Review: Episode 8 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2024

This is my review of the final heat of Portrait Artist of the Year 2024 - or as Neil Watson (see end) calls it my forensic review of the show".

The artists in Episode 8 with Stephen Mangan

Next week is the semi-final and on Wednesday I'll be posting a review of all the semi-finalists as a memory jogger because I'm struggling right now to remember who got in....

Episode 8: The Sitters

As usual we have a mix of backgrounds when it comes to sitters.

• Rebecca Taylor/Self-Esteem (Musician) - Rebecca Lucy Taylor is also known by her stage name Self Esteem. She is a British musician, songwriter and actress.
• Dr Karan Rajan (Public Health Advocate) - an NHS surgeon and one of the biggest health and science creators on social media
• Emma Thynn (Marchioness of Bath) - her claim to fame is she is the first black Marchioness in British History. Regularly seen on various reality shows.

I rather liked Rebecca's special object - which was the charatcer she came dressed as - with a sideswipe on her lipsticked mouth.

Episode 8: The Artists

Episode 8 artists sat on the steps at Battersea Arts Centre

All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname - but are not differentiated between professional and amateur.

Given Sky Arts has given up on providing links to their website and social media sites, this blog is now the ONLY site where you can find them! The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available.

• Katie Gall (Instagram) - an IT specialist from Berkshire. This is her self portrait
• Neil Hamilton - Neil-Jack Alphonsus Hamilton is an Irish artist based in Donegal. He was born in County Down and comes from a family of artists. He graduated in Fine Art from the University of Ulster, Belfast in 2014 and has exhibited his work in numerous local and international shows. He previously competed in Portrait Artist of the Year in 2022. He works on commissions and as a life drawing tutor.
• Kirstin Mackinnon - an optometrist from Glasgow. She's previously been longlisted for portrait awards.
• Asa Medhurst (Instagram)- a creative agency owner and a contemporary figurative artist from South London working in oils and charcoal. He likes to blur the boundary between the real and the imaginary. He graduated from the Kent Institute of Art & Design in 1995 and has since gone on to study at The Royal Drawing School, Art academy and London Fine Arts. He's previously exhibited in the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. His portrait below is based on the photo he took in the heat and is rather better than the one he produced at the time - see explanation in text.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Asa Medhurst (@asa.medhurst)

• Gaby Moxy (Instagram) - a professional artist from East Chinnock in Somerset who paints portraits and also has a decorative arts business.
• Brianna Lois Parker (Instagram) - a Caribbean-British professional oil painter  from South East London who graduated with a first class degree in Fine Art in 2021. Her work encapsulates everyday experiences and is strongly Black and British and she has a personal relationship with the subjects of her artwork. I liked her portraits on Instagram. I'm somewhat surprised not to hear that she was the first winner of the Margate Art Prize, selected by Tracy Emin
• Ed Simkins - a graphic designer This is his selfportrait. He studied at Chelsea School of Art at Foundation level but the need for a career took him into Graphic Design and Publishing. 30 years later he now makes art his priority and works across various media.
• Bran Sivakumar (Instagram) - He has two careers. He's a Children's Hand, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital and is also a contemporary British artist who works mostly in oils focusing on studies of still life, portraiture and the human figure. He has a painting in the current annual exhibition by the ROI at the Mall Galleries so I may well have seen him at the Private View yesterday without realising it!

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A post shared by Bran (@bransivas)

• Cristina Vercesi (Instagram) - Originally from Pavia in Italy and now based in London. In her late 30s, in 2017,  she enroled to study at the London Fine Art Studios.where she is now a tutor

The Self Portraits

Judges reviewing the self portraits by artists participating in Episode 8

As you can see this is how the analysis of self portraits worked. Rather fewer smaller self portraits than in some heats and rather more medium/large submissions. Many fewer "just a head".

FORMAT -  two thirds plumped for the portrait format and three went with another way of looking at portraits

• Portrait format x 6
• Landscape x 2
• Square x 0
• Tondo x 1

SIZE - no extremes of size and most avoided smaller sizes 

• Very Large x 0
• Large x 0
• Large/Medium x 4
• Medium x 3
• Small x 2
• Tiny x 0

SCOPE 

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

Note my comments about content of self portraits below.

Themes

Do you now NEED to demonstrate you can do a full length portrait?

Artist of the Year: Masterclass launches 2nd December

Sky Arts have come up with a brand new idea - Artist of the Year: Masterclass for all those aspiring artists out there. This post provides you with ALL THE DETAILS of what's on offer:

• which artists are involved
• what they are teaching

I've got a few problems with the words they use which are clear evidence of marketing over accuracy. That said, it's probably going to be a very popular series. Just a pity they gave it the wrong name....

The NEW Concept: Artist of the Year: Masterclass 

Tai Shan Shierenberg will be giving masterclasses along with other artists

Each masterclass will focus on a different subject or technique to help audiences understand the basics of painting and drawing, with classes covering everything from exploring tone and Alla Prima painting to composing a landscape, botanical flowers and even animal portraiture.

• Target audience: budding artists at home
• Methodology: 
• live tutorials from a variety of talented artists who have previously participated in either PAOTY or LAOTY
• demonstrations of "easy-to-learn techniques to budding artists at home"

The odd thing is I wouldn't ever describe this as a "Masterclass"

A Masterclass in my eyes is something 

• established artists may take to raise their game - the artist who has got beyond beginner but wants to progress to Intermediate or Advanced Levels.
• by learning about the things that acknowledged experts do which makes their artwork that much better.

Whereas the description is coming across to me as if it's about taking people who would like to be artists to a rather advanced level in one fell swoop. Which is:

• very ambitious 
• absolutely impossible!

Next time they maybe need to be properly innovative and get away from marketing people who haven't got a clue and conventional ideas about marketing and pandering to the novice and actually do something useful - such as directing their attention to creating people who will do well in PAOTY or LAOTY e.g. teach them about the pitfalls - and how to overcome them!

Jury is out for me at the moment. I am easily impressed by solid and good quality instruction - and I know that many of those who are delivering tutorials are very experienced teachers. Equally - and sadly - I know that not all are....

So below I'm going to highlight those who are delivering classes on a face to face basis.

The Artists delivering Masterclasses

The artists are mostly those who did well in PAOTY or LAOTY or are otherwise wellknown and well liked!

Links embedded in their name are to their website. Plus I've included links to Instagram where possible.

I'm commenting on what they have achieved as an artist and also whether or not they appear to be a regular teacher/instructor via classes or books.

Past winners of Portrait Artist of the Year

Digitising your art for posterity

When I was still making art, I used to be absolutely fastidious about recording its creation digitally - as it progressed and then again at the end and then saving it in different file formats. 

As I got more experienced, I started looking more into the "how to get a good image" and "how to photograph your art"

I was rather overwhelmed by the fact that, back in the 1990s, the first time I engaged a photographer to photograph my art, I ended up in her studio with black cloth everywhere, the lights off and her hand holding one of those clicker things which takes the picture. They were jolly good images! Pity we weren't doing digital then....

Many artists are now very interested in making sure they get good quality images of their artwork either through digital scanning or via digital photography - primarily so they can reproduce their art in different ways for ancillary sales.

Subsequently, I got very interested in collecting information about how to photograph your own art and everything I found at the time ended up on this page How to Photograph Art - for Artists on my Art Business Info for Artists website.   

Which is how I ended up with Case Studies like this......

Many thanks toYanny Petters for the action shot of her husband 
photographing her art outside on a bright but overcast day with no shadows

I'm now a member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society. The Society is currently involved in digitising its archive of botanical illustrations of the plants growing in the Chelsea Physic Garden.

This is the latest post on the CPGFS Instagram Account of the activities of the British Museum imaging department who have been engaged to digitise the @cpgflorilegiumsociety Archive Collection.  

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Review: Episode 7 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2024

PAOTY Episode 7: lined up for shortlisting

This week we reached the penultimate heat, had artists eager to show us all - from boobs to two views of a self portrait. Plus Kate sprained her ankle, missed the filming of the review of the self portraits at the beginning and was on crutches throughout. So there was lots of sitting down.... 

 As usual, this review follows the same format as all the previous ones in Series 11 (listed - with ALL REVIEWS FROM PAST SERIES - at the bottom)

Episode 7: Sitters

The three sitters in this penultimate heat were:

• Martha Kearney (Presenter) - a well known journalist and radio broadcaster used to the main presenter of BBC4's "The World at One" for 11 years and then the Today Programme. She stood down from broadcasting the news after the last General Election this summer - but continues to do nature programming." She brought an ancient way to keep bees.
• Kevin McCloud - (Designer / TV Presenter) - the presenter of Channel 4's Grand Designs - since 1999 - much loved by all those aspiring to live in nicer houses but terrified of the building costs! We've all watched his hair disappear - but I want to know how can he be 4+ years younger than me? He brought a much loved axe - which the risk assessment people determined had to be strapped to a board to make it on set!
• Heather Mills (Activist) - a former model and animal rights activist who is most famous for being the ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartnery and throwing a jug of water over his solicitor in the High Court. It turns out that she has a new occupation - winning medals for winter sports. She brought her prosthetic ski racing leg!

Episode 7: Artists

The artists sat on the steps of Battersea Arts Centre where the heats are filmed

 

All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname - but are not differentiated between professional an amateur. I do this because the artists get no recognition in the end credits of each programme - despite the fact the programmes would not exist without them!

Given Sky Arts has given up on providing links to their website and social media sites, this blog is now the ONLY site where you can find them! The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available. NOTE for Artist of the Year

Given the absence of posts on Instagram for this episode when I started writing yesterday (did somebody get bored/forget?) this is from a comment I made on my Facebook Page

If you're going to do social media marketing for a series you have to:

1. do it regularly - for every programme
2. do it consistently
3. add in extras (we like these) - BUT don't remove essentials (introducing the artists) and improvements!

This list took a lot longer this week as I checked subtitles....

• Kitty Bellamy (Instagram) - a mother, self-directed artist and part-time French Polisher living in York - who had some good news three weeks ago about where her self portrait will be exhibited next - at the upcoming Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the Mall Galleries - opening next week. Clearly the selectors for the ROI know quality when they see it!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kitty Bellamy (@kittybellamyart)

.

• Jack Hewitt (Instagram) - a self-taught oil painter based in East London, primarily focused on figurative and portrait painting. He also works as a part-time supervisor at a music venue. He's also exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and NEAC.
• Sophia Kaur Hambleton-Grey (Instagram) She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts, 2019-2022 from the Ruskin School of Art / Magdalen College, University of Oxford (so one of the "lockdown" graduates). Currently studying for a Masters of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths University and volunteering as a WiSER Peer Project Mentor.Kiana Manu (Instagram) is a London-based advertising student (at the time) who graduated with a first class degree this summer.
• Paul Martin (Instagram) - a retired creative director from Pembrokeshire. Paul graduated from Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts in 1984 with a BA(hons) Degree in Art & Design. He had a 25 year career as a visualiser, storyboard artist and graphic designer, eventually forming his own design agency in London. He retired from design in 2007 and returned to his roots as a painter in Pembrokeshire. He has a studio situated on the foothills of the Preseli hills. This is his self portrait.
• Donna McGlynn (Instagram) - a painter and printmaker who is based in Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland. She is a Gray's School of Art Aberdeen alumni and taught art and design for a number of years. She won the prestigious £5,000 Sutherland Independent Scottish Portrait Award in Fife Art 2023

I'm on this series. I'll be watching through my fingers as although it seemed like a good idea to apply after a couple of glasses of wine, I was a bit taken aback and regret-y when I got selected. Anyhoo - the folks who make this show are A DELIGHT and I loved them. They made all of us feel very special. I understand why participants return - we're treated so well. Donna McGlynn

• Rosie Phillips (Instagram) - an art technician from North Norfolk.She participated in the 2022 series when she painted Big Zuu and was shortlisted. She completed her A Levels in 2019 and started her professional career as an artist. She likes expressionistic figurative paintings, and has an interest in storytelling and depicting moments and experiences from my life. In 2023, she participated in Royal Society of British Artists’ Bicentennial Exhibition (March), Affordable Art Fair Hampstead and The Jackson’s Painting Prize exhibition at Bankside Gallery
• Neil Rogers ASGFA (Instagram) - He has been painting for over 30 years and runs regular art classes and workshops in his studio in the village of Alrewas In Staffordshire. He lives in Burton upon Trent. This was his self portrait
• Fletcher Sibthorp (Instagram) - who lives in London. He's been painting on commission for over 30 years. His work has appeared in museums, offices album covers, theatre posters, company reports and even tattoos.

Recently, I participated in Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2024, a rewarding experience that challenged me to create a portrait in just four hours. No mean feat, considering you’re surrounded and bombarded by a TV crew, an audience and interviewed constantly. There’s no room for error… or paint drying! Fletcher Sibthorp

The Self Portraits

ING Discerning Eye 2024 Exhibition

The ING Discerning Eye 2024 Exhibition is currently on at the Mall Galleries in London and I visited last Friday. 

Unlike other exhibitions, five days later there's nothing much which comes to mind when trying to recall it - apart from a few pieces which were standout ones for me. That's essentially because it is overloaded with small artworks but maybe something else as well.....

paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture in the ING Discerning Eye 2024

The exhibition is unique because of the way it is put together.

Six people - two artists, two critics and two art collectors - pick what they like best from the open entry and also get to exhibit artwork by artists they like. 

The selectors this year are listed below - together with some views of their individual exhibits

You can also see the exhibition online - by selector. I'm putting the link underneath each pic of their exhibit below

Artists

• Adebanji Alade - current President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters; he also features regularly on the BBC’s The One Show
• Nina Murdoch - She trained at the Slade School of Fine Art (1989-93) and at the Royal Academy Schools (1993-96), and was the winner of the inaugural Threadneedle Prize (2008).

part of the exhibit by Adebanji Alade (134 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/adebanji-alade/

part of the exhibit by Nina Murdoch (105 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/nina-murdoch/
(who had the most difficult and fragmented space - next to the cafe)

Critics

• Paul Carey-Kent - he has weekly column for FAD art news, does monthly interviews for Artlyst and freelances for various art news publications. This is his blog post about the exhibition and his chosen artworks
  
• Will Gompertz - an English journalist, author and art critic. He was the BBC's arts editor before becoming he Barbican Centre's Artistic Director in June 2021 and the director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in 2024.

part of the exhibit by Paul Carey-Kent (119 artworks) in the North Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/paul-carey-kent/

part of the exhibit by Will Gompertz (107 artworks) at the end of the West Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/will-gompertz/

Collectors

• Carol Leonard - has been dubbed the ‘doyenne of boardroom head-hunters’ by the Financial Times.
• Gabrielle Blackman - one of the country's leading interior designers.

two walls of the exhibit by Carol Leonard (115 artworks) in the East Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/carol-leonard/

part of the exhibit by Gabrielle Blackman (124 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/gabrielle-blackman/

What seemed very weird to me this year is that I found it quite difficult to distinguish between the individual selectors - with the exception of Will Gometz and Paul Carey-Kent - who happen to be the art critics - who both produced quite distinctive "looks" to their two exhibitions. 

Who knew it would be the art critics who would present me with the best visual experience?

Lessons from this Exhibition 

The thing about this exhibition, which is its unique distinction - a wealth of small artwork - is also what makes it very difficult to view on occasion.

I usually come out feeling as if I've just had a visual overload.  But there's overload and then there's indigestion.

makingamark is now in a bluer place

Yesterday evening, I turned to the new kid on the block - Bluesky Social - and registered 'makingamark' for an account. 

Those currently joining Bluesky Social seem to be very much either 

• those wanting to reject the swaggering "Leon" for what he's done to date - and going to do in future. Hence the massive numbers (millions) who all joined last week. 

The platform said on Thursday evening, that an additional one million people had joined within 24 hours. BBC News

• and/or to go back to the days of "good old Twitter" (pre Leon) - which, for me, is actually what it feels like - a lot!  (I've always been one of those who has kept calling it Twitter - because we dislike Leon so very much)
• and/or those who can't cope with the pervasive and very intrusive adverts on Twitter. There are no adverts on Bluesky Social - and I assume this will continue to be the same until they've worked out how to monetise it in a way which keeps people rather than drives them away

This was the new account last night

If you want to find me, you can find me at @makingamark.bsky.social

Below is a bit more about what's involved with joining.

In the last week or so I've heard about a lot of people rushing over to BlueSky Social post election (as in millions!)  

I'm now on Bluesky Social - as makingamark

So by way of making myself visible

• I've claimed my makingamark "brand handle" - you can see it just under the account name in the pic
• I've started posting pics on there.
• plus maybe drip feeding pics I liked at the ING Discerning Eye? (see note at the end).

So, if this is a really good time to get back to your more "interest oriented" social media (I just clicked "art" as my interest) now is very definitely the time to investigate.

Plus get your handle that's the one you're known by elsewhere - BEFORE anybody else gets it.

Account Name

Warning - they don't like long names so for my second account, I could not have the name for my very popular botanical art website "botanicalartandartists" (#1 in the world)  - which is what I wanted. 

But I have got @botanicalart.bsky.social instead and that will very certainly do! :)

I'm going to have a third account for my "watching everything else I'm interested in" but this won't be one I publicise.

Interest Focused

You can have multiple accounts - and since this model of social media is emphatically interest oriented, I'd suggest considering one for your art - and another for everything else

You can post short messages, photos, and videos and send direct messages. Just like Twitter.

If your serious about your art, I'd HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you keep an account focused on just art. I know I only follow those accounts which are going to deliver to my own "defined interest" account what I want to look at.

Follow back

There's no harm having an account which is about multiple interests. However, just don't be surprised if not everybody wants to know EVERYTHING you're interested in and do NOT follow you back.

My other personal rule for following back is I only follow back:

• people I know - so makingamark will be following artists whose art I know or people I have met and know
• people who are posting (i.e. I don't follow back those who haven't yet posted) - and whose art looks interesting. Nobody has to like all the art that is out there

Overall, I'm not looking for lots of followers. I'm looking to develop a carefully curated set of posts. Of those I follow, I will be reposting stuff I like. 

I also UNFOLLOW those who are posting too much about stuff I'm really NOT interested in. (So maybe reread the last paragraph of the preceding section?)

Verification

You are verified via your email address and one of those picture puzzlegrams - which hopefully will keep many of the bots at bay - which would be very good news.

Decentralised 

The defining difference between Twitter and BlueSky Social is that the latter is constructed to be decentralised, which basically means users can host their data on servers other than those owned by the company.

Now I've not really investigated what that means - but for those owning their domains and buying their own hosts, you might want to investigate this aspect. Or maybe move over to it being decentralised in future if it takes off for you....

Get the app / FAQs

You'll need the app to use it on your phone or tablet and can otherwise access it via the website https://bsky.social

This is the Bluesky User FAQs

NOTE: My next blog post has been held up. I've been sat around since Friday waiting for my photographs of the ING Discerning Eye on my iPhone to turn up on the Facebook Interface with my Macbook so I can write about the exhibition and I'm still waiting. Looks like I'm going to have to export them. 

Does anybody know why the macOS Facebook sometimes cannot read Apple Photos? It's extremely boring when it happens.

Review: Episode 6 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2024

This is my fairly prompt review of Episode 6 of Portrait Artist of the Year which was first screened yesterday evening to make up for my very slow review re Episode 5!

The opening of Episode 6 - with all the artists

I rather like the new way of opening the show - with Stephen Mangan being supprounded by the artists.

Episode 6: The Sitters

The Sitters for Episode 6 of PAOTY (Series 11)

The three sitters were

• Jill Scott - a very tall former professional footballer and member of the England Women Football Squad until she retired after their win at the Euros in 2022. She now owns a coffee shop in Northendon and also engages with podcasting and pundits. She also won the twenty-second series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and was crowned "Queen of the Jungle"
• Jimi Famurewa - a British journalist and food critic for the Evening Standard. who frequently appears on Masterchef.
• Lyall Hakaraia (Instagram)- He's a queer community leader arts and entertainment in Dalston and fashion designer. He has Maori heritage.

Episode 6: The Artists

The Artists on the steps of Battersea Arts centre where the heats are filmed.

All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname - but are not differentiated between professional and amateur.

Given Sky Arts has given up on providing links to their website and social media sites, this blog is now the ONLY site where you can find them! The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available.

• Erin De Burca (Instagram) - a retired teacher (who taught for 25 years in Spain) turned full time artist based in Dublin. She's been painting since 2006 and is self taught.
• Jack Garvin (Instagram) a theatre manager - working in the theatre business in London - who is also an artist based in North London focusing predominantly on portraiture and figurative work. He likes to paint in oils in an alla prima style, with a balance between strong likeness’ and loose painting work. He also painted 11 portraits just before the heat as practice and managed to complete in 3.5 hours by the end!
• Glen Gashi (Instagram) - a genetics graduate based in London. I think he found the four hour time limit difficult. His self portrait included landscapes from an Albanian holiday.

Going from doodling in my sketchbook in lectures to having the opportunity to draw for @artistoftheyear was very surreal!

• Julia Karl (Instagram) - a freelance graphic designer based in an East London. She has always been enthuisastic about art since a child. She graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Arts at Buckinghamshire New University before relocating to London to work as a graphic designer.
• Minjoo Kim (Instagram)- a professional narrative painter who was born and raised in South Korea and now lives in Enfield. She came to London to do an MA in Fine art at the Chelsea College of Art. She's participated in a number of group exhibitions since coming to London. She uses acrylic and created a self portrait which was also critique of over consumption during Covid. The subjects of her paintings, primarily women, are drawn from real-life but depicted in an imaginary setting, or as Kim describes it, ‘a virtual narrative’.
• August Lamm (Instagram) - a creative professional based in London who shares her work via Instagram. She's from New Haven, Connecticut with a degree in art history and she has worked as an art handler, art writer, and art podcaster. She's written a book called Crosshatching in Pen & Ink (2022). This is her self portrait. She avoids screens and prefers to paint from photos.
Sofia Laskari (Instagram) - currently a bakery manager and barista based in South London. She graduated from Camberwell College of Arts (London University) with an Honours degree in Fine Art,painting) in 2023. She's particularly interested in painting women and the different hues of flesh. Her self portrait also included a very good portrait of her ginger cat. Her CV indicates a promising start to a career in art.

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A post shared by Jason Munro (@jason.munro_)

• Jason Munro (Instagram) - a Brighton based senior print designer. He exhibits in sussex and has exhibited with both the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the New English Art Club at the Mall Galleries. You can see much better images of his self portrait and heat painting on his website.
• Helen Lee Robinson - a freelance painter and designer from Glasgow. She exhibited her her very fine oil painting of her sister Lucy - which very used a Holbein turquoise backdrop - as part of the BP Portrait Exhibition 2019. This was one my favourite paintings in this exhibition and I recognised it straight away when I reviewed the portraits on her website. I wished she'd done a wowser one for her self portrait - but instead she did a miniature self portrait - which was very fine but not as good as she can do!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Helen Lee Robinson (@helenlee_artist)

The Self Portraits

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Erin de Burca (@erin.de.burca)

The range of sizes were extreme.

FORMAT

• Portrait format x 6
• Landscape x 0
• Square x 3

SIZE

• Very Large x 1
• Large x 1
• Large/Medium x 1
• Medium x 1
• Small x 2
• Tiny x 3

SCOPE

• full size or most of body (including hand) x 1
• head, shoulder and hand(s) x 3
• head and upper torso (no hands) x 1
• head and shoulders x 0
• head x 4

Themes

Can you smile?

"Can you smile?" is a question I hear being asked a lot in the heats.

Of course they can smile. 

• Whether they want to smile is another matter. 
• Whether it is a good thing for them to smile is much more relevant to the task in hand.

As soon as I hear the words, I instantly dismiss the artist who asks the question as a total amateur who has never ever painted from life.

That's because it is TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE for any sitter to hold a smile. Which means we all know straight away that it's painted from a photo.

Or as Sandy Nairne, ex Director of the National Portrait Gallery said to me once

"You can count the number of smiling portraits in this gallery on the fingers of one hand"

The HUGE importance of the self portrait

I know I bang on about this a lot - but I'm going to do so again.

That's because you can tell a lot from the self portraits for this exhibition

• who got in on the strength of their self portrait - but was unable to live up to in a four hour heat. I loved Erin's self portrait, it was unusual and it was good. It was such a pity that she couldn't deliver when it came to the heat and her painting was not of the same standard.
• who missed out on being selected for the shortlist because they didn't create an impactful self -portrait. Helen Lee Robinson's self portrait was very small - and very good - but it didn't speak of an artist who could do a commission.

TIP: So a reminder if it takes you a long time to produce a portrait, 

• you MUST work out a strategy for delivering a good portrait in four hours - which Helen did. Her graphite pencil portrait was excellent
• you MUST "wow" the Judges with a self portrait that looks like a £10,000 Commission as your submission - which Helen didn't - but she could have done. I'd like to see her having another go in a future series.

Media: Very long pencils

I always try to find one topic about art media and this week it was about the pencils with the very, very long pencil leads used by graphite artist Glen Gashi.

Very long leads - and I very much approve his use of Mars Lumograph by Staedtler!

I've got friends who use graphite a lot who also like shaving all the wood off and hand carving and shaving a great point - but I've never seen anybody produce points as long as Glen's!

However I liked his rationale, that the long point made him be less impatient and slow down rather than trying to speed up which is not his way of drawing - and potentially break a lead.

Referencing the Object

I'm still in two minds about the object. Artists are not required to include them and to my mind, they would do much better to allocate all their time to producing a great portrait.

TIP: My own take is that including the object just provides scope for you to mess up a perfectly good portrait. So, don't!

For example:

• do NOT include ANY letters or numbers unless you can do them properly.
• I thought Glen's notion of putting the medal back round Jill Scott's neck was a good one - except of course when he did that, the medal ended up very much higher than when she was awarded it.

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The Portraits and the Judging

Below is:

• who the sitter chose
• who the Judges shortlisted
• the artist who won this heat

Who the Sitter chose

I'm again using the Instagram posts of the three portraits for each sitter - which is a great way of comparing them - for the most part.

Paintings of Jimi Fumarewa by 
(top left) Jason Monrow
(bottom left) Minjoo Kim
(right) 

 Jimi chose the painting by Minjoo Kim.

"This is mind-blowing; it's so impressive!"  Jimi Fumarewa

Paintings of Lyall Hakaraia - by:
(top right) August Lamm
(bottom left) Jack Gavin
(bottom right) Helen Lee Robinson

Lyall chose the graphite drawing by Helen Lee Robinson.

Helen's been very successful at making me forget she has been drawing all day. There's something very, direct, very honest, highly observant. This is exactly what Lyall looked like today. I'm really pleasantly surprised by what she could do. Kate Bryan

Paintings of Jill Scott by:
(top left) Erin De Burca
(bottom left) Glen Gashi
(right) Sofia Laskari

Jill picked the painting by Sofia Laskari.

Interestingly, none of the artists chosen by the sitters were chosen by the Judges! 

So - on to the shortlist!

The Shortlist

I wrote down on the top of my notes, the artists who I thought were pretty certain to be shortlisted and I only got one right - albeit I was mainly going off self portraits and how well they got started!  

Which is sort of what I thought about this heat. It included people who should have done better. Or maybe that's artists who should have practiced more BEFORE the heat?

Kate Bryan said she was concerned half way through the day - and I think that's because some people were not coming through in the way they had hoped.

Interesting day, dictated somewhat by the sitters and the artist response on difficulty with them

A statement from Tai which made me wonder, to an extent, what we had not seen.

Whereas Kathleen made other very meaningful comments

It is a very difficult environment and we have to understand "promise" versus "compromise"  Kathleen Soriano

We've got three artists who adapted their styles well.  Kathleen Soriano

The shortlist for the place in the Semi Final comprised:

• Jack Gavin (who did 11 portraits while practising for the heat!)
• Jason Monroe (who adapted his style to the timescale of the heat)
• August Lamm (who was the only one who really went for it and painted most of Lyall - including his hands!)

PAOTY 2024 Episode 5 Winner

The winner of Episode 6 was August Lamm

August has pushed the boat out, gone for the full figure. this is a fabulous bit of painting

Tai Shan Shierenberg

August Lamm - Winner of Episode 6

 The paint is just gorgeous Kathleen Soriano

There is a freshness and liveliness to the portrait of Lyall that she made today 

Next Episode

The sitters for Episode 7 which will screened next Wednesday evening include two I like and one I don't.

• Heather Mills - a former model and animal rights activist who is most famous for being the ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartnery and throwing a jug of water over his solicitor in the High Court. I do hope she's not too mouthy or I will have to turn off - and you won't then get a review!
• Kevin McCloud - the presenter of Channel 4's Grand Designs - since 1999 - much loved by all those aspiring to live in nicer houses but terrified of the building costs! We've all watched his hair disappear - but I want to know how can he be 4+ years younger than me?
• Martha Kearney - a well known journalist and radio broadcaster used to the main presenter of BBC4's "The World at One" for 11 years and then the Today Programme. She stood down from broadcasting the news after the last General Election this summer - but continues to do nature programming.

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.