A PENCIL drawing by a North-East schoolgirl has been exhibited at London’s Saatchi Gallery.

Lauren Mincher’s sketch of her grandfather went on display after she won the Saatchi Gallery/Sunday Telegraph Arts Prize for Schools.

The Durham Johnston School student beat off competition from more than 22,000 others to scoop the prestigious honour.

Accompanied by relatives, Lauren picked up her award, £2,000 to spend on art and computer equipment and £10,000 for her school’s art department at a ceremony held at the gallery on Wednesday, December 2.

Sheila Hitchcock, head of art at Durham Johnston, said: "It is a great honour to have Lauren’s winning portrait exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery.

"I am delighted that the judges, including Antony Gormley and Sir Peter Blake, chose Lauren’s beautifully executed, graphite pencil portrait of her grandfather, Bernard Purvis, as the overall winner."

Sir Peter said: "It is rare to see figurative drawing of this quality these days and this is of the highest standard, and beautifully observed."

Lauren spent 13 hours creating the drawing, as part of the A-Level art exam. She hopes to study fine art at university.

She said: "I wanted to draw my grandfather because he has such a great character and I wanted to try and portray that."

Headteacher Carolyn Roberts said: "We are utterly thrilled to have won this prize and especially delighted to have done so with Lauren’s exquisite drawing.

"In a world where educational standards are constantly criticised and young people demonised we are delighted to show the opposite."