Best Visual Award goes to... George Wyllie

We're delighted to say, and you probably know by now, that in the Creative Scotland Awards 2012, the winner of the Best Visual Award was... George Wyllie!

The awards are a celebration of this year's highlights, and over 350 nominations were made by readers of the Daily Record. That number of nominations says a lot about Scotland. From those, a shortlist was created, and on Thursday evening, like all the finalists, we attended the awards ceremony at the Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery, which looked stunning on the night.

When George Wyllie was announced as winner of the Best Visual Award, his daughters, Louise and Elaine, very graciously asked the team which has been involved in the WhysMan festival to go up with them to receive their father's award.

In a moment which was very emotional for them, they chose to share it with the festival and exhibition organisers and with the Clydeside schools - the pupils and teachers who have been been so creative, so visual, and so enthusiastic in their interpretations of their father's work.

And we couldn't have been more proud of the pupils and teachers in the nine authorities for whom we got to stand in, as the award was presented.

Fiona Hyslop said the awards were an inspiring mixture of artistic achievement and talent and looking back through the blipfoto journal, it's great to see the quirky, imaginative and often humorous ideas and creations that the pupils have had, and continue to have. They are that 'inspiring mixture of achievement and talent', following in George Wyllie's footsteps.

So, for all the schools who've been designing and creating boats, writing poems, making music, acting the part, painting nails, painting and drawing, preparing, presenting, making tiny wee boats, making great big boats, researching, reporting, saving scul?tures and creating scul?tures... this one is for you too.

Well done everyone!