The RWS/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition is nationwide competition promoting the art of painting in water-based media.
It was launched in 1988 as the Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander / Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, through sponsorship by Kaupthing Bank and The Sunday Times. Kaupthing ceased to sponsor the prize after the bank was taken over.[1] It is now co-sponsored by the Royal Watercolour Society.[2]
The first prize winner was Tom Coates. Subsequent winners have included Trevor Stubley (1990),[3] Carl Randall (1998, the youngest ever 1st prize winner),[4] Stuart Pearson Wright (1999; third prize), Leslie Worth, and Carol Robertson.
The 2007 winner was Julia Farrer. In 2008, 2,000 works were submitted, with 100 exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society's Bankside Gallery, and a £25,000 prize fund,[5] that year's winner being Jennifer McRae.[6]