Turner Prize Nominee Shock

One of the world's most contentious art awards turned conventional on Thursday -- a figurative painter appeared on the Turner Prize shortlist for the first time in five years. Gillian Carnegie, famed for her still life oils of wilting flowers, was promptly installed by bookmakers as favourite for the prestigious 25,000 pound award. "Perhaps we are taking a chance by making the most conventional of the four contenders our favourite for a prize which has regularly courted controversy," said Graham Sharpe, spokesman for bookmakers Hill's. "But maybe tradition is the new unorthodoxy," he added. For the full story - click the title Irish Art