A 17-year-old student from Felsted School has been shortlisted for a prestigious art prize.

Matthew Gilham’s large canvas painting fought off competition from more than 20,000 entries to be selected as one of the top 20 pieces to be on exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, in Chelsea next month.

The picture, called ‘The Life Model’, will be on display from July 4 to July 13, with Matthew attending a ceremony for the Saatchi Gallery Art Prize for Schools 2017.

David Smith, head of art at Felsted, said: “This is a wonderful endorsement of how Felsted Art combines the theories of art with creativity.”

Matthew has been an art scholar at Felsted for the last five years and hopes to read Architecture at Liverpool University this autumn.

Other art students at the school have gone on to study courses at some of the UK’s leading universities, including Nottingham and Exeter.