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| PAOTY 2026 Episode 2 Artists with self portraits |
The Sitters for the Second Episode of Portrait Artist of the Year 2026 were Louis Theroux, Anthony Scaramucci and Joanna Scanlon and one of them made it to the shortlist twice - while another missed out!
This is my review of Episode 2 which covers:
- the artists
- the sitters
- self-portrait submissions
- themes arising in the episode
- who the sitters chose
- the shortlist
- the winner
PAOTY Episode 1
Episode 2: The Sitters
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| Two of the sitters Anthony Scarramucci and Joanna Scanlon |
- Louis Theroux (age 56) is a presenter and BBC documentary maker of some renown. His programmes - often about odd people or organisations - have won him three BAFTAs and a Royal Television Society Television Award. Somebody gave him some very bad advice about what to bring.
- Anthony Scarramucci's claim to fame is he briefly served (11 days) as Trump's White House communications director in 2017. Age 64, he started out working at Goldman Sachs - ininvestment banking, equities, and private wealth management - before going on to found his own investment firm and subsequently write a number of books. Since April 2024, I've been listening to him as one half of "The Rest is Politics US Edition" podcast with Katty Kay - and he's very good!
- Joanna Scanlon (age 65) is a British actress and writer. She's had a number of nominations for various awards and won a BAFTA for best actress in a leading role in 2020. I remember her best as a completely pivotal person in "The Thick of It" which satirised the inner workings of government, which used to be much appreciated by those of us who'd been in there!
Episode 2: The Artists
The artists, in alphabetical order, are:
- Makenzy Beard (Instagram) (Linkedin)(age 19) from Swansea in South Wales, her appearance on the programme got her a spot on her local BBC News programme. She is an established Welsh portrait artist who earned international recognition from a very young age. Age 14, she started painting in the garden shed during Covid lockdown. Next she had work accepted for the RA Summer Exhibition. Recently she has worked with a gallery in Cardiff where she has held multiple sellout solo-exhibitions and raised over £45k for charity since her painting journey began. Her work has also been featured in The Times, BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, ITV News, Sky News with Alastair Stewart, The Times Radio. She became a professional artist, in September 2025, while having a gap year after her A Levels. She also plans to do a philosophy degree.
- Andrea Broug (Instagram) (age 18) - A sixth form student, currently sitting her "A" Levels. Now based in London, she is a former student of North Halifax Grammar School. She likes to explore cultural identity, familial bonding, and historical representations of skin tones and Black history in painting
- Nasha Cash - she is a Sheffield born, multi-disciplinary artist and illustrator who’s spent the last decade living and working in Manchester. She does "Live Painting and Murals" and "Speed Portraiture for Events". She's worked with a number of clients to create works for many different projects, campaigns and events.
- Jake Fern (Instagram)- a British portrait and landscape artist living and working in Saltdean, Brighton, England. He usually works from life and on commission re. portraits. BELOW Eva Langret was asking a question (in true Socratic method - designed to stimulate creative thinking) rather than giving tips! This is a link to a very interesting interview with him by "Artists and Illustrators"
- Joanna Houghton (Instagram)- an artist based in Manchester. Originally from North Wales, Joanna graduated from Manchester School of Art with a degree in Illustration in 2012. Her submission was a very small drawing of her one year old in coloured pencils.
- Maggie McManus (Instagram) - Originally from Leeds, now living in Manchester, teaching secondary Art full time and painting. She describes herself as an art teacher, artist and mother.
- Joshua Obichere (Instagram) - from East London. MA Fine Art, Fine/Studio Arts, General from Central St. Martins. Master of Education - MEd from Cambridge University. Full time Artist and Art Educator passionate about creativity, art for race and social justice. He runs workshops as one half of an art duo. He talked very confidently about his process of using grout and oil paints to create portraits. Jonathan Yeo commented he was one of the most original artists in terms of the materials he was using. He paints by icing the outline in grout.
- Alice Parsloe (Instagram) - an artist and former actor based in North London. She now freelances as a voiceover artist. She works with oil pastels on cardboard.
- Sam Reeves (Instagram, Facebook) - a Fine Art student studying at Liverpool Hope University, who specialises in realistic portraiture of people and pets. He works primarily in oil paint. He's due to graduate in June 2027. He's participated in a number of exhibitions. This was his self portrait The Gridded Self
Self Portrait Submissions
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| Judges viewing the self portrait submissions. |
- Makenzy Beard's was about what she looked like after reversing into a brick wall. Her acrylic portrait revealed a talent for painting likenesses and a proficiency in handling paint.
- Jonathan Yeo thought Maggie McManus's very intense self portrait and control over both colours and tones indicated she was a really good painter.
- Sam Reeves did a very interesting gridded version of his head, where every part of the grid was a different distance thus distorting size.
Yet another reminder
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 you really paint the submission i.e. there is a link between the two paintings
- YOUR SUBMISSION IS YOUR REAL AUDITION FOR A COMMISSION.
Episode 2: Themes in this episode
How the Judges talk - and talk to the artists
The odd high speed comment is not an issue. It's the fact that what she
says all the time seems to come out at high speed. Which is such a pity as
she seems to have a number of very worthwhile comments to make.
She also seems to be taking her art history brief very seriously as we've had more namedrops of artists in the first two episodes of this series than I think we had in a number of the previous series.
She also seems to be taking her art history brief very seriously as we've had more namedrops of artists in the first two episodes of this series than I think we had in a number of the previous series.
If she's not careful, a game will develop around guessing which artists
will be highlighted in each episode - and seeing if you can say them
before Katy does. Such is the nature of devotees watching favourite
series....
More seriously, there is still the issue I raised last week, of the Judges talking to artists and giving them TIPS.
All artists know that if you get a group together, before long the information sharing starts and tips are passed on. Which is fine and dandy in (say) a situation where you are all painting for pleasure or in an educational content.
HOWEVER, that's not what's happening at Portrait Artist of the Year.
This is a competition - for a big cash prize - and you simply cannot have a situation where some people get what might be very important tips from Judges while others do not. It distorts the judging. It leads to court cases.
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| "Learning lots from Jonathan Yeo" |
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| "The Brilliant Jonathan Yeo giving me some valuable tips" |
Moreover, I think I'm right in saying it's ILLEGAL. So what I'm going to do is check out the relevant competition law and will be writing a blog post about this befiore next week.
Let's just say there is a reason why all art competitions have to have Terms and Conditions - and every competition has more or less exactly the same rules.
It strikes me that the Judges employed to Judge (and not mentor) probably also need to sign some very specific terms and conditions re what they can and cannot say?
Anybody remember how in the BBC Programme "The Big Painting Challenge" how they had
- two Judges (Daphne Todd and Lachlan Goudie) - who only judged and
- two mentors - who provided education and tips to the artists in each programme.
- it could and should be educational
- but also that it must NOT confuse the role of educators and mentors with Judges.
Drawing and Painting Hands - in proportion
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| The heads and hands of Anthony Scarramucci |
- First of all it's a portrait of a person
- Second, the bar has - or should have been - raised so that a portrait artist can paint both head and hands and not have a problem doing that.
(some might say
Jonathan Yeo
agrees with this approach and often does very little between the
two!)
For me the only excuse for not painting hands in the heat is if you have
painted them in your submission.
Hence I was really pleased to see that all the artists painting Anthony
Scarramucci had chosen to include his upper torso, including hands.
However, in this episode, we had some spectacularly bad hands. I'm not going to
embarrass the artists by saying who painted them.
VERY BIG TIP: If you paint hands make sure that
- you are experienced in drawing / painting hands i.e. you're not doing this for the first time!
- you checked your measurements re head and hands rather than winging it
- your hands are absolutely in proportion to the size of the head and arm
- you also checked the length of the arm.
MORE TIPS FOR SIZING HANDS ACCURATELY
- If you place an open hand over a face, the hand - from the base of the palm to the tip of the middle finger usually covers the face from chin to hairline i.e. an adult human hand generally measures one head height
- The length of the palm and the length of the longest (middle) finger are roughly equal.
- the length of the hand is about
- two-thirds the distance from the inside of your elbow to your wrist
- about one-quarter the length of the entire arm
For those who are drawing/painting from life, it's also a very good check
for Judges on how experienced you are at doing this and whether you can scale and get proportions right.
Using a Tablet or Phone for a reference image
The reality, as all those who have been to a heat will attest, is that the
artists are quite often left without a good view of the sitter - because
people are in the way.
TIP Artists should always take a reference pic for those occasions when you haven't got a complete or even a good view of the sitter.
I do have a much preferred option - which I wrote out (see below) in the response to a comment on this issue re last week's review posted on Facebook
The reality is there are lots of people who you can't see getting inbetween artists and the sitters a lot of the time. So you always need a reference because you cannot paint from life because you cannot see the model.
They are also at a much greater distance from the sitter than artists usually would be.
Personally, I'dIt would then be much easier to sort the "wheat from the chaff".
- put the artists much closer to the sitter
- ban everybody from coming between sitter and artists;
- use remote control cameras fixed to the top of the frame to film the artists;
- and only then remove all digital helpmates and ask them to paint from life.
How good your sitter is at "sitting still"
I think - and it is no more than that, just "a thought" - that sometimes
we get a sitter whose portrait does not make it to the shortlist because
the sitter did not sit still. Rather than because the artists in other
segments were better artists. More because some sitters were less good than others.
This week Anthony Scaramucci did not make it to the shortlist.
I keep getting the impression that maybe the sitters have
- either been badly briefed
- or they didn't read the information they were sent.
While it's not unusual for a sitter for a portrait to be a fidget or
poor sitter, I would have thought that if Storyvault Films (who make the programme for Sky Arts) are paying somebody to sit
for a television programme (and I cannot imagine they're getting their
sitters for free - free portrait notwithstanding) I think the contract
should include something before the signature which says:
- you have read the brief
- you commit to the basic requirement i.e. to sit still as much as possible
How the artists work
- oil pastels on cardboard
- oil paint and grout
Interesting to watch, but I confess my immediate thought is always "Well I can't see the NPG going for that" so I assume those artists knew full well they were unlikely to be shortlisted.
Background Colour - first or last?
One of the conundrums for many artists appears to be how to deal with
the background - as if it somehow is not a crucial part of the painting.
The reality is that the colour and tone of the background - and how it
is painted makes a very big difference to how the painted portrait of
the individual looks.
TIP Making a decision about a background should never be a decision to be taken late in the day. It should be part of the planning from the beginning.
That's what sketchbooks and mockups are for BEFORE YOU START!
Backgrounds can:
- provide context and information about the sitter
- avoid confusion by minimising clutter
- connect the tonal shapes and spaces of the head to the lighting of the background
- complement skin colour or create a contrast which leaves a head hanging in mid air
Yet again - no discussion of the work by nine artists
Why is it that the Judges chat in front of the three portraits in each of the three segments has been dumped?My guess is that by next year, secret recordings will start being made. By people coming to watch.
TIP Can the Judges not learn how to say what they think but in a way which is helpful and educational? eg
- chat away from the pics about the sort of things that led to:
- ways in which some portraits just missed out
- certain portraits not being considered seriously for progression
- highlights - across all relevant paintings - about what made a portrait really work
To be completed with the discussion which is included about the submission and heat paintings by each of their shortlisted artists.
I agree that this is the more important discussion - but that does not make the discussion of the others unimportant.
Many people would settle for a lot less chat with the celebrities and a lot more chat about the artwork!
You also simply cannot have Judges giving artists tips!
Portraits and the Judging
Who the sitters chose
I'm still waiting for the clever Instragram posts they did last year which showed all three posts of each celebrity in one post.
I thought they were brilliant (BIG HINT!)
Here's who chose what
- Louise Theroux chose the portrait by Makenzy Beard
- Anthony Scaramucci chose Jake Vine
- Joanna Scanlon chose Andrea Braug
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| Joanna Scanlon reviewing her portrait by Andrea Braug |
The Shortlist
I guess there must be a good reason to ignore feedback on six portraits by artists who are not going to be shortlisted - but I cannot think of one.
I wonder whether applications for next year will take a big dip because of this change in programme format?
The shortlisted artists were:
The two portraits by Maggie McManus were apparently about "capturing the pagze"
I love the self portrait - it's a real "caught in the moment" face and disposition - she had just crashed the car on some bricks. It's also not overcooked, the brushmarks are everything coupled with some fine tonal adjustments.
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| the Shortlisting |
- Makenzy Beard (age 19)
- Maggie MacManus
- Andrea Brown (age 18 and doing her A Levels)
I was personally disappointed not to see Jake Fern not in the final three. I thought he did a fine portrait of Scaramucci, although the hands were a tad too big for me.
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PAOTY 2026: Episode 2 - self portrait and portraits of
shortlisted artists (l to r) Maggie Macmanus, Andrea Braug, Makenzy Beard |
Maggie McManus
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| Self portrait and heat painting by Maggie McManus |
The two portraits by Maggie McManus were apparently about "capturing the pagze"
I can entirely see who Jonathan Yeo so admired her submission. She's very good on colour. While the heat portrait is a good companion, I think it's less successful.
I also wished she'd finished off her edges. It's a small thing but don't gift the Judges a reason to reject you.
Andrea Braug
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| Self portrait and heat painting by Andrea Braug |
Everybody agreed her portrait of Joanna was exceptional. The eyes were just fabulous.
Eva made a comment about how she has a care and love for representing darker flesh. Which I found really ironic given how Andrea is the child of a black mother and white father and her own skin colour is considerably lighter than how she had painted it. I ended up wondering whether she had painted it as an experiment in looking at herself from the perspective of her mother's heritage rather than what she actually looked like.
I do hope we're not going to have a DEI perspective on everything. Eva seemed somewhat adrift from what was actually going on to me.
I do hope we're not going to have a DEI perspective on everything. Eva seemed somewhat adrift from what was actually going on to me.
Makenzy Beard
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| Self portrait and Heat Portrait by Makenzy Beard |
I love the self portrait - it's a real "caught in the moment" face and disposition - she had just crashed the car on some bricks. It's also not overcooked, the brushmarks are everything coupled with some fine tonal adjustments.
Out of these three, for me
- the best submission was by Makenzy Beard
- the best heat portrait was by Andrea Braug
I thought Makenzy just edged Andrea overall.
I thought it was a bit sad that five of the seven were just heads and there were no hands on view.
Chickens come home to roost at semi finals and finals stage....
PAOTY 2026 Episode 2 Winner
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| The two Heat Portraits by the Joint Winners Andrea Braug and Makenzy Beard |
The winner of Episode 2 of Series 13 of Portrait Artist of the Year
was, for the very first time, TWO ARTISTS!
The Judges decided to select both Makenzy Beard and Andrea Braug as joint winners.
Andrea made a very astute comment - one which all parents of all aspiring A level artists should pay attention to! Plus broadcasters.
Again, no reference at the end of the programme as to who's in next week's
programme.
"My A Levels are going to suffer"
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Next Episode
Have they not yet worked out the order of programmes?
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)
- Review: Episode 1 Portrait Artist of the Year 2026 (9th Oct.)
YOU CAN READ MY BLOG POSTS ABOUT PREVIOUS SERIES
BY LOOKING AT THE REFERENCE SECTION
AT THE END OF THE CALL FOR ENTRIES POST
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