Wednesday, July 09, 2025

Moira Cameron wins the £35K HSF Kramer Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery

Moira Cameron (right) - Winner of the HSF Kramer Portrait Award
by Victoria Siddall, the new President of the National Portrait Gallery.

Four awards with a value of £66,000 were announced last night at the Awards Ceremony for the HSF Kramer Portrait Award 2025 at the National Gallery. 

The prize winners were as follows:
  • First Prize £35,000: Moira Cameron for A Life Lived (Oil on canvas 2200 x 200mm)
  • Second Prize £12,000: Tim Benson PPROI for Cliff, Outreach Worker (Oil on canvas, 1520 x 1220mm)
  • Third Prize £10,000: Martyn Harris for Memories (Oil on board 400mm x 400mm)
  • Young Artist Award £9,000: Michelle Liu for Kofi (Oil on canvas, 500 x 400mm)
Tim Benson receiving his award from Victoria Siddall

Below are the profiles of the artists and the portraits which won the prizes Words about the painting and what the Judges thought are from the press release - hence quotes.

First Prize Winner (£35,000) Moira Cameron

A Life Lived (2024)
Oil on canvas 220mm x 2000mm
by Moira Cameron © Moira Cameron
  • Age: 63 (b.1962 in London to a family of artists)
  • Nationality: British
  • Occupation: artist (This link provides an account of her development as an artist). Her work has been exhibited around the world, including in London, Japan, New York and Switzerland.
  • Current home: London / New York
  • Art education: 
    • Ravensbourne College of Art and 
    • Chelsea College of Art
  • Previous appearances in this award: None recorded
  • Previous notable portraits for this award: None recorded
  • Website: None
  • Title / Media: A Life Lived, Oil on canvas 220mm x 2000mm

The story behind the portrait

A Life Lived is an evolution of a self-portrait Cameron painted 40 years ago. This large-scale work of the artist reclining in a comfortable armchair shows an older woman who has lived, observed and felt deeply. Her posture conveys quiet fatigue, with shoulders slightly slumped and head tilted in reflection. The lines on her face and the subtle shadows tell a story of time passing and of a life fully experienced. Rather than capturing a single moment in time, the portrait holds a lifetime within it.

Cameron began the new portrait by sketching the image with pastels and spray paints before applying thick layers of oil paint – brushed, palette-knifed, or smeared by hand – followed by more fluid oils. Some areas are scraped, washed away, and repainted, while others are intentionally left bare.

Moira Cameron with her self portrait

What the Judges Thought

This portrait grabbed the judges’ attention with its bold, non-naturalistic treatment of the figure combined with vivid colour and use of pattern. The technique has an energy, vitality and humour that contrasts with the introspective pose and expression of the subject, creating a compelling tension.

 

Second Prize Winner (£12,000) Tim Benson

Cliff, Outreach Worker, 2024
Oil on canvas 1520mm x 1220mm
by Tim Benson © Tim Benson
  • Age: 47 (b. London 1978)
  • Nationality: British
  • Occupation:
    • portrait and landscape artist;
    • Past President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in London;
    • Portraiture Tutor - Royal Academy of Arts.
    • He has won international commissions and taken part in various group and solo exhibitions. Current home: London
  • Art education: 
    • Middlesex University, 
    • Glasgow School of Art, and 
    • Byam Shaw School of Art.
  • Previous appearances in this award: 2012, 2020 and 2024.
  • Website: https://www.timbenson.co.uk/

The story behind the portrait

For Benson, portrait painting is about storytelling and chronicling experiences. This large scale portrait of London outreach worker Clifford Dobbs was painted as part of a series of paintings depicting people with facial differences. Cliff’s jaw was broken when he was a child and was never re-set, resulting in his facial difference. Painting Cliff gave the artist the opportunity to challenge historical notions of beauty in portraiture whilst also advocating for the destigmatisation of facial difference.

Due to the sitter’s busy schedule, the portrait was made from sketches and photographs taken in Cliff’s office, as opposed to Benson’s usual process of a single four-hour sitting. Benson works quickly and uses a limited palette, painting straight to canvas with a wide, flat brush that prevents excessive detailing and allows him to ‘sculpt’ the facets of the sitter’s head in thick oils with as few brush strokes as necessary.
Tim Benson with Cliff and his portrait

What the Judges Thought

The judges were impressed by Benson’s expressive and sculptural use of paint to build a likeness. They felt that the intense focus on his sitter’s face and the celebration of difference, combined with the over life-size scale, created a powerful encounter.

Third PrizeWinner (£10,000) Martyn Harris

Memories, 2024 
Oil on board 400mm x 400mm
by Martyn Harris © Martyn Harris

About Martyn Harris

  • Age: 60+
  • Nationality: British - from Halesowen
  • Occupation: a portrait and landscape artist. He became a full-time artist eight years ago, following a career that included jobs as a mechanical engineer and draughtsman. Harris’s works have been selected several times for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ annual exhibition.
  • Current home: Cradley, West Midlands
  • Art education: trained as a mentee under W. R. Jennings
  • Previous appearances in this award: none
  • Website: https://martynharris.com/

The story behind the portrait

Harris would often see Gillian from his studio when she visited the Art Yard Gallery. Striking up a friendship, and moved by her vulnerability and introspective expression, he asked if she would sit for a portrait that would reflect on the passage of time and the fragility of ageing. Captured over three sittings, the portrait depicts Gillian in a moment of reflection. Her expression is pensive, with hands clasped in quiet contemplation and eyes downcast, thoughtful and somewhat weary, suggesting a life of many experiences.

Harris makes use of light, shadow and contrast to strengthen the emotional qualities of the piece. The light muted background heightens the sense of isolation, placing Gillian in a world of her own; while the contrast between her pale skin and dark clothes highlights the delicate lines and colours of her face and hands. The work explores themes of loneliness, reflection and human vulnerability, and invites viewers to consider Gillian’s life and story
Martyn Harris receiving his Third Prize

What the Judges Thought

The judges were moved by the sensitivity that the artist brought to painting their subject, who appears lost in a moment of contemplation. They also admired the exquisite painting of textures, including the sitter’s woollen sweater and wisps of hair.

Young Artist Award (£9,000) Michelle Liu

Kofi (2024)
by Michelle Liu © Michelle Liu

About Michelle Liu

  • Age: ??
  • Nationality: American
  • Occupation: Oil painter and IT Engineer. She mainly paints portraits of people or pets, but dabbles in landscapes or still life. She has exhibited at London’s Wimbledon Art Fair and the Chelsea Arts Society, and is a long-distance member of the Salmagundi Club, an exhibition and meeting space in New York City for representational artists.
  • Current home: London
  • Art education: Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles
  • Previous appearances in this award:  

The story behind the portrait

Liu’s portrait of Kofi was completed at Big Turtle Studio over three Saturday drop-in sessions. The subject was an occasional life model at the studio and sparked Liu’s imagination with his expressive brow bone and ‘aloof slouch’. Working in a communal setting alongside other artist Liu was unable to direct most aspects of the setting, but found that the constraints presented opportunities for sharing and experimentation.

She began the portrait with a thin monochrome underpainting, establishing the shape, design and overall colour washes, before layering more paint alla prima – where paint is applied wet-on-wet. In her portraiture, Liu marries detail and looseness. The minimal brush work of the necklace and t-shirt are perfectly balanced with the details of a slightly raised eyebrow and few defined curls, with neither distracting from the overall portrait.
Michelle Liu receiving her award

What the Judges Thought

Technically accomplished but also full of feeling, the judges were impressed by this beautifully rendered and sensitive portrayal of the sitter.

The Judges


The Judges included:
  • Professor Dorothy Price FBA - art historian and academic at The Courtauld Institute of Art;
  • Maggi Hambling - visual artist; (her portraits for the NPG include one of my favourites Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin)
  • Peter Brathwaite - opera singer, artist and writer;
  • Rosie Broadley - Joint-Head of Curatorial and Senior Curator of 20th Century Collections at the National Portrait Gallery
  • Rosie Wilson - NPG Director of Programmes and Partnerships,

What I thought

You can read what I thought about the first three prizewinners in my blog post Shortlist for the £66K HSFK Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery.  I don't think I've changed my mind.


The Portrait Award: Reference

I've started attending the Awards Ceremonies back in 2008. Everybody else has changed - but I've been there every year it's been held except one.

Many of the portrait artists selected for the exhibition who I met last night commented that they'd found out about the exhibition, its background and how to do well by reading my blog posts and looking at past exhibitions in the posts below.

These are all my previous blog posts going back to 2007 about this competition

HFS Kramer Portrait Award 2025

HFS Portrait Award 2024

Gap while the National Portrait Gallery was closed for a major refurbishment - and a subsequent change of sponsor

BP Portrait Award 2020 (this was VIRTUAL EXHIBITION ONLY because of Covid)

BP Portrait Award 2019

BP Portrait Award 2018

BP Portrait Award 2017

BP Portrait Award 2016
Clara Drummond - Winner on 2016

Portrait Award 2015


Susanne du Toit - Winner 2013

BP Portrait Award 2012


Aleah Chapin - Winner in 2012

BP Portrait Award 2011

BP Portrait Award 2010



Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, July 09, 2025
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