Phil Hackett's Curatorial Choice

This is the eighth year and it doesn't get any easier, such quality and diversity from so many talented artists, more than ever before. My curatorial selection reflects what I think L.O.V.E. Art is all about. My curatorial choices are in no particular order…

everything is going to be ok by Robin Hardman

Strong contrast, strong composition, strong nostalgic setting and poses, an absolutely iconic representation of British life by the seaside from any time during the past 50 days to the past 50 years, and then you realise it is a photograph, stunning.

Aylestone Meadows 3 by Sue Clegg

Vivid and unnatural colours contrast the man-made engineering crisscrossing an irradiating sun glaring down through the pink sky on the overgrown trees and shrubbery; makes for an idyllic vision, a place I know well from my youth and one I want to visit again now after seeing this piece.

Richard and the Tulips by Chloë Bates

This is a portrait of a space, with a still life and a portrait of a person in the middle of it. I love the fact that ‘Richard’ is in the centre of the painting but not the centre of attention, I enjoy the ‘unfinished' mystery of all the objects and wondering the reasoning for why and which elements are fully fleshed in colour, a really intriguing work that draws you in and around the composition, noticing new elements each time.

Amy Winehouse by Ashley Allen

I am not one for celebrity portraiture normally, I actually wasn't 100% in favour of this being selected but was overruled by the rest of the panel who all voted for it, and I am glad they did. The sense of scale is hard to fathom, this painting is a tiny little thing that packs a punch far greater than its diminutive size, and proof yet again that seeing art in real life, face to face, so to speak, is the only way to really, truly, see it!

Carrion Crow (Fearless) by Lucy Stevens

Love the collage of materials used, the collaborative approach of photographer and artist, the artist’s own form of symbolism and mark making, the use of the local museum's natural history collections, the scientific research, the layers, the details, the meanings and messages that are almost decipherable but just out of reach of my understanding, a whole new form of taxonomy.

Hyperreality by Nathan Davies

Such wonderful textures and a colour palette that seems to capture the full array of colours found in human skin from the sun-kissed to the brutally bruised, the paleness of a nocturnal vampire to the darkest equatorial tones, ghostly yet vibrant with life.

No Name by Katy Smith

Perfectly natural and lifelike but unfinished and artificial, with direct eye contact and a covered mouth, the story is ours to create, the mood ours to imagine, our relationship with the sitter, the atmosphere between artist and viewer, subject and observer is up to our imaginations.