I CAUGHT up with Wirral-based artist Leo Fitzmaurice at the announcement that he's won the Northern Art Prize (pictured by David Lindsay above) at Leeds City gallery last week. He was, he said, the only one of the four short-listed artists not to have prepared a speech as he hadn't expected to win the £16,500 award.

What does winning mean to him?: Time.

"It will mean maybe nearly two years when I can do exactly what I want as and artist. That's what everyone wants."

Fair enough.

Fitzmaurice's contribution to the art prize exhibition included an interesting reinterpretation of landscapes from the gallery's collection, which he placed at different heights along two walls so that they appeared to share the same horizon. A simple enough idea perhaps but one that makes us re-experience the works from a different perspective.

ART Media Contacts has released its Top Ten Art Blogs of 2010. Their criteria was as follows:

Number one in our judging criteria is that the blogger must have something to contribute to the debate on art. Secondly that they have carried out genuine and independent research on their subject. First-rate writing is not enough either, a good blog needs regular postings and an interactive community or readership too. We all love great design here at Arts Media Contacts, and good-looking blogs with interesting graphics and images score well in this pageant.

Here's the full list, with AMC's comments. I already follow quite a few of them and will be checking out the others over the next few weeks.

I'VE been taking advantage of the lull in reviewing (it's pretty quiet now until early Feb) to catch up on a bit of blog reading.

Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner tweeted a link to this post by Terry Teachout, of the Wall Street Journal, who is known for travelling coast to coast to review theatrical productions. In it he specifies precisely - it's a long piece that includes bullet points and a numbered list - what he will and won't review in what goes beyond the boundaries of a wish list. In Gardner's tweet she commented "Not sure it's job of a critic to tell theatres what to programme" and I have to agree, especially as I like to be surprised by what makes it on to the Liverpool stage. I don't want it to be full of stuff I've already heard of.

HERE is a selection of arts interviews that appeared in the Daily Post this week:

Pamela Anderson on art, animal rights and missing Christmas with her sons to play the genie in Aladdin at Liverpool Empire Theatre

Writer Gervase Phinn on bringing his Christmas show Yuletide Evening to Crosby Civic Hall

Mark White on starring in Hit Me! The Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury

Childrens theatre company Tutti Frutti brings When We Lived in Uncle's Hat to Liverpool's Unity Theatre

Colin McKeown on the new series of BBC1's Moving On

Christy Moore: A giant in Ireland looks forward to Liverpool Philharmonic gigs

HERE'S the press release that came through from the Arts Council today detailing a transformation of the way the arts are funded in England and fleshing out some of the detail hinted at in last week's announcement of a 6.9% cut to regularly funded organisations for 2011/12.

This will impact on the 850 RFOs nationally, of which there are many in Liverpool (full list here), which will now have to reapply for financial assistance.

It's long-winded, but I thought it would be best to include it all here rather than generalise so you can draw your own conclusions.

If you're in the mood (are we ever?) for thinking more about the cuts, here are a few links to three different points of view on the subject...

SOME interesting Biennial-related links for you. . .

2. Co-operative news and poetry by former Bluecoat poet in residence Nathan Jones on Mercy's Biennial podcast

THIS is the first in a sporadic series of links out to interesting articles/images/videos I've discovered this week, some but not all related to Liverpool.

1. Art history Dipity timeline

There are some big gaps in this timeline - for starters the 20th century is very sparse - but it's a good way of juxtaposing the work of different artists and visualising how movements in artistic style and theory influenced one another. It also begs the question - who do we traditionally leave out of these sorts of lists? How many non-white or non-male artists are included?