Artist Aleah Chapin has been short-listed for the BP Portrait Award 2012 in London, one of the world’s most prestigious art prizes.

Chapin submitted a figurative nude portrait titled “Auntie” to the competition.

“Her body is a map of her journey through life,” the artist said of the portrait, “In her, I see the personification of strength through an unguarded and accepting presence.”

More than 2,000 artists from 74 countries entered the contest at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The finalists will go to London to receive one of four prizes ranging from 6,000 to 25,000 euros. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, June 19 at a formal reception.

Chapin grew up on Whidbey Island and is the daughter of Ross Chapin and Deborah Koff Chapin. She has been a student of art in Germany, the Netherlands and most recently in New York City, where she is at work on her MFA at the New York Academy of Art.

Visit the artist’s website at www.aleahchapin.com to see the portrait and other works from the series, which use as subjects “the Aunties,” several women of Whidbey Island whom Chapin has known since childhood.