My series Artists with their Paintings is organised according to the nature of their subjects.
- This excludes all portraits which were self-portraits by women artists. These can be seen in my last post about Self Portraits - see below.
- It does however include portraits of daughters which I missed when doing the Children and Parents post!
My other published and planned posts are
Other posts are:
- Portraits of Children (and Parents)
- Portraits of Older People
- Self Portraits (which has been updated with two new entries since published)
- Portraits of Men and Groups
Portraits of Women
This post starts with two adult daughters missing from the children post. I think because both seemed so grown up it didint occur to me that they could also be children. It is however interesting that yet again, this first parent painting a child is a woman.
Zena Assi
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I'm not gonna straighten my hair Oil, acrylic and ink on canvas, 2025 © Zena Assi |
This is another child that I missed from the Children and Parents post! I will add this one in to that as well. (I'm only just reading some of the labels in detail as I'm working through the posts).
Sitting in a meditative pose, Zena Assi's daughter returns the viewer's gaze with a calm defiance. This portrait by the Lebanese painter celebrates her daughter's choice to no longer straighten her naturally curly black hair; 'a small gesture' that 'speaks volumes about embracing difference and celebrating one's origins'.
Zena Assi - Born in Lebanon, in 1974, Zena Assi now lives and works in London. She graduated with honors from l’Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA), worked in advertising and taught in different universities.
Her artwork has long explored urban tensions, memory, exile, interior architectures, and fragmented identities. There are not many portraits on her Instagram account.
Many of her pieces are repeatedly shown in different international auction houses and are part of various public as well as private collections. Her work has been seen
in solo and group exhibitions in Europe, the Middle East and the USA including at the 57th Venice Art Biennale (2017), the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2020, 2022, 2024, 2025), and the MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art in Saudi Arabia (2025).
I like the full on uncompromising steady gaze of the sitter - which feels right with the age her daughter appears to be - and her mode of sitting.
TIP: One of the aspects which make a portrait very effective is when the posture and attitude of the sitter seems to sit well with the age they appear to be.
Paul Aston
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The Costumer
Oil on board, 2025
© Paul Aston
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Paul Aston Instagram
(b.1966) undertook a BA (Hons) degree in fine art from Leeds University.
He is now a figurative oil painter working in Cambridge
His portraits of people stammering have helped to broaden the debate around speech diversity and have been used by speech and language therapists and stammering support groups to challenge preconceptions about stammering. He has spoken at conferences about his work and appeared on podcasts.
In 2023 he was a contestant in the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year
competition using a portrait about stammering. Aston also took part in the
stammering pride exhibition Wouldn't You Like to Talk like Us?
jointly with Conor Foran at the City Lit, London, 2024 and the
Space to Stutter joint exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American
Art, New York, 2025.
Strictly speaking I should have spotted this was a portrait of his child,
but rather than amend yet more posts, I'm including her here.
In this portrait, Paul Aston depicts the 'resilience' of his child, who is
a costume
designer.
- The abstract shapes in the background of the portrait are taken from cut out patterns of eighteenth-century men's coats. These reference his subject's profession.
- What's also interesting is the significant contrast between the very fine brushwork used to depict the intricacy of the tattoo and the loose brushwork used for her clothing.
It is also a good portrait of his daughter!
Paul Benney
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Fiona Oil on canvas, 2025 © Paul Benney |
- Currently holds the mantle of "most selected artist never to have won the Portrait Award (when sponsored by BP). Previous exhibitor nine times: 1994,1996 (Winner – BP Visitors’ Choice),1997 (Winner – BP Visitors’ Choice), 1998, 1999, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2014.
- He has worked as an artist and musician in both the U.S. and U.K.
- He has painted many prominent political and cultural figures. His work is represented in public collections world wide including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Australia, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Collection, and a plethora of other prominent private and corporate collections.
- He is also the artist who was chosen to paint the State Portrait of HRH Queen Camilla. (see my blog post The Coronation Portraits and The King's Tour Artists - at Buckingham Palace
Fiona chose what she wore for the portrait, which naturally included the Stewart tartan. She's a little lady and yet the crop chosen for the portrait presents an accurate and warm picture of her without suggesting a short stature, which I found to be very considerate. He is also masterful at painting fabric - and that was a very challenging top being both shiny and lacy. One can see why he was also chosen to paint the Queen in her coronation garments!
Rachel Brickhill
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I Used to Play the Trumpet
Oil on canvas, 2026
© Rachel Brickhill
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Rachel Brickhill (Instagram) is a very new portrait painter early in her career - but the complexity
and quality of her portrait does not suggest this in any way. She has an
excellent eye for colour and an ability to see tonal ranges.
She was born in 2006 and is currently studying for a BA (Hons) degree in
the history of art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Her work
has previously only been
seen in a group exhibition in Surrey.
Her portrait depicts her friend, Saskia, attempting to play a trumpet only
just rediscovered in the untidy bedroom behind her. You can see progress
paintings of how she developed the painting on her website on her
Instagram - which also has other "snapshot" portraits of her friends doing
things.
In capturing this moment, the artist mirrors the sitter by returning to
painting
after a year-long break.
'We both wanted so badly to spend time being creative outside of digital media like we once did, but we couldn't bring ourselves to take the first steps.'
The label in the gallery tells us all that
Brickhill subtly inserts Saskia for a second time through a miniature portrait in the trumpet's reflection.
Martin Jessup
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Diane oil on canvas, 60in x 40 in (2025) © Martin Jessup |
Martin struck up a conversation with his sitter Diane at a vintage market stall in Bristol.He was very struck by the sitter's character and style and asked her to sit for a portrait!
He aims for the essence of the individual rather than just a good likeness. He also paints using archival materials and traditional oil techniques so that the work will last.
This colourful painting resulted from their meeting and the taking of reference photographs to ensure all details were captured. Jessup began the work with a rough charcoal drawing, which they then slowly refined, looking at different tones as a guide. By using this method of working, the sitter slowly emerges from the canvas.
Niall MacArthur
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Ronnie, 2024 by Niall MacArthur © Niall MacArthur |
Niall MacArthur
- a British painter living near Rye in East Sussex. I think he used to be a
globetrotting investment banker and the co-founder of the UK-based EAT
sandwich bar chain which was acquired by Pret a Manger in 2019.
He started painting in later life upon retirement, and has no art school or
other formal training and was therefore feel free to do whatever he wanted
without anxiety or constraint. He's a first time exhibitor and has also
exhibited a portrait at the Scottish Portrait Awards in Edinburgh.
After many years of all-night painting sessions (tennis all day) during which I officially became the world’s No 1 listener to Green Green Grass of Home on Spotify, I am pleased & honoured to be exhibiting at both the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh this year.
I found the use of a pink frame to be odd - but somehow it works! For an
untrained artist who took up painting in retirement, I'd call 5-6 years
invested in painting before being selected for both national portrait awards
to be time very well spent!
Margaret O’Hare
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Rominha with a Red Earring, Oil on canvas, 2025 © Margaret O’Hare |
Margaret O’Hare - b.2000 she is a classically-trained painter based in Florence, Italy. She earned a Bachelor of Arts with distinction in English from the University of Virginia. She currently studies and teaches at Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy.
Margaret specialises in portraiture and works from life using the sight-size method. She has exhibited paintings in Florence and London. This year she was Selected with Distinction for The 28th Annual International Competition, The Portrait Society of America
She painted this portrait entirely from life, under natural lighting, using the sight-size method. The result is a classical friendship portrait scaled to life.
Dressed in a black chiffon dress featuring a timeless, sheer ruff, the sitter's ensemble was assembled from pieces in both the artist and sitter's closets.Note that the red earring is very close to one of the "sweet spots" which makes sense given the title.
Emily Rogers
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Portrait of Ellen Oil on canvas, 2025 © Emily Rogers |
Emily Rogers (Instagram) - a British painter, born in Oxford in 1996 and currently living in London. She attended Oxford Brookes University (Art Foundation); graduated from Leeds Arts University with a degree in Fine Arts in 2018 and then moved moved to Florence, Italy, and began studying "sight-size" and the techniques of the old masters at the Charles H Cecil Studios. She works on commissioned portraits at her studio in Kensington and periodically provides instruction at the Charles H. Cecil Studios. Her work has been seen in the exhibitions of the Roval Societv of Portrait Painters, Society of Women Artists (2025 and 2024, winning the Karen Walker Young Artist Award) and as a participant in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year, 2023 (Episode 1) (Link is to my review of that episode)
This portrait was painted using sight-size and classical methods of portrait making.
The painting of Ellen recreates the variety of fabrics in a painterly play of colour and texture. Full of psychological depth in the way the sitter returns our gaze, this reciprocity "became part of the rhythm of our sittings. Rogers explains that 'after long stretches of being carefully observed', Ellen, who is a talented photographer herself, would often pick up her camera and observe me in return'.
TIP Judges change from year to year - but there is no getting round the fact they do appreciate paintings by those who have been classically trained in Florence - like the two above this tip. I'm going to do a count-up of how many there were this year....
Other portraits of women
These include
- All You Need 2024 by Gabriel Choto (Instagram)- Gabriel Tendai Choto was born in 1995 in Harare, Zimbabwe. He was raised in Bradford, and currently lives and works in London, England. After completing his Diploma in Art and Design at Leeds Arts University (formerly Leeds College of Art) in 2012, Choto went on to gain a BAFA in Drawing from Camberwell College of Art (UAL), London, in 2014. He is currently undertaking an MFA at Central St Martins, London, UK.
- Her - in Her Twenties Oil on canvas, 2026 By Yejin Oh (Instagram) - b.1997 and based in Korea. Graduated from Kingston University with a degree in fine art in 2023. She has participated in a number of exhibitions in Korea and Art Fairs in Asia. A tribute to her late grandmother, the work explores themes of identity, memory and time.
- Sahara, Oil on canvas, 2026 by Isabella Watling (Instagram) - Previous Exhibitor (2012, 2014, 2024), won second prize in 2024. b.1990 she studied at the Charles H. Cecil Studios, Florence. This is a full-length, life-size portrait in the tradition of European portraiture. It uses a radically reduced colour palette, the painting comes alive in the dynamic brushwork and the tonal variety of blacks and greys.
REFERENCE: HSFK Portrait Award 2026
A LOT of artists have told me over the years - in the Private/Press Views - that they know who I am - "You're Making A Mark!" and have read a lot of my posts - and that in short is why I do them....
These are the posts I've published this year so far - there's more to
come (in italics).
You may think this is totally OTT. However this has been a very
popular international art competition for very many years - and I
think it's worth it!
- Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026: SHORTLIST Announced
- Selected Artists (Part 1: A-H) for The Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery
- Selected Artists (Part 2: I - Y) for The Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery
- Mark Dalessio wins £35,000 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026
- The Tale of the Portrait Award Catalogue 2026 - and two major mishaps
- Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Children and Parents)
- Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Older People)
- Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Self Portraits)
to be published:
- Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Men and Groups)
- Review of Portrait Award 2026: What's changed and what's not
- Portrait Award 2026: The 10 portraits I liked the most
Next post is about paintings of men and groups - and includes the first
prize winner.
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