Narbi Price

"I've made a point attending every John Moores exhibition since I first visited The Walker Art Gallery on a university trip in 1999. Seeing the familiar works by Turner and Daguerre every two years on the way through the galleries to the show has become as much a part of the experience as seeing what the exhibition is like each time.

It is testament to the changeling qualities of contemporary painting that the show is never the same in mood or rhythm. Trends come and go but one thing remains true about the John Moores Exhibition - it is a great snapshot of what is happening in contemporary painting at any given time.

This year I am lucky enough to be showing in John Moores for the second time and having my work selected by the esteemed panel of judges to win a prize is a great feeling.

It feels cyclical that two of the judging panel (Angela De La Cruz and George Shaw) were in the show themselves the first time I saw it. It's an incredible honour to join the list of prizewinners and I'm very excited to see the rest of work on show."

Sarah Pickstone

"I've been following the John Moores painting prize since I was 15 years old and believe that it represents the best of contemporary British painting. So Im very proud to be shortlisted for a prize at JM 2012.

There's a huge range of painting and yet as a show it always hangs together well. I like this idea that the exhibition is more than the sum of its parts.

'No other city in the UK has so consistently supported the visual arts as Liverpool."

Ian Law

"M is many was first exhibited as part of a solo exhibition at Laura Bartlett Gallery towards to the end of last year. It's an exciting prospect to have this work installed again, to see how it stands within the Walker Art Gallery amongst the other selected works.

It was great to hear that 'M is many' has been awarded a prize, as the John Moores Painting Prize continues its ongoing commitment to represent painting in its broadest sense."

Stephen Nicholas

"I am delighted to be a prize winner in the John Moore's competition.My painting Gallery is partly about aiming and shooting with the eye and often missing the target."

Here's the full story as it appeared in today's Liverpool Post:

AN ART work by a married couple has been named as one of the winners of the Liverpool-based John Moores Painting Prize.

The Greater Light was created by mosaicist Emma Biggs and her Bafta-winning broadcaster husband Matthew Collings - she chose the colours and he applied them.
The geometric pattern is one of five prizewinning works announced today, which also include a canvas marked with a large letter M and a picture of a loading bay.

Collings, who has won awards for his arts broadcasting, said: "We are really happy to be noticed by the John Moores judges, but surprised as well.

"The paintings are not preplanned. We think about visual ideas, colour and tone, and formal arrangement as a metaphor for the material world."

Established in 1957 by Littlewoods founder Sir John Moores, the Walker Art Gallery-based competition is described as the "Oscar of the British painting world".
This year's judges are Wirral-born former Turner Prize nominee Fiona Banner, BBC creative director Alan Yentob, Whitechapel art gallery director Iwona Blazwick and artists Angela de la Cruz and George Shaw.
The overall £25,000 prizewinner will be announced by pop artist Sir Peter Blake, patron and winner of the 1961 junior prize, on September 14 to coincide with the opening of the Liverpool Biennial contemporary art festival.

The other prizewinners are London-based Ian Law, whose painting M is Many features a perspective-skewing large black letter M; Stephen Nicholas's Gallery, which explores ideas of abstraction and figuration; Sarah Pickstone's Stevie Smith and the Willow, inspired by a drawing that accompanied Smith's 1957 poem Not Waving But Drowning; and Untitled Kerbstone Painting (MJK) by Newcastle-based Narbi Price, which depicts the worn yellow diamond patterns of a loading bay.

Manchester-born Pickstone said: "I've been following the John Moores Painting Prize since I was 15 years old and believe that it represents the best of contemporary British painting so I'm very proud to be shortlisted."

Price, who also reached the exhibition stage of the 2010 prize, said: "I've made a point attending every John Moores exhibition since I first visited the Walker Art Gallery on a university trip in 1999.

"It is a great snapshot of what is happening in contemporary painting at any given time. Having my work selected by the esteemed panel of judges to win a prize is a great feeling."