Bekki Steele, an A-level art student at John Kyrle High School, has had a piece of her art work displayed at the Tate Modern gallery in London as a result of entering the 'Tate-Times Painting Challenge'. The brief for the competition was to paint a surrealist picture, based on a piece of art currently being exhibited at The Tate.

The piece that stood out to Bekki was an oil painting by Dod Procter, which was exhibited in the 'Realist' section of the gallery. This sparked Bekki's imagination, and her response was an oil painting of a tabby cat emerging from the dark, entitled 'The absence of dreams'.

Becky said:?"I wanted to capture the emotion in the eyes of the cat, so I really focused on this part of the painting. It took a long time to paint but I was so pleased with the result." Neil Carrol of the the A-level art department at John Kyrle said:?"We are very proud to have a student's work exhibited in such a prestigious gallery."

The judges at The Tate were very impressed with the painting, as Realism is a difficult, yet very effective form of painting to master. The painting was exhibited at The Tate from January 4th - 10th, following a drinks reception at the gallery.