This month’s star letter writer will receive a Landscape Selection of 48 Van Gogh soft pastels worth £49.99, courtesy of Royal Talens. For more information about these, and other Royal Talens products, seewww.royaltalens.com

STAR LETTER

The art of entering competitions

After visiting Patchings Art Centre last year to view the winning entries in The Artist and Leisure Painter Open Art Competition I remembered a rather funny story. Some years ago I entered the Stafford Open at the Shire Hall Gallery, for which just one painting could be submitted, not digitally but in person.

As it was a local competition, I was reasonably confident of selection (a silly assumption, as I soon learned). The painting, a nostalgic scene depicting life in the smoke-filled Stoke-on-Trent of the 1950s, was large and only just fitted into my car. I checked it in at reception and paid the submission fee then, a day or two later, I received notification that my entry hadn’t made it through. Disappointed, I collected the painting and bought it home.