The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition is a nationwide competition promoting the art of painting in water-based media in the United Kingdom.
It was launched in 1988 as the Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander / Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, through sponsorship by Kaupthing Bank and The Sunday Times. Kaupthing ceased to sponsor the prize after the bank was taken over."RWS/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2010" , Sdbmarketing.co.uk, Retrieved 9 January 2012 As of 2012, it is co-sponsored by the Royal Watercolour Society and so called the RWS/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition."Royal Watercolour Society / Sunday Times Watercolour Competition", Banksidegallery.com. Retrieved 9 January 2012
The first prize winner was Tom Coates. Subsequent winners have included Trevor Stubley (1990),"Awards and Prizes", Trevorstubleygallery.co.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2012 Carl Randall (1998, the youngest ever 1st prize winner),Carl Randall - The 1998 Singer & Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition. "Fresh Fields, New Faces", The Sunday Times, London, 6 September 1998, page 8 Stuart Pearson Wright (1999; third prize), Leslie Worth, and Carol Robertson.
The 2007 winner was Julia Farrer. In 2008, 2,000 works were submitted, with 100 exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society's Bankside Gallery, and a £25,000 prize fund,"RWS/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition", Allinlondon.co.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2012 that year's winner being Jennifer McRae."RWS/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition winner announced", Artshub.co.uk, 28 August 2008. Retrieved 9 January 2012
Kathryn Maple has won the competition on two occasions: once in 2014 and once in 2016. Her winning painting in 2014 was Fat Boy's Diner, which depicts a cafe near Trinity Buoy Wharf in London. She used the £10,000 prize money to travel to India. The trip inspired her winning 2016 entry, Sandy Shoes. What Maple describes as its "part real, part imagined" scene is the product of a visit to the island of Vypin.
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