Review: Episode 2 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2024 (Series 11)

I've noticed before that Episode 1 of Portrait Artist of the Year is often a very good episode with some strong contenders.

Whereas Episode 2 often seems to bring us back down to earth in terms of the experience and calibre of some of the artists.

Episode 2: The Sitters

I think I'm calling this the entertainment episode. I only knew who the first sitter was and the other two operate in very specialised fields within music. 

The three sitters - as seen in the Heat

The three sitters were

• Cush Jumbo – The brilliant screen and stage actress who had roles in The Good Wife, The Good Fight, and has also delivered performances in West End Theatres winning her Olivier nominations. She was called an artist's dream sitter as she has a very strong persona.
• Baaba Maal – The legendary singer and guitar player who has spread the rich sounds of Senegal across the globe with his soulful voice and powerful storytelling.
• Carly Paoli – A British classical singer with an italian heritage and a voice so heavenly, even Pope Francis called her “the voice of an angel.” She wore an amazing white sheath with a HUGE red train - and then was invited to sing!

Episode 2: The Artists

Artists in Episode 2 - in a group at the beginning of the heat
Their self portraits are behind them.

All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname - but are not differentiated between professional and amateur. The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available.

As always I've dug around online, and these profiles provide more information than the programme does.

The mini bio provided in the programme skips over some rather important information about some of the participating artists.

• Tussi Dunstall - an art teacher from Weymouth
• Tamzin Hennessy - a Warwickshire based property developer. Her self-portrait submission was the first she had ever painted.
• Georgie Huxley (Instagram)  - based in East London she is a professional artist
• Lizzie Little (Instagram Art Pistol) - an art and design teacher who lives in Glasgow. She's a graduate in Painting and Printmaking from the Glasgow College of Art. Likes to draw in graphite and has a curious havit of making her marks horizontally. 
• Mick McNicholas (Facebook, Instagram) - an artist and musician who lives and works in Wokingham in Berkshire. He's a member of the Reading Guild of Artists. He studied Art & Design Foundation in his youth, and has an MA in Digital Media. However all his representative art is self-taught. All his artwork is primarily produced by working from life. He's exhibited in various shows.
• Polly Pincott (Instagram) - a full time professional artist based in Oxfordshire. She is a member of the Oxford Art Society and was a shortlisted artist selected to exhibit at the British Art Prize 2023. She made a point of practising in advance.
• Shyem Ramsay (Instagram) - a freelance artist and property developer. He's  a graduate of the University College of London with a 2.1 honours in architecture.  He turned out to be very cheeky in batting his eyelashes (proverbially speaking) asking the two female Judges what they thought he should do next! They didn't give him any help though. He was also a wildcard in Episode 1 ofLandscape Artist of the Year 2024 at Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire (see Review: Episode 1 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 9 (2024) ). I'm not getting the sense of he's produced a lot of artwork.
• Pierce Rhodes (Instagram) - based in Dublin but currently based in the Netherlands. He is a self taught artist, art teacher (through YouTube tutorials, workshops, and one-on-one sessions) and life model. 
• Yishu Wang (Instagram) - based in London she is an artist, dancer and model. She's a a recent graduate from Goldsmiths MFA Fine Art in 2023. With a BFA training in oil painting from China Academy of Art (2017-2021). She-s participated in a number of exhibitions in China and London.

QUESTION: Why has the the page on the Portrait Artist of the Year website not been updated for the profiles of participaints in Series 11. I think maybe the social media person must have changed and the replacement has not got a proper set of "this is what you have to do" instructions.

I find you can tell an awful lot about an artist by looking at their own art materials that they've brought with them. It's my entertainment from the setting up stage of the show. It also provides an immediate indicator of who is unlikely to do well.

The Self Portrait Submissions

Judges reviewing the self portraits

I analysed how the self portraits stacked up in terms of format, size and scope.

There seemed to be an awful lot of small paintings in this heat and an awful lot of heads or head and shoulders. Artists need to be more ambitious!

FORMAT

• Portrait format x 6
• Landscape x 1
• Square x 2

SIZE

• Large x 1
• Large/Medium x 0
• Medium x 1
• Small 5
• Tiny 2 

SCOPE 

• full size or most of body (including hand) x 0
• head and upper torso (no hands) x 1
• head, shoulder and hand x 1
• head and shoulders x 4
• head x 2
• reflection x 1

Themes

As always, when I watch the programme (which is typically at least twice and sometimes three times), I try to identify themes which are either:

• recurrent golden oldies - ones you really need to get to grips with if you want to participate in a future programme
• ones unique to this particular episode
• matters relevant to portraiture or being an artist

Very small self portraits - WHY?

WHY are people submitting such small self portraits?

There's no cost involved since submissions are based on digital images.

I do wonder whether the competition should make one of the images one of the self portrait should have a 12 inch ruler next to it. That way the Judges could make a much better assessment of the competence of artists to paint larger than a lot of the ones submitted.

I will repeat endlessly, your self portrait is your best opportunity to convince the Judges that you have it in you to paint a commission for a client art gallery / organisation / whoever. 

• You can't possible achieve a commission standard painting in a heat. 
• You can however demonstrate - through the self portraut - that you know how to:
• create an interesting/arresting composition
• paint more than a head and a bit of shoulders
• achieve a good likeness - since you're a ready reference on the day of the heat
• handle your media well when working on a larger scale
• paint a lot bigger than you may do in the heats
• Small paintings can indicate small ambitions - unless you're painting precise miniature paintings!!

TIP: I'd highly recommend that all those aspiring to be selected to participate in a heat 

• paint their own head at least life size and 
• preferably paint on a support bigger than the one they intend to use in a 4 hour heat

Upgrade your online image

I've occasionally written the profile of the artists before I've seen the programme - given there's a promo on Instagram and Facebook about who they are and where they come from.

When I do this I can almost always tell who's going to be a serious contender for the shortlist - and often who's a likely winner - before I've even seen or heard them.

That's because those who have become good at portraits from producing a good quantity of artwork - in particular portraits - tend to keep their websites and social media sites updated and you can get a good sense of how good they are.

Amateurs and those exhibiting occasionally tend to not have active social media sites and sometimes no website at all

What's interesting this week is that 

• some have no websites and no social media sites worth looking at. 
• Another has a domain name which goes nowhere - so I've not included it and 
• another has a domain name which has expired!!

TIP: Get your online presence sorted inbetween your heat and your heat being televised. 

Or at least, get it sorted before the heat is televised. You never know you may get commissions from your local area as a result if you look impressive online!

I have no idea what they do when selecting artists to participate.

HOWEVER if it was down to me I'd be:

• identifying a shortlist
• then reviewing all references to websites and social media sites - to see the quantity and general standard of the work
• so make it easy for them to choose you - and lick your presence online into shape.

Using a Grid versus drawing from an iPad versus sight size

Two of the shortlisted artists used a grid to get the proportions down drawn in before they started painting and the third relied on sight size - and used a brush to get the outline in.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

I got the impression in this heat that some of the artists were not people who painted people very often - if at all.

The notion that your submission is your very first self portrait made my jaw drop!

Some - like Shyem - mentioned that they'd tried out practices within the time limits, so he had an idea of what he was up against. I suspect he also knew what size he could cope with painting

TIP: I cannot emphasise too much that artists need to practice painting a portrait in four hours. Ideally from life but at least covering their support and not making it looked rushed at the end.

Be ambitious - and go big

Yishu Wang was very ambitious and got on with it! You can often tell an experienced artist because they can draw in fast and paint fast from life (with a brush) - and go big. She was certainly experienced and skilled - and had a fantastic sense of colour.

I'm still amazed at the number of people who do not realise it's easier to get proportions correct and to get a better likeness

What is very, very difficult is cramping the size of the head / face which then makes it very difficult to portraying the person correctly.

Getting a great likeness

What struck me was that artists need to ignore some of the comments by Judges when commenting on likeness - as sometimes they are just plain wrong. I'm not going to catalogue them here - but I guarantee there are other artists who watched who thought the same i.e. saying a painting is a good likeness when it is anything but!

Use your own judgement - looking at the sitter and the resulting artwork to assess whether it has achieved a great likeness.

What I saw (without naming names)

• proportions wrong e.g. head too big, head too long and too narrow, 
• structural angles within the face and head out of kilter
• face too chubby
• ears looking very 'off'

For the most part I think this was to do with inexperience in drawing heads and painting portraits. Or just the added factor of nerves making you go wrong in front of a camera.

Achieving a consistency between self portrait and portrait

There's an interesting conundrum about the self portrait and the portrait looking as if they're painted by the same person. 

If they look similar, then 

• the Judges have verified you actually painted your self portrait. Which is good.
• they can also see you have developed a style - which only comes with time and experience
• however the artist could be accused of "same old same old"
• the artist may not have shown indications of where they can go next.....
• Most importantly, on this occasion, it was suggested that those shortlisted

The portraits they painted today have reinforced what you liked about them as an artist 

If they look different

• then the artist had demonstrated additional versatility with media - IF they have changed media from submission to heat
• the artist has opened up new horizons in terms of what they might create in the future
• it does raise questions about whether the artist created the submission. (I do not jest!).

TIP: Do the best you can do - but vary it. For example:

• beforehand - with your self portrait submission, go much larger and more impressive than you can manage to paint in four hours
• in the heat - with the sitter - do the best you can do on a smaller support in 4 hours - which you have used to practice on before Battersea
• indicate there's some other sound reason for you to move forward to the semi-finals

Creating a portrait which makes the sitter emotional

You can always tell when a portrait "gets" a sitter (like the tissue moment with Hannah Waddingham last week) - and I've never yet seen a portrait which succeeds in making a sitter emotional not go home with a sitter.

So what makes for an emotional reaction? Have a read of my previous post What makes a good portrait and the importance of the artist-sitter relationship (which relates to the Portrait of the Week series duiring lockdown)

• The artist works hard at making a connection with their sitter (which goes well beyond a quick encounter to take a photo - after which you never look at the sitter again)
• the artists needs to understand the sitter
• the sitter and artist need to connect emotionally

Artists need to be open, warm, receptive and interested

 

WHY are they continuing with the time-wasting "special object"?

The "special object" was a recent innovation (three series ago??) but I'm still not at all convinced it has any value whatsoever for the following reasons:

• time filler so they don't have to show artists painting or answering questions or doing anything which might be constructive
• very rarely included in the painting
• some appear to be "what would fit with my public image" rather than genuine special objects (Hannah Waddingham's Emmy and the bike last week excepted)

INSTEAD how about the programme makers devote the time spent interviewing the sitters to 

• getting the Judges to explain one particular aspect - in depth - of what they're looking for when judging the portraits. 
• They could use examples from past series to illustrate 
•  one Judge could lead on a specific criteria of good portraiture every week. It also doesn't matter if they repeat criteria from series to series because that's how people learn!!

PS Do NOT go back to the themed backdrops. They were even worse.

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The Portraits and the Judging

Who the Sitters chose

As last week, I'm going to include the brilliant new innovation of an image which shows all three portraits of a sitter together.

Cush Jumbo 

Three portraits of Cush Jumbo

Cush Jumbo - chose the artwork which made her emotional (top left) - by Polly Pincott. 

Baaba Maal

Three portraits of Baaba Maal

Baaba Maal chose the graphite drawing (left) by Lizzie Little - although he indicated he would have happily taken them all for his homes.

Carly Paoli

Carly Paoli chose the portrait (top right) which included her very long red train by Georgie Huxley - as opposed to two paintings which made a very slim lady look rather chubbier than she actually is with very sloping shouldders which she doesn't have. (Click the link in her name to see what I mean)

The Shortlist

The Judges review the artists' artwork FOUR times

• before the heat - when reviewing digital images of the self-portraits to select those participating in the Heats
• at the beginning of the heat - when they consider the actual self-portrait submissions
• at lunchtime and then
• again at the end after the sitters have reviewed the artwork.

Lined up - in front of their self portraits for the shortlisting 

Below are all the artists lined up in front of their self portraits (i.e. not their heat paintings)

Those shortlisted were:

• Yishu Wang
• Shyem Ramsay
• Polly Pincott

Below are the three sets of portraits - the self portrait and the heat painting for each artist.

Below you can see what they look like as pairs of paintings - plus my comments on the two paintings.

Self portrait and portrait of Cush Jumbo by Yishu Wang

I thought the portrait by Yishu Wang was also excellent. In fact so much so, I had her down as my winner.  

Depending on how the other heats go, I think there's a good chance she might get brought back as "the one who got away". 

• she gave us a 3/4 view of a person IN A HEAT. Some people can't even do that for a submission
• her sense of colour is fanstastic and also well developed. She sees what works and what doesn't
• she's excellent at scale and proportion and developing structures and volume.

Self portrait and portrait of Baaba Maal by Shyem Ramsay

The self-portrait is amazing and an instant ticket to a heat. I wish there were more who were this adventurous.

His heat portrait is competent BUT I've still not really seen any eyes. "Is this because this artist is not good at eyes?" would be the query dancing around in the back of my brain!

I'm also not a huge fan of the palette. Obviously skin colour is influential - but they BOTH brown, grey, black and white pictures.  This might be good if your commission sitter is also black or brown - but Lorraine Kelly? I think not....

(Which makes me wonder at what point the artists now who the sitter for the commission will be!)

Not my winner because the two paintings were too similar.

Self portrait and portrait of Cush Jumbo by Polly Pincott

What's interesting about these two portraits is that BOTH have eyes on the viewer. They command your attention.  They also both have a strong sense of the sitter but at the same time neither are overly realistic or overworked.  The light grey background is interesting. It's a good neutral colour to stop a white board glaring.

My gripe with these two - which is why this was not my winner - is we've seen nothing very big. I think she's going to have to go bigger at the semi-finals.

PAOTY 2024 Episode 2 Winner

Shortlisted artists - Polly Pincott is on the right

The winner of episode 2 was Polly Pincott who was very surprised - but she shouldn't have been.

She had been very reluctant to start painting and was very hesitant - but thinking about her painting every step of the way. Her challenge in the semi-finals is to get going faster and to achieve more in terms of size and overall impact.

Next Episode

The sitters for Episode 2 are Dan Snow, Layton Williams and Stephen Frayne

What's the chance of Layton Williams sitting still for four hours?

Do you want to paint in a heat next year?

This is my post last year about the Call for Entries: Series 11 of Portrait Artist of the Year (next year). Essential reading for all those who want to do well - it's got links to all my past reviews and all the themes and tips identified in the last five years.

Watch out for my post about the Call for Entries for Series 12 which I'll be writing during the course of this series.