ARTIST and printmaker Gini Wade, who completed an MA in Fine Art at Aberystwyth School of Art, has won the Regional Award for Wales at the National Open Art competition 2016.

Gini studied at Aberystwyth University School of Art as a post-graduate student from 2007-10, specialising in lithography with Paul Croft, and was awarded an MA in Fine Art with distinction.

She entered two lithographs, Home 1 and Home 2 – Regeneration, into the National Open Art competition, which received almost 3,800 entries.

Explaining the background to the two artworks Gini said: “Home 1 was my response to the war in Syria, which I find particularly upsetting as I spent a very pleasant month there 20 years ago and met some lovely people. Making Home 1 triggered my childhood memories of World War 2 bombsites in London. Though I am not old enough to have experienced the bombing myself, I heard plenty of horrific first-hand accounts during my childhood, which makes what is happening in Syria ‘real’.

“The idea for Home 2 - Regeneration came to me while crossing Mile End Park in East London - an area that was totally bombed flat during the Second World War then after the war was part of a regeneration project. Now you wouldn’t know anything had happened there; it’s a peaceful scene with children playing and mums pushing prams. It’s amazing how quickly traumas are forgotten after a generation or two, though the after-effects still ripple on.”

Home 2 – Regeneration was awarded the Regional Award for Wales, and was featured alongside 35 prizewinning paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, wall-hung installations and digital art pieces at the critically acclaimed Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, where the National Open Art competition was founded 20 years ago.

See this week’s south editions for the full feature, in shops and online on Wednesday