Review: Episode 5 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2024

This is my long overdue review of Episode 5 of Portrait Artist of the Year which was first screened last Wednesday evening.

Turning the portraits of Lucy Worsley around

I much prefer to write the reviews in one sitting and this proved absolutely impossible last week. You can blame 

• the time I needed to recover from staying up to watch the American Election results and then the time required to digest the result. 
• Plus a major family event in Manchester last weekend. 
• Plus I'm currently chairing a Panel of Judges reviewing applications for an Art Award which is proving to be very interesting but also very time-consuming.

The PAOTY series is televised on Sky Arts (Freeview) every Wednesday at 8pm - and can also be watched on Catchup if you have access to Sky or Now.

There's another tomorrow night! The Sitters are listed at the end of this post.

Episode 5: The Sitters

The three sitters were

• Lucy Worsley - age 50, a British historian, author, curator, and television presenter. She is the joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces but is best known as a presenter of BBC Television and Channel 5 series on historical topics. I always find her a riveting watch!
• Musa Motha - age 29, a South African full-time professional dancer, choreographer, and motivational speaker. He is also a cancer survivor after his leg was amputated. He impressed with his appearance on Britain's Got Talent.
• Ricky Hatton - age 46, former British professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2012 and held multiple world championships.

Episode 5: The Artists

The artists in Episode 5 of PAOTY 2024

Love Beth Kaiden's look at Stephen Mangan looking a wally in a beret!

There was a considerable amount of side eye in this heat......

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.

• Chris Draper - an architectural illustrator from Wiltshiree. He studied at Southend Schopol of Art and Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture. His self portrait was done in watercolour and gouache and was done after he had been in hospital following a stroke.
• Luca Guarino (Instagram) - He is a a multimedia artist working with traditional and digital mediums - he's more of a figurative artist than a portrait artist. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2020 with a First-Class Honours in painting and printmaking. He was one of the Royal Scottish Academies RSA New Contemporaries 2022. He also did The Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School in 2022 - which is why he seemed familiar to me as I go to their End of Year Exhibition most years. (The latest one opens tomorrow!) He currently works as an art tutor. His website may be private but he needs to get his act together on a public one!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Luca Guarino (@lucajguarino)

• Beth Kaiden (Instagram) - age 18 at the time of filming. She is a Barista and a Netball Umpire from Kent. Interesting and impressive video about her time as a Foundation Student in Art and Design an UAL in London. I think we'll be seeing more of her!
• Amy Sasaki-Fletcher (Instagram) - an art student based in Cheshire
• Geoff Shillito (Instagram) - a former graphic designer, based in Dorset. He was elected a member of the Bath Society of Artists in 2005, and elected an Academician of the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in 2020. He's participated in numerous group exhibitions and competitive open entries. He likes dynamic compositions and playing with scale.
• Rachel Stedman (Instagram) - an illustrator and portrait and landscape artist living and working from her Sussex studio in the South Downs near Lewes. She graduated in Illustration at the Brighton Art College in 1988. As a result she has had a long and exciting career in animation working as a background and development artist. She was the Wildcard Winner in the LAOTY Hever Castle Heat in 2023 (with a different surname). She also exhibited in Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition in 2024. I must confess I much prefer her landscapes which are stylized and stunning!
• Josh Thompson (Instagram) - a barista from Glasgow who studied physics before he found painting.
• Lorna Wadsworth - Born in Sheffield, she is now based in East London. She She studied BA (Hons) Illustration at Falmouth College of Art before undertaking The Drawing Year at the Prince's Drawing School (now the Royal Drawing School). Interestingly I immediately recognised her from back in 2005-7 when I was doing classes there with James Lloyd. She was selected for the John Moores Painting Prize in 2023
• Jenna Waldren (Instagram)- a figurative and portrait artist based in North London. She was awarded a First Class, BA (Hons) Painting by The University of Edinburgh / Edinburgh College of Art, (2017- 2021). In 2024 she was a Winner of the BTA Rising Star Award. In 2023 she was longlisted for the Scottish Portrait Award, 2023. She already has a very impressive listing of group exhibitions on her website dating back to 2018.

The Self Portrait Submissions

The Self Portrait Wall
- the self portrait by the winner is very small and behind Kate's head!

NOTE: DOING THE COUNTING IS TEDIOUS IN THE EXTREME - AND I WANT MY DINNER! So I'll be back tomorrow to finish off the post with an analysis of the self portraits. 

The range of sizes were extreme.

FORMAT
Portrait format x 
Landscape x 
Square x 

SIZE

Very Large x 
Large x 
Large/Medium x 
Medium x 
Small x 
Tiny x 

SCOPE

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

Themes

Different approaches to taking reference photos

I wonder how many other people noticed as I did the different approaches to taking reference photos to work from.

We had the conventional and respectful i.e. not looking up a nostril

Jenna Waldren worked from a photo the entire time
- but she was not "in your face" when taking photos of Lucy

By way of contrast, Lorna Wadsworth had Ricky Hatton sitting with an umbrella and a directional light while she tried to get the light effect on his haed that she was after.

Ricky Hatton suffering for his portrait!

The "up the nostril" approach of Geoff Shillito was a bit different. Apparently Geoff was after a more rugged approach and a dynamic composition.

Ricky Hatton having his photo taken by Geoff Shillito

What to accomplish in the first hour

It's always interesting to hear how different artists plan in different ways - including the "no plan" bunch who just give it a go and see how it goes.

For most people it was about getting:

• photos taken
• sketches done
• composition worked out
• outline drawing of shape and contours / features done so that painting can start

For some, they got it right at the second attempt - and it's sensible to think about the need to abandon what you've done so far and start again

Those who do plan tend to work out what they want to achieve in each hour, so they can keep an eye on whether or not they're on track.

Those who are VERY organised tend to plan what they want to achieve in every single one of the four hours.

Interestingly the winner not only had a clear concept of what she wanted to achieve - but she also had an audible alarm for telling her when the hour marker was reached. My recollection from attending heats is that they get warnings towards the end as to how much time is left - but not earlier in the process. I don't whether this has changed. What I do know is you can't beat having your own timers!

Those who are slow in the morning can have a quick bite and come back and keep painting even thought it's not part of the official four hours. Nobody stops you, but you are of course not having a proper break and might run out of steam in the afternoon as a result.

Different media in this heat

We had a couple of people using media not often seen in PAOTY.

Luca Guerino was using coloured pencils in a very sketchy way - which was very effective. Indeed the various sites were you can see his work indicate an artist who draws extremely well and has a strong figurative focus - with a quirky angle to his work.

He reminded me of Curtis Holder while not drawing in the same way. Indeed he's more like the way I draw. I loved his outline of the camera crew in the background which really rooted the drawing in the reality.

Lica's coloured pencil drawing of Musa Motha

Lorna's portrait of Ricky on drawing film
- with the drawing on a seperate sheet underneath

Lorna Wadsworth was using drawing film in a way I can't recall it ever being used like this on PAOTY.

• she used one sheet to develop her composition and drawing of Ricky Hatton
• then she attached a separate sheet of drawing film on top - which meant she could see the drawing underneath
• then she used paint to develop a cooloured version of the head and the hands

I guess this means if she makes a mess of the paintings she can screw up that sheet and get another and start again - but she still has the drawing underneath.

Somewhere in the middle she was seen painting something on to the film around the head. I couldn't work out whether it was some form of fixative or some sort of base for the paint. Anybody got any ideas?

It always comes back to the likeness

There's no way of getting away from the fact the Judges are now firmly attached to the notion that artists need to achieve a good likeness to progress in the competition.

The question then becomes when has an artist failed to achieve a likeness as opposed to drawing/painting a sitter in a deliberately 'not realistic' way.

So we have three artists who, to my mind, were some way off a likeness

• Luca Guerino produced a stunning drawing of Musa Motha with a head which was actually not very like him at all. One of the Judges commented that Luca was drawing what he liked drawing - and I think the people in his drawings are not portraits - they're just people and it's not necessary for them to look as they do in real life. 
• Josh Thompson to my mind made a good effort but failed to achieve a good likeness - in part because his painting was somewhat flat
• Rachel Stedman did not produce portrait that looked very like Lucy (a little bit too angular) - although Lucy didn't seem to mind in the least. However having seen the way she paints landscapes, it strikes me that she paints for the sense of place / person rather than an exact replica. So here we have an example of "not a good likeness" but that's not what the artist tried to produce.

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The Portraits and the Judging

About to unveil the portraits to the sitter.....

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.

Lucy Worsley chose Jenna Waldren's portrait of her - bottom right below

I thought it a very wise choice as it reflected her age but was also an amazingly good likeness and painted in an interesting way. The PAOTY photo below doesn't really do it justice.

Portraits of Lucy Worsley
Left: Chris Draper
Top right: Rachel Stedman
Bottom right: Jenna Waldren

I liked Geoff Drapers' "illustration" and like the Judges rather wished he hadn't developed the colour as it sort of killed it. He's an excellent draughtsman but his painting ended up looking rather flat

Musa Motha chose the painting by Beth Kaiden - bottom left below

portraits of Musa Motha by 
top right: Josh Thompson
bottom left: Beth Kaiden
Bottom right: Luca Guarino

Ricky Hatton chose the portrait painting on drawing film by Lorna Wadsworth - bottom below

Portraits of Ricky Hatton
Top left: Geoff Shillito
Top right: Amy Fletcher
Bottom: Lorna Wadsworth

The Shortlist

Waiting for the Shortlist to be announced

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

PLUS every time they walked around and watched.

Those shortlisted were three women artists:

• Lorna Wadsworth
• Jenna Waldren
• Beth Kaiden

The shortlisted artists artwork
(left to right) Beth Kaiden, Jenna Waldren and Lorna Wadsworth
At this distance it looks like one clear winner to me

Below you can see the self portrait entry alongside the portrait painting in the heat.

Lorna Wadsworth

Self portrait in pastels and heat portrait on drawing film
by Lorna Wadsworth

The self portrait was in pastels and the heat portrait was in paint but I'm not sure which kind. What I do know is that it was painted on drawing film,

Jenna Waldren

Self portrait and heat portrait
by Jenna Waldren

This is a very bad photo of the two portraits. In particular, the one on the right is atrocious. Does nobody check the photos at the time they are taken - and then take them again if they're not good. I see this time and again in these heats and nobody ever seems to fix the problem.

The self portrait is one of a series of tend done during Covid and for a very small painting it's an interesting format and a design that works really well. Colours work well too.

See the end for my comments on the heat portrait.

Beth Kaiden

Self portrait and heat portrait
by Beth Kaiden

Beth had an extremely unusual self portrait which left you looking to work out where the head was. But that's different and it's not like it was hidden! I liek an artist who likes pattern and not having very boring backgrounds.

It was an achievement to paint a smiling Musa ("no teeth" she requested when taking his photo) in a way which looked completely natural. Plus her treatment of the ear ring and the nose pin was very good. just enough and not too much paint to make them noticeable without being glaring. I also liked the way she found ways to make flat colour more interesting.

Beth Kaiden with her portrait of Musa Motha

PAOTY 2024 Episode 5 Winner

The winner of Episode 5 was Jenna Waldren - for her excellent painting of Lucy Worsley

Lucy Worsley by Jenna Waldren
By far the best likeness of Lucy - and the best likeness of the heat

Jenna was a tad overwhelmed at the news!

I thought she was a very worthy winner in relation to her heat portrait. I was less convinced by her very small self portrait - although I liked the composition.

However her track record to date suggests she is a very accomplished painter. I just wish I'd seen more evidence of it at the self portrait stage.

Frankly I thought it was a racing certainty that Beth Kaiden would win as she had a large stunning self portrait and an excellent portrait of Musa.

I'm not unhappy because Beth probably will probably have benefited more from continuing with her studies and not having to continue with the competition. However I do think she will be a force to be reckoned with in future. She's innovative.

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A post shared by Jenna Waldren (@jennawaldren)

Next Episode

The sitters for Episode 6 which will screened tomorrow night are

• Jill Scott, 
• Jimi Famurewa, 
• Lyall Hakaraia

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.