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Robert McLeod’s painting Undressing (shared below) will be featured in the Freelands Painting Prize 2026 Exhibition at the Freelands Foundation in London next month.

The accolade comes just months after Robert graduated from the course and is the latest recognition of his prowess as an artist after he took part in �����’s Portrait Artist of the Year during his final year at ��������.

His painting will be on display alongside work from 11 other emerging artists from Wednesday 7 October until Saturday 31 October.

This year’s collection features artists who ‘push painting in different directions, experiment with materiality and gesture, while exploring questions of identity and lived experience, invented worlds, imagined spaces and the relationship between painting and image.’

Robert is the sole recipient of the accolade from the North West of England and was selected out of submissions from 55 eligible institutions from across the UK. Robert is also in the running for the Freelands Painting Prize, which will see the winner receive a consultation with Wallace Seymour, a painting and drawing materials company, alongside £1,000 worth of materials to support the development of their practice.

Rosie Hermon, Curator at Freelands Foundation, said: “It’s brilliant to be able to showcase a diversity of practice from early career painters, and to open a conversation about how these artists are developing their ideas through painting. We look forward to following the emerging practices of all the shortlisted artists.”

The independent 2026 jury for the prize, now in its seventh iteration, comprised of Christina Kimeze (Artist), Eliza Gluckman (Director, Government Art Collection) and Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau (Artist and MA Fine Art Sculpture Course Leader, Camberwell College of Arts, UAL).