YOUNG artists from across Gwent gathered at Newport’s Riverfront Theatre on Wednesday night to find out who had won the annual Young Artist of the Year competition, run by the South Wales Argus and supported by the Riverfront and the University of South Wales.

A top prize of £450 and a trophy is up for grabs each year for the overall winner as well as £200 for each category winner and £150 for the runners-up, plus certificates for all winners.

This year for the first time there was a visitor’s choice award, voted for by people who came along to the exhibition of the shortlisted entrants at the Riverfront.

South Wales Argus deputy editor and panel judge, Nicole Garnon, said the entries were of a particularly high standard this year and it was very difficult for the judges to choose winners.

“I would like to thank the Riverfront and the University of South Wales for their support,” she said.

Fellow judge, photographer Dr Paul Cabuts attended the prize-giving and thanked all the entrants, adding that he hoped they may go on to study art at university.

The third judge this year was Nick Cadman, arts development officer at the Riverfront Theatre.

In the eight and under category, the runner-up was Thomas-Jay Giles, three, while the winner for his drawing of a brown dog was Iefan Lewis, also three, who drew the picture at nursery at Maesglas Primary School.

In the nine to 12-year-olds category, the runner-up was Lewis Windsor while winner Thomas James Bewley took home the winner’s certificate.

In the very competitive 13 to 18-year-olds category, the runner-up was named as Amelia Louise Morgan while the winner was Lucy Marshall. and

In the visitor’s choice award category the joint winners were Jessie McMail and Laura Donovan.

The overall winner of the 2013 competition, who triumphed with a pop-art style piece following the theme of cubism and portraiture, was Casey-Leigh Prosser, 15, an A-level art student at Blackwood Comprehensive School.

Her teacher Mr Tiley submitted a piece of her coursework into the competition and she was shocked to win, she said.

“It’s great,” she said. “My family came with me and were very pleased. I mostly paint or draw portraits of celebrities using pencil or pen and paint.

“There was plenty of other good work there, I really didn’t expect to win.”

The teenager will now apply to university, probably in Newport she said, to study art.

“I’d like to thank Mr Tiley because he’s a good inspiration, my mum Michelle and my dad Robin, and my boyfriend Macauley,” she said.