The Big Deal - a programme about selling art

The Big Deal with Steph McGovern - Media Release

A new programme about art was broadcast last week on BBC1. It's a novel idea - about seeing whether complete novices can become art dealers!

The Apprentice for the Art World?

My questions as I started to watch concerned what is it actually about and what is it trying to do. Specifically:

• Is it educational or not?
• Is it going to be informative about the business side of the art world?
• will it help artists understand better how to deal with the business side of art?
• Or is it just a game show with a spin?
• Or as characterised on the programme is this "The Apprentice for the Art World"

The proposition seems to be "art is no different to any other business". 

How would you describe The Big Deal?

It’s like The Apprentice for the art world, but the deals are all real, and it’s as much about the hustle as it is about art.

So maybe educational about the sort of knowledge and skills you need to do well - much the same as happens with Sir Alan Sugar in in "The Apprentice"?

According to the media brief

Seven pairs of trainee art dealers from around the UK are putting their creativity, negotiating and profit-making skills to the test in the highly competitive art world 

The bottom line is the seven pairs compete to win £50,000 of "brilliant British art" (I spotted a David Shrigley)

The Seven Trainee Dealers

Back row: Bella, Ollie, Liam, Gavin, Phil, Ellie
Middle row: Charles, Darren, Steph McGovern, Cordelia de Freitas, Claire, Aaron
Front row: Deborah, Rebeckah, Daisy, Rebecca

Now realistically, none of them are actually trainee art dealers! Their backgrounds seem to be completely random.

However they do, of course, cover all the demographic and diversity bases. (Do you get as bored as I do ticking all the boxes for every dimension covered? Disability - tick; Gay - tick; Black - tick)

Their media profiles suggest very little involvement in the art world in terms of making, reviewing, buying, selling, collecting or anything else.

UPDATE: After I published - and after I got some odd comments on Facebook from Art Dealers who seemed very offended by the programme - I went looking and found what are "said to be the criteria used" for those who were selected to be trainee art dealers

The production team selected contestants who met specific criteria:

• No professional experience: None of the participants had a background or professional history in buying, selling, or trading art. [1]
• Walks of life: Producers recruited ordinary people from diverse backgrounds across the UK who showed a strong competitive drive, natural curiosity, and a willingness to learn. [1, 2, 3]
• Auditioned pairs/individuals: They were chosen through standard casting processes handled by production company Stellify Media to test how well their interpersonal dynamics and business instincts translated to the high-stakes contemporary art market. [1, 2]

So is that clear? NONE of the participants had any experience or history as art dealers. They are complete amateurs.

This, of course, is where the competition starts for the viewers - spotting those likely to go to the end!

• Darren (43) and Charles (40) - characterised as the "go getters". They reminded me of second hand car salesmen. I'm not expecting much of them.
• Ollie (26) and Bella (29) - siblings who are trying to get a business off the ground. Seem to be tuned into what young people like
• Claire (59) and Aaron (36) - Welsh friends Claire and Aaron are from Pembrokeshire and have a background in sales and the building industry. She's obviously the mover and shaker. I think he's along for the ride.
• Gavin (32) and Liam (28) - Best friends Gavin and Liam from Belfast have an interest in graffiti art and want to learn more about the art world. I'm expecting them to leave early.
• Deborah (42) and Rebeckah (42) - Friends Deborah and Rebeckah, from London, hope their eye for fashion can would translate successfully into selecting and trading art pieces. I think they may go far - possible winners.
• Phil (74) and Ellie (28) - the Dad and daughter team from the West Midlands love visiting art galleries together.
• Daisy (27) and Rebecca (61) - Mother and daughter Rebecca and Daisy from Warwickshire work together on the family farm – which specialises in camel hire. I also think this couple could go far. They seem to have a good eye.

The programme has two constants throughout the series.

Portrait Award 2025 - Artists with their paintings (men and couples)

This is my final category of portraits hanging in the the HSFK Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery - and it's about portraits of men.

This one revisits three prizewinners!

In my series Artists with their Paintings I have so far written about

• Portraits of Children (and Parents)
• Portraits of Older People
• Self Portraits (which has been updated with two new entries since published)
• Portraits of Women

Two more posts to come:

• Review of Portrait Award 2026: What's changed and what's not
• Portrait Award 2026: The 10 portraits I liked the most - and I'll be going back to pay another visit to the exhibition before I write this one.

Portraits of Men

I'm starting with the winner of the Young Artist Award and then moving on to the overall winner before returning to artists with their painting - in alphabetical order by surname of the artist.

Those I don't have a photo of the artist with the portrait are listed at the end.

Young Artist Award: Joel Nichols

In Our Borderlands

Oil on canvas, 2025

© Joel Nichols

This is what the Judges had to say about his portrait.

The judges admired the painting's distinctly mysterious atmosphere and the technically accomplished use of light, which shapes both the psychological depth of the sitter and the spatial complexity of the composition.

TIP I've noted the Judges can often be won over by a technically complex design and rendition which speaks of layers within it. The sort of portrait that many people never think of doing.

Nichols says:

For me, the portrait's main value comes from the process of its creation rather than the final image itself. In this way, it becomes less about producing a fixed image and more about exploring identity, agency and the dynamics of looking!

Joel Nichols (Instagram) (b 2000) was born in Birmingham, England and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. They graduated from the University of Manitoba in 2024 before returning to the UK as a Rhodes Scholar to complete an MFA degree at the University of Oxford's Ruskin School of Art. Nichols is currentlv following an MA in historv of art. This is a link to his 2025 degree show.

Themes of identity, connection and vulnerability run throughout Joel Nichols's creative practice, which spans portraiture and ceramics. Joel connects various themes within his work, many stemming back to his roots in his dual nationality and biracial Jamaican descent.

This portrait originated in an Oxford University dorm room where Nichols would join with fellow students to 'foster community' by cooking or watching films. One evening, Nichols noticed how a mirror in the room refracted light in multiple colours across the face of a friend, Jo, and suggested they meet again to revisit the moment in the artist's studio. 

Overall Winner: Marc Dalessio

Don't skip this because you read Mark Dalessio wins £35,000 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 - Mark has offered us some more insight into how he went about this painting.

Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their Paintings (Women)

Portraits of Women is my fourth category of the different types of portraits seen at the HSFK Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

My series Artists with their Paintings is organised according to the nature of their subjects.

• This excludes all portraits which were self-portraits by women artists. These can be seen in my last post about Self Portraits - see below.
• It does however include portraits of daughters which I missed when doing the Children and Parents post!

My other published and planned posts are

Other posts are:

• Portraits of Children (and Parents)
• Portraits of Older People
• Self Portraits (which has been updated with two new entries since published)

COMING SOON: to be published

• Portraits of Men and Groups

Portraits of Women

In general, the portraits of women are either full body or upper torso - painted in a variety of styles. Their artists are mostly women - but there are also some men painting women.

This post starts with two adult daughters missing from the children post. I think because both seemed so grown up it didint occur to me that they could also be children.  It is however interesting that yet again, this first parent painting a child is a woman.

Zena Assi

I'm not gonna straighten my hair

Oil, acrylic and ink on canvas, 2025

© Zena Assi

This is another child that I missed from the Children and Parents post! I will add this one in to that as well. (I'm only just reading some of the labels in detail as I'm working through the posts). 

Sitting in a meditative pose, Zena Assi's daughter returns the viewer's gaze with a calm defiance. This portrait by the Lebanese painter celebrates her daughter's choice to no longer straighten her naturally curly black hair; 'a small gesture' that 'speaks volumes about embracing difference and celebrating one's origins'. 

Zena Assi - Born in Lebanon, in 1974, Zena Assi now lives and works in London. She graduated with honors from l’Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA), worked in advertising and taught in different universities. 

Her artwork has long explored urban tensions, memory, exile, interior architectures, and fragmented identities. There are not many portraits on her Instagram account.

Many of her pieces are repeatedly shown in different international auction houses and are part of various public as well as private collections. Her work has been seen

in solo and group exhibitions in Europe, the Middle East and the USA including at the 57th Venice Art Biennale (2017), the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2020, 2022, 2024, 2025), and the MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art in Saudi Arabia (2025).

I like the full on uncompromising steady gaze of the sitter - which feels right with the age her daughter appears to be - and her mode of sitting.

TIP: One of the aspects which make a portrait very effective is when the posture and attitude of the sitter seems to sit well with the age they appear to be.

Paul Aston

The Costumer

Oil on board, 2025

© Paul Aston

Paul Aston Instagram (b.1966) undertook a BA (Hons) degree in fine art from Leeds University. He is now a figurative oil painter working in Cambridge

His portraits of people stammering have helped to broaden the debate around speech diversity and have been used by speech and language therapists and stammering support groups to challenge preconceptions about stammering. He has spoken at conferences about his work and appeared on podcasts.

In 2023 he was a contestant in the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year competition using a portrait about stammering. Aston also took part in the stammering pride exhibition Wouldn't You Like to Talk like Us? jointly with Conor Foran at the City Lit, London, 2024 and the Space to Stutter joint exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2025.

Strictly speaking I should have spotted this was a portrait of his child, but rather than amend yet more posts, I'm including her here.

In this portrait, Paul Aston depicts the 'resilience' of his child, who is a costume

designer. 

• The abstract shapes in the background of the portrait are taken from cut out patterns of eighteenth-century men's coats. These reference his subject's  profession. 
• What's also interesting is the significant contrast between the very fine brushwork used to depict the intricacy of the tattoo and the loose brushwork used for her clothing. 

It is also a good portrait of his daughter!

Paul Benney

Fiona
Oil on canvas, 2025
© Paul Benney

Paul Benney (Instagram) b.1959

• Currently holds the mantle of "most selected artist never to have won the Portrait Award (when sponsored by BP). Previous exhibitor nine times: 1994,1996 (Winner – BP Visitors’ Choice),1997 (Winner – BP Visitors’ Choice), 1998, 1999, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2014.
• He has worked as an artist and musician in both the U.S. and U.K.
• He has painted many prominent political and cultural figures. His work is represented in public collections world wide including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Australia, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Collection, and a plethora of other prominent private and corporate collections.
• He is also the artist who was chosen to paint the State Portrait of HRH Queen Camilla. (see my blog post The Coronation Portraits and The King's Tour Artists - at Buckingham Palace

His sitter Fiona is pictured below with her famous big brother ex-politician / podcaster Rory Stewart.

Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Self Portraits)

"Self Portraits is my third category of portraits seen at the at the HSFK Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

This is always a very popular category - but you have to do something different to get noticed!

Other posts are:

• Portraits of Children (and Parents)
• Portraits of Older People
• Self Portraits - this post

COMING SOON: to be published

• Portraits of Women
• Portraits of Men
• Portraits of Groups

As I have previously stated, one of the purposes of this NEW APPROACH is to enable artists intending to apply next year to look at what got selected this year in relation to one of these groups. 

You get to check out size, style and levels of proficiency - and how they frame!

This year, in this category we have:

• 2 men and 6 women
• 3 UK artists and 5 International Artists
• women appear to be less afraid of hands - from a variety of perspectives
• most portraits are head, shoulders and hands with just one fully body self portrait

I'm also posting larger images os some of the portraits to my Making A Mark Facebook Page with shorter profiles.

All my photographs were taken at the Private View and Press View associated with the opening of the exhibition back in June.

Self Portraits

Remigijus Gataveckas

Genealogical Deformation (2025)
Oil and mixed media on canvas
© Remigijus Gataveckas

The portrait plays with distortions in space and degrees of resolution. Visible traces of the process by which paint has been applied, scraped away and reapplied make the image appear active.

Algirdas and Remigijus Gataveckas (Instagram) are identical twins and First time exhibitors.

They were born in 1985 in Alytus, had a difficult childhood spent at the Alytus state orphanage (1993-2004) and now live in Vilnius. 

The identical twins form an inseparable creative duo - and the portrait is a self portrait of the twins. (Don't ask me which is which!)

• Algirdas Gataveckas studied 
• at Alytus Art School and earned a Bachelor's (2004-2008) and 
• a Master's (2008-2010) in monumental art (fresco-mosaic) at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. 
• He's recently been awarded a Doctor of Arts (fine arts). 
• Known for their hyperrealistic large-scale colored-pencil drawings and their socially engaged murals, the Gataveckas brothers tackle themes such as child abandonment, poverty and family memory.

Growing up in a children’s home was not a distant biographical background. It was a daily reality that shaped how we think, work, and relate to others. From this experience comes our focus on time, attention, and the relationship between the one who depicts and the one who is depicted.

Many of our works demand slow, uncomfortable looking. This responds directly to the emotional absence and institutional coldness we experienced as children. We want to create situations where the image cannot be quickly consumed. The viewer is asked to stay (Interview)        

•  Their work has been seen in exhibitions including Figurativas at MEAM Barcelona (2025) and Why Is It So Hard to Love?, at MO Museum, Vilnius (2020).
• In 2019 they were invited to paint the official portrait of the President of the Republic of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite and, in 2017, received Medals of the Order of Merit for Lithuania.

The Gallery Label says this about the artwork

Visceral and compulsive, the raised texture of this canvas is sculptural, making the surface of the painting key to understanding its meaning. The product of a collaboration between identical twins Algirdas and Remigijus, who after a difficult childhood lived in an orphanage in the Lithuanian city of Alytus, the work is an examination of 'inherited experience and relational dynamics'. The portrait plays with distortions in space and degrees of resolution. Visible traces of the process by which paint has been applied, scraped away and reapplied make the image appear active.

 

Hannah George

Mummy needs a break
Acrylic on Board, 2026
© Hannah George

Hannah George-Long (Instagram) - b.1988, she works as Senior Talent & Community Manager @ Hermès. She undertook a BA (Hons) degree in fashion, media and promotion at Huddersfield University but is self-taught in relation to art.  and is an artist on the weekend. Her work has been seen in the Royal Academy of Arts' Summer Exhibition in 2021 and in group exhibitions in London - but not, as yet, on a website!

However her portrait got to be on a poster on the Underground - specifically Platform 5, Westbound Central Line, Liverpool Street station

I could have included this in the "Children and Parents" category.

The label says

Closely cropped, this inventive self-portrait offers an intimate window into the complex emotions experienced by a mother, sixmonths postpartum. The composition, in which Hannah George dramatically casts her hand across her face, is vulnerable pressing her eyes shut as she navigates a significant transition. 

"The distortion of my face reflects how unfamiliar I felt in my own body, caught between who I was and who I was becoming. Through this altered perspective, the work became a way to explore a different view of myself."

"Mummy needs a break" by Hannah George

on Platform 5, Westbound Central Line, Liverpool Street station

TIP: One of the major bonuses of this art competition is if your painting gets chosen for the postcards (sold at the Gallery) or the advertising posters hung around London - with a lot on the underground.

Haley Hasler

[THIS IS AN UPDATE DUE TO OMISSION]

Pieta with Home Life
Oil on canvas. 2025
© Hayler Hasler

Haley Hasler (Instagram) (b.1971) is an American artist who works exclusively in self-portraiture. 

Her art education included a Bachelor Fine Arts (BFA) degree in painting at Indiana University followed by an MFA in painting from Boston University. Her work has been seen in solo exhibitions in the United States and the West Indies and in numerous group exhibitions in the US, winning the Alexander Rutsch Painting Award 2023 and in the Colorado Contemporary Award 2021.

Her self portrait paintings are very theatrical / allegorical and quite unlike any other contemporary portrait paintings I've ever seen - and I like them! I recommend a viewing of her website! She seems to have a thing about holding hens and cockerels. I am also a big fan of her portrait "Portrait with Fire Chief"! ;)

Haley Hasler works exclusively in the realm of the painted self-portrait and represents herself as a central point in an endlessly revolving domestic drama. Hasler illustrates the joys, fantasies, theatrics, realities and challenges of being both a devoted mother and an artist in a world that tells women that they can have it all with a flourishing career and parenthood.

In this particular portrait, the artist returned to it several times across two years. Initially inspired by the idea of grasping a rooster while baring one breast, the composition gradually evolved to include a swarm of household objects, creating an increasingly ambiguous setting. 

To capture the floating objects, Hasler suspended items in the air with strings and painted them from life.

Karin Neijenhuis

Useless, Part II, 2024 by Karin Neijenhuis
oil on linen, 60 x 60cm
© Karin Neijenhuis

Karin Neijenhuis is a Dutch artist and one of the many international artists who enter this competitiom. She was born 1974 in Breda in the Netherlands, where she still lives. She studied applied sciences at the University of Breda. In terms of art 

• Her focus is on portraits. She primarily paints portraits in oil on canvas or panel.
• Her work is realistic, often colorful, and narrative in nature. 
• She draws her inspiration from everyday life - her own and that of those around her.
• She likes to expose those parts of daily life which others would like to hide!

Her self portrait is described as "Domestic Drama as its finest". I particularly admire the design and composition with the viewer looking up past the underside of the ironing board - which is incidentally imacculately painted!

I'd recommend taking a look at her other self-portraits on her website

Her work has been seen in group exhibitions including 

• the Dutch Portrait Award (2021, 2023), 
• the Almenara Art Prize, Spain (2023, 2024, 2025) and was 
• a finalist in the Figurative Art Amsterdam Award, 2025.

(For the record, I gave up ironing years ago after I discovered that a 1600 spin speed, a jolly good shake and the use of a hanger for drying makes most creases drop out!)

Caroline Pool

Dark Passenger

Oil on canvas, 2024

40 x 30cm

© Caroline Pool

Caroline Pool (Instagram) b.1985. She grew up in Bangkok, Thailand before moving to England. She now lives who now lives and works in South Shropshire. Her art education comrpises 

• foundation studies at Central St Martins, London, 
• followed by a BA (Hons) degree in illustration at the University of Brighton.

She is now a a multi-award winning Artist. Her work has been seen in numerous group shows including the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts, the Society of Women Artists, the Discerning Eye and the Royal Society of British Artists. More recently, she has participated in this year's series of Extraordinary Artists

Some of you may also remember her from Series II of Portrait Artist of the Year. and my post Review: Episode 3 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2024 (Series 11). 

The gallery label says

Intensity reverberates through this self-portrait, from the flexed arm to the steadfast stare beyond the picture plane. In this unusual work, Caroline Pool is off centre. Instead, the shiny, wrinkly texture of her oversized green jacket consumes the canvas and sitter, offset by an orange woolly beanie. Pool holds the coat over her chin, drawing further attention to her unblinking gaze outward, her defensive stance suggesting the focus of this portrait is beyond what we can see. 'There's an element of metaphorically standing on a precipice', the artist says, with past shadows cast whilst also staring into the abyss to start something new. 

 TIP: SMALL PORTRAITS - Size and Framing

The Support is slightly bigger than a sheet of A4.  The head and hand only is probably no bigger than 10% of the total support which is 40x30cm.  The main area of interest is maybe no more than 20% of the support

This means if you are going to paint small you need to be very confident and experienced in your technique. Going smaller is never easy. In some ways it's far more difficult that painting life size.

Frames are VERY important for small paintings. You can kill a small painting stone dead by choosing the wrong frame. This frame is what I would call "masterful restraint" It does the job and complements the colours but in no way does it overpower the portrait

Anji Richards

Red shoes, 

Acrylic on canvas, 2026

61 x 76.3cm unframed

© Anji Richards

Anji Richards (Instagram) has entered twice before, once in 2022 when she did not get shortlisted and this year - when she was. 

Born in 1967, she  gained an HND in fashion design from the London College of

Fashion and a National Diploma in fine art from Central Saint Martins. Her work has

been seen in solo exhibitions in the Tate Library and Chelsea Arts Club, and in group exhibitions at the Mall Gallery, Bristol Art Gallery and the Camberwell Arts Festival.

Red Shoes explores the longstanding evolution of Black style through dandyism - a rebellious fashion movement formative of Black identities and rooted in resistance across African diasporas in Europe and the Americas. 

Anji Richards inserts herself into this complex, longstanding history as a

female dandy, boldly pairing a tailored suit with red platform heels, gazing outward in quiet defiance. Taking inspiration from the 2025 Met Gala Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, she painted this self-portrait from photographs taken by her husband, settling on this seated pose as the most dynamic composition.

TIP BOLD COLOUR

Never ever be afraid to use bold colour. Just be careful not to use so much in such a way that it hurts our eyes.  I love colour, but go OTT r use it in an inexperienced way and I can't look at your painting - and you won't be getting any comments from me beyond "Ouch!"

Angie gets it just right. 

Doris Rose

[THIS IS AN UPDATE DUE TO OMISSION]

Stripes
Oil on copper panel, 2025
© Doris Rose

Doris Rose Instagram (b.1991) is a Canadian contemporary-realist portrait painter based in Ontario. She has a BA in fine arts from Ontario College of Art and Design, University, Toronto, Canada. She has 250K+ followers and 150M views, she shares her art and process with a global community.

This is how she shared what the opening week of the exhibition was like for all the artists

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Doris Rose Art🌹 (@dorisroseart)

Her work has been seen in the annual exhibitions of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2024 and 2026, the Self-Portrait Competition of the Portrait Society of Canada (Online), 2025 and the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, 2013.

This is a portrait which is both distorted and absolutely fascinating.
The approach to developing it as a self portrait is also fascinating. Her aim was to visually convey her personal experience of living with chronic migraine disease and ADHD. She wanted to explore the internal distortion caused by her neurological and sensory symptoms, and so deliberately chose a striped shirt to add to the dizzying nature of the portrait.

The portrait

• combines painterly technique and themes of double exposure, a photographic process where two images are layered onto a single frame. 
• is painted with oils onto a copper panel, which highlights the layering and opaque qualities of the material. 

Ran You

North Wind

Acrylic on canvas, 2026

50 × 60 cm

© Ran You

Ran You  (Instagram) was born in Beijing, China, in 1991. 

• Graduated with a BA degree in oil painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. 
• Now lives and works in Hamburg, Germany.

His works have been seen in institutions including the Today Art Museum and the National Exhibition Centre of China National Academy of Painting, both in Beijing, and Group Global 3000, Berlin.

North Wind depicts Ran You and his partner against the backdrop of a snowy,

mountainous landscape. He is strongly influenced by Northern Renaissance paintings, and thus captures the psychological conditions that he and his partner, who is a composer of classical music, face as Chinese artists living in Europe. 

The artist notes that

'set against a turbulent global political climate, the painting conveys a shared sense of pessimism, as if winter were approaching.' 

also a very sage remark about his portraiture and this painting

To me, portraiture is not simply about presenting a face, but about making visible something beyond appearance — the presence of the human spirit. What matters is how a person bears the weight of their own existence — not merely in a psychological sense, but in a way that makes both reality and painting worth looking at.My next post is  

My next post is about portraits of women - which was the point at which I realised I'd missed two self portraits out of this post!

REFERENCE: HSFK Portrait Award 2026

A LOT of artists have told me over the years - in the Private/Press Views - that they know who I am - "You're Making A Mark!" and have read a lot of my posts - and that in short is why I do them....

These are the posts I've published this year so far - there's more to come (in italics). You may think this is totally OTT. However this has been a very popular international art competition for very many years - and I think it's worth it!

• Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026: SHORTLIST Announced
• Selected Artists (Part 1: A-H) for The Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery
• Selected Artists (Part 2: I - Y) for The Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery
• Mark Dalessio wins £35,000 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026
• The Tale of the Portrait Award Catalogue 2026 - and two major mishaps
• Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Children and Parents)
• Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Older People)

to be published:

• Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Women)
• Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Men)
• Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Couples and Groups)

• Review of Portrait Award 2026: What's changed and what's not
• Portrait Award 2026: The 10 portraits I liked the most

Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Older People)

This is my second post about artists selected to exhibit at the HSFK Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. 

This post is about portraits of Older People.

Other posts are:

• Portraits of Children (and Parents)
• Portraits of Older People (this post)

COMING SOON: to be published

• Self Portraits
• Portraits of Women
• Portraits of Men
• Portraits of Groups

This NEW APPROACH also allows people intending to apply next year to look at what got selected this year in relation to one of these groups. You get to check out style and proficiency!

I'm also posting larger images to my Making A Mark Facebook Page with shorter profiles.

My photographs were taken at the Private View and Press View associated with the opening of the exhibition back in June.

Portraits of Older People

IMPORTANT NOTE: 

• Three of the four artists shown below have known their subjects for very many years. In two instances they are painting parents.
• Two of the four portraits below include two people. It's unusual for a portrait selected for this competition to involve more than one person - although that might say more about what is submitted rather than what is selected. 
• It's not unusual for there to be paintings of older people in this competition and those who paint older people seem to do well. 

The first portrait in this post is by the second prizewinner, Chloe Cox - who painted two people she did not know before she painted them! Just to prove that an observed association does not always apply!

Chloe Cox

Judges Note: Second Prize 

Chloe Cox's "What's Mine is Yours" is a beautifully painted and life-affirming double portrait, notable for its exceptionally accomplished technique and sensitivity of handling. 

The judges were particularly struck by the sense of joy and uplift that the work conveys, as well as the palpable connection and love between the sitters.

What's Mine is Yours

Oil on canvas (2024)

90 x 60 cm | 35.4 x 23.6 in

© Chloe Cox

Chloe Cox (b.1997) is a self-taught artist who studied English literature with creative writing. She was invited by His Majesty the King to create a new portrait for the Royal Collection Trust for the exhibition Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation, seen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the National Portrait Gallery, London (2023-24). She was included in the Jackson's Art Prize 2025, winning the People's Choice Award.

This portrait is of two people that Chloe Cox did not know. 

She was invited to take part in the BBC television series Extraordinary Portraits and this led to Chloe Cox being paired with Marva and Lionel Warmington to create their portrait. 

The couple have fostered more than 200 teenagers over the past 30 years, providing culturally sensitive care for vulnerable young people from a variety of backgrounds. Cox was filmed meeting the Warmingtons for their sitting as their conversation helped her decide on a format for the portrait. She says: 

'What struck me most was the balance between Marva and Lionel as a couple. She is more outgoing and full of ideas. He is the quiet, steady presence. I felt the portrait needed to show that harmony. Their love story hasn't just sustained their marriage, it has created stability and belonging for hundreds of young people."

The emotional content of the relationship between these two individuals also reads extremely well - and is unusual in the context of this competition. Question: Do you need two people to convey emotional content?

Also, I note from the photo above that the heads are both close too life size, maybe a tad larger, which means on the wall they "speak to you" very easily.

In addition to the Judges Comment above, I think the Judges may well have also been rather impressed by her handling of their heads, hair and their hands. So here's two close-ups that I took!  I also thought the careful consideration given to the tonal palette was very helpful. Nothing jarred the eye.

Marva and Lionel Warmington - Heads
from

What's Mine is Yours

Oil on canvas (2024)

90 x 60 cm | 35.4 x 23.6 in

© Chloe Cox

Marva and Lionel Warmington - Hands
from 
What's Mine is Yours

Oil on canvas (2024)

90 x 60 cm | 35.4 x 23.6 in

© Chloe Cox

TIP - Be sure to pay particular attention to the skin of older people and their heads and hands. Heads, hair and hands are basics which you must get right. Those grey hairs, saggy bits and wrinkles have all been hard earned over the years and deserve to be rendered both faithfully and sympathetically - which Chloe did extremely well!

I'm not in the least bit surprised that Chloe Cox was a prizewinner. She deserved it. After the third prize announcement, I really did not know which portrait was going to get the top prize.

Rosie Phillips