Eccles artist, Malcolm Duffin, was awarded first prize by the Associacio Internacional Duana de Les Arts, for his piece titled “Act on”.
The winning piece has been added to the national library of Catalonia, Barcelona and is touring all across Europe.
Printmaker Mr Duffin used Anne Brontë’s poem: “Lines composed in a wood on a windy day”, as the focal point of his art.
The poem describes the windy woods and the yearning to be elsewhere.
However, for Mr Duffin, it represents his desire to roam freely amidst lockdown during the global pandemic.
He said: “What inspired me was COVID, I thought, how can I relate a 200-year-old figure to my world, to my current reality, to what is impacting me now.
Yearning to be somewhere else is how I felt at the height of the pandemic.”
He explained that this interpretation is what made him stand out amongst others that submitted their art.
“My art is a reflection of right now and the uncertainty we are experiencing about the future.
“Others who entered, centred their submissions around portraits of Brontë or the moors. Whereas, mine touched a nerve about today and now.”
He continued that the piece to him represents a resistance against the virus.
Due to lockdown, travel restrictions prevented him from gathering the material he needed, so he turned to the public for support.
He said: “I asked people in places associated with Brontë to go out in their one hour of freedom and collect leaves and soil and post them to me.
“I used this in my art, to represent our resistance to the virus and our resilience to make something beautiful out of something bad.”
Mr Duffin lives right beside Pennine moor in Salford. Being surrounded by nature is one of his primary sources of inspiration.
“What made my work great is living by the side of the moors, living in Salford and having all those hills and greenery surrounding me.
“The moors have always been in my life; I am not sure I could have done that piece if I lived anywhere else.”
If you would like to learn more information about Malcolm Duffins or his work make sure to visit his website at https://www.malcolmduffin.art
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