It's a competition that asks artists to draw from "a social commentary of insightful quality" not surprisingly then, some of the works of art represent violence.

Tonight, the winner of the prestigious annual Charman Prize will be unveiled at the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art. Sixty-nine artists have entered works in the hope of winning the $10,000 first prize.

Some of the submissions depict a violent society, where the artist has been moved by the recent spate of shootings and gun deaths on the Island. Other works include commentary on sustainability, racial division, addiction, family relationships, the recession, censorship and the elderly.

Steve Conway has entered 'Broken' which mixes traditional Bermuda scenes with scenes of violence.

"At the time that I did mine, which was over Christmas and New Year, I thought, 'what is happening now?' There were two or three weekends with shootings, so I thought, 'do something on that'."

He added: "I had the idea of painting traditional Bermuda sash windows in the past and I never actually did it, so I thought of doing it this time, but contrasting the image of the sash window, against what is going on on the Island with violence and shootings and silence.

"It was a hot topic and it was something that made me think of it as something worthy, because that is what people are talking about.

"It is an art competition, but I thought something needed to be done differently, rather than a nice peaceful picture of a beach scene."

He continued: "The four sash windows are arranged in a montage, one is of a traditional scene of Flatts Inlet, another is of an island, a beach scene, and contrasting that is a more abstract version of a crime scene with Police tape and lights flashing.

"I just painted it as it came and saw how it looked. I took a few newspaper clippings as well and painted those into it."

He said the fourth was a quiet Bermuda scene, but painted in red "so that you can interpret it as the silence behind everything".

Mr. Conway added: "That was the serious theme behind it. When you think of Bermuda, it is very small and picturesque, everyone knows each other to some extent, and all the people that are involved have known each other since they were children, and it happens in and around places that we all know.

"It is hard to describe, because it is not what I usually do, I don't paint a lot, but when I do it is very traditional, but this has a bit of that, but it has been obliterated by violence really it makes people think. And that's the idea."

Chris Dawson's piece 'Forgotten, But Not Gone' aims to raise awareness of the plight of the Island's seniors. "It is sort of a reflection of how the elderly are treated in society," he said.

"It's an elderly lady sitting on a park bench up at Astwood Cove overlooking the water. She is by herself, sort of in isolation, which is sort of how the title corresponds with the painting. The elderly get to a certain age and people treat them differently. They are almost, I wouldn't say not wanted, but there is no insurance. There is definitely not enough in the pension they get."

The model is his grandmother. "She is treated very well from her family and everything, but I think she is the role model for her generation and there are people within her age bracket who did their part in society, but when they get to that age, it is like, 'Well, check you later, you've done your part now, goodbye.'

"The painting actually stems from a moment when my granny and I were having lunch and she had the radio on with one of the talk shows and an elderly gentleman came on and was talking about how expensive it was for him to get health care and that his pension doesn't cover anything and he was in a position where he couldn't do anything. It was just an example of how the elderly were treated.

"The irony is that they paved the way for what we have today, so we should show them some kind of respect.

"You've heard the saying, 'gone, but not forgotten', well the title is kind of a pun on that, but the image is that she is forgotten, but not gone."