Art isn't only alive and well in Westcliff, it's positively thriving! Three out of the eight awards winners of the Essex Open Exhibition come from the town!

"Judges had no idea of where the artists come from, or who they are," said Clare Hunt of Westcliff's Beecroft Art Gallery, where the winners' work is on show.

Top prize went to Westcliff's Lesley Ford. Her composition of fabrics sewn together in a pattern reminiscent of a lady's corset earned her £500 from the Beecroft trustees and the title of the most distinguished work in the exhibition. She also carried off the award for the most exciting non-traditional work earning her another £100 from Brandler Galleries.

"The power of shapes within garments to create new imagery fascinates me," ," Lesley said. Silk screen printing, appliqu, embroidery and collage were employed. And barbed wire, Ordinance Survey maps, zips and fasteners underline a feeling of restriction.

Lesley, 32, a tutor from North View Drive, says her inspiration came from a jacket. "While teaching students at Thurrock College to take clothing apart and put them back together again I noticed the pattern made by the inside of a man's suit," she explained.

Other Westcliff winners are a street scene by Lois Graves (best watercolour) and Ian Cox's self portrait( Frank Todman award for best portrait).

Another local winner was Southend's Stephen Gibbs whose Into the Pier Light not only won the Lynn Tait Gallery award for a work depicting a Southend landmark but was also used on publicity posters and programme.

More than 200 works have been selected from 798 entries to appear at the 41st Essex Open Exhibition, though few were three-dimensional. Selectors were Michael Harrison, director of Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, sculptor John Doubleday and Arts Review magazine editor David Lee.

Clare Hunt said: "Although many beautiful three dimensional works were entered the selectors only chose a handful which gallery staff were rather disappointed about!

"Selectors' decisions are often unusual and unexpected. This has made for fascinating exhibitions."

The show runs until August 28 at the gallery in Station Road, Westcliff.

Other winners included Leigh Johnson of Maldon who won the First Data Resources award for a three-dimensional work; Peter Norris, from Hutton, the Chartwell Gallery award for a three dimensional work; and Gary Lawrence, from Braintree, the Lancaster Volvo award for best piece of contemporary work.

Self-conscious - Best portrait from Ian Cox, above

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.