An artist from St Albans has been shortlisted for a £15,000 national art prize.

Tim Galton was shortlisted in the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, a competition for British contemporary representational painting and drawing, for his oil painting ‘Memory 1 (Lark in the Grass with Balloons)’.

Out of the 1,144 artists who entered this year’s competition 83 were shortlisted, the highest level of entries in the prize’s 13-year history.

The competition, which rewards art that seeks to capture the real world, offers first prize of £15,000 and a gold medal, second prize of £4,000 and other prizes for artists aged 25 and under and artists who create an outstanding representation of the human figure.

Ian Rowley, chairman of the organising committee, said: “This year, we’ve been staggered by the quality of the entries. There’s a tremendous diversity to the works combined with some bold approaches.”