Jason Cockcroft (37), who has designed the covers for three of the Harry Potter Books, has been nominated in the Royal Watercolour Society/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition.

His picture, Spring Lull, a painting of a field in Ugglebarnby, will be exhibiting from Wednesday alongside 100 works from 88 artists at the Bankside Gallery in London.

Now in its 22nd year, the award remains the largest open art prize dedicated solely to the celebration of the diversity and beauty of the watercolour medium.

The competition offers one of the highest valued prizes in the United Kingdom by awarding a total of £22,500 to artists who demonstrate a high level of skill and creativity.

Jason told the Whitby Gazette he was very pleased to have been chosen to exhibit his work.

"The setting for the painting 'Spring Lull' is a field in Ugglebarnby that I can see from the window of my workroom in Sleights.

"It caught my attention because of the steep incline and the presence of the stark, rather lonely tree, bare of leaves but blossoming nevertheless.

"Stories are important to me as a painter and the abandoned car in the distance is there to counter the beauty of the landscape and to introduce a human story to the composition.

"Whose car is it? Why has it been abandoned?

"The base colour washes of the painting were rendered in acrylic and completed with watercolour using an elaborate network of cross hatching.

"The pervasive solitude of the formal composition, I hope, is leavened somewhat by a subtle sense of movement in the detail of the grass and smoothness of the sky, suggestive of a change in the weather.

"I've entered the competition twice before, in 1997 and 2001, and it's an honour to have my work chosen once more for the RWS Sunday Times exhibition that began last week at the Bankside Gallery in London.

"This is a very prestigious award, I believe now in its 22nd year, and for watercolour painters it is without doubt the event with the highest profile, and a well respected and well supported award. I'm more than happy to be involved again."