THOUSANDS of budding young artists from across Scotland took part in this year’s John Byrne National Drawing Competition.

And three of the runners-up came from the Borders.

Thomas Freeland-Cook, P7 at Yetholm Primary School, Charlotte Little, P4 and Chloe Marie Graham, S2, both at St Mary’s School Melrose, were all chosen as runners up in the national competition.

John Byrne said: “The talent this year has been outstanding, which made my job as a judge very difficult in choosing the overall winners.

“I’m encouraged by the standard of all the artwork submitted in this year’s competition and I hope pupils across Scotland will continue to show us their artistic skills and love for drawing.”

The competition, which is run in partnership with Education Scotland, is open to pupils from Primary four through to third year in Secondary.

The award ceremony took place at Paisley Museum, where a special exhibition of competition entries are on display for approximately five weeks.

The renowned artist and playwright, John Byrne, selected the work of Cameron Lawson as the winning entry. Eleana Meikle, a S3 pupil from Wellington School in Ayrshire, took second place and Charlotte Stewart, a P7 pupil from Gordon Primary School in Aberdeenshire, was awarded third place.

John and the judges selected 30 young artists as runners up and they received a specially designed certificate.