Review: Episode 1 Portrait Artist of the Year 2026

This week we had the screening of the first episode of the brand new series (13th) of Portrait Artist of the Year - with a brand new set of Judges!

As I have been doing every year since 2018, I'm writing a review of every episode of this thirteenth series.

Series 13 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year

This review post considers:

• The Competition
• Then Commission
• The (New) Judges
• The sitters
• The artists
• Self-portrait submissions
• Themes observed during the episode - and observations on different approaches
• Portraits and the Judging
• Shortlist
• The winner
• Next episode
• Reference (previous posts re. 2026 - and how to access posts re previous series)

About the Context

The Competition

Sky Arts runs a competition every year called Portrait Artist of the Year. This is the 13th Series - and I have been reviewing every episode of every series on Making A Mark since 2018. (Check out my Call for Entries: Portrait Artist of the Year 2026).

It comprises

• a series of heats, - with nine artists painting 3 sitters - followed by
• a semi final - of all the heat winners
• a Final of the best three in the Semi Final
• a Commission by the winner of the Final

The Heats, Semi Final and Final are typically all held in the Grand Hall at Battersea Arts Centre. People can get tickets to watch and many do. I watched Heat 2 this year in April this year - and have lots of pics!

Battersea Arts Centre

I wrote about how the series works in detail in my Call for Entries post so won't repeat it here.

There are 72 artists in Series 13 - meaning we have 8 heats. The order of the episodes is generally NOT the same as the order of the episodes. Unless I turn up in the next episode in which case they may have changed the rule.

 

The Series Commission - for the National Portrait Gallery

This year, the £10,000 commission is from the National Portrait Gallery to paint a portrait of musician and actor Damien Lewis. 

There's an interesting MEDIA TWIST with the commission being for the NPG. 

I would draw a very big distinction between images in the collection for historical reasons and images on the walls of the NPG

• The portraits the NPG typically hangs in the galleries are those painted in OIL - on the grounds of longevity. 
• This instantly rules out all those using other media eg watercolour or pastels.

The Primary Collection contains more than 11,000 portraits. Of these about 4,000 are paintings, sculptures and miniatures, approaching 60% of which are regularly displayed, with the intention to show a further selection. In addition, there are almost 7,000 light-sensitive works on paper, shown on a rotating basis of about 300 items a year to avoid excessive light exposure and thus to minimise deterioration and fading. Introduction to the Primary Collection

(There are 

• 1,446 watercolours in the collection - but almost all are miniatures or very small portraits of a very historical nature (ie Reference Collection) with a very few more recent drawings of famous people which might be included in a temporary exhibit
• 5 paintings in egg tempera
• 34 paintings in acrylic - because of the issues with cracking which emerged over time? The only important (royal) paintings painted in acrylic hung in the galleries were painted in the 1980s. 
• 118 portrait drawings in charcoal
• 22 portrait drawings in graphite - again mainly miniatures)
• no pastels at all.)

This is a logistics and communication issue for the programme organisers. If you know the commissioning organisation is a national gallery, then you really need to be frank about what this means for the prospective participants in the competition.

e.g. Any media is fine for participation in the heats but progression is likely to favour oils.

The Judges

After very many years of moaning about the previous Judges, we have three new Judges. 

I wrote about their backgrounds back in February in The NEW Portrait Artist of the Year Judges. They are

• Eva Langret - Director of Frieze London
• Jonathan Yeo - portrait painter
• Katy Hessel - art historian, author and braodcaster

Three new Judges for Series 13 in 2026

(Lto R): Eva Langret, Katy Hessel and Jonathan Yeo

One of things I'll be looking at as I trawl around the internet is viewers' views on the new Judges - and will maybe write another post on your views.

PAOTY Episode 1

Episode 1: The Sitters

The three sitters were all actors. In the order they were introduced they are:

• Lenny James - A 61 year old English actor of Afro-Trinidadian parents, best known for portraying 
• Morgan Jones in the AMC series The Walking Dead (2010–2018)
• DCI Tony Gates in Line of Duty series one
• and more recently in Mr Loverman
• He's a big fan of Spurs and brought a shirt
• Sheridan Smith OBE - A 45 year old English actress and singer who is probably best known for characters in a series of sitcoms. She has been awarded two Olivier Awards, a British Academy Television Award, and a National Television Award, and brought her BAFTA (for Mrs Biggs) as one of her items.
• Vanessa Williams is a 63 year old American singer, actress, model, producer and dancer. She was the first Black woman to win the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984. Back in April she was starring in The Devil Wears Prada at the Dominion Theatre in the West End stage where she was playing the Miranda Priestley role.

Sheridan Smith and Vanessa Williams back to back
in their segments

Episode 1: The Artists

I do a lot of research about the artists, as you get the highly edited version and I like the full public version! I find it also invariably makes more sense of some of the Judge's decisions.

Also because you should be able to see profiles of the artist on the Profiles page on the Artist of the Year website - but you can't because somebody doesn't know it's their job to post the details before the episode airs.

However, AFTER THE SHOW, the Facebook Page has included nine videos of the artists talking about themselves. 

So is this because:

• reels are very popular on Facebook?
• or because they're trying to make the programmes shorter?
• it helps relax the artists by getting them to talk to camera about themselves?
• or any / all of the above?

No links to the artists though - but you do get that below. 

Plus the artists all get the benefit of a link from a very heavyweight top 10 UK art blog - if I can find their sites!!

The artists, in alphabetical order, are:

• Adaure Aemaeshi (Instagram; LinkedIn) - a 21 year old Nigerian student at the University of the Arts London (2024-2027). She is mainly a figurative painter - and also paints a lot of animals. She has a Diploma in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins and is currently studying for a BA in Fine Art Painting at Camberwell College of Arts. She has also been commissioned by Tate Collective, producing a painting as part of their creative programme. At present she also teaches coding to kS1 and KS2 students alongside science

My creative practice is deeply influenced by my Igbo heritage and the vibrant spirit of my family.

Adaure's submission was
a very colourful full length self portrait

• Mike Benton - lives in Colchester and works for an interactive games company. He has been painting for 25 years. Initially in watercolour but now more often in oils. He has exhibited with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Federation of British Artists and the Institute of East Anglian Artists, among others. His work now focuses largely on portraiture, where he is fascinated by the quiet, fleeting moments that can make a person feel present on the canvas. His submission - titled "Whiteout" - looked rather like an over exposed photo on a sunny day. He welcomes commissions and mainly works from photos.

The sensitivity to light and atmosphere developed through his years of working in watercolour continues to inform his approach, while oils have opened up new ways of exploring the richness and depth of his subjects.

• Alfred (Alfie) Griffith - a 17 year old school boy from Farnham in Surrey - who has his own website! He is dedicated to his art:  
• Age 11 he had two artworks accepted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
• Age 13 he won an award (Rising Star in 2021) in the same year he was shortlisted for the Jackson Painting Prize. 
• For the last few years, he has been attending a weekly portrait class with Anthony Connolly, the President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. (check out his portrait of Anthony Connolly done last year)

I have been lucky enough to be able to attend a boarding school in Dorset via an art scholarship and bursary. I visit the art room early in the morning - from when the cleaners unlock the door - and I have access in the evening and weekends, so it is nice to have access to my space/studio at all times and have teachers that encourage me.

Self Portrait at the Easel by Alfie Griffith

82.5 x 111 cm - Oil on Board - A-Level - 2025

• Melissa Hugo (Instagram) - a full time painter living in Edinburgh who paints portraits in oils. (She was the one wearing the Glen Baxter T shirt). Her portrait "Grace on Calton Hill" will be exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery from November 28th, having been shortlisted for the Scottish Portrait Awards which she also got selected for in 2022 and 2024. She uses a mirror to check angles.
• Fatimah Mahmoud (Instagram | Substack) - a full time artist from Rochdale. Her self portrait was very small and just a profile of her head and reflected a recent time of great loss and grief. She works in oils but worked from a monochrome drawing before starting her heat portrait. I must confess I get very confused whenever I see somebody from the muslim faith drawing and painting people. This is because I was advised a very long time ago while drawing children in a muslim village in Bali that drawing people is not allowed. 

Time moves differently after you lose someone. One year can feel like a day, a day can feel like a year.

• Etienne Marquis - age 23, he lives on Guernsey and is a graduate of Falmouth University. He's an oil painter and freelance artist who favours the style of traditional painters in art history. He had his first solo show this summer at the Guernsey Museum. He subsequently painted a more considered portrait of Vanessa Williams
• Jake Powell (Instagram)- a warehouse operative from North London. As a portrait artist he mainly uses pastel pencils and soft pastels on black paper. This is his self portrait submission for PAOTY. Latterly he's proved himself to be very good at gradations in shading in lighter skin colours. Maybe because he's been drawing a lot since he found he'd been selected!
• Sarah Rutherford (Instagram) - a full time artist living in London who attended Chelsea College of Arts. She is based in Wimbledon, South West London, . She describes herself as a traditional painter working in oils and painting portraiture and still life. She has been painting professionally for seven years and does about 10 commissions a year. You can see her submission (top left) and examples of her commissions (which include both MPs and children!) on her wesbite

Sarah approaches painting as an act of mindful attention, balancing a desire for precision with an instinctive pull towards looseness and abstraction. This tension between control and freedom gives her work both clarity and subtle energy.

• Nellie Warren (Instagram) - a 23 year old Nellie Warren is a writer, artist and filmmaker from Dublin, studying English with Creative Writing in UCD. She has been writing since she was six and has won awards for her short animated films - and drawing since before she can remember. The Judges were fascinated by the narrative and storytelling within her submission of cutting her hair in the bathroom. She mainly paints herself and she likes to have a narrative.
  

This painting is called 'we don't have time to deal with this right now.'

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by nellie warren (@nellieisnotcool)

Self Portrait Submissions

The Judges liked the self portrait submissions for various / different reasons. 

This is what the rules say about the self portrait submissions.

9. The Self Portrait Entry submitted must be a Self Portrait – i.e. a portrait of the applicant, by the applicant, and can be produced in any material excluding photography, video, sculpture and all forms of digital media, including the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology. Collage and mixed media works are all allowed. The work may be abstract or expressive, as long as it is recognisably a representation of a Self Portrait that has been produced within the last five years. It should be a maximum of 110cm high x 110cm wide.

If I was a Judge, I'd be looking particularly carefully at submissions (numbered from the left) 3, 6, 8 and 9. In my opinion, the rest are not really big enough to show me ENOUGH about how worthy the artists is of a commission.

Format:

• 7 x portrait
• 1 x tondo (round)
• 1 x landscape

Size:

• 2 x large
• 1 x medium
• 1 x small
• 5 x very small

Nine submissions by the nine artists in this heat.

I will reiterate a point I have been saying for years.

YOUR SUBMISSION IS YOUR AUDITION FOR A COMMISSION.

There is no way you can demonstrate how good a commission artist you are in four hours. So the Heat is basically about 

• establishing that you are who you say you are and 
• did paint the submission i.e. there is a link between the two paintings

The problem with large/very large submissions is that if they looked (as Alfred's undoubtedly does) as if they take forever to do (hundreds of hours), you have instantly ruled yourself out because there simply isn't that sort of time available within the filming schedule.

TIP: So having said what I'd said, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that: 

• read the info you're given when entering the competition carefully the paperwork titled ‘Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year - Series 13’ (working title) Competition Terms and Conditions for Entrants Entering the Competition 

The Finalists will be asked to complete a further two Portraits (“the Final Artworks”): The first of the Final Artworks will be an artwork of a Sitter chosen by the Producer to be produced within a set time period on a single day or over a number of days, as determined by the Producer.

If You are chosen as the Winner, You must be available between the Final Date and the end of July 2026 to produce the Winner’s Prize Artwork on exact dates to be determined by the Producer. You agree to allow this process to be filmed for a documentary following the creation of the Winner’s Prize Artwork intended (but not guaranteed) to be broadcast on Sky Arts in 2026 (“the Winner’s Film”)

• in other words 
• you KNOW you will a very defined period to paint a commission - and will be filmed while you paint. 
• You need to know you can produce a finished artwork of the standard required within this timescale.

One of the easiest ways of putting yourself in the frame, is to 

PRACTICE PAINTING PORTRAITS WITHIN A TIME BUDGET!

• endless portraits under 4 hours BEFORE THE HEATS - that's the best way to win your heat
• being able to paint a "winner's standard" commission portrait quickly is the best way to paint a good commission if you make the finalists.
• but the best tip is to paint a winner's standard self portrait submission which always impresses.

If it helps I'll ask the winners I know how long they had to paint their commissions for the final.

Episode 1: Themes in this episode

This section highlights observations on different approaches.

Judges giving tips to artists

As somebody who is forever writing about tips for artists I totally identify with this one. If you are an educator and/or a tip giver, you totally want to be helpful and give tips!

However if you are a Judge, you simply can't give a tip to just one artist in isolation!! 

TIP FOR JONATHAN YEO - Stop giving tips to just one artist!

You cannot help one artist and not another - because that's simply not fair!
Maybe give a tip to everybody at the lunch break which is applicable to most?

Create an Aide Memoire

Sarah Rutherford revealed in her mini video that she did something very sensible which other artists have done in the past. She wrote out 

• all her routine processes of painting a portrait, 
• what to do and what to check.

You'd be surprised how being in a situation where you have lots of big cameras pointed at you - and people interrupting you from time to time - how stuff you "know" goes out the window and you make silly mistakes or forget to check things you would normally do.

Four hours is enough, but I need to remember to do it slowly and do all my checks and not race ahead

Definitely a very sensible move for every participant.

Try some Life Drawing before the Heat

To my mind, I can always tell people who are habitually used to life drawing - particularly those who paint from life - and those who habitually work from a digital image.

I always find it amazing how people can work from a photo and still get the dimensions wrong.

If you have never ever painted somebody from life before, do try participating in a life drawing class before you enter this competition. Developing an ability to size a body, place it on a support without cutting off anything critical and keep all parts in proportion is always a skill worth developing.

Use a mirror to avoid mental fatigue

If you are painting one subject for a period of time you can begin to experience mental fatigue. That then leads to not being able to spot problems with your drawing or painting.

Melissa Hugo was using a small mirror to check her angles. 

TIP: A Mirror is a very useful tool for keeping your brain and eyes alert to errors

• It reverses the Image: this enables you to see your object with fresh eyes
• It identifies any errors you have made - they jump out at you when looked at in reverse eg 
• crooked mouths, 
• uneven jawlines, 
• lopsided eyes, 
• angles incorrectly tilted
• it enables a direct comparison - to do this you need look at BOTH the subject and the painting in the mirror. This allows you to check key dimensions
• it avoids any problems with digital distortion - for all those using a photo for reference as well as painting from life, the mirror provides an optically corect view and allows you see see any distortions introduced via the camera lens

Work well under pressure

The time constraint of four hours is the undoing of many a competent artist in this programme.

In a 4-hour television heat, actual painting time is reduced by artist interviews, breaks, and camera crews, making strategic choices about likeness and simplicity absolutely vital.

The reality is you maybe have 3.5 hours - plus the lunch hour if they let you paint through.

Bottom line this is NOT a process for the overly sensitive or the faint-hearted. You need to believe you can cope.

Those who always tend to do better are those who:

• typically work fast
• normally work well when under pressure (ie don't go to pieces)
• have practiced painting portraits in under four hours

I remember Duncan Shoosmith (who won in 2019) saying that 

• he spent the time leading up to the heat painting everybody he could in under four hours. I think he managed something between 20 and 30!
• he changed his materials and switched from oils to acrylics because they dried faster

I suggest you make a list of potential sitters and start asking if they can help!

Backgrounds

I am absolutely delighted that the poncy thematic backgrounds have disappeared and we are back to plain colours. They instantly stop being a major distraction. Nobody has to waste time with very weird historical analogies. Long may this new way of working continue.

Maybe try some less dominant colours? Or ones which tend to reflect LESS onto skin colour?

Very green and very red
- although it looks like somebody realised the problem with the green
having a tendency to make people look ill?

I also noticed they were all sitting on the same black chair on the same black dais - which is a FIRST! 

I thought that was a very sensible move. Some of the sitters have looked positively uncomfortable in the odd chairs they have had in the past. It looks like a chair which is comfortable - but not so comfortable that the sitter falls asleep.....

Portraits and the Judging

Who the sitters chose

I've been waiting all day for the very clever Instagram posts like they did last year. Three Instagram posts each comprising three small pics of the portraits done of each sitter.

So all that work by Sky Arts and Storyvault Films in commissioning the sitters - and there's no Instagram posts to recognise this.

Please bring them back. They are a really good way of comparing the portraits.

So who did the sitters choose? I shall make my comments very short too.

Fatimah with her portrait of Venus Williams

• Vanessa Williams chose the portrait by Fatimah Mahmoud
• Lenny James chose the portrait by Adaure Aemaeshi - which happened to also include the Spurs Cockerel (smart girl!)
• Sheridan Smith chose the portrait by Sarah Rutherford - because it captured a youthful smiley side of her which she thought she'd lost.

Next we see whether the Judges agreed. Or did we?

What Judging?

The only time we saw and heard the Judges judging
- in front of the artwork they have already shortlisted!!!

What was VERY VERY ODD is that there was absolutely no discussion of ALL the heat artwork BEFORE they went to debating the shortlist. 

In EVERY SERIES in previous years we have seen the Judges move around each segment and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of ALL the artists' work.

This used to be a MAJOR part of the programme. 

It's just disappeared.

WHY?

This is one of the most useful sections of the programme for aspiring artists hoping to join. 

• Any artist who is too fragile for the comments made in this section should NOT be entering a competition on television.
• Any Judge who cannot come up with accurate but helpful comments should NOT be judging.

I am very disappointed that Sky Arts / Storyvault Films have seen fit to DOWNGRADE THE PROGRAMME in this way.

The Shortlist

Artists at the Shortlisting

PAOTY Series 13 Episode 1

As always I wish we could see each artist lined up with either submission or with their heat painting clearly visible. It's not like we're not interested!!!

This year we seemed to lack the usual shot from just to the right of the judges looking straight down the line of artists - which does make me think the photographer is no more.

The shortlisted artists were

• Sarah Rutherford
• Mike Benton
• Adaure Aemaeshi

Self Portrait and Heat Painting by each of the shortlisted artists

L to R: Mike Benton, Adaure Aemaeshi and Sarah Rutherford

Mike Benton

Self portrait and portrait of Lennie James by Mike Benton

All the Judges were very surprised by how much colour Mike used in the second painting - and described him as a fantastic colourist. They also noted he achieved a very good likeness.

These are both impressive portraits close up. However if we look at the top picture, it's very clear that both are very small portraits.

I think despite the distinction that Mike brings to his work in relation to colour and tone, the size works against him when it comes to progression.

I think he could easily have been a very serious contender if he'd submitted a bigger self portrait and painted rather more than "just a head".

Adaure Aemaeshi

Self portrait and portrait of Lennie James by Adaure Aemaeshi

Adaure Aemaeshi's submission self portrait is VERY VERY dominant next to her heat painting and next to the portraits of the other two artists.

You cannot ignore it. Can I also remind people what I said again (for the nth time), your submission is your opportunity to show what a commission painting might look like.

The Judges also said how much they enjoyed the scale of her submission, how it captured her spirit and displayed a very vibrant use of colour. They also said she exceeded their expectations - which is never a bad thing to do!

Adaure is clearly somebody who enjoys colour and painting with colour. I felt her submission was much "cleaner" in the rendition of colour than her heat portrait of Lenny. For example, I didn't like the background, which I thought was leaning towards being messy. However she created a good likeness and it was a decent size painting in the four hours.

Sarah Rutherford

Self Portrait and Heat Portrait of Sheridan Smith by Sarah Rutherford 

The Judges loved Sarah's submission. Katy Hessel referred to how in art history, Tintoretto used to light from below. It was certainly very effective in terms of how it warmed up an otherwise largely monochromatic self-portrait.

I very much appreciated the art history lesson as I'd not heard this one before.

Jacopo Tintoretto pioneered a highly dramatic, theatrical method of lighting figures from underneath—a perspective technique in Italian art known as sotto in sù (seen from below) or compositional chiaroscuro

The next bit is a bit convoluted - but bear with me.

First off, the self portrait is gorgeous and I can well see why it got her picked to be in a heat and then shortlisted.

I think I might have avoided painting my subject with the same tilt of the head.

Some years ago, when I was reviewing the new portrait of the (then) Duchess of Cambridge I discovered the following 

"I'm betting most of us never knew that not one single painted portrait in the National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection of some 11,000 portraits has an open mouth. Sandy Nairne, Director of the NPG was quoted by The Guardian as saying
"There isn't a single open-mouthed portrait in the collection,"
(although I guess he may have forgotten this one!)" 

It's the "no teeth in our paintings" gallery. Important people in the UK do not do smiles - period!
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge official portrait - my verdict

That's because nobody can hold a smile for the time it takes to paint a portrait - so we always know a smiling face is painted from a photo or digital image.

I may be wrong but, bottom line, I don't think that Sheridan's smiling face helped Sarah's chances. However, I loved the fact that this is what made the portrait meaningful for Sheridan!

Bearing in mind the PAOTY Commission painting is for the National Portrait Gallery, I'm guessing the Judges may have been briefed as to what the NPG considers to be a "proper portrait" - in terms of one it has commissioned. I am pretty sure they favour artists who are capable of painting portraits from life - because they also commission photographs! Normal practice is to have sittings for the head.

Judges commented on how it was a complicated pose to tackle - but how she did well to have a go at the complete figure. However, I'm not sure the dimensions are correct. To me, the head looks a tad too big and the shoulders look a tad too narrow.

Jonathan's observation about wondering why she left covering the canvas behind the figure with paint until just before the end is, I think, also important. Knowing how you are going to deal with the background denotes a confident artist.

I think Sarah should definitely have another go. Now she knows what's it's like she'll be even better prepared next time.

PAOTY 2026 Episode 1 Winner

The winner of Episode 1 of Series 13 of Portrait Artist of the Year is Adaur Eamaeshi.

Yet again, I don't find it at all difficult to understand a result like this when 

• she was the ONLY artist to provide a full length self portrait and 
• the only one of two artists who provided sizeable self portraits.

I cannot repeat my PAOTY Mantra enough - your self portrait is doing the auditioning for what sort of commission you could create!

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Next Episode

The sitters for Episode 2 have not been announced - as they usually are. I've always been able to include them previously.

Overall Conclusion about Major Changes in Episode 1

Generally, I thought the Judges were better than the previous set. 

• they offered more specific and relevant comments on artwork during the painting period
• there was less use of made up words (my particular bete noire)
• their comments were accessible ie capable of being understood by most viewers

However, I do not need to hear a Judge "fangirling" over Venus Williams when I'd far rather hear her offering opinions about the heat artwork produced.

Despite a good start in content delivered by Judges, there's an awful lot missing from what we are used to seeing and hearing and rather a lot of that is useful feedback for the participating artists but, more importantly, the aspiring artists.

The series has been shot and edited and is "in the can" but I hope we'll get more "proper judging" back next year - of ALL THE ARTISTS.

REFERENCE: PAOTY SERIES 13 (2026)

• Goodbye - ALL THREE Artist of the Year Judges (Jan 2026)
• The NEW Portrait Artist of the Year Judges (Feb 2026)
• Call for Entries: Portrait Artist of the Year 2026 (Feb 2026)
• Series 13 of Portrait Artist of the Year starts 7th October 2026 (Sept. 2026)

YOU CAN READ MY BLOG POSTS ABOUT PREVIOUS SERIES 

BY LOOKING AT THE REFERENCE SECTION 

AT THE END OF THE CALL FOR ENTRIES POST