Tuesday, June 19, 2018

VIDEO Interview with Miriam Escofet, BP Portrait Award Winner 2018

This is about a video interview I did with Miriam Escofet, the winner of the BP Portrait Award 2018 (See Miriam Escofet wins BP Portrait Award 2018)

BP Portrait Award Winner 2018
Miriam Escofet with the portrait of her mother "An Angel at my Table"

photograph: Katherine Tyrrell

It's been my habit for the past few years to interview the winners of the BP Portrait Award on video - in front of their portrait in the National Portrait Gallery.  Background noise in the gallery has always been a bit of a problem, however this year, the exhibition has changed galleries and, as a result, the acoustics meant that the noise levels were too loud for my equipment (my trusty iPhone!) and an interview in the gallery was impossible.

Instead we went up to the Portrait Restaurant at the top of the building (where I was booked in for lunch) and did the interview there. We still had background noise as you will hear - but it's very easy to hear Miriam in the interview.

The video has been uploaded to my Making A Mark Video Channel on YouTube - (where you can also see past videos relating to BP Portrait Award Winners - see also below)

  • You can view it full size on YouTube. 
  • You were going to get the large HD version - but YouTube decided it couldn't work out the audio file 
  • so it's the same size as in previous years - which means it can be viewed on mobile devices (I've tested on my iPhone!)




In this 15 minute interview, Miriam talks about:
  • learning about art from her father who was a painter (Jose Escofet)
  • the reasons for choosing the art school she attended
  • how she moved slowly from still life, via paintings of architecture to portraiture
  • her history with the BP Portrait Award
  • her process for painting portraits - including pastel studies and maquettes - and commissions
  • the portrait itself - and what the levitating angel and the moving dish are all about
  • how she plans to spend her prize money
  • the best bit of winning this award
This is Miriam's website http://www.miriamescofet.com/

Below you have
  • more about how you can see this year's exhibition in London and on tour
  • articles about Miriam in the newspapers
  • FOR THE SERIOUS FANS: more about BP Portrait Award Winners from previous years

See the BP Portrait Award Exhibition

The BP Portrait Award Exhibition and the prizewinning portraits are on display during 2018/19 at the following venues:
I've also got another video to share with for those of you who can't get to see the exhibition - it includes my quick trot around the exhibition on Awards night. That'll be coming up later this week or next.


Articles about Miriam Escofet winning the BP Portrait Award


Interviews with other BP Portrait Award prizewinners

For those wanting to know more about the artists who win prizes at the BP Portrait Award. 

There are two choices:
  • A Profile of Aleah Chapin - includes her video interview which has now received over 142,000 views on YouTube. Aleah Chapin paints her aunties, cousins, mother and friends; old and new.
Prior to this, these were my blog posts about the BP Portrait Award winners (I was on holiday in 2011)

2010
2008 - the first year I attended the awards ceremony

1 comment:

  1. Love the insight this video gives of her process and the fact that she seems so grounded as a person.The interview for me was very interesting and helped reveal the person behind the painting. So, in a sense, you have created a portrait of Miriam.

    ReplyDelete

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