Unknown Brighton-based artist and Genesis client, Bing Hitchcock, has won the main gold award prize at the highly competitive Masters of Art International Competition held in Norwich. Bing beat over 2,000 entries from all over the globe to win the coveted award, which gave him £8000 worth of prize money for his piece entitled Montazuma’s Bones’. Bing also won two other awards at the ceremony – Best Abstract for his work The Map of Optimism’ & Best Wildlife for Its Not My Day’.
Bing Hitchcock, who resides in Rottingdean, has been an artist for little over 2 years and has never entered any previous competitions. He was inspired to start when he heard Grayson Perry’s Reith Lecture for BBC Radio 4, entitled Playing to the Gallery’, which set out to demystify the art world. Grayson encouraged anyone that had a bit of art in them to have a go and make a career. The same day Bing decided to start making a pact with himself not only to strive for excellence in composition, but also in the final master.
For an artist, Bing had an unorthodox start. He was a professional musician for over 15 years, but a twist of fate meant a change of career when he broke three fingers and subsequently moved into the moving picture world. What followed was a highly successful, 14-year career behind the camera as a Camera Operator, Director of Photography and Director, working with the biggest stars in music and comedy.
Using skills he acquired in the film world: composition, depth of field and the importance of lighting, he thought, instead of working on 24 frames, he’d channel all his energy towards one frame. Having the facility to mix up to 2 trillion colours meant that a new approach needed to be found in order to print his creations. This was found, together with Genesis’ introduction of Chromaluxe Fine Art Printing in 2014, allowing Bing to print highly vivid and resilient prints that require no additional glass, acrylic, lamination or coating to protect them.
A huge congratulations Bing, from all of us at Genesis Imaging!