“It is always good to know where your paintings end up, I like to know who has bought it,” Clarke said at Friday’s opening night.

His work, Summer at Soldiers Point won the acquisitive traditional section, a traditional water colour that judge Suzanne Sommer said had been painted with skill and caught the mood of the day.

Clarke said the image was one that captured his imagination while visiting Soldiers Point.

He took some photographs and from there worked to create the final image.

Clarke praised the organisers of Singleton Art Prize and said this year’s numbers comprised of a great selection in terms of quality.

He said he preferred the regional shows and added that they were better value than art shows in metro areas.

“I don’t know whether it is because they have these wonderful exhibition spaces but these regional shows are really worth visiting,” he said.

“I enter a dozen or so art shows each year and this is one of the better ones,” he said.

The Art Show is open until 6pm tonight.

Winning the local section was Thea Fleming who captured the judge’s eye with Vineyard Vista, an image from Arrowfield Winery.

Mrs Fleming said she was a regular entrant in the Art Prize and loved to support the local event.

She said she didn’t enter with any anticipation of winning a prize but just enjoyed seeing the local work hanging together each year.

Highly commended in the local section was Marc Karlson’s Old Yellow and commended was Rebecca Rath’s A Fordwich Summer.

The youth section was won by Michelle DeJong in the 16 to 18 age group, Naomie Weber in the 12 to 15 years and Sam Randle in the eight to 11 years.

Singleton’s Col Shearer also took out the pencil, pen and ink section with his delicately drawn image of Danehill.

All artworks, except those that won acquisitive categories in the art prize are on sale.

The event was organised by the Rotary Club of Singleton on Hunter.

Club president Brian Ellis was thrilled with the success of the event and said he wanted to build on Singleton’s cultural events.

“It would be wonderful to have all our local cultural groups, our SATS (Singleton Theatrical Society) and other groups come together to present a week of activities for people to enjoy,” he said.

Judge Suzanne Sommer said she was impressed with the high standard of work in the Art Prize and described some of the work as fantastic.