NEXT year's Printfest Printmaker of the Year has been announced, with the dates for the spring event also now confirmed.

Gail Brodholt has been awarded the coveted title, and will be visiting the South Lakes to complete an artist’s residency ahead of the festival to create a print inspired by Ulverston and the surrounding area.

The nationally-renowned event will return to the Coronation Hall in Ulverston for the first weekend in May 2018.

Gail is a leading painter and printmaker of contemporary urban landscapes, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, where she currently holds the post of Honorary Curator.

She has exhibited widely, including recent exhibitions at Eames Fine Art in London, Church St Gallery in Saffron Walden, Gallery Nine in Bath and For Art’s Sake, London, and is the recipient of many prizes for printmaking. Exhibtions in 2017 include solo shows.

She has also published two lithographs in collaboration with the Curwen Studio.

Both a painter and a printmaker, Gail finds that working in one medium informs and enhances the other. She works from her purpose built printmaking studio in Woolwich, South London, and has recently been the subject of a book by Mascot Media on her work.

Her work based on her South Lakes residency will be unveiled at a private view of Printfest on Friday May 4, before the main festival programme gets under way the following day.

Submissions are coming in for Printfest 2018, with the deadline for applications arriving on January 7.

All printmakers wishing to exhibit at Printfest should head to www.printfest.uk to read the information for submissions before completing their applications.