Gifted Catherine's London show

GIFTED Wirral artist Catherine Parsonage has been selected to exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The 21-year-old who graduates in July from the BA (Hons) Fine Art course is one of 55 artists from across the world chosen to show at the NPG – the world’s largest portrait gallery.

She was selected for the BP Portrait exhibition from over 2,300 entries and her painting Untitled, of student friend Charlotte Horrillo, will be on show until September 18.

BP Portrait is a mixture of revealing paintings of celebrities such as Peter Capaldi, AP McCoy and Glenda Jackson, and intimate and personal images of friends and family, and features professional and new artists from the UK, USA, Spain, Holland, Latvia, Israel, Iran, Canada and China.

Manchester to Munich

Catherine, from Merseyside who attended Pensby High School in Wirral, will graduate from Manchester School of Art this year, before going on to study at the Royal College of Art.

“I’m really pleased to have my work on show at a prestigious gallery. It’s been a great year after winning the Basil Alkazzi Scholarship to the Royal College.”

Her work has been seen at group exhibitions in Manchester and in Munich as the result of an Erasmus study award at the Academie Der Bildenden Kunste.

‘Untitled’, she says, began as an exercise in reflecting illness and mortality and developed into a contemporary image employing the translucent skin tones and glazes from early Netherlandish art.

Influential tutors

“The Fine Art course has given me opportunities to truly develop my technique and my thinking. The tutors are brilliant. I’ve been really influenced by their practice and by that of visiting artists to Manchester School of Art.”

See all this year’s portraits at the National Portrait Gallery website.