Last modified on Thu 4 Mar 2021 12.58 EST A large and vibrantly colourful painting full of people unthinkingly gathering and mingling has captured top prize in one of the UK’s most prestigious art awards. The painter, Kathryn Maple, was on Thursday named the winner of the biennial Liverpool-based John Moores painting prize, following in the footsteps of artists such as Patrick Heron (1959), David Hockney (1967), Peter Doig (1993), and Rose Wylie (2014). Judges said the work, entitled The Common, struck a particular chord because it showed people doing what, at the moment, amid Covid restrictions, they cannot. “The painting resonates with movement and communality and embodies the deeply social nature of humans,” said Michelle Williams Gamaker, one of the judges. “It fills me with hope and longing to be part of this form of connection again.”