AN art competition that will see its winners take prizes worth £1500 is urging artists to enter before the end of its deadline in June.
The winners of the Grand Central Portrait Competition will be displayed in the Grand Central hotel's planned new gallery in Glasgow.
Launched earlier this year, the organisers of the competition are offering a £1000 prize for first place, and a £500 prize for second place.
The winners of the competition seeks to find new images of the some of the famous visitors to the hotel in its long history.
Already entrants to the competition, supported by The Herald, include Jean Simmons, Cary Grant, Mick Jagger, Winston Churchill, and Charlie Chaplin and include entries from the UK, Ireland and further afield.
The hotel will also stage a winners exhibition at the hotel, to give the chosen artists a forum for the public to buy their work.
With Degree Shows opening at leading Scottish art schools, the manager of the hotel is urging young and emerging artists will want to enter before the deadline for entries on June 30.
The degree shows at the Glasgow School of Art and the Edinburgh College of Art opened this past weekend.
Paul Bray, general manager of the hotel, said: “With Degree Shows opening across the country, a highlight of the arts calendar, we would be delighted to see entries to the competition from any of the graduating students, as well as students still working on their degrees at Scotland’s arts schools.
"We are excited about the entries so far and look forward to judging the entries once the deadline passes at the end of June."
The Grand Central Hotel will also to provide a space to the winning artists, to display their work at a winners exhibition, enabling the public to buy other examples of their work.
The winners, which is hoped to number up to a dozen in total, including first place and second place, will be announced in September.
The short list will be announced later in the summer.
The winning artists retain copyright of their work, and their work will be framed at the cost of the hotel.
The hotel, a key landmark in Glasgow right next to Central Station, has played host to some famous names over the years: Frank Sinatra was there, as was Nat King Cole, Danny Kaye, Sammy Davis Jnr, and The Beatles.
Cary Grant brought his Hollywood elegance to the hotel, as did Vivien Leigh and Jean Simmons.
Roy Rogers and Trigger spent time there - with both silver screen cowboy and his horse ‘signing in’ at the front desk - as well as Bob Hope, Mick Jagger and Billy Connolly.
Crowds would gather outside the hotel when stars came to stay in the 1950s, with thousands screaming for Abbott and Costello when they stayed.
President Kennedy was at the hotel as a young man: he was at the hotel in 1939, with his father, Joseph Kennedy, US Ambassador to the UK, and Churchill stayed at the hotel in 1949 and 1951.
Artists are being invited to paint, sketch, draw, and otherwise create images of one of these figures, chosen from the list below, for the Grand Central Hotel Portrait competition.
Once artists have completed their portrait or portraits - on canvas or paper, or wood or other material - they can email an image of them, with a deadline of June 30.
The competition is open to all.
To enter, send digital files of your images to marketing@theherald.co.uk.
Closing date for emailed entries is 5pm, Sunday, June 30th 2019.
The portraits should be chosen from this list of famous faces: Winston Churchill, Mae West, John F Kennedy, Princess Margaret, Nat King Cole, Charlie Chaplin, Abbott & Costello, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Danny Kaye, Sammy Davis Junior, Jean Simmons, Roy Rogers & Trigger, Billy Connolly, The Beatles, Cary Grant, Vivien Leigh, Mick Jagger, Bob Hope and Gene Kelly
The judges will include Jan Patience, the Art Critic and Journalist and Paul Bray, general manager of the Grand Central Hotel.
Art submitted can be in any medium, as long as it is capable of being displayed on a wall and framed.
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