Goodbye - ALL THREE Artist of the Year Judges

So it's not just Bye Bye to Kate Bryan. Kathleen Soriano and Tai Shan Shierenberg will also NOT be the Judges for the next Series of Portrait Artist of the Year.

Which makes me wonder whether Kathleen and Tai are also not filming Landscape Artist of the Year later this year too. (There's no statement on either of their Instagram accounts)

So, first the announcement and then a recap of where we are at.....

There have been a LOT of changes.....

The Announcement

This was the announcement on Instagram - which dropped late yesterday afternoon

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

The text says

After 12 brilliant series of Portrait Artist of the Year, we say Goodbye to our wonderful Judges, Kathleen Kate and Tai. Thank you so much for your expertise and insight. For championing creativity, supporting artists and bringing such wisdom and art to the show. You'll be hugely missed.

More Portrait Artist of the Year Announcements to follow.

I would add that almost every artist I've talked to who has been on the show (and that's a lot of people) have been very complimentary about the production team and the judges.

The Changes

I think first of all, we need to remember that Stuart Prebble (1951-2025), the man who invented Portrait Artist of the Year (and LAOTY) and who had a very illustrious television career before reinventing himself as a producer and starting Storyvault Films with some friends, died in August 2025.

One of the things I think - and I emphasise "think" - is happening is that there has been a change at the helm and they want a new crew.

That's just my hypothesis.

But it's not unusual in these circumstances.

12 years with more or less the same format and people means 

• a series can begin to look "tired" and in need of a bit of a "pick me up" 
• and/or starts to lose viewers 
• and/or applicants
• which prompts the identification of a need for an overhaul. 

What's currently being proposed is that the PAOTY series remains the same - with 72 artists participating across the 8 heats, while LAOTY changes to 10 artists across the whole series- and the terms and conditions have been changed along with the deadline for entries.

(This last paragraph has been updated since original publication)

Why have a Refresh?

A refresh is very common in television of this type. Mostly they do small adjustments each year (Paul Hollywood is about to get his third partner Judge on Bakeoff) - and every now and again they have a major one.

Another bit of the jigsaw might be that I had a very frank conversation with one of the Production Executives last December and said a few things about aspects of the show that I thought they ought to be seriously thinking about in a strategic longevity sense (i.e. does the series need an overhaul and refresh) - such as:

• there are constant complaints on social media about the decisions of the Judges (I have masses on my Facebook Page)
• the judging - and those complaints - now appear to be acting as a deterrent to people applying and I knew lots of good artists who would never apply given the way it currently works
• having your career influenced on the strength of one very public judgement about (apparently) one heat painting is a major deterrent for a lot of good artists - hence a disinclination to apply (Think of the comparison with a very private rejection letter from an important competition with an exhibition)
• in my judgement, the people coming forward now are less good than those earlier in the series - and....
• I've known for some time that a number of the applicants who get selected for the heats are people who have been asked to apply after the production team have trawled Instagram for possible candidates.

Bottom line:

• the series simply doesn't work without good applicants 
• those artists who do apply need to be confident about the quality and fairness of the assessment.
• you shouldn't need to trawl if you have a good programme!

There were a few other things I highlighted too but no need to write about those here.

In relation to the Judges, I also commented that:

• every other television series within the creative arts field have experienced practitioners as judges i.e. people who have done what they are asking the participants to do
• it's noticeable that on comments on the announcement, the one Judge who tends to be exempt from the critical comments re language and explanations is Tai.
• all previous painting programmes on television had expert practitioners as judges e.g .
• The Big Painting Challenge had Daphne Todd and Lachlan Goudie
• Watercolour Challenge had well known watercolour artists as Judges - such as Hazel Soan and Jenny Wheatley.
• the status of an art competition programme is essentially determined by the status and calibre of the judges - and curators do not count!
• the Judges need to be known by the public at large
• the Judges need to be mixing in the part of the art market which the participants artists are familiar with (ie. not museums and major art fairs)
• it works best when you have Judges who are also practitioners and teachers i.e. they know how to use language which connects with the audience

What matters most is having 

• expert knowledgeable Judges 
• who are good communicators and not afraid of a camera 
• who use language which connects well with the audience; and 
• educate by explaining any jargon or technical terms used for assessment

I think the original idea behind having "high flying art people" as Judges was that we would all be really impressed. That is not quite the way it worked out.

Speaking personally, I'm looking forward to the new format and new Judges for the next series. Hopefully, I won't shout at the screen and/or doze off....