‘INSIDE OUT’ was the theme of an art competition in Shaftesbury, with entries sent in from as far away as Mauritius.

Shaftesbury Arts Centre launched the recent contest to keep artistic and creative juices flowing during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Eowyn, pictured above, won the ‘Up to 11-years-old’ category for using her medium to depict a pregnant woman during quarantine.

Sophie Rawlinson won the ‘12-18’ category for her pen drawing of the Blackmore Vale through her window, and Liz Michener the ‘18 and older’, for her wood engraving of a 'bee hotel', pictured below.

Salisbury Journal:

The arts centre’s short story competition also came to a close this month, with the theme ‘A Random Act of Kindness’ .

Both winners, Lizzie Wright and Hester Readman, had never entered a writing competition before.

Lizzie, from Shaftesbury, won in the '16-years and over' class with her tale 'A Life Full of Many Acts of Kindness', and said she was "blown away by the result".

Talking about starting points for the story, Lizzie said: "I was inspired to write this story after attending a piano and mindfulness workshop with my mother earlier this year.

"One of the teachers was a violinist who had a loaned violin and she talked about her male benefactor and their relationship.

"I thought it would be interesting to tell a story about the kindness of a benefactor from both points of view but as a feminist, I also wanted to challenge the notion that the benefactor has to be male as they so often are."

The judges for the writing competition were Fiona Dart, Tiggy Walker and Rosemary King, and Fiona praised Lizzie's work for being "nicely paced and well planned" with "engaging, believable characters".

Hester, who lives in Iwerne Minster, won in the '11 - 15' category with 'Yew Cottage' and says she was inspired to start writing after meeting author Jaqueline Wilson in a cafe.

Judge Rosemary commended Hester's work for being "good, descriptive writing" adding that how the story ended was "a nice touch".

Read the winning stories and view more shortlisted artwork on the Shaftesbury Arts Centre website.