A CHESTER artist has narrowly missed out on a top art prize.

David Lawton, of Hoole, came second in the prestigious BP Portrait Award 2007 at the National Portrait Gallery. Bianca Jagger presented him with his £8,000 prize for his oil on canvas portrait Ste phen.

David, a night support worker at the Turning Point charity in Hoole, said: I'm ecstatically happy and on a high. Going to the ceremony in London was like being admitted to an exclusive club.'

David mingled with the great and the good of the art world at the ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery.

The £25,000 first prize was awarded to 59-year-old artist Paul Emsley from Bradford-upon-Avon, near Bath.

* David's work is part of the The BP Portrait Award exhibition at the National Gallery from June 14 to September 16. It will then go on tour to the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, October 13 - December 2 2007, and to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, from December 14 2007 -March 16 2008.