category of Best Professional Animal or Wildlife category.

Melanie said: "I am from South Africa originally and we travel back there a lot and my husband takes a lot of photos of wildlife, so I have a lot to work with."

The local artist said she is inspired by both local wildlife and from her travels home to her family farm and the abundant flora & fauna found in the region.

Melanie mostly works with watercolours, which she also teaches at Coleman's Craft Warehouse in Rushden. She also does pet portrait commissions and said she's been busy recently as people treat their loved ones to a pet portrait for Christmas.

As part of the award, Melanie's work has been shared on the SAA website and social media channels. She added: "They were supposed to have an exhibition in Birmingham at the NEC with all the winners, but because of Covid, they cancelled which is a bit of a shame."

You can find out more about Melanie's work at her website here.

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