A SIMPLE drawing of peaches was named the best entry in this year's impressive Dover Prize art competition.

Judges at Crown Street gallery in Darlington said they could almost smell the ripe fruit. The winning drawing, Peaches in a Blue Bowl, was the work of Ingleby Arncliffe artist, Mrs Elizabeth Smith, who has also enjoyed some previous successes.

The exhibition opened on Saturday and the winners were announced the night before. However, to create a little drama, the results were not announced until half way through the evening.

There was a broad range of art on show, from traditional paintings to sophisticated engravings and collage.

Mrs Smith is a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. Her use of pastels gave the peaches a suitably furry edge. She grew up in Hampshire but has lived in the North for 25 years. She works in a studio at home in Cross Lane, Ingleby Arncliffe.

Darlington mayor, Coun Isobel Hartley, presented her with a silver plate, glass goblet and prize money.

Speaking about the drawing, Mrs Smith joked: "It's a picture that I actually like myself. I like the colour and shapes of the peaches, and the bowl. A still life is such a classic thing to do. It is always very difficult knowing what judges are looking for, but this time I just went for a straightforward study."

Barnard Castle artist, Mr Alan Dyson, was named second prize winner for his watercolour study of Applegarth Scar, near Richmond.

A former lecturer at Cleveland college of art in Middlesbrough (he taught this reviewer for a year), he won the competition last year. For this scene, he used a restricted palette of dark browns and greys, giving a deeply wintry feel.

Third placed artist was Mr Simon Spence, who painted an almost abstract representation of light and dark called Yellow Skies. Thick dollops of orange, yellow and black acrylic paint were swiped and scraped across the canvas - like Turner with attitude.

Elsewhere, Audrey Carr's collage It was raining so we went to the pictures was highly commended. It consists of repeated Shirley Temple publicity shots and tinted photographs of the young Audrey at the Bishop's palace gardens in Bishop Auckland. In addition, there were strips of coloured paper and seaside resort postcards. A witty piece, but brave in its use of found materials, modern photocopying and its graphic style.

Other highly commended works were by Peter Collins, Nicholas Leake, Eamonn McGovern, Steve Moses and Margery Shotton.

A particularly interesting photo-etching was entered by Rebecca Vincent. In Arnside Tower at Silverdale, her precise black-and-white etchings of the castle and bare trees had drips and washes of blue and green ink for the sky and grass. Overall, this created a soft Gothic sensation - turning the scene into a fantasy landscape.

Head of Darlington libraries, Mr Peter White, said: "We had 320 entries and the standard was high. The judges had a very difficult time whittling the entries down for the exhibition."

The judges were Coun Dorothy Long, Mr Alan Suthers and Mrs Elizabeth Conran, former curator of the Bowes museum. The annual exhibition is made possible through the sponsorship of Mrs Peggy Nonhebel (ne Dover) and is supported by Darlington council and the town's society of arts.

Society chairman, Mrs Lynda Docherty, said: "This year's exhibition is better than ever. There is a huge variety of media and creativity on show. Art is definitely not dead and people collect it more than ever before," she said.

The Dover exhibition runs until Monday, December 24. Robbie MacDonald