Monday, December 16, 2024

PAOTY 2024 - The Commission and the Reveal

This is about Brogan Bertie painting Lorraine Kelly for the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland - his £10K prize for winning Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2024.


It covers:
  • preparedness to paint a commission
  • painting with Lorraine Kelly
  • painting back in the studio
  • the big reveal - unveiling of the Commission
  • what do people think
Later this week, I'm doing a post which provides a critique of the format of the programme and the way the judging works. I won't be pulling punches....

Preparedness to Paint a Commission


It became very obvious very quickly that the Judges had chosen somebody who 
  • had never ever done a commission before and 
  • actually wasn't very clued up about how they typically work in practice / real life
That could be because he'd only taken up portrait painting six months previously and to date had only painted his friends who were happy to sit for him as he painted from life. (I shall comment further tomorrow when I get round to tackling how the series was run!)
"I think painting from life gives it an energy that I don't get when painting from photographs"
Brogan Bertie
Personally, I think he's dead set on being "the second Lucian Freud" who insisted on painting from life and never painted from photographs. There is so much of "how he paints" which is influenced by Freud who appears to be one of his heroes. He's a great hero to have, but maybe some more awareness of the stages Freud went through before he arrived at his mature stage might be educational and promote a better sense of the pace of change.

The Transition to Portraiture

There's a section after the chat with his parents - which leads straight into an important backstory.

Brogan disclosed something which hasn't had a lot of comment online - and indeed I think it's very possible some people have simply missed it altogether. Although not the pink press!
"Art has always been a way of exploring identity. I think when you decide you're going to transition you have to engage with a level of aspiration - because you're not who you want to be right now. You're not seen how you want to be seen. So you always have to project yourself - there's an imagination in being trans." 
Brogan Bertie
Brogan said he didn't think he could paint people until after he had transitioned. 
I would find it quite hard to do portraiture before I had transitioned because I think you're doing it from behind something, there's a mask in there somewhere.  It's only after transitioning that I could see the sitter and almost not see their mask eiether. it took a film away. Brogan Bertie
I don't remember this getting a mention in the main series, so this was a bit of a bolt from the blue, although I think some of us suspected that might be the backstory. I did however think it was an absolutely fascinating explanation for not engaging with portraitre earlier which made complete sense to me.

Which makes Brogan the very first trans winner of PAOTY.  I do sometimes wonder about how keen some people are to tick boxes in the diversity conscious culture of Sky and Sky Arts 
It's apparent from a post on his Instagram account at the end of November 2022 that this is relatively recent.
I’m not counting milestones - transitioning is just ageing is just changing is just time is just life. But… A milestone made sacred by their care. ..... thank u to everyone who has been gentle to me when I’ve needed it and who has cared about the small things and not cared about the big things.
I'll come back to this later in this post and in the next post - wholly from the perspective of the consideration given to the wellbeing of Brogan.

For example, I don't give a stuff how pumped up Tai gets by 'discovering a stunning new artist' if he hasn't given a moment's consideration of the impact of pushing somebody who is still working their way through their transition to do a VERY public commission with a whole load of mental baggage / extra pressure that he probably does not need and might not necessarily cope with well right now.

It is possible to be pleased for him at getting the chance to be the PAOTY winner and to do the commission and still be very concerned as to what the payoff might be. That's where I was -and a few others too - and it was uncomfortable. 

I don't think Brogan had conceived of what a £10K commission might look like and how it might work - although I'm assuming he had seen previous PAOTY series. I'm wondering if he had watched enough though - as there's lots of clues in the commission programmes as to how it all works and how big a challenge it actually is.

For example:
  • he seemed to be genuinely shocked when he saw the size of the wall when the Curator showed him the wall that the painting was going to hang on - on its own! He looked at the size of the painting currently hanging in that position and the jaw dropped.
  • it became apparent that he had absolutely no idea how little time busy people can give to a portrait artist for "painting from life" sessions
  • he simply did not know how to paint people from photos!!
He got a Pep/Prep talk from Tai on a visit to the latter's studio. However I don't think Tai was  actually the best person for this. In my opinion, he'd have done very much better talking to one of the previous winners who would be able to talk knowledgeably about all the matters which were a challenge - and how they coped with it.
  • Tai told him "take loads of photos" - and you can imagine how that must have felt for 
  • what Tai didn't say is what sort of photos to take (or at least if he said it, that didn't come across in the programme and it doesn't look like he took the ones he needed)

Painting with Lorraine Kelly

Lorraine Kelly is the Scottish sitter for the Commission for the National Portrait Gallery in 2024. This is because it's the 40th anniversary of her broadcast career, during which time she has seemed permanently fixed to a sofa during the early morning! This year she got a BAFTA for her very long career. My research tells me that apparently she is also a gay icon!

Brogan started by making charcoal sketches in the television studios where Lorraine makes her morning programme. I thought he was very astute to notice 
  • what she looked like when she was listening - and 
  • that we don't see that side of her so often because when her guests are talking, the camera is on them.
To be honest, I was NOT impressed with the choice of charcoal media for his drawings - or his actual drawing. 
  • He'd have been very much better off with a big soft graphite pencil which would not rub or fall off the paper like charcoal can do.
  • his drawings looked very much like those made by people who have never been taught how to draw an individual from life. I've seen lots in my time, some people improve over time and others do not. The one thing he needs to understand is that Lucian Freud is also a very good draughtsman - and he was drawing people and animals from when he was a child.

Painting Lorraine in Lorraine Kelly's garden of her home
in a former boathouse in Bourne End on the banks of the River Thames

Brogan was fortunate to be invited to visit his sitter at home. People are always more relaxed in their own home. The main objective was to collect visual information and to understand. There were two sessions
  • a getting to know you and do an initial study (which I thought was a bit scappy - I've seen a lot better from artists who have won PAOTY)
  • a longer study - with her dressed in the clothes for the commission
I got into a bit of a spat with whoever manages the Facebook Page because he/she kept insisting that Lorraine chose the outfit and shoes when in fact it was Brogan. They were doing the classic review of outfits she had to work out what might work best - and he spotted the tartan coat/dress and then paired it with the most outrageous maribou feather high heels.  

What struck me is:
  • he was taking pics with a mobile phone which, while good, can do some weird things to colour unless you've got the settings set up right. (Compare to Jennifer who was taking all her photos during the series on a decent SLR camera - because she knows the value of the information you get from good quality photos - and also knows what photos she needs to take)
  • Brogan takes photos like my partner - from too far away! He wasn't getting in her face and taking closeups of all the various features. He didn't appear to me to be in any way focused on getting very good images of the detail. I actually query whether he was even thinking detail at this stage
    • e.g. none of the pics he pinned to the wall had a photo of her face that was well lit and of a good size.

- and keep up with my posts about Artist of the Year 
(and Landscape Artist of the Year starting in January 2025)
and get an email to your inbox every time I publish

Painting in the Studio


Brogan working on the commission in his new studio
funded by the £10K ge got for winning the PAOTY prize.
but none of the photos or the drawings focus on her face

Brogan just seemed to me to be getting into a state of panic at one stage. I think most of us can well imagine what it must be like to be in a position you never ever thought could happen - because you've only just started portrait painting.

Here's a couple of alternative perspectives on how well prepared Brogan was to undertake the commission
The argument that a moderately more successful artist shouldn't win because they don't need it as much has weight, but isn't a valid reason for an artist not winning. 'Best' artist wins, or the artist who they envision completing the commission better is a better way of wording it. If the winning artist had been absolutely outstanding, his inexperience maybe doesn't matter as much, although it was problematic viewing a novice attempting and struggling with a demanding commission. David Brown
For me Brogan Bertie’s heat paintings were not great - I need to see something more than a different way of painting. But looking at the self portrait, portraits of his friends, and the commission painting of his partner I saw something totally different: feeling. And the mannered details were not there - yes dynamic angles but no exaggerated huge noses or attempts to put an overbearing narrative (other than the sitter’s personality) into the picture with intrusive props and settings for which I entirely blame the programme! I thought the final painting was ok, good angle, painting was certainly more refined with the extra time, felt slightly emotionally flat which I wonder had to do with working alone from photographs (I totally understand this - life needs to breathe and move). I’m always suspicious of “gimmicks to be different” in art, so while I love the red coat for impact the costume looks odd indoors with apparently nothing underneath plus fluffy slippers. I wasted time wondering if it’s a dressing gown. Did the dog need to be bottom-out? Does the background help or did it just happen to be there? Bit like a snap. I think the details could have been better planned. Compare with the portrait of his friend with blue hair lying on a row of pillows shown in the commission episode where all the space quietly contributed.  Hil Beavan
The end result was that the commission painting was better than expected and had some merit - but there were still issues with it.......

...and so we come to.....

The Big Reveal

Leading up to 'The Big Reveal'
"It's not going to be cutesy pie! I don't want it to be. I want it to be deep" Lorraine Kelly

"My biggest hope is that everyone loves it - and my biggest fear is that everyone hates it" Brogan Bertie 

 

Immediately after the unveiling
Left: Lorraine Kelly and right: Brogan Bertie

Portrait of Lorraine Kelly
(and Angus the dog - behind her foot)
by Brogan Bertie
oil on board; 120cm x 80cm
commissioned by Sky Arts; presented to National Galleries of Scotland

After the Reveal

Lorraine was tearful and clearly liked it a lot, not least because it also included her dog Angus.

One of the people commenting on posts on my Making A Mark Facebook Page said 
In the final he was obviously not the artist with the best physical likeness but I feel he more than redeemed himself with the commissioned painting. I thought it was very good and showed what he could achieve with more time and dialogue with his sitter. Carol Bleasdale

and I think there were a fair few who thought the same. 

My own take on it is that:
  • it was much better than I was expecting - he's clearly made a major effort to get it right
  • however her knees and calves are way too big and her head is far too small - and Brogan really needs to get to grips with proportions
  • I also liked the way he painted out the exterior garden beyond the windows in favour of keeping the head very clear and in view.
Later this week (Wednesday?) I'm commenting on the whole series, where it's got to and what it's missing - and the latter are significant.

If you're interested in finding out more about what can be learned about painting portraits for this competition in the heats, you can find links to all the episodes of series 5 to 11 below


Reviews & Learning Points (PAOTY Series 5-11)

Series 11 of PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR (Autumn 2024)

Series 10 of PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR (Autumn 2023)

Series 9 of PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR (Autumn 2022)

Plus

Series 8 of PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR (Autumn 2021)

Series 7 of PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR (Autumn 2020)

Series 6 of PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR (Spring 2020)

Series 5 of PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR (Winter/Spring 2019)

Series 4 of PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR (Winter / Spring 2018)

PLUS if you want to find out more.....
Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, December 16, 2024
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