On Saturday afternoon, I went along to the Mall Galleries to hear Miriam Escofet RP, Antony Williams RP, NEAC PS and Frances Bell RP ROI CBPP participating in the Expert Artist Panel Discussion.
The subject was Portraiture.
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| The Expert Panel (left to rght: Frances Bell; Antony Williams, Dr Alison Smith and Miriam Escofet) |
I know all three artists well having seen their work in various exhibitions and award competitions in the last few years - at least a decade and maybe nearer two! I have lots of photos of them with their work! You'll see some of the pics I took below.
It was interesting to hear their take on questions posed by the host who was Dr Alison Smith, who was formerly the Chief Curator at the National Portrait Gallery (2017-2024) and is curently the Director of Collections and Research at the Wallace Collection.
Below are some notes and some quotes.
I'm not going to attribute them to individuals as, for the most part, they were all in agreement. Plus while I've got notes for some, I've not got notes for all!
You can see examples of their portraits on their websites - but they've completed very many more portraits than are typically included on a website.
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| (Left to right) Miriam Escofet, Frances Bell, Antony Williams |
What is a portrait?
Which comes first, the person or the painting?
"Portraits are first and foremost a likeness"
The audience for a portrait expect a good likeness.
However:
- a portrait is also a painting
- there is also the issue of the difference between personal work and a commissioned artwork
- artists are always fascinated about the possibilities of their media and what they can do
- there's a tension between getting the likeness and creating a satisfactory painting
If there's no likeness a portrait isn't working BUT it's not a good painting just because it is a good likeness.
To this end
- portrait artists also like to paint personal work which allows them to explore the possibilities of their media and what they can do
What's different about Portrait Painting?
When painting a portrait, you can make a person "come alive".
Each portrait tells a story about technique and the relationship of the artist and the sitter
An artist is not just representing the externals (the features, because an artist can also explore "the internals" - the character of the individual.
How do they develop their portraits?
An artist may well have several portraits / commissions / paintings on the go at once. so preparation and recording ideas is vital.
All emphasised the importance of drawings in developing options for a portrait painting (i.e. it's not just about the painting)
Artists may develop
- accurate studies of the head
- small studies as an example for approval
- different ways of telling stories about a sitter in terms of other objects in the painting, what metaphors can be used
- ways in which you can gain some kind of psychological insight into the sitter
Also, it's important to know what interests you and how that can be incorporated.
- e.g. Miriam is very interested in volume
However, whatever else is going on in the painting and how many layers of meaning it may have "the portrait has to sit at the top of the pile."
Techniques of Portrait Painting
I work from detail to detail. I'm a miniaturist on a larger scaleSEE ALSO my Interview with Antony Williams (BP Portrait Award 2017 3rd Prize)
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Antony Williams with his Third Prize and his prize-winning portrait Emma Egg tempera on board, (690 x560mm, |
Frances Bell also works in a very precise layered way. She first creates working drawings and then worked up drawings to develop a very precise composition.
- Expressions are what make an individual seem lifelike (That said Sandy Nairne once told me you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of smiling portrait paintings you can see in the NPG!)
- Relations of the sitter can be really useful - it's very useful to get their input into what somebody looks like in "real life"
See below for Miriam's approach to painting her mother - which won the BP in 2018.
The Role of the Sitter
Sitters come with ideasFrances lovers interaction with her sitters - she likes to have collaborators and to hear their ideas and thoughts.
EXAMPLE: a standard commission of a portrait of a Master of a Cambridge College - to hang in Hall tends towards a fairly standard format. However one Master wanted his family in the portrait as well - so a device was found to make that happen so they could be seen in the background. Based around the Velazquez painting Las Meninas
How important are the hands? (my question)
the psychology lives in the hands
It's always struck me that you can tell the quality of a portrait painters by how they paint the hands - so I wanted to ask all three what importance they gave to the hands.
All three were of one voice - the hands are very important and are almost like a second face. For a number of reasons:
- they tell you about the sitter
- they reveal character in terms of how they are used
- they can tell stories
Painting Commissions
Portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II
Two of the artists had painted the Queen.
- Antony Williams won the inaugural RP's Ondaatje Prize in 1995 and the prize was a commission to paint a portrait of HM The Queen. This was very early in his career as a professional artist and he'd previously only had two or three commissions!
The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture (1995): This prize was launched in 1995 by Sir Christopher Ondaatje and the Ondaatje Foundation. In its inaugural year, it was awarded as a commission to paint H.M. The Queen for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
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| HM The Queen by Antony Williams RP Winner of the Ondaatje prize for Portraiture Royal Society of Portrait Painters 1995 egg tempera 122 x 96cm (48 x 38 inches) |
- In 2022, he explained the process and how he dealt with the reactions in The unsettling business of painting the Queen's portrait for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters website.
- He had 7 x 2 hour sittings
- He met the Queen's Dresser for discussions and decisions about what she should wear.
Not all of those who saw it liked it.
Brian Sewell referred to her as an old age pensioner about to lose her bungalow
- Miriam Escofet was commissioned to paint the HM Queen by the Foreign Office after winning the BP Portrait Award in 2018. See my blog post
- Portrait of the Queen by Miriam Escofet - which describes the process of painting the Queen (which was the last one ever done of the Queen). This was a year in the making. She got the commission and had some sittings just before Covid - and then everything shut down - but she had a big project to occupy her and no disractions!
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| Miriam Escofet with her portrait of the Queen |
SEE ALSO my 2012 blog post Painting the Queen
Painting other VIPs
Frances Bell's example was her portrait of Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Commissioner of Police - for the Hendon Police College who was the first female and first openly homsexual Met. Police Commissioner. The portrait had a deadline because it was for the centennial of the first woman policeman in the Met.
Dick's official portrait as commissioner was unveiled in July 2019. The oil painting, which Dick paid for from her salary, depicts the commissioner in front of a map of London, wearing a police shirt rather than full tunic uniform. Dick sat for twenty hours for the portraitist Frances Bell. The painting hangs at the Hendon Police College alongside portraits of her 26 male predecessors. While portraits are usually unveiled after a commissioner has stepped down, Dick's portrait was unveiled as part of celebrations marking the centenary of the first woman joining the Met WikipediaFrances discussed the debate about how she should look and the background and how the map of London seemed very appropriate. (Apparently many women police students now mimic Cressida's hand on hip!)
She's very small and she's a hand on hip person
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‘Cressida Dick’ (2019) for Metropolitan Police Frances Bell RP ROI (hangs at Hendon Police College) |
It's nice to see a portrait which looks neither stuffy nor over-stuffed for an official portrait - she's painted in a normal shirt agaist a map of London! I'm also tickled by the fact I'm taking my daily walk in the big patch of green to the right of the Commissioner's head!
Annual Exhibition 2020 of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
Her second portrait (below) of Cressida Dick is, in my opinion a much nicer portrait of Cressida Dick - so much more relaxed! This one shows her out of uniform and includes Cressida’s partner in life who was sculpting her at the same time and Frances’s friend.
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| Cressida Dick by Frances Bell (from my blog post Royal Society of Portrait Artists Annual Exhibition 2024) |
The Balance between Commissions and Personal Work
There is a need to do personal work inbetween commissions.
- Family come in handy as subject matter!
- They also can help you win competitions
- they allow you to experiment with your media, improve your painting techniques and extend your range.
This is a very relaxed portrait of Frances's family (definitely not "stuffed shirt") - with herself in the background.
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| A hot day in August by Frances Bell oil 140cm x 170cm |
Miriam wanted to create a painting of her mother as she was in her 80s - and created a portrait about time. She is always very concerned about getting the right composition. In the end, it dawned on her that her mother needed to be portrayed at her kitchen table. The objects included provided symbolism relating to her life. There is a suggestion of the china moving...
Miriam puts a lot of work into her drawings before she starts painting any portrait.
In this instance her painting was also very intentionally almost monochromatic - which saved it from looking too busy because of different colours.
Colour can be your friend but also your enemy
I wrote about Miriam when she won the BP Portrait Award in 2018 - and also did a video interview with her (see below)
- Miriam Escofet wins BP Portrait Award 2018 - and
- this is my video interview with Miriam about how she got into portraiture and how she got into portraiture and then about the painting which won the BP
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