A LOCAL artist has been selected to be exhibited alongside the best and brightest in two London art galleries.

Aveton Gifford based artist Martin Brooks has been selected from nearly 2,000 entries to appear at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual submission exhibition and was chosen from 2,557 entries to be exhibited at the BP Portrait Awards 2016.

Martin trained at the Royal College of Art where he was awarded the Royal College Drawing Prize and Madame Tussauds Prize for Figurative Art. Not only is this Martin’s third consecutive year exhibiting with the Royal Society, it is also the third portrait selected of each of his three sons. ‘I am absolutely delighted,’ said Martin, ‘it is a very exciting time for portraiture’.

With some 200 portraits on show, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition is the largest and most comprehensive of recent portraits in the country.

Graced by portraits of royalty, celebrities, academics, mothers, daughters, fathers and sons, the exhibition is a feature of the art calendar.

This year about half of the work will be by eminent Members of the Society and half by emerging artists selected through the open submission.

This year’s exhibition will be on display at Mall Galleries, central London, between May 5-20, 2016.

Martin’s life size oil portrait ‘Unfolding’, was selected for the BP Portrait Award 2016.

The portrait is of designer and musician Stewart MacPherson, who works in Kingsbridge. Martin explains ‘Prior to the sitting, Stewart was unknown to me, my wife spotted him walking along the street and thought he would make a good subject for one of my portraits.

‘Stewart was very gracious and agreed to sit for me. The title ‘Unfolding’ describes the development of the painting and the ambiguous narrative contained within the pose.’

The BP Portrait Award exhibition runs from June 23 – September 4, at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Admission is free. To see more of Martin’s work, visit www.martinbrooksart.com