Call for Entries - Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2019

If you've been watching the Portrait Artist of the Year competition and want to enter the 2019 competition read on to find

• a summary of how the competition works
• what you have to do enter Portrait Artist of the Year 2019 - before the deadline for filming in April 2018
• Plus TIPS on how to enhance your entry.

The deadline for entering the Portrait Artist of the Year 2019 competition is 18th March 2018.

How 'Portrait Artist of the Year' works

The winner of Portrait Artist of the Year 2019 will be awarded

• a £10,000 commission and 
• £500 to spend on art materials at Cass Art.

Portrait Artist of the Year - Process

This in outline is how the competition works from the call to entries to the broadcast of the final programme in March 2019.

• Call for Entries - deadline 18th March 2018.
• Selection of 54 artists from the entry submissions to participate in the Heats (9 artists per Heat)
• Notification: Successful entrants (“Shortlisted Artists”) will be notified of the result of their entry on or shortly following 30th March 2018
• you may be asked to 
• non-successful entrants 
• Filming of Portrait Artist of the Year will take place in April/May 2018. All short-listed artists must be able to transport the self-portrait to the heat as the self-portrait forms part of the judging process.
• Episodes 1-6 - Heats filmed at a venue where the public can also watch. 
• Episode 7 - Six Heat Winners meet for the Semi-Final
• Episode 8 - The Final culminating in the announcement of the winner 
• Episode 9 - A programme about "the artist of the year journey" and painting the commission.
• You have to paint a portrait from life in a maximum of 4 hours over a period of 6 hours. The sessions are typically 45 minutes long before a short break (plus a longer break for lunch)
• The Judging Panel has stayed consistent for four series. The Judges are:
• award-winning portrait painter Tai Shan Schierenberg
• independent curator and Chair of the Board of the Liverpool Biennial Kathleen Soriano (who also used to be the Head of Exhibitions & Collection at the National Portrait Gallery and Director of Exhibitions at the RA) and
• British art historian, curator and arts broadcaster Kate Bryan.
• The programmes are presented by Frank Skinner and Joan Bakewell - with the latter being a leading figure in the arts for nearly six decades.
• Screening of the programme starts in January 2019 
• The Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018 Winners Exhibition will be held at a location to be decided on dates to be decided.

This is a video about both the Sky Arts Artist of the Year competitions.
You can also follow Sky Arts’ Twitter and Facebook page for updates.

These are previous posts about the competition

• Gareth Reid is Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2017
• How to watch Sky Arts - Portrait Artist of the Year 2018 without subscribing to Sky
• Review: Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018 - Episode 1
• Review: Episode 2 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2018

How to enter Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2019

The deadline for Applications for Portrait Artist of the Year closes on 18th March 2018.
There is

• a page of terms and conditions and 
• entry is online

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Who can enter

The Competition is open to all artists – amateur, professional or hobbyists - but there are some restrictions.

You can ONLY enter if  YOU:

1. are aged 16 or over as at 18th October 2017
2. hold a valid passport.
3. have been LEGALLY resident in the UK, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Republic of Ireland for AT LEAST one year on 18th October 2017
4. can provide documentation to support all of the above (ie. birth certificate; passport, any relevant documentation relating to your immigration/residency status).

You will, upon request, provide the Producer with supporting documentation in order to substantiate this, and will immediately notify the Producer of any change in Your immigration or residential status. Terms and Conditions

Also if you are aged under 18 your parents MUST

• provide written agreement to you entering 
• written consent to you being filmed prior to filming. 
• accompany you at all filming - or send a nominated adult. 

Note also this is NOT a competition where your Mum, your best mate or your spouse can enter you without you knowing! People can help you with the entry process but it must be YOUR ENTRY.

You are NOT able to enter if you have been a finalist or winner of ANY previous Artist of the Year competition run by Sky Arts.

Finalists and Winners of the 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018 Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year 2015, 2016 and 2017 television series (“Artist of the Year Series”) are not eligible to enter the Competition. All other entrants of the Portrait Artist of the Year Series and Landscape Artist of the Year are eligible to enter the Competition.

How to enter

Make sure you get your entry right first time. This is what you need to do:

• YOU need to complete/submit the online application form - read it all through first before you try to complete it.
• YOU need to upload digital images (low resolution JPEGS, no less than 800KB and ideally no more than 1.5MB) of paintings created by YOU. These are: 
• a great self-portrait, painted in the last 5 years, measuring a maximum of 48" x 36" (1220 x 914 mm) MINUS frame. (one image only). All normal drawing and painting media plus Collage and Mixed media works are allowed. Photography, video, sculpture and all forms of digital media are EXCLUDED. 
• one image only of another portrait - ideally from life and MINUS frame
• an OPTIONAL further image of another painting. Make sure both the work and the photo is good. 
• One passport style photograph of yourself. This is where it's worth practising looking photogenic for the cameras rather than "startled in the headlights / practising for a mugshot"

Note any previous applicants who were selected can only reapply if they submit a BRAND NEW self-portrait.

Those who have applied before and not been selected are advised to think about painting a new portrait.

TIP -  do NOT recycle your application from last time. That's just guaranteed to irritate the judges and ensure you waste your entry fee!

Sky Arts has some advice about how to photograph your art.
Your self-portrait (and any other images of portraits MUST be well-lit, composed, and show any detail such as brushstrokes and mark-making.

The emphasis on YOU means that only YOU can enter unless you are under 18 in which case your parents need to complete and submit the entry. (You can help them!)

You will also be asked to

• describe yourself as an artist and your background, 
• detail whether you have entered or won any other art competitions - and how far you got. 
• state details of any television programme you've been on before 
• explain why you painted your self-portrait and HOW you painted it (less than 1,000 characters i.e. review/revise/edit until you do yourself justice)

Heats / Filming open to the public

The competition invites artists shortlisted from the entries to one of six heats in London in April 2017.

“Portrait Artist of the Year brings together some of the most talented painters with some of the most striking personalities. We see artists use brush, paint, pastels, charcoal to capture the elusive beauty of people whose faces we think we know. But art reveals more: and in each programme we watch it happen.”  Joan Bakewell

Sky will be filming all  six heats of the Portrait Artist of the Year 2019 in "a London location" (to be decided) during April/May 2018. All the heats are open to the public. Current planning indicates that filming of the Heats will place on the following dates (but dates are subject to change).

• Heat 1 – Tuesday 24th April 2018 
• Heat 2 – Wednesday 25th April 2018 
• Heat 3 - Thursday 26th April 2018 
• Heat 4 – Friday 27th April 2018 
• Heat 5 – Monday 30th April 2018 
• Heat 6 – Tuesday 1st May 2018 
• Heat 7 - Wednesday 2nd May 2018 
• Heat 8 - Thursday 3rd May 2018

I'm guessing at least two of these dates are reserves for train strikes or illness etc. so they can move people around if necessary.

Shortlisted Artists will be asked to produce an artwork depicting a Portrait of a Sitter allocated by the Producer (i.e. you don't get to choose!)

The Shortlisted Artists will have a maximum of 4 hours over a 6 hour period (or such other period as the Producer at its discretion may determine) to complete their Heat Artwork.

Your painting is judged on the results produced at the end of heat, whether you think the artwork to be finished or not.  In terms of the shortlist of three, the self-portrait will also be taken into account. 

The panel of Judges may take the Shortlisted Artists’ Portrait Entry(s) and their Additional Works of Art into consideration during this judging process, and all of the criteria for judging and the decisions of the Judges shall be at the discretion of the Judges and the Producer and shall not be not open to dispute or discussion.

Hence the self-portrait you send in with your entry is really important:

• it's going to be a key reason why you got selected for the Heats
• it might help you become the Heat Winner 
• if there's a major discrepancy between the self-portrait and the portrait produced in the Heat, you are unlikely to proceed further - unless you do even better than expected! One aspect of the "quid pro quo" for the celebrity sitters is that they each get to choose one of the finished portraits to keep for themselves (on permanent load) – regardless of whether that artist went through to the next stage. So even if you don't get through you may be able to say your paintings is now in the sitter's collection.

It can change your life even if you don't get to the final!

So if you want to create a WOW in 2019.....

The Semi Final and Final

Provisional dates for the Semi Final and Final - at a location somewhere in London - are as follows

• Semi Final - Tuesday 15th May 2018
• Final - 12th June 2018

The Semi Finalists will consist of the winners of each of the Heats. All Semi-Finalists shall be on an equal basis with an equal chance of reaching and winning the Final.

Finalists are asked to complete a further two Portraits. These are:

• to be produced within a 2 week period with sitter, dates and timings determined by the Producer
• an artwork created and filmed at a location in London on Tuesday 12th June 2018 

The winner must then agree to be available between the Final and 31st August 2018 to produce the Winner’s Prize Artwork - and a documentary on exact dates to be determined by the Producer.

My best wishes if you do decide to have a go. You are advised to read all the terms and conditions at least twice!

For example - note that this is very definitely not a competition for showoffs and blabbermouths!

You will not without the Producer’s or Sky’s prior written consent disclose, publicise or discuss with any third party and/or otherwise publish or transmit (on any platform, including all forms of social media) any information or photographs relating to Your application or the Series, Your appearance or participation in or contribution to the Series, the production team or any participants in the Series nor any other information which may come to Your attention (including without limitation in relation to the Producer or Sky or otherwise) save where such information is already public knowledge. Breach of confidentiality is a serious matter and the Producer reserves the right to disqualify You if You disclose any confidential information.