Review: Episode 1 of Portrait Artist of the Year (Series 9)

Wednesday saw a very welcome return of Portrait Artist of the Year in a new Autumn slot on which used to be occupied by Landscape Artist of the Year.

There's been quite a few changes introduced with Series 9 so I'll start by highlighting these before getting down to my review of this week's episode

What's new in Series 9?

The new introduction screen for Series 9 of Portrait Artist of the Year

You'd think that the eventual winner would have their portrait chosen for this introduction screen - but that's not always the case........

The new £10,000 Commission

We learned that:

• Sir Lenny Henry is the sitter for the commission to be undertaken by the winner 
• the commission is for the National Portrait Gallery  

Artists no longer split between professionals and amateurs  

Artists are now defined in terms of their work and how they approach their art. 

In the past the artists determined whether they were professional or amateur - with some being bold in their assertions while others were bashful. I know I've spent a lot of time in the past commenting on how stupid the totally artificial distinction has been in past episodes - so this is a very welcome move. Especially since it eliminates the notion that new graduates are real proper professional artists even if they've not sold a thing or that very experienced professional illustrators are actually amateur artists! 

Introduction of 'The Prop'

Every sitter is being asked to bring something close to their heart or meaningful to them with them. 
Artists are not made to include the item - but in general it seemed to me that it added to their understanding of the individual they were painting.
I like this idea. Portraits often include objects which tell you something about the person. 
I was also left wondering if this was a bit of an effort to stop people just painting heads in 4 hours - and we shall see over the course of the series whether or not it has this effect.

Stephen Mangan has stopped dyeing his hair!

One of the things I began to notice during lockdown was just how any men in the public eye dye their hair. Mainly because they either had to let it grow out because they couldn't get to the hairdressers or they had to a home job on their own in the bathroom! If you ever see a man with hair which is exactly the same shade all over it's a dead giveaway! 

Anyway Mr Mangan has opted to let us know he's actually older than he was trying to look and I think could look a lot better for it - when he gets a hair cut!

He should really take tips from Joan Bakewell's hairdresser - she's still presenting age 89 and really does not look it!

One other thing I noticed is that from certain angles, Kate is a dead ringer for Lizz Truss!

The Set Up

Back to the basics. 

Portrait Artist of the Year is

• commissioned by Sky TV UK
• made by Storyvault Films an independent production company.
• filmed at Battersea Arts Centre - generally in April
• broadcast every Autumn - generally starting in October - by Sky Arts Channel on digital television (now also on Freeview at Chanell 11) and via the NOW TV app (if you want to look back at an episode after it's been broadcast)

Two years ago I wrote an article about How Portrait Artist of the Year actually works in practice

The set up - with three artists painting a sitter in each segment

This year, there are as always

• 3 sitters and 3 artists allocated to each sitter 
• one sitter and three artists are located in one of three sections of a rotunda type frame (think three segments of a pie or cake) in the large room at the Battesea Arts Centre where the PAOTY series are now filmed. This allows the cameras to rotate around the room
• None of the artists know who their sitter will is until they arrive in the room.
• There's no choice as to who paints which sitter 
• There's no choice as to what angle you get on the sitter
• Artists have - in theory - four hours to complete a portrait working from a live model - with a break in the middle of the day.
• Two presenters - Stephen Mangan and the inimitable and extraordinary Joan Bakewell (age 89)
• Three Judges: who are the same as for previous series:

• award-winning portrait painter Tai Shan Schierenberg. Studied at St. Martin's School of Art and The Slade. Lives and works in London, Norfolk and the Black Forest in Germany. Has artwork in a number of important national and regional public collections
• independent curator, art historian and arts broadcaster Kathleen Soriano worked in museums and galleries for over 30 years. 
• arts broadcaster, curator, mentor and writer Kate Bryan is also currently Head of Collections for Soho House. 

In terms of people watching the proceedings, the Series is limited as to who can watch. These were close friends/family of the artist only - rather than being the open to all it's been in the past. Which seems sensible given when it was filmed (in April 2022).

Episode 1: The Sitters

The sitters for the first episode were:

• Elizabeth Day (age 44) who is an author and presenter of the How to Fail podcast - which celebrates the things which haven't gone right. I bet she gets extra followers from being a sitter!
• Nick Grimshaw (age 38) a disc jockey and occasional TV presenter who announced he was leaving Radio 1 after 14 years and has also become a podcaster.
• Khadija Mellah (22 this year) who was the first hijab-wearing jockey in a competitive British horse race - and wore a helmet mounted 'dashcam' which recorded the entire race when she won the Magnolia Cup. She wore a traditional Islamic garment, an Arabian scarf and her jockey helmet - and was sat next to her silks she wore in the day she won.

Episode 1: The Artists

The artists of Episode 1 on the Battersea Art Centre steps

I'm going to order all the artists alphabetically by surname - but not differentiate between professional and amateur. The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available.

• Steve Bennett (Instagram) - Based in Leeds and a graphic designer by trade, who has spent many years working in print, advertising and display. He recently set up a new studio and website for his printmaking in linocuts and drypoint.
• Anne Blankson-Hemans (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) - studied Fine Art at the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana and came to live in the UK in 1984. She has won numerous awards and is a member and Vice President of the Society of Women Artists. She's also been a semi-finalist on BBC's Big Painting Challenge.
• Darren Cairney - (Instagram | Twitter) - a professional artist - specialising in 2D design and backgrounds - living in South Tyneside
• Morag Caister - (Facebook | Instagram) BA. Painting, University of Brighton (2019). Brighton Metropolitan College, Foundation, Art & Design (2014). Heat winner and PAOTY semi-finalist in 2020. Has exhibited her art internationally. Has her work in Brighton Beach House, Soho House, 2022 (i.e. known to Kate Bryan)
• Ruby Hagen - a sixth former doing A Levels - who painted for five weeks solid prior to the Heat and missed a maths test to participate!
• Preslav Kostov (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) - a painter and draughtsman who currently lives and works in London. He is a Bulgarian (b.1998) who is studying for a Masters in Painting at the Royal College of Art he's also studied at Leeds College of Art and The Royal Drawing School. He's the recipient of The Elizabeth Greenshields Award and an elected member of The Contemporary British Portrait Painters Society.
• Nathan Lowry (Instagram) - a Background Artist and 2D Designer based in Dublin, Ireland. He graduated with a BA(Hons) in Visual Media with Animation from BCFE in 2019 and now creates artwork for projects in different mediums such as short film, games and TV production. 
• Mod White (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) - a GP who has also studied fine art at a 12 weeks workshop at a Florence Academy in 2017. Her work was in the 2022 Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition in 2022.
• Julie Wright - a former Art Director in Advertising. Lives in London and now retired and has taken up watercolour painting - but has only been painting for 12 months.

Self portrait submissions

An interesting comment was made at the beginning of this episode which is worth repeating in terms of the purpose of the submission - beyond getting an artist selected to participate.

The notion is that 

• the self portrait submission represents what an artist can achieve when not under time pressure. 
• in this respect it speaks volumes about how they would approach a commission.

I have no issue with this and it makes complete sense to me - but I'm not sure the artists understand this.

If this is the case, I think it would be worth pointing this out to people as part of the Call for Entries! (There's time to change the Call for Entries page folks!!)

Self portrait submissions

Size and content of submission

Following on from the notion of what the submission is all about.....

FORMAT

• Portrait format x 9

SIZE

• Large x 1
• Large/Medium x 3
• Small x 3
• Tiny x 1

SCOPE

• full size or most of body (including hand) x 5
• upper torso (no hands) x 0
• head and shoulders x 1
• head x 3

One of the interesting aspects about this year's competition is the amount of time people have had time on their hand due to lockdown to produce self-portraits - or in one instance (Ruby) due to the fact she had Covid for two weeks. 

In that context I'd have expected to see more bigger paintings revealing more of the individual - and, in effect, promoting what they can do in terms of a commission.

For me there were only four artists who did this - from left to right on the wall - Anne, Morag, Mod and Ruby. Which is not to say the other artists cannot produce good large paintings - just that they didn't.

Media used

It's almost always the case that at least one participant in each heat is NOT using conventional painting media. In this episode, one person (Steve Bennett) submitted a drypoint print - and was hand printing with a press in the heat.

The other thing to be mindful of is submitting a self-portrait and then switching media for the heat. Personally I think it's risky.

Themes

In every review I try and draw out what seem to me to be some of the themes for this episode. A lot of the themes will be applicable to all the participants, episodes and future participants!

 

Getting a Good LIKENESS

Failing to achieve a good likeness in a portrait competition does not impress Judges. Achieving a good likeness MUST be a priority for every artist.

TIP: Heads come first, backgrounds should come last!

• drawing the head first - before you start painting - allows you to learn how it works and gets you settled
• at the end, if the background is missing it's not the end of the world.

TIME Management

You can tell experienced artists who have practiced for this competition and this heat by their good use of time.

That means timing how long it takes you to do things - like squaring up or getting your digital device to behave - BEFORE you arrive at the venue so you can discount this from the time available for painting.

My advice has always been to assume you have LESS than four hours to paint. That's because:

• you will be interrupted by Judges and presenters
• you will lose sight of the subject while cameramen are filming other contestants
• you will be nervous and take time to settle

It's critical to keep an eye on time passing and make decisions as to how you can speed up and/or eliminate things you had planned to do.

TIP: A good way to start is to allocate time for sketching at the beginning - and just draw - while you settle into your environment

It's all in the DRAWING

You can tell experienced portrait artists by how well they draw their subjects - in sketchbooks, on their support, with pencil / charcoal / paint brush.

Many good portraits are underpinned by good draughtsmanship - plus it always impresses at least some of the Judges. 

Drawing well is not the same as being hyperrealistic and copying photos. 

• Drawing well is about being able to draw what is in front of you by eyeballing. 
• Using a photo on a digital device is for being able to see what is there because you can't get close enough to the sibject and saves time in walking back and to!

Use of COLOUR

The Judges like colour - when used well in the right hands.

When using colour, it's a good idea to remember:

• colour harmonies are pleasing - and mud is not
• mud is what you get when you mix too many colours
• don't treat the face as a palette for mixing
• getting the colour right first time saves time
• it's more about choosing and mixing and placement
• it's never about how much colour you can get on - it's much more about whether you chose the right colours and used them in the right amounts in the right places

TIP: If you've never studied colour it's a good idea to do so before entering this competition.

You can learn a lot from The Colour Project which I undertood very early on when developing this blog - and I was filling in the gaps in my knowledge of art. This also recommends good books about colour in art.

The Judging

The Judges review the artists' artwork at lunchtime and then again at the end after the sitters have reviewed the artwork

Challenges experienced - worth noting

• a couple of artists had 'false starts'. With most artists this is often due to nerves and/or lack of a plan and/or thrown by the subject.

Judges liked

SITTER

• achieving a good likeness
• getting the age of the sitter right
• sophisticated use of prop within the overall portrait

MEDIA / TECHNIQUES

• phenomenal draughtsmanship 
• enthusiastic use of colour
• fantastic colouration / colour harmonies
• crisp painting

Judges were less enthusiastic about very few things. 

Overall, the impression I got was that they felt that the general level of the artists had improved.

APPROACH

• not achieving a good likeness
• leaving the head too late to achieve a good likeness
• losing the likeness when moving from drawing to painting

The Shortlist

One of these days, the director is going to suggest to the cameramen and the artists that they line up NEXT TO THEIR PORTRAIT rather than standing in front of it so we can see both portrait and artist!

Rather than doing as they do - which is shooting at weird angles in the segments and getting the artists to line up so they obscure their paintings when waiting to hear who has been shortlisted.

Those shortlisted were:

• Morag Caister
• Darren Cairney
• Preslav Kostov

Submission paintings and heat painting
by Darren Cairney, Morag Caister and Preslav Kostov

Below are closer looks at the submission painting (left) and the painting completed in the heat (right) in 4 hours - in the order they were called.

This is the test of whether they both look like they were by the same artist who knows how they like to paint and has achieved an approach which means they do so consistently. To me there's one person who clearly demonstrates this.

Morag Caister

Morag's paintings were impressive in terms of draughtsmanship, design and size - plus the amount of sitter painted.

The two paintings sat well next to one another suggesting this is somebody who has matured in terms of her style. The absence of background is not an issue in terms of the style adopted.

Darren Cairney

Darren painted himself and the sitter in full - so big plus points for that which I'm sure helped get him through to the shortlist. However his submission was very small and so was his heat painting and I'm not sure that helped him.

I personally preferred Nathan Lowry's submission and heat painting - and wonder if he'd painted a bigger painting showing more of himself as a self portrait he would have been shortlisted.

Preslav Kostov

Preslav is an interesting painter. I liked his self portrait submission - and it would have been great to have seen a much bigger self portrait submission.

I thought that Mod White was also very much a contender in terms of an excellent submission and a strong heat painting as I thought she got a better likeness of Nick - albeit a romantic one.

Episode 1 Winner

Morag Caister was selected as the winner of the first heat - and was in my opinion a deserved winner.

 
However I knew she was going to win the minute I knew she'd been a previous semi-finalist in 2020. You've really got to mess up or come across extremely stiff competition to not win another heat and make it through to the semi-finals again. It's happened before and it will happen again. It's a route reserved for those who seem to be identified as being people who had just missed out and worth another 'go round'.

That said, she was for me the very clear winner due to the impact and consistency of her work. Plus she can paint large - and that's always a good thing to do - because it tells the Judges whether you can handle a significant commission.

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Episode 2

Episode 2 will be broadcast at 8pm on Wednesday 12th October. The sitters are Lulu, Alex Brooker, Phil Manzanera

Sky Arts Artist of the Year - REFERENCE

• Portrait Artist of the Year (Series 9) starts 5th October 2022 - this also allows you look back at reviews of episodes - and themes which cropped up - in previous series in my post

PS I've spotted some incorrect links in the above and will correct them when I get back from my walk. Come back later if you want to take a look at previous reviews. Or just click the "portrait artist of the year" label in the right hand column in iPad/desktop view