Johnstone presents the young painter of the year

Student painter Ian Parsons has been awarded the coveted title of Johnstone's Young Painter of the Year 2007.

Ian was awarded the winner's title and presented with an iPod Classic, digital camera, multimedia laptop, photo printer, an Earlex sprayer and floor protector equipment from Packexe.

Organised by leading paint manufacturer Johnstone's, the Young Painter of the Year Awards is now in its third year and aims to showcase young talent, reward best practice and encourage young people to enter the professional painting and decorating industry.

Finalists were given a detailed specification to follow, which had been devised by Johnstone's in-house technical team to test the students' painting and decorating skills in a number of key areas including preparation, application and ability to work from a written brief.

Each student had their own paint station with wall panels, a door and doorframe, dado rail and skirting board.

Firstly, the students had to ensure that surfaces were adequately prepared before the first coat of paint was applied.

The young painters then had to apply a single coat of Johnstone's Aqua Undercoat to the door, followed by a coat of Johnstone's Aqua Gloss to finish.

The doorframe, dado rail and skirting were then coated with two applications of Johnstone's Acrylic Satin.

After preparation the upper panel wall area needed two applications of Johnstone's Durable Acrylic Matt.

The young painters were then required to set out and mask the area before applying Johnstone's Covaplus Vinyl Matt to create a 'sponge stipple' decorative band around the upper panel.

Following the application of two coats of Johnstone's Acrylic Eggshell to the lower wall panel, the young painters set out and painted an outer and inner band using Johnstone's Covaplus Vinyl Matt.

Then using the template supplied, the finalists created a motif of a Johnstone's truck.

The side panel, which was the most complicated section of the competition, required the finalists to once again rub down the area and then apply two coats of Johnstone's Durable Acrylic Matt.

After setting out and centring the middle design, finalists had to follow a measurement drawing and paint the area using Johnstone's Covaplus Vinyl Matt in various colours.

Judging the event were two of Johnstone's Technical team, Ken Hopkins and Pete McpParland, and independent judge Martin Horler representing the Association of Painting Craft Teachers.

The initiative is run in conjunction with the Association of Painting Craft Teachers and the Scottish Association of Painting Craft Teachers.

Regional heats are held at colleges across the UK, where a winner from each heat is chosen to take part in the national final.

Launched in 2005 to reinforce the company's commitment as industry champion, Johnstone's Young Painter of the Year has been designed to build on the successes of the annual Johnstone's Painter of the Year Awards, which are aimed at experienced professionals.

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