Review: Episode 5 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12) - after the accidental deletion!

We've reached the fifth episode of Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 and I'm beginning to wonder how many heats we're having. 

I'm told Episode 5 was in fact Heat 1. Why, you may ask, do they show them out of order...

The shortlisting in Episode 5 of Portrait Artist of the Year (Series 12)

Episode 5: The Sitters

The three sitters in the first episode are as follows:

• Emily Atack b.1989 - an English actress, comedian and television personality.
• Melvin Odoom b.1980 - a British radio DJ and television presenter.
• Max Beesley b.1971 an English actor and musician with many film credits

The sitters in Episode 5

Episode 5: The Artists

The Artists in Episode 5

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 does not include all the relevant and rather important information about some of the participating artists.

Yet again ONLY TWO ARTISTS have surnames which begin with a letter in the second   half of the alphabet. Why is this? 

• Daniel Badger (Instagram) - a gardener from London who specialises in biro based drawings. He sketches in his spare time.
• Hannah Barker (Instagram) - an artist and a volunteer coordinator at a social enterprise from Leeds who draws people using pastel pencils, slowly building each portrait through layering, smudging, and erasing.
• Mario Cervantes (Instagram) - a fine art graduate who grew up in England and studied Fine Art at the Complutense University in Madrid (2009-13) and now lives in Glasgow. He paints entirely from life. One of his portraits was selected for the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2021. He also paints still life, landscapes and sport.
• Fiona Daly (Instagram) - a psychotherapist from Wicklow in Ireland She features twice in her self portrait at different ages. She studied studied Sculpture in the 1980s and went on to work her way up in the Irish Film Industry over about 25 years, to become a Production Designer. She then qualified as a Psychotherapist in 2012. She came to painting later in life and her portraiture took off during the PAOTY Online Sessions during the pandemic.
• Han Han (Instagram) - Originally from Shanghai, she has an MA in Fashion from the University of the Arts London. Han spent a decade in design before turning to painting in 2020. She is now a professional artist working primarily in portraiture and figurative painting and lives in London with her family. Her work has been shown with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. 
• David Maddock (Instagram) - a figurative painter from Leicester. He has degrees in Fine Art from Bristol and Goldsmith's College. While teaching, he completed a part-time History of Art masters degree at Leeds Metropolitan University and a part-time doctoral degree at Leicester University. His self portrait took him two weeks and he wanted to demonstrate his expressive painting style. He currently divides his time between painting, research, and teaching.

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• Ruby Mitcham (Instagram) - a 17 year old sixth form student from Edinburgh who already paints professionally - painting on commission in her spare time. She is self taught. Her work has recently been selected for the Florence Biennale, has hung  in the Royal Scottish Academy and toured in the Scottish Portrait Awards. She is the youngest artist to have exhibited at the prestigious Society of Scottish Artists annual exhibition. She also has an interesting story - as told on her page dedicated to the competition on her website.

I had actually decided not to enter the competition this year. I didn’t want to rush into it and the task is quite daunting. My art is developing so quickly that even a few months seems to make a big difference. Then, one of the producers from Storyvault (the production company) emailed me inviting me to apply. I quickly put together a self-portrait while I was on a school exchange in Canada, figured out how to bring it home with me on the plane and sent in my application. It couldn’t have been much longer than a couple of weeks before I heard back from them telling me I’d been selected! Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year  on Ruby's website

• Lauren Ross (Instagram) - an art tutor and painter from Edinburgh. who first appeared in Series 2 of PAOTY. She also works as work as an English & maths tutor and as a High school mentor. She completed a foundation diploma in art & design at Edinburgh College and came back to art during the pandemic. She has also exhibited portraits with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Society of Women Artists
• Verity Ure-Jones (Instagram) - a portrait and figurative painter based in London who works primarily in oil paint and pastels on panel and paper. She won 2nd prize for the Windsor & Newton Young Artist Prize, was one of the final 115 (out of 13K) on the shortlist for the Jackson's Art prize and has been longlisted for The Cass Art Prize 2025
  
  

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Entries for PASTEL SOCIETY's 127th Annual Exhibition 2026 - closing soon

You have just under three weeks left to get a submission into the Annual Exhibition 2026 of The Pastel Society.

I've been trying to get round to this post for a while, which makes it much later than usual. However you still have time to start and finish a new work, or review what you did last year that you are proud of and submit that to the exhibition.

Benefits of Exhibiting with The Pastel Society

This is an OPEN ART EXHIBITION. If you submit and are selected for the exhibition your artwork will be

• included in the catalogue
• seen by visitors to the Mall Galleries - and it gets a lot of visitors
• viewed online via the Mall Galleries website and that of the Pastel Society - before, during and after the Exhibition
• eligible for a number of prizes & awards - and some have significant cash awards (see below)

Pastel Society | Annual Exhibition 2026 | Key Facts

What drew me to the Pastel Society was the thought of being surrounding by other people fascinated by dry media in particular
Curtis Holder

Venue: Mall Galleries, The Mall, LondonDates:
Exhibition Dates: Wednesday 21st January - Saturday 7th February 2026
Private View (invite only): Tuesday 20th January 2026 - 5pm to 8pm, official opening at 6:30pm

Submissions: ONLINE ONLY and open until 12 noon Friday 14 November 2025

Notification of selection: Friday 28th November 2025, 12 noon
Receiving Day (if selected): Saturday 10th January 2026, 10am to 5pm

Collection of unsold work: Thursday 12 February 202610am to 5pm

Awards and Prizes - see listing near the end of this post

Call for Entries

Find out more about how to enter:

• Open Calls - Pastel Society on the Mall Galleries website
• and BELOW.....

Who is eligible to enter?

• This is an OPEN exhibition and is not limited to work by members.
• There is also no restriction of where you live. It's open to artists in the UK, EU, and outside the EU
• Any artist over 18 may submit.

What media is acceptable for entries?

• All types of pastel including: soft pastel, hard pastel, oil pastel, ink pastel, water-based pastel, conté crayons or sticks, sanguine, and other dry mediums that are similar in their application including charcoal, chalk, and pencil.
• Mixed media and three-dimensional works are welcome where pastel or another dry media is the primary medium.
• HOWEVER.....

ALL work that is submitted must have a full description of the media used and any process which has been employed in the finished work beyond drawing and painting, e.g. printing, photography. 

Please note that failure to do this may result in unnecessary rejection on the grounds that work deserves to be judged on a like for like basis and because any buyer should be made aware of what they are buying.

Bottom line - no sleight of hand! This exhibition emphasises the use of dry media and the expertise of the artist in using it.

 

What can you enter?

The Fire Risk of Aluminium Painting Panels for Art

Yesterday I said I'd follow up on the use of an aluminium panel by the winner of Episode 4 of Portrait Atist of the Year 2025 (see yesterday's blog post Review: Episode 4 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12)

I think I'm going to need a LOT more time on this topic....

My next post will follow after a lot of time has been spent researching products, querying suppliers and getting answers to questions. I may do a survey....

FIRE RISK of aluminium panels

There was one VERY BIG and very significant issue which arose when I started querying "aluminium panels".

This post relates to the FIRE RISK issues for aluminium PANELS - and is by way of being a warning to be VERY, VERY CAREFUL if you want to try painting on aluminium.

The fire risk of artist aluminum panels depends entirely on the panel's composition: 

• bare or anodized/painted aluminum is non-combustible (Class A1), 

• but composite panels (ACP) with a flammable plastic core, such as polyethylene (PE), pose a significant fire hazard. 

• The main danger comes from the core material, which can burn rapidly once exposed to fire, releasing a large amount of heat, while the aluminum sheets themselves have a high melting point and do not contribute to the fire. Google AI

Bottom line:

• sheets are safe
• panels are not - if they are sandwiched using a polyethylene core

Various images of aluminium supports for artists

- as seen on Google Images in response to the query

"aluminum composite panels aluminium panels for artists"

I'm raising this concern, because

• the art materials industry appears to be happy to call them "panels"
• in complete ignorance of the horrendous reputation of aluminium composite material panels which caused the Grenfell Fire.

I think they'd be more correct to call them "sheets" - but I'm not actually sure what they are supplying - because of the total lack of technical specification sheets. I also find this worrying given the manufacturers' generally tarnished reputation for being open and transparent about risks - and the inaccuracy of the tech spec sheets they provided.

In principle, Aluminium SHEETS are a uniquely fireproof material - they are solid and non-combustible as pure aluminium.

• it has a natural oxide layer that prevents the metal reacting with oxygen and causing ignition. 
• it is non-flammable: solid aluminium does not catch fire. Solid aluminum itself is non-combustible and is in the highest fire-safety class (A1 or A2). 
• It melts at a high temperature (660°C) and deform
• but it will not combust and does not contribute fuel to a fire.

However, Aluminium PANELS were one of the main reasons why the fire accelerated up Grenfell Tower and killed so many people. 

• These panels were aluminium front and back but sealed with a Polyethylene Core - and it was this core which was inflammable. 
• thin aluminium deforms quickly when exposed to flames/heat - exposing the inflammable core to flame
• These composite panels were used in the refurbishment of the exterior of Grenfell Tower - and were one of the primary causes of the way the fire accelerated up the building at great speed. 
• The polyethelene core burns very fast at high temperatures. ( as in the Building Reseach Establishment had to abandon a fire test on composite panels at the fire safety centre after starting the test - because the fire was totally out of control! See one of the reports where the material completely failed the test)

Such panels can be as thin as 3mm. This is one manufacturer's description.

Aluminium composite panels (also known as Alupanel or Dibond sheets) are a high-quality, lightweight sheet material made of a polyethene core sandwiched between two aluminium skins. Available in a thickness of 3mm and a range of colours and finishes, this rigid product is suitable for both outdoor and indoor applications.

It is possible to make an aluminium composite panel with non-flammable material - but to be sure it is safe this needs a fire certificate issued by a reputable third party.

The problem is that the Manufacturers also refer to the ACPs as "SHEETS" when they are actually panels i.e. marketing is what they use to sell their products! Panels are now the recognised problem so it's "better for the bottom line" to call them sheets.

Obviously there are some crucially important distinctions which need making between literal "Aluminium Sheets" and "Aluminium Panels" and "Aluminium Panels which might be called Sheets"

Artists need to beware that:

• they are only buying from reputable art suppliers 
• who in turn are only buying from reputable manufacturers.
• they MUST NOT use aluminium building panels or any panel with a polyethelene core

The risk issue is not helped by the fact art suppliers are apt to refer to them as PANELS whereas they appear to be SHEETS. 

The other concern I have is there's not much transparency as to which company makes the aluminium sheets. Just as the manufacturers of the aluminium panels on Grenfell were completely opaque to the point of downright lies re the fire risks associated with the panels. The issue here being are the manufacturers actually reputable and trustworthy? 

As in really?

Preliminary conclusion

Make your art on aluminium which comprises two thin aluminum sheets with a polyethylene core and should there be a fire, you may see all your art go up in flames very fast - plus the room / building holding them

Artists wishing to use "aluminium panels" have to 

• be aware of the consequences for anywhere these are stored should a fire occur
• decide whether you are prepared to accept the fire risk associated with composite panels - and all associated and necessary precautions. 

CONCLUSION: I'd like to see 

• complete TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION sheets for all aluminium sheets and panel products
• supplied and visible on the websheets of ALL suppliers of "aluminium panels" for artists.

I've had artists tell me it is a wonderful surface to paint on - but artists also need to be 100% confident that it is also a safe surface to use and store.

READING

• How the products used in Grenfell Tower’s cladding system were tested and sold | Inside Housing
• Grenfell Tower inquiry: 9 things we now know about the cladding | BBC News

(NOTE: I should explain that on night of June 14-15 2017, I watched Grenfell Tower burn all night due to switching to the news before going to bed - after a late night. I also used to live at the top of a tower block after graduation. I went on to become a regular listener to the Grenfell Tower Enquiry podcast during my daily walks and was absolutely appalled at what I heard about the disregard by aluminium manufacturers for people's safety )

Review: Episode 4 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12)

This is a review of Episode 4 of Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year - which was actually Heat 3! As I have said before the programme makers do not show the heats in the order they were filmed.

PAOTY Series 12: Episode 4 - the Artists with their self portraits
waiting to hear who has been shortlisted

Episode 4 of Portrait Artist of the Year brought a surprise and something totally unique. 

• ALL THE SITTERS
• are female; 
• they all work in “the arts” in one way or another; and 
• all are of afro caribbean heritage.
• Plus we have one more bod from the current series of Celebrity Traitors!

Episode 4: The Sitters

(top right) Clara Amfo

(bottom left) Cat Burns (bottom right) Adjoa Andoh

I have a theory about the choice of sitters. 

• First, that this was a deliberate choice. 
• Second it's an outcome of comments made in the past. I think that at some point or another, one or more of the artists in past heats might have politely highlighted that they didn't think they had done themselves justice as they weren't used to painting people who were not (for want of a better expression) anglo saxon in appearance. Bottom line they had never painted anybody with black skin before. The view may have been expressed that this affected the outcome of the heat. Plus there's the issue of whether a competition is fair if not everybody is treated in the same way....

I can understand their point. However you can hardly complain if all the artists in a heat are in exactly the same position - and so we have Heat 4 of Series 12.

Anybody got any other ideas. My feeling is this was not accidental and was a very deliberate decision by the programme makers.

The three sitters in the fourth episode are as follows:

• Actor Adjoa Andoh - a British actress b.1963, best known to millions around the world for her role as Lady Danbury in the Netflix Regency romance series Bridgerton, since 2020. However she has also played lead roles in plays at she has played lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre, and the Almeida Theatre. In June 2025 (after the heat) she was awarded an MBE.
• broadcaster Clara Amfo - a British radio broadcaster b.1984. She is a television presenter, podcast host and voice-over artist. She is known for presenting her shows on BBC Radio 1
• singer-songwriter Cat Burns - a British singer-songwriter b. 2000. She gained prominence with her 2020 single "Go" (on YouTube). The song's popularity increased in 2022 through TikTok, eventually reaching number two on the UK singles chart. She has also been nominated three times for the Brit Awards. Finally, she is also a current Celebrity Traitor on BBC1!

Episode 4: The Artists

The artists sitting on the steps of Battersea Arts Centre after the painting has stopped

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.

• Chloe Barnes (Instagram) - a Gallery Production and Studio Manager who lives in London. She has a first class honours degree in Illustration and an MA (Distinction) in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking from the University of the West of England. She is a mono-printer and creates figurative monotypes that explore identity, sexuality, the psyche, and the experiences of women. She has exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists Bicentennial Exhibition, and Gurr Johns, London and has also won a number of awards
• Jules Manson (Instagram) - She is a bookseller based in Penzance in Cornwall and a member of Penzance Studios. In the past she has been a Artist/painter tattooist and a member of Leicester Society of Artists. 
• Madeleine Payne - a full-time professional artist who lives between Florence and London. She has a BFA in Art History (2020). In 2024, she was a Advanced Painting student at the Florence Academy of Art. Her self portrait was painted in oils from life as a graduation piece to demonstrate her technical ability.
• Jonathan Small (Instagram) - an art teacher from London. He is a Tutor and Creative Producer at @artboxlondon an organisation which supports people with learning disabilities and autism.
• Jamie Steward (Instagram) - b.1983 in Bradford, he is now a full-time artist from Leeds. He is also known as a graffiti artist called Cortisol Kid. He now paints murals and enjoys his studio practice painting portraits.
• Suzanne Smith (Instagram) - a printmaker who lives and works in Brighton and has a studio in the Phoenix Art Space. She is obviously also a very experienced user of pastels.
• Tameka Waller (Instagram) - an events coordinator living in Nottingham. She is a self taught oil painter and completed her first portrait in January 2025 (which I suspect is her self portrait submitted as part of her entry).
• Curtis Valentine (Instagram) - a visual artist from London. Graduated with a degree in Illustration from the University of Brighton (2014-2017). He has a passion for character design, concept art and storyboarding and also works as an artist assistant. His real name is Curtis Valentine O'Malley.
• David Wayman - Loughborough based commercials director.

You can see them all in this Instagram post with their self portraits

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A post shared by Sky Arts Artist Of The Year (@artistoftheyear)

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026

The Call for Entries for the HSFK Portrait Award 2026 has been published.

Artists aged 18 and over are invited to submit entries of painted portraits to this prestigious annual competition and exhibition which is run by and held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The deadline for entries is 22.00 (GMT) on Tuesday 6th January 2026

Those which are shortlisted will be displayed in the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery held between 25 June and 7 October 2026. 

Very many artists who have succeeded in being selected for this exhibition in the last two decades started out by reviewing my summary of the call for entries! I know because they told me when I met them at the Awards Ceremonies and the press views (2008-2025).

The highly successful competition aims to encourage artists over the age of 18 to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work. Since its inception, the competition has attracted over 40,000 entries from more than 100 countries, and the exhibition has been seen by over 6 million people.  

Summary of Key Information about the Call for Entries

Note: Anybody who thinks I'm going to repeat four totally unmemorable names every time I write about this competition is mistaken. There was a reason the BP was called the BP!!  Hence I refer to this competition as The Portrait Award or The HSFK Portrait Award. 

I am going to start as I did last year - by highlighting the many good reasons why all aspiring portrait artists should enter this competition.

This post, written in 2023, tells you why you should enter WHY enter The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery (London)

Why enter The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery?

Just getting selected - of itself a very valuable addition to any portrait painter's CV - means 

• your portrait painting will hang in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London from 25 June - 7 October 2026
• you are also eligible to win one of the prizes! You could also win one of the valuable prizes
• first prize is £35,000
• second prize is £12,000
• third prize is £10,000
• the Young Artist's Prize (for artists aged between 18 and 30) £9,000
• i.e. no increase from last year.

All selected artists aged between 18 and 30 will automatically be considered for both the Young Artist Award and the Portrait Award, but an individual cannot win both. 

The aim of the Young Artist Award is to profile their talent and support the development of their practice. I met a number of young artists at the exhibition last year.

Rachit Khandelwal (b.2004) with Finlay Trevor (b.2003) both exhibited in 2025 

and were both art students in Scotland 

(at the Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh School of Art respectively)

The portrait is Finlay's Quest for The Mackintosh Man (2024)

Note that those shortlisted for prizes MUST attend the Awards Ceremony on the evening of Tuesday 23 June 2026.

PLUS, there is the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Artist Commission worth £14,000 

• ALL ARTISTS chosen to exhibit in 2026 and 2027’s Portrait Award exhibitions will be considered for the bi-annual Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Artist Commission, which has a value of £14,000. 
• This will be announced in 2027.

Now you have a better appreciation of the incentives - on to the practical matters......

Review: 62nd Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists

The Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists has got off to an excellent start - with LOTS of red (and green) dots adorning various of the artwork hung in all three galleries at the Mall Galleries.

The end wall of the West Gallery

This is my annual review of the SWLA Annual Exhibition 2025. It's taken a long time to write at the same time as posting albums of photos of the exhibition and I'll probably come back and add bits in I've forgotten!

Except where otherwise indicated, quotations are from either the SWLA website or my past posts about this exhibition. They underline key points about the society and their particular approach to producing artwork and exhibiting

The Society of Wildlife Artists seeks to generate appreciation and delight in the natural world through all forms of fine art inspired by the world’s wildlife. SWLA website

In summary:

• there are 363 framed artworks and 3D artworks in the exhibition - and you can see them online here
• 71 were sold in the first six days (excluding the numerous sales of unframed prints) which 
• equates to 20% of the artwork hung or displayed 
• AND exceeds last year's total sales.
• about 90% of the wildlife seem to be birds this year - there are lots and lots of birds from around the UK and further afield
• there is also artwork portraying 
• UK mammals including field mice, squirrels, hares, foxes, wolves, stags, otters, seals, slugs, butterflies and insects!
• plus wild animals from other countries including elephants, pangolin, sting rays, jellyfish and octopus
• the artwork is from life - not photos - and is based on artists working in the field to sketch and make studies. A number of the framed artworks are in fact studies made in the field - literally! To illustrate what happens the exhibition also has a display of many photographs of working in the field

It's worth remembering that it's not coincidental that the name of this annual exhibition is "The Natural Eye". This connects to the emphasis which the SWLA places on artwork conceived, started and sometimes developed to completion while observing wildlife "in the field / sea / air"

The exhibition opened on 16th October and is open every day 10am to 5pm until 25 October.

In my opinion, one of the best annual art society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries every year is that by The Society of Wildlife Artists. (Me  - in Call for Entries: Society of Wildlife Artists - Annual Exhibition 2025 

East Gallery Feature Wall

This review is a multi-media experience! I have published and annotated three albums of photos from each of the three galleries over the last three days and the links are below

• Monday East Gallery
• Tuesday North Gallery
• Wednesday West Gallery (the biggest)

Some of the comments I might have included in this post are actually in the annotations of individual photos in these albums.  So this is in effect a multimedia post!

Some of the artworks which stood out to me below are highlighted in these albums and below.

Calling all UK Art Teachers

Art Teachers are invited by the the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) to submit watercolour artworks by their students aged between 11 and 18 for the RI Coronation Award which celebrates excellence in your artists painting in watercolour and water-based media.

The RI Coronation Award

This is the third year of the RI Coronation Award, introduced in 2024 at the first annual exhibition following the coronation of King Charles III.

What you need to know

• This is the link to the page on the RI website providing information.
• Entries to last year's competition came from schools all over the UK
• The competition is open to school students only - aged between 11 and 18
• All artwork submissions must be in watercolour or water-soluble media (eg inks, acrylic)
• The deadline for entries is 22 December 2025.
• The Winner and two runners-up will be announced in February 2026.

For full details you need to write to ricoronationaward@gmail.com

The prizes are as follows:

• a materials bursary of £800 to the winning school
• art materials (voucher) to the value of £100 to the First Prize Winner
• art materials (voucher) to the value of £50 to each of the two Runners-Up
• Certificates of Merit will also be awarded to up to a further ten entrants who the judges consider worthy of recognition.

The three prizewinners will 

• have reproductions of their paintings exhibited at the 214th Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours at the Mall Galleries in London, March 25th until April 11th 2026.
• will also be invited to have their prizes presented to them by the President of the RI and her guest speaker at the Private View of the Exhibition, which will be held at the Mall Galleries, London on Tuesday March 24th 2026 at 6.30 pm.

This year the prize has been generously sponsored by The Borg Scott Charity

[NOTE:  Oddly, I had difficulty finding a link to this award on the RI website (it's under Exhibitions). A link to the Call for Entries on the front page - for both the Open Exhibition - and this competition would be useful. The website currently looks as if it could do with an early spring clean and update! I got my information from the recent post on their Instagram account]

Review: Episode 3 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12)

Artists in PAOTY 2025 Episode 3

This is my review of Episode 3 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 which was filmed (as Heat 5) in April 2025 and broadcast on Sky Arts / Freeview / Now TV on 15th October 2025.

This review covers the sitters, the artists, themes arising during the episode, the selections made by the sitters and judges - and who won!  Did you get it right this week?

....and I'll tell you a little secret at the end....

Episode 3: Sitters

The grinning sitters - not that anybody paints a smiling person!
Top right: James May
Bottom left: Emma Barnett; Bottom right: Billy Porter

The three sitters in the third episode are as follows:

• Billy Porter: An American actor, singer, and fashion icon, known for his roles in Pose and his distinctive red carpet appearances and his substantial reputation as a Broadway singer. He was hosting the Olivier Awards with Beverley Knight the previous evening. He brought a rather iconic necklace which included a portrait of his dead mother.
• James May: An English television presenter, author and journalist known for his work on car shows like Top Gear and The Grand Tour. He brought gis folding Moulton bicycle with his which he has been using since the early 90s.
• Emma Barnett: A British broadcaster and journalist, known for hosting shows on BBC Radio 4 and BBC News such as Women's Hour (2021-2024) and the Today (2024-current) programme Her special item was a giant pair of glasses.

Episode 3: The Artists

After the painting has finished - the artists pose for their group photo
on the steps outside Battersea Arts Centre

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.

The artists in Episode 3 are as follows (and we have another heat where most artists have surnames in the first half of the alphabet!)

• Arthur Bloye (Instagram) - Lives and works in London. Studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, following a foundation year at Camberwell College of arts. Since 2021, he has taught and managed the Beckenham branch of art-K, where he fosters creativity among a new generation of artists.
• Shirley Chi (Instagram) - a painter and illustrator who is also an art school co-ordinator based in London. Her background is in Visual Arts and Museology. She enjoys producing art with mixed media although she currently favours oil painting. She always pursues narrative, nostalgia and childhood memory in her works and has exhibited in various spaces in London.
• Sayani Drury (Instagram) - She lives in Reading and works as a lead commercial manager. This is about her journey in art
• Aodán Feeney (Instagram) - Lives and works in Galway in Ireland. He is a digital construction co-ordinator and an emerging self-taught figurative painter. His artwork tends to evoke a sense of introspection and emotional intensity. He was recently awarded an Arts Council Ireland, Agility Award (2023) and was shortlisted for the prestigious Zurich Portrait Prize 2022. He has also exhibited at the RHA.
• Eileen Healy (Instagram) - an artist and musician from County Cork in Ireland. Her website indicates she is one of Ireland's top figurative artists based in Cork city - and looking at her website and Instagram I'm persuaded by her claim! She studied Fine Art at the Crawford College of Art (1988).  Selected to show in various open exhibitions over the years. Her work is in the permanent collection the Crawford College of Art, University College Cork and The OPW.
• Katie Jones (Instagram) - Lives and works in Somerset. She is a community arts tutor working with the charity Heads Up Somerset delivering art for wellbeing workshops near Wells. She also runs courses and workshops from her studio on the Mendip hills

at its core, self-portraiture is about the search for and articulation of identity, how we see ourselves and how we wish to be seen by others. As I age, my knowledge and understanding about my own identity shifts and expands, and this is what I find interesting. I paint in oils and pencil on paper and wooden board.

• Ellie Kerr-Smiley (Instagram) - a portrait painter based in Newbury, Berkshire. Graduated 2016 with an MA in Creative Writing. Has been working full time as an artist since 2021 and has a residency at the arts centre ‘The Base’ in Greenham. Her process is unplanned and intuitive - and she had a baby last October! (REVISED 1910.25. Many thanks for Danny Green for working out Ellie's name actually was - and not as indicated on the subtitles)
• Stu Lee - Lives and works in London and is completely self taught - which seems an odd statement on his website given that he has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from London Metropolitan University; MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art, London; currently pursuing studies in a Master of Research (MRes) program
• Roger Stephenson RIBA OBE (Instagram) - a retired architect based in Macclesfield. He retired from his architectural practice in Manchester in 2021 but is a Visiting Professor for architectural students in Liverpool and Hong Kong.

Next, the self-portraits......

National Gallery is selling its legendary red leather benches!!!

One of the joys when I visit the National Gallery is to walk around various of the galleries and then finally to sink into one of the amazing red leather benches.  Proper seats which allow you to rest as opposed to hard benches with no backs which give you aches in both your bottom and back.

Very sadly, this is a joy about to be lost as all the red leather benches have all been sent to an auction house to be sold tomorrow (14th October starting at 1pm - details below)!

One of the red leather benches from the National Gallery

Sir Gabriele Finaldi, the Director of the National Gallery has decided they have to go and all the red leather benches are consigned to auction at Bellmans Fine Art Auctioneers

• The benches will be sold as part of the furniture section of our Antiques & Interiors Auction on 14th October. (View Catalogue). Designed by Gordon Bower & Partners for the National Gallery in 1986 and made by Arthur Brett & Sons, Norwich, Englad c. 1988.
  

In May 2025, the Gallery marked the end of its Bicentenary year with the reopening of the refurbished Sainsbury Wing and a complete rehang of its collection. As part of these projects, the decision was made to replace some of the benches in the National Gallery - out with the old and in with the new. And here at Bellmans, having received the consignment directly from The National Gallery themselves, it is most definitely (and is typically the way with auctions) in with the old!

Included in our October Antiques & Interiors Auction on 13th-14th October are five large double-sided round ended gallery benches (lots 1200, 1240, 1260, 1280 and 1360) The National Gallery comes to Bellmans (09 October 2025) 

I gather there's been an outcry about this. Interestingly there are no press releases about the removal of the much loved red benches or any sort of coherent explanation of why they are being removed.

It made the Telegraph. According to that article it's about "fears they could attract pests". Which is very odd given the condition survey by the auctioneers indicates no pest damage and they've been used in the Gallery for the last 40 years when they were recreated from the original 1890s benches.

The headline and image in The Telegraph about the sale of the red benches

Methinks a Director who likes new architectural developments disliked the red leather benches as too associated with the past and not the present or the future.

The London Visitors blog "Ian Visits" investigated and found that 

In a response to the initial outcry about what initially looked like the sale of old Victorian benches, the National Gallery said that “The eleven benches which are being sold by Bellmans Auctioneers are replicas of the original Gallery benches, made in the 1980-90’s. These replicas are not fire safe and are difficult to clean, which causes risks to the Collection from pests – both key factors in our decision to replace them.

The question is whether they will replace them with identical benches which are fire safe and easier to clean.

Apparently the fire safety standards for furniture in public buildings (BS 7176) are higher than those required for private homes (BS 5852). 

• Museums are required to meet the "Low Hazard" requirements (and that's "low hazard" as in fires less likely to damage people than the higher grades of hazard) . Interestingly it appears it ONLY relates to what's called "Contract Furniture" of the type which might be moved between rooms of different types. 
• It strikes me that it is entirely possible that when they were remade - to replace the originals - in the 1980s that non-traditional and more flammable materials were used which now makes them a potential hazard. 

However I'd hazard a guess that if there was a fire inside the gallery, it would be the artwork which presented the greatest hazard and which would go up much faster than any of the sofas. 

Are they planning to replace the national art collection in order to render it safe?

One small bright light on the distant horizon - because you can be sure they're not being replaced like for like right now - is that the Gallery announced.

We have detailed photography and designs in the Archive, should we wish to have them remade in future.

However I find it very odd that the National Gallery should be 

• so keen to pursue fire regulations 
• while at the same time ignoring the Financial Regulations relating to direct debits and annual subscriptions. see BEWARE National Gallery Members!!!

Major Disability Concerns

Speaking personally, I find the way in which art galleries and museums in general ignore the needs of disable people to be completely reprehensible - of not illegal. 

How come they need to provide disabled toilets and not seating suitable for those (like me) with severe osteoarthritis who have difficulty getting up and down without an arm. 

As one other commentator put it (my bold)

For all the online stir around the new, minimal design choice versus the familiar favourites, it is a lack of accessibility in the new seating that concerns Kent, among others.

‘The old chairs were excellent for people with mobility issues or back pain because they had both arm and back rests, but the new ones are unusable. This is hostile furniture, it is designed to make you move on,’ she says. ‘Ironically, the rhetoric around museums today is all about accessibility, and yet the modern, international museum aesthetic of hard, uninviting spaces is so hostile to anyone with a disability or mobility issues.’ Wallpaper

Several people responded to the points raised by Kent to share personal experiences of accessing museum spaces with disabilities and mobility impairments.