Ipod girl voted favourite portrait by gallery visitors

A painting of a girl listening to her iPod has come top in a public poll of visitors to the National Portrait Gallery, in London.

The portrait, by Czech artist Michal Ozibko, measures 7ft 2in by 5ft 5in and is called iDeath.

It got more than 4,000 votes out of 25,980 cast by members of the public asked to nominate their favourite entry in this year’s 2010 BP Portrait Award.

Lyndsey Jameson, a teacher from Darlington, came second with 2,500 votes,

Her painting, Sentinel, shows her younger brother, Declan, on the bank of the River Tees.

Another of the former Sunderland University student’s brothers, Mark, has a self-portrait in this year’s exhibition.

More than 2,000 artists entered the competition with 58 works selected to be shown.

The judges awarded the first prize of £25,000 to Daphne Todd for her portrait of her mother, Mary, on her death bed.

The exhibition ends later this month and will then go on show at galleries in Lincoln and Aberdeen.