PAOTY 2023: Commission Painting of Dr Jane Goodall

This is about the winner's story about painting the commissioned portrait in the 10th series of Portrait Artist of the Year.

Every year, the winner of the Portrait Artist of the Year Award receives a £10,000 commission to paint a specific individual for a particular organisation - who would like to have a portrait of that individual. The latter is typically famous and has contributed in a significant way to public life.

The unveiling of the commissioned portrait of Dr Jane Goodall
by Wendy Barratt
in the History Makers Gallery at the National Portrait Gallery

In this instance:

• the winner is Wendy Barratt, (see Wendy Barratt is Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 (Series 10)

"a great painter with a sensitivity for the human condition - and that combination is magical" Tai Shan Shierenberg

• her sitter is the esteemed ethologist (a scientist who studies animals in their natural environment), activist and conservationist, Dr Jane Goodall who nearly 90 and is considered to be the world's foremost authority on chimpanzees following her groundbreaking research with a colony of chimpanzees in the 1960s. She also continues to campaign on behalf of the natural world around the world.
• and the organisation commissioning the portrait is the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) - who have been trying to get a proper portrait of Jane Goodall for some time!

The £10,000 commission

The National Portrait Gallery already has a portrait of Jane Goodall - as part of a Panel 1 of a newly commissioned artwork about Work in Progress for Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture (see below).

Sarah Howgate, the Senior Curator for Contemporary Collections suggested to Wendy that:

• it was important for the NPG to represent more environmentalists
• the commission portrait could be a head and shoulder, as a full figure of Jane Goodall (plus chimp) in her younger years has already been incorporated in the "Work in Progress" frieze mentioned above (on the left below).
• plus she has an incredible face.

On the left of this "Work in Progress" frieze
is a much younger Jane Goodall with a chimp

The Portrait Process

I thought that this particular episode was particularly good because, from beginning to end, it's a complete education in how one artist pursues her process by talking and showing us what she does.

Other programmes about the commission have similarly followed the process - but I think Wendy is particularly articulate about all the stages she follows and it was a sheer pleasure to watch.

I'm going to try and note the process - with quotes - below!!  I also highly recommend that you go back and watch it again to appreciate the pathway she pursues.

Also bear in mind this is a good process for whoever you are painting a portrait of!

The process

• meet the artist - having watched her produce three separate portraits, the programme introduced us to a bit more about the artist and how she works
• her style is rooted in tradition - but she tries to introduce expression as well
• she loves lines
• she's an oil painter who does more drawing than painting - she wanted to know why she couldn't draw with a brush and then started to draw into her paintings using a small flat hogshair brush
• she loves painting people with a story and likes to bring out the heart and soul of the sitter.

"What drives me is constant looking and learning. It's about experimentation" Wendy Barratt

• meet the client - and find out what they want. In this instance 
• Wendy met Sarah Howgate at the National Portrait Gallery (below)
• she saw the new History Makers Gallery and the nature of the scale, size and style of the different portraits (see second pic below)
• Wendy's favourite gallery in London has always been the National Portrait Gallery so it must have been intensely meaningful for Wendy to know that she would be painting a portrait for the national contemporary collection.

Wendy meeting Sarah Howgate at the new entrance 
to the refurbished National Portrait Gallery

The NEW History Makers Gallery at the National Portrait Gallery

• First Sitting: getting to know the sitter - on their own territory. Wendy visited Bournemouth and Dr Goodall in the house in which she grew up and where she still lives. They talked together in the garden. In a way it's interesting that this approach is routed in ethology - of getting to know an animal in its own space.

"I would love Wendy to be able to capture determination and compassion..... so who can capture 90 years worth of experience and living? It's really difficult!" Dr Jane Goodall

• Wendy brings pre-conceived ideas about what she wants to do
• however first sittings are about trying to take everything in
• at the same time as remaining open to her instinct
• it's about keeping ideas about the portrait loose and fluid so it can change

"I hate looking at myself. I hate photographs" Dr Jane Goodall

• Wendy is making notes - in charcoal - about Jane's face
• She focuses on structures and shapes and how to achieve them
• she takes photographs - at the end AFTER Jane has relaxed from the observation during the drawing session

Note that this section is also wonderful for Jane Goodall talking about what she did and how she did it.

• drawing from life - Wendy is a huge fan of drawing from life and always starts her portraits by making a drawing to get to know the head and face of the sitter. 
• taking photographs - Wendy took numerous photographs for reference to begin to try and work out what might be the best composition for the portrait

Wendy and Jane - getting to know one another prior to starting the drawing

• more studies: 
• working through the size, proportion of the composition and developing drawings of the face from photos and sketches
• she also drew her while Jane was giving a talk in London - while relaxed and at her most animated without thinking - with chimpanzee noises
• then sketching again after she's walked away from the meeting of the face while still fresh in her mind's eye.

"She's so petite and fragile but so strong" Wendy Barratt

• use of life drawing - to stimulate expression
•  she runs a life drawing class in Worthing
• Wendy draws from life a LOT which is probably one of the reasons why she could capture a good likeness so quickly in the heat and subsequently
• Second Sitting: painting from life plus more photos - a second visit brought an opportunity to paint rather than draw Jane. 
• Except of course, Wendy drew her in first to get the shape, size and relative proportions right which underpin the likeness - using a brush. 
• she uses a limited palette of two colours and white to get a number of related tones and develop a tonal painting
• more photographs now she has learned her face and Jane is once again less likely to tense when the camera comes out

I know I can get likeness. That wasn't the sort of thing for today. Today was see what squidging paint around on the surface would do for the story and what I'd glean from that Wendy Barratt

Second Sitting at the Natural History Museum

"She's small and quite quiet but with a strength that sort of almost punches you in the stomach" Wendy Barratt

• working out the final design - this is gathering all the information together in terms of drawings and photographs and different perspectives
• she wants to go through the painful process of working things out
• the studies have helped to eliminate some of the options

Some of the photos and studies of Jane

• painting the final portrait: Wendy's aims include that viewers - when standing in front of the portrait - should be: 
• drawn in by the face alone
• see how serious Jane is
• see also the life in Jane and her emotional spark; and 
• for the face to give an emotion to the viewer

"It's like being at the top of the rollercoaster.... I could end up with really white knuckles and really poorly at the end!!" Wendy Barratt

"I'm not expecting her to like it - but I'm hoping she might appreciate it" Wendy Barratt 

I think she succeeded and then some. It's an amazing portrait painting.

I hope others wanting to do well will also learn from Wendy's process.

 

The unveiling of "the biggest commission on Wendy's life"

The portrait was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery - in the Gallery were it will hang - History Makers on Floor 0 

This gallery includes paintings of people who are really making a difference to Britain today.  It also includes the portrait of Lenny Henry by last year's winner Morag Caister - see PAOTY Commission - Painting Sir Lenny Henry (aka Len) and the 

Two women with character and strength - waiting for an unveiling

"I think we need a portrait which knocks it out of the park and nothing less" Kate Bryan

Part of this you have captured is me - and part of it is the icon. It's interesting Jane Goodall  

I thought it was a brilliant portrait and I'm looking forward to seeing it "in real life"!  I also really appreciate how Wendy shared her process so very clearly and I hope others learn from it.

PAOTY 2023: Portrait of Dr Jane Goodall by Wendy Barratt
 - for the National Portrait Gallery

Some comments from my Facebook Page 

I was in tears when I saw her portrait of Jane Goodall. I keep going back to it, spellbound.

When I saw the commission programme I knew that she was the only one who could have connected so well with Dr Jane . It was hard to imagine either of the other finalists making such a good connection. Ruth Mann

I felt exactly the same about her connection with Jane Goodall. I'm not sure either of the other two could have achieved it. It really brought it home to me that technical ability is only part of artistic talent, especially where portraits are concerned. It's the artist's ability to see things AND get that vision down on the canvas (or whatever) that makes the difference. Lesley Waring

Previous PAOTY Commission blog posts

• 2022: PAOTY Commission - Painting Sir Lenny Henry (aka Len)
• 2021: incorporated in this post Calum Stevenson wins Portrait Artist of the Year (Series 8 Autumn 2021)
• 2020: PAOTY Commission: Curtis Holder draws Carlos Acosta
• 2019: ncorporated in this post Duncan Shoosmith is Portrait Artist of the Year 2019