Tony’s Ed Sheeran portrait is the winner

The Macclesfield Open Online Art Exhibition which ended on Sunday, despite being virtual, has proved to be a huge success.

Artists from in and around Macclesfield – and across the North West – submitted a total of 651 works which were displayed on the exhibition’s website, maccopen.org.uk. 

In addition to providing visual entertainment for art lovers and an opportunity for local artists to show their work, the exhibition raised badly needed funds for East Cheshire Hospice with exhibiting artists encouraged to make a donation to the Hospice.

Carley Macey, the Community Fundraiser for the Hospice told ilovemacc 126 donations raised £2,643.00. The final total will be considerably higher – not all the donations have been counted – and not everyone who donated would have mentioned the exhibition.

The exhibition was organised by Geoff Archer, who says he has had extremely positive feedback. Many commented on how happy they were to help such a good cause with more than one noting their admiration for the Hospice based on their own personal experiences with family members.

Visitors to the website were encouraged to vote for their favourite work, with the winner receiving the £100 Visitors Choice Award, donated by Macclesfield Town Council. All the votes have now been counted and the result has been announced. 

Tony Needham’s painting, ‘Ed’ (see main image above), a portrait of the singer Ed Sheeran, received the very first vote on day one with the votes for the painting continuing to mount up throughout the nine weeks of the exhibition. It ended the clear winner with almost twice as many votes as the second favourite.

Out of the 651 works on show, 87 received at least one vote as someone’s favourite. Ali Stokes’ pencil crayon drawing, ‘Proud Highland’, was in second place, some way behind the winner but well ahead of the next nearest, while works by Elizabeth Cookson, Angela Hogan and Natalie Newsome all proved particularly popular.

All of the works which received votes will be displayed on the website until the end of the month.

I you would like to contribute to the hospice log into https://www.eastcheshirehospice.org.uk/donate-now/