Toronto artist wins RBC painting prize

Toronto artist wins RBC painting prize
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/toronto-artist-wins-rbc-painting-prize/article5820111/
Published Thursday, Nov. 29 2012, 8:00 PM EST

Summary:
Toronto artist Vanessa Maltese triumphed over fourteen other finalists this Thursday evening at a ceremony in Toronto. Vanessa Maltese was this year's winner of the RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Maltese was one of the 536 painters who entered in the competition. 15 Finalists were chosen from these three religions (Western, Central and Eastern). Before the competition originally focused on artists in Toronto, then it went national in 2001. The three artists that won from each religion were Venessa Maltese, Betino Assa, age 28, a Bulgarian-born  MFA student at Montreal's Concorida University, and 30-year-old Katie Lucy Lyle, an MFA graduate from the University of Victoria. The three winning works are no part of RBC's permanent corporate collection, they are on public view along with the 12 finalists paintings.

My Opinion
I think that it is wonderful that the finalists got their paintings picked and got recognized of how well done their paintings are. I am glad that someone was picked as one of the finalists from Toronto because think that Toronto and the people that live in Toronto are very passionate about art which made this competition very hard to get in to the finals because of how many paintings were submitted into the competition. The paintings must have been very well done because 536 paintings were entered and only 15 made the finals. The finalists really have a chance to prove to the world that they are very good and that they can make a living off of art. I think that the artists who didn't make the finals still have a chance to get better.