BBC NEWS / Northern Ireland wrote:An artist from Northern Ireland has won the £25,000 Threadneedle Prize for a naked self-portrait of herself.
Sheila Wallis, 36, who was born in Londonderry, was awarded the prize on Monday night after a public vote held online and at London's Mall Galleries.
The Threadneedle Prize is the largest art prize in the UK awarded by a public vote.
Over the last two weeks, thousands of Mall Galleries' visitors have voted on work by seven shortlisted artists.
Sheila has said her work is partly inspired by themes of "internal and external conflicts and the vulnerability and exposure of the existential human condition".
She has chosen to express these themes by painting the naked body.
The Threadneedle Prize is exclusively open to artists living or working in the UK.
Source = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ire ... 255987.stm