At the BP Portrait Award 2013 Awards Ceremony on 18 June 2013 the First Prize was awarded to Susanne du Toit for Pieter and the Second Prize to John Devane for The Uncertain Time.

John Devane, who has an MA from the Royal College of Art and is a painter who also teaches at Coventry University.

John won for his large group portrait of his three children: Lucy, Laura and Louis. Painted over three years, the picture sets out to show how children emerge from childhood and begin to assert their independence revealing something of their adult selves.

He says: 'The composition suggests an almost stage-like shallow space constructed in two zones with the three figures presented as if they are awaiting some kind of event'. The artist's key points of reference are the works of Courbet, Chardin, Degas, Balthus and Samuel Beckett.

His work has previously been selected for the BP Portrait Award 1995.

See John's picture at the BP Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London WC2H 0HE  www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/bp-portrait-award-2013/the-exhibition.php