Winning the Northern Art Prize will give Heswall-based Leo Fitzmaurice creative freedom, he tells Laura Davis
THE result of the £16,500 Northern Art Prize has been announced and the winner is unprepared. “I’m the only one who hasn’t written a speech,” announces Heswall-based artist Leo Fitzmaurice.
Perhaps he was distracted on his way to the gallery by a scene he felt compelled to capture on his Sony Ericson mobile phone, ready to be included in one of his slideshow art works?
But no, his lack of pre-penned address was due to low expectations.
“I didn’t think I had a chance of winning,” he admits.
Back in Liverpool, in a cafe he used to visit when based at the Royal Standard studios in Vauxhall, he is more loquacious.
“Winning for me means time,” he says. “Commissions always take you away from your central idea at that moment and this money means I have time to give myself some creative freedom.”
Largely due to its high profile judges – this year including Caroline Douglas (head of the Arts Council Collection) and Tim Marlow (broadcaster and White Cube Gallery director of exhibitions) and last year journalist Mark Lawson – the NAP feels longer established than its five years.
