A hat-trick of wins for a local artist dominated the prize-giving at the annual summer exhibition of St Albans Art Society.

Jan Munro won the Terry Biggs Cup for the best exhibit in the show, after a vote in which more than 500 visitors to the exhibition in St Albans Town Hall took part.

Her winning painting, entitled White Stool, was completed in pastel and is valued at more than £500.

Jan previously won the trophy in 2006 and 2007 and several of her works have been exhibited in leading London galleries during the past few years during which she has carried off many awards.

Visitors voted a painting, in acrylic, of a BBC personality as seen through a closed window, to be the most original and creative, and they awarded the Challenge Trophy to David Satchel.

The third trophy to be awarded, in the St Albans section, went to Amanda Reekie’s Paddy, a portrait in acrylic of the late well known street entertainer Paddy Delaney, who is to have a memorial plaque displayed in his honour. She received the award from trophy donor Mary Newbery, a former art society chairman.

Present chairman, Edward Bevin, when opening the event, paid tribute to the 70 members who had made the exhibition possible and particularly singled out the joint organisers, Janet Blackham and Janet King.