13853/2GAZETTE & HERALD: Watercolour artist Bob Rudd is celebrating his success after one of his works was selected for a prestigious London exhibition in the Mall Galleries.

Mr Rudd, of the Causeway in Chippenham, has been selected for the 2004 Singer and Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition, which offers prize money totalling £30,000.

The contest offers the largest prize for watercolours and it also reckoned to be the leading contest in the field.

Mr Rudd said he was delighted to be selected, and although he will be away in Portugal for the opening, intends to visit the exhibition with his wife Jennifer to see his work among the other contenders.

"The painting is of Littlehaven, in Pembrokeshire," he said.

"It is a beach scene, looking down on the flat beach with very gentle waves just rolling in, and a lot of wet sand, and a few cliffs at the top."

Every year the judges of the competition have to choose just 142 pictures from more than 1,200 entries.