A Thanet artist’s painting has been shortlisted for a national prize out of more than 2,000 entries.

Charlie Schaffer, from Margate, is up for the Lynn Painter-Stainers prize - said to be the UK’s leading competition for British contemporary representational painting and drawing - for his oil canvas ‘Head of Thandi’.

He’s one of 83 artists from across the country, and one of four in Kent, to be shortlisted out of the 1,144 who entered the competition - the highest level of entries in the prize’s 13-year history.

The winner will be announced on March 5 at the Mall Galleries in London, and artists’ work will be exhibited from then until March 17.

Ian Rowley, chairman of the organising committee, said: “This year, we’ve been staggered by the quality of the entries. There’s a tremendous diversity to the works combined with some bold approaches.

“A record-breaking 2,194 works were submitted by over a thousand artists, which shows that representational art in the UK is in better health than the art establishment might surmise.

“The judges have now completed the very difficult job of whittling those 1,000-plus artists down to just 83, whose works will be exhibited.”

The Lynn Painter-Stainers prize offers total prize money of £30,000, comprising a first prize of £15,000 and a gold medal, second prize of £4,000 alongside the newly introduced People’s Prize worth £2,000.