A closer look at the winning entries of the BSAVA PetSavers’ art competition
7 March 2024
We had an amazing response to the PetSavers’ art competition, with entries created using a range of media types from pastels to acrylic and a whole host of companion animal species depicted, including a goldfish! Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry – they really were a delight to see and very emotive.
Judging was done anonymously by BSAVA staff members who found the decision extremely difficult to make because the standard of work was so high. We are delighted to showcase the winning entries and runners-up here and to tell you a little bit more about our winners.
Adult (over 16 years old) section
First prize winner
First prize goes to Yvonne McGrotty with her entry ‘Gypsy’. This work was submitted in the category of Tender Memories and was created using pastels on paper.
Gypsy before and after she was rescued
Yvonne who is an Internal Medicine Consultant at IDEXX Veterinary Laboratories and Medicine Consultant at Clinique VetRef, France, adopted Gypsy as a 12-year-old rescue dog after she had been abandoned on the streets a few weeks previously. She says “Thank you so much, this means a great deal. Sadly, we found out quickly that Gypsy had metastases throughout her lungs from a mammary tumour. She lived for 15 months and brought us such joy. So it really is such a big thing to have her drawing win the competition. She was somewhat famous and had a lot of people following her adventures on Facebook.”
Second prize winner
Second prize in the over 16-year-old section goes to Lissie Henderson, a specialist in small animal surgery.
Her entry is an acrylic on canvas painting of ‘Benjamin – everyone has their best dog’ submitted in the Tender Memories category.
Third prize winner
Georgina Gallow, a small animal rotating intern at Anderson Moores Veterinary Specialists, wins third prize for her pencil drawing of ‘Dylan’, submitted in the category Tender Memories.
She says “I thoroughly enjoyed creating this artwork. It means a lot that this drawing of my family dog, Dylan, will live on!”
Children’s (16 years old and under) section
First prize winner
The winner in this section is Abby Pham with her entry ‘Beloved Moose’ in the category of Pet Portraits. Abby is 11 years old and used soft pastels and pastel pencils on Pastelmat paper to create her artwork. She is honoured and excited to have been chosen as the winner and says, “I often find myself wishing for more hours in a day to pursue my passion for drawing. My ultimate aspiration is for my art to bring happiness to peoples’ lives and allow them to experience the beauty of the animal kingdom each day through my creations.”
Runner-up
Imogen Avery, also aged 11, wins the runner-up prize in the children’s section. Her piece, entitled ‘Cross cat in the snow’ and entered into the Pet Portraits category, was drawn with watercolour pencils on paper.
You’ll be able to see plenty more of these stunning pieces as they will feature at BSAVA Congress 2024 this month, so do come and visit us then to see them up close. We also hope to turn some of them into designs for our new range of sympathy cards which will be available to purchase from the BSAVA store to send to clients who have recently lost a pet.