This is the last of my reviews of the first eight episodes of Series 12 Portrait Artist of the Years 2025 which have covered the various heats - out of order - from this year's competition which was filmed in April 2025.
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| A reminder of just how big that PAOTY set-up is and why it stays in once place! |
Thank you!
Before I start I have to comment on the number of people commenting on Facebook about my posts on my Making A Mark Page prior to my review posts being published.
The one for Episode 6 in which I highlighted the person I thought should have won got more than 50,000+ views and the one this week in which I again highlighted a very good artist (in the context of a very silly comment) by a Judge has almost reached the same figure (currently 47K views) in a much shorter space of time.
Somewhere between 95-98% of the comments have erred on the side of NOT being complimentary about the Judges decisions about shortlisting.
Plus more than a few comments about what they say. Several hundred actually!
Episode 8: The Sitters
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| The three sitters (top right) Tim Peake (bottom left) Jack Rooke (bottom right) Reece Clark) |
The three sitters in the eighth episode are all male and are as
follows:
- Reece Clarke - a very tall Scottish ballet dancer who joined the Royal Ballet in 2013, and was promoted to principal dancer in 2022. He appeared dressed as Count Albrecht in Giselle
- Jack Rooke - comedian and writer who created and wrote Big Boys, a semi-autobiographical comedy for Channel 4 which has made him a four-time BAFTA Award nominee for the show, finally winning in 2024 for Best Writer: Comedy. He also campaigns with wit and candour for recognition of the mental health struggles of young people.
- Major Tim Peake CMG - a retired British European Space Agency astronaut, Army Air Corps officer and author who has been into space. He wore his training suit - complete with numerous badges - for the sitting
I must confess I'd only heard of Tim Peake!
Episode 8: The Artists
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| The Artists in Episode 8 |
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.
- Lucy Ambler (Instagram) - a commercial mural artist based in Suffolk. She likes using heightened colour and also uses coloured pencils on card - as for her self portrait.
- Silas Archibong (Instagram) - From Mbiabong, Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, he currently studying for a Masters in Fine Art at Kingston University. He produced a self portrait which was split into his two identities of Nigerian heritage and a Jesuit student.
- El Barrett (Instagram) - a conservation biology student from Surrey. She has been making art since she was a child. She now finds art really useful for when she draws the natural world as part of her studies.
- Courteney Bae (Instagram) - 1986 is a Korean-American contemporary artist who is the daughter of artist Sangki Bae. She describes herself as a "creative marketer" - but initially trained in Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, before gaining experience at renowned luxury goods brands. Now working in oils and gouache watercolour. She has won multiple juried awards and exhibited in New York, London, and Europe. Lives in Walton on Thames in NW Surrey.
- Steve Cannon (Instagram) - An American artist based in Galway for the last 29 years. His self portrait contains a lot of detail in the reflection of the window in the background. He works mainly in figurative studies and paintings whether it be oils, watercolour or graphite and his main aim is to catch a likeness. He has regularly exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (I thought his style looked familiar!) and the Royal Hibernian Academy. After looking at his Instagram, I'd advise him to apply again, after he has worked out how he can do what he does best in four hours flat! Then practice. In the meantime, he had another go at Reece when he got home (see below). I wonder how many other participants do the same? (also see below!)
My self portrait with a peace lily. (The photos should be a bit darker) It shows where I work. Packed with canvases, easels, paintings, plants and assorted miscellaneous bits and pieces.
A peace lily has a expected life span of 5 years. My little plant is 21 years old. It was a gift while in hospital after losing my leg all those years ago.
Me and the plant are both a bit worn, with crinkly edges, but there is new growth as well so not all is lost.
- Eugene Evans (Instagram) - A social care worker from Middlesborough. He has osteoarthritis (snap!) and used medical motifs in his self portrait. I cannot remember the last time anybody turned up to paint in a heat wearing a suit - but he looked very smart! He continued to finish his heat portrait of Jack when he returned home (see below).
- Han Guo (Instagram) - an artist living in Guildford who used to be an engineer. She trained at London Fine Art Studios with the Classical Atelier method. She enjoys the process of observing her subject and using the brush to capture her perception and understanding.
- Fiona Land (Instagram) - a former rowing champion from the Yorkshire Dales. I'm not including a link to Fiona's website as I only include links which are secure (ie. prefaced by https) . She participates in North Yorkshire Open Studios. I got the impression that she was very nervous and didn't do herself justice on the day.
Painting is usually such a solitary pursuit so to have cameras, an audience and the 'judgementals' watching was a very different experience
- Lewis Meda (Instagram) - an aspiring Fine Artist/Illustrator living in Hampshire, England. He has trained with the Watts Atelier Online School since 2018 and is now a member of their Online Grading Team.
This was
a blog post about "Filming Sky PAOTY Heat 8 with NELDA SALE" which I found on Courteney Bae's website blog. Nelda Sale is the
Series Editor for Sky Art’s Portrait Artist of the Year. This includes this
paragraph.
One thing that sets PAOTY apart from other competition shows is that we do not cast for character - artists get through to the heats based on merit. This is quite unusual for a television competition show which is often about casting for big personalities or dramatic backstories. I think this adds integrity to PAOTY as a competition however, it does present it's own hurdles. Many artists are rather shy and introverted or certainly used to working in solitude in their studio so to find themselves on a huge set (Battersea Arts Centre's Grand Hall) can be very intimidating. Therefore one of the challenges the PDs are faced with is to produce artists who are not comfortable on camera and can be monosyllabic in their answers (other shows go through a casting process where participants are often screen tested to iron out these things). Filming Sky PAOTY Heat 8 with NELDA SALE
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Episode 8: Self-Portrait Submissions
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| The self portrait wall in Episode 8 |
This episode had more larger self portraits and most of these involved at least the upper torso and hands as well as head and shoulders. Smaller portraits split between head and shoulders only and head only.
FORMAT
- Portrait format x 8
- Square x 0
- Landscape x 1
SIZE: (this is size by my eye / "you know when you see it")
- Large x 4
- Large/Medium x 1
- Medium x 1
- Small/Medium x 3
- Tiny x 0
SCOPE
- full size or most of body (including hand) x 1
- head, upper torso and hand(s) x 4
- head and upper torso (no hands) x 0
- head and shoulders x 2
- head x 2
Episode 8: Themes
- recurrent golden oldies - ones you really need to get to grips with if you want to participate in a future programme
- ones unique to this particular episode
- matters relevant to portraiture or being an artist
Don't make jokes
...because...
- the editors will use them
- you are not a comedian. It's not a good look.
Instead, address the fact you are bound to be nervous (it's absolutely normal) ahead of the cameras turning on you and think about what might be the wisest and best way to deal with being nervous and/or not wanting to talk on camera. for example, practicing a lot beforehand and/or asking them to come back when you've got settled in and are more relaxed....
I sat in a the middle of a small town in Provence once, being filmed while I painted by a BBC camera crew for a programme about painting holidays.
I sat in a the middle of a small town in Provence once, being filmed while I painted by a BBC camera crew for a programme about painting holidays.
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| Me with my sketchbook and painting bag in the centre of Gordes in 1989 (practising my perennial plein air sketching habit: first find a cafe with good tables and chairs and a loo!) |
The crew knew I was articulate and not backward at expressing opinions and I knew they were dying to get something I said on film. So, because they were interrupting me, I said something which I knew they would/could never use. Worked a treat, they left me alone to get on with my painting from then on..... It was after all my holiday and I had no objection to being filmed painting - from a decent distance. But don't interrupt the art! I was happy to talk when not drawing or painting and made it clear that these were my rules.
TIP: set your boundaries and be clear with the film crew what these are. But don't end up being one of those artists who never gets interviewed and barely appears on screen!
The articulate artist
....which brings me on to another topic which the Series Editor has made very relevant. In an article titled Filming Sky PAOTY Heat 8 with NELDA SALE - which has been posted on Courteney Bae's website blog.
Never ever forget that these programmes are a commercial entity and that the people who make them want to make a good programme with quality content - which involves artists saying intelligent things while filming.
That's why in other series involving members of the public, you always get interviewed first to see whether or not you can talk lucidly to camera.
But not this one. They find out while the heat is progressing.....
During the final heat this year we had a fantastic sitter, Reece Clarke, a principal dancer at the Royal Ballet who chose to stand for the four hour challenge. This was an editorial gift but then once the challenge started, word got amongst the production crew and judges that an artist had taken matters into her own hands and had asked Reece to pose for her on the floor! This in itself got a buzz going and then when everyone went over to see her work, we were all amazed by her abstract figurative style and that artist was of course you, Courtney. It was so refreshing to watch something different and risky but accomplished that seemed to achieve that illusive thing that the judges are always talking about - capturing the essence of a sitter. I had a word with my team who were producing in your “cheese” and I was told that you were a dream contributor, providing excellent, energy rich soundbites which always makes our job in the edit easy! Obviously it was lovely to see that the judges agreed with us lay people and they then chose you to go through to the semi-final.
Enough said?
The Standing "Sitter"
There's a reason why people being painted are referred to as "sitter".
It's very unusual to get a sitter who is prepared to stand for the whole four hours (notwithstanding the three breaks during that time). However that's what we had this week when Reece Clarke chose to stand in a pose from the ballet Giselle.
It's even more unusual for artists to be used to drawing / painting a standing "sitter".
Unless, of course, they regularly go to life class where drawing people full length is something you can do in every class. To my mind you can always tell people who have done years of life drawing classes (I'm one such veteran!). However there is also the issue of what size supports and brushes you have brought and whether you are kitted out for a large painting of a very tall standing man.
Which sort of explains why absolutely NOBODY tried to do him as a standing man. Instead we got:
- a very fine head with a somewhat messy background - painted from life
- a head shoulders and torso with hands painting - where the proportions were sadly somewhat awry
- an artist who asked the sitter to do something completely different - and he crouched in something approaching a ball on the floor. What a waste of an opportunity! That was painted from the photograph she took and viewed on her ipad.
Several people commented on this on one of my Facebook posts. Here is one such.
But what is totally unacceptable is the stately powerful erect figure of the ballet dancer who stood for 4 hours was depicted as a crumpled on the floor piece of discarded paper. His historical training , size and posture was discarded, ignored. The colour tones and heavy brush strokes ignored the dancer's efforts at refining at toning his shape and body. It was a total rejection of the sitter / standing persona and damaged the very ethos of the arts programme. The producers must review the judges quite hurtful and ridiculous decision to select a piece that damaged the model's professional image. Thom Cross
Brushes: absolutely pristine brushes
If you bring brushes which are so clean it looks like you've never used them before, you are signalling to the Judges that they might want to think twice about taking you seriously. People who paint all the time might be fastidious about cleaning their brushes - but they will never look like they're just bought them.
Brushes: tentative tiny brushes
We had quite a few people who ran out of time in this heat. I knew this was going to happen "before lunch" because of the brushes they were using.
Any time I see people using brushes which are too small to paint with, I know that they are probably more used to working on smaller supports, probably sitting down and not having to finish within a time limit. Plus they have not practiced for the heat.
The only way you can make progress is to use much bigger brushes to get your sketchy tonal values and pattern marked out before you start switching to slightly less large brushes
In other words, I saw too many people using brushes which should be used for finishing tweaks right at the beginning. I immediately lose interest in that painter as I'm pretty sure they're not going to make progress and almost certainly will end up making a mess towards the end.
Brushes: how to hold a brush for portrait painting
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| Luke Meda demonstrating how to hold a brush for portrait painting |
- A longhandled brush enables you to hold it further away from the ferrule. This enables you to make much bigger looser strokes - such as when you are drawing in or developing tonal values. This is because you are drawing/painting from your shoulder rather than your wrist.
- You should ONLY hold a brush near the ferrule - in a precise, pencil-like grip - for fine details and details like highlights, which you'll be applying near the end. You don't start with the detail!
"We need to see the self portrait submissions to understand where they might go next"
The Judges literally said this - before we saw them judging the final heat portraits. Oddly, I'd always assumed they looked at the self portraits when there was nobody in the hall - before they started the heat.
As I have said many many times before:
- the self portrait has the potential to demonstrate what a £10,000 commission done by you might look like.
- Only one artist in this heat delivered on that and that was Steve Cannon who completed a very complete portrait which portrayed the man as well as what he looked like
- it's not about painting big - because those can look very sketchy and incomplete
- the self portrait can demonstrate how you change gear as you upsize your support.
Many artists do not help themselves by:
- delivering small head and shoulders self portraits
- don't demonstrate that they can paint
- on bigger supports
- including hands
- from different perspectives
- avoiding a template response
There is a REASON why I spell out in every heat what the format and size and scope of the self portrait is. It's the difference between getting to the next stage or not.
Episode 8: The Portraits and the Judging
Who the sitters chose
Below you can see all the portraits grouped according to the sitter - which I think are the most useful photos provided by Sky Arts. Put them together and those who need to be shortlisted tend to shout out!but not always - as in this heat.
I include Judges comments (and mine) in this section about those artists who do not progress.
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| Portraits of Reece Clark (top right) Lewis Meda (bottom left) Courtney Bae (bottom right) Steve Cannon |
Reece Clark is a very good looking, very tall man - although you'd be hard put to know that from these portraits.
Reece chose the one by Lewis Meda which was, by far, the best likeness of his face and head (only). I'd be interested to know whether Lewis brought a bigger support with him - and then chose not to use it.
Reece chose the one by Lewis Meda which was, by far, the best likeness of his face and head (only). I'd be interested to know whether Lewis brought a bigger support with him - and then chose not to use it.
I can imagine him being happy to hang that in his home. I don't think either of the other two stood a chance from the sitter's (stander's) perspective.
Kate was
- pleased to see that Stephen showed Reece standing up (except he didn't - he could have been sitting upright on a stool!)
- and that it demonstrated his extraordinary physique. (Whereas I thought it demonstrated some very serious mistakes in the drawing of proportions).
- She was not mad on his colour choice but felt that it informed the skin tone beautifully. Whereas I thought Stephen painted the colours that were there - and that his head looked very flat and two dimensional because of the lack of graded tones on the head.
They are words, just words. They mean nothing.
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| Portraits of Tim Peake (top left) Silas Archibong (top right) Fiona Land (bottom) El Barrett |
Tim picked the portrait by El Barrett - which included the rocket. El's "motif" was to have one large hand very near to the front of the picture plane - so it is always bigger
If top right had actually looked as presented here, it might have stood a chance. However there was a huge morass of not very well planned or painted black marks off to his left (as we look at it).
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| Three portraits of Jack Rooke by... (top left) Eugene Evans (bottom left) Lucy Ambler (right) Jan Guo |
Jack picked the portrait by Lucy Ambler.
"I'm going to go for the mad one - Lucy!"
Oddly, I thought it was the only portrait which actually looked like him - once you had made out the aspects which were Jack from the many marks she made on her black paper. See below for a better view. It's also a remarkable portrait and something of a talking point!
The Shortlist
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| Artists lined up for the shortlisting |
- Lewis Meda (big sighs of relief from many watching on television!)
- Courtney Bae
- Lucy Ambler
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| The self portraits and heat portraits by shortlisted artists |
The Judges selected three very different types of portrait for the shortlist
It was very very difficult today because you were comparing chalk and cheese. You've got an element of fantasy, an element of very strong stylisation and then tradition. so now just having them together makes it even harder. Kathleen Soriano
Lucy Ambler
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| Self Portrait and Heat Portrait by Lucy Ambler |
Stephen asked whether there was enough of Jack in the portrait. Tai said he found it hard to find. Then commented he realised she had actually caught the essence of the man with very little when he walked past Tai. He found it impressive that she was able to both find his most vital elements in a heat and then lose it from being obvious in her myriad mark-making - but still have a sense of the likeness.
Lewis Meda
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| Self Portrait and Heat Portrait by Lewis Meda |
Stephen observed that both portraits were very imilar.
When you see them side by side it feels like a template in a sense because it has exactly the same treatments of the head and shoulders, the way the top of the outfit falls away Kathleen Soriano
but what a facility. It was extraordinary the way he got the likeness so quickly Tai Shan ShierenbergThe Judges observed that.....
- Kathleen thought that Lewis had captured a fantastic likeness with beautiful touches of paint on the cheek and in the shadows and she "does get the performer"
- Kathleen was much less anamoured with his background
- Lewis had a facility to capture likeness
- however he seems to adopt a template approach i.e. his self portrait and his heat painting looked very similar and he had adopted the exact same approach
- the background looked messy unlike his portrait - and was distracting
Roll back to what I said in themes about understanding the importance of self-portrait submissions.
The self-portrait and the heat portraits need to
- look as if they are painted by the same person
- demonstrate the capacity to develop a commission - and it's much easier to do this with the self portrait if you've done a larger painting.
Courtenay Bea
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| Self Portrait and Heat Portrait by Courtney Bae |
I would say that Courtney, that there is a quality that she brings as well that I suspect would be repeated which is finding serpentine shapes, a heavy outline, exaggerating certain facial features to take the portrait, to twist it slightly to make it feel more modernist.
I think she's definotely an artist who doesn't care that much about making a portrait as she does about making a great painting Kate Bryan
Tai felt it was interesting watching Courtenay paint and also deal with the situation and model. He opined that
"the likeness is there but pushed to extremis because the dynamics demand that in a sense"
I raised an eyebrow and uttered "huh?"
I thought her palette and tonal choices for his head made him look very muddy an deformed.
Her objectives seemed to be to fill the canvas, rather than to paint the man in the pose he chose.
[There's very probably a NON-EXISTENT Prompt Sheet for sitters which talks about unwise choices re "how to sit" i,e, don't stand, don't cross your legs, remember that you need to hold that position for four hours and even if you are very fit, some positions are going to be a huge challenge! If it really does not exist then it should do!]
PAOTY 2025: Episode 7 Winner
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| The announcement of winner from the shortlisted artisst - overwhelms the Courtnay Bae, the winner Polite smiles from the other two shortlisted artists |
the artist the judges have chosen painted a dynamic portrait that demonstrates a strong relationship between the artist and the sitter.which for an artist who painted it from her iPad seems a very odd statement to make
She didn't even think she'd be shortlisted! We will see her again next week when the semi finals are held.
My followers on Facebook had something to say about that decision - and 95% disagreed with it.
Some comments from my followers on Facebook (I had 452 comments on one post)
what is totally unacceptable is the stately powerful erect figure of the ballet dancer who stood for 4 hours was depicted as a crumpled on the floor piece of discarded paper. His historical training , size and posture was discarded, ignored. The colour tones and heavy brush strokes ignored the dancer's efforts at refining at toning his shape and body. It was a total rejection of the sitter / standing persona and damaged the very ethos of the arts programme. The producers must review the judges quite hurtful and ridiculous decision to select a piece that damaged the model's professional image (51 likes)
What’s the point of a real life sitter if it doesn’t remotely look like them?
The judges are so full of it, they spoil the show.
That was a bit like taking a penalty..and skying it over the bar. They had the best one in the final three.....then disregarded it. (33 likes)
I loved Lewis’ work. The winner made a classically beautiful and elegant young man, into a manic gargoyle. Wtf! (32 likes)
Honestly- they need to get new judges for this show. They don't seem to recognise who the real artists are at all. This one [by Lewis] of the beautiful ballet dancer was by far the best portrait. Glad he chose that one for himself.
....and more comments from the Artist of the Year website
I can't understand what artistic logic there was behind the decision to paint a beautiful, poised ballet dancer in that Picasso style. It didn't represent him at all and he'd put so much effort into that strong pose. (76 likes)
Three finalists, two were worthy, one wasn’t, guess who won
The discussion last night about some work being great paintings but not looking like or capturing the likeness of the sitter was hilarious as the programme is…..PORTRAIT ARTIST of the year.
Next Episode
I'll be doing a round-up of those artists in the semi-finals before the semi-final programme on Wednesday evening next week. Just so you can speculate who you think might make it
through to the Final before they lift a brush!
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