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Sunday, October 25, 2026

Review: Episode 3 Portrait Artist of the Year 2026

Apologies for the late publication of my review of Episode 3 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2026. This is not one of my better reviews for a variety of reasons.

I had a few distractions last week 

  • Tuesday: Met with Commissioning Editor of a reputable publisher and got commissioned to write a second art book, of which more in due course - but I'm excited and had started jotting things down - which was a major distraction - before...
  • Wednesday: got up very early to escort my other half partner for his surgery - and then got sent back home because of no bed;
  • Thursday: an excruciating pain developed in the back of my neck (fracture from recent fall or cervical spondylosis?) which painkillers did not dampen down. The only thing that worked was an Icepack - tied on with a scarf! So I went looking for solutions.... which lost a day... plus did a 111 assessment and got a GP appointment and had a very bad night's sleep despite trying every pain medication! 
  • Friday: Saw the GP - discussed what it might be; got an appointment for an x-ray and appointment with normal GP for next week. PLUS I developed a very "wet nose" sneezy cold - presumably caught from sitting around in crowded hospitals and GP surgeries!
  • Very tired all through Friday and Saturday.

    Anyway, so now on to what was supposed to be one of the intended brightspots of the week - my review of Episode 3 of PAOTY Series 13.

    I sneezed constantly through writing most of this....

    PAOTY Episode 3


    "A little bit of judging"

    This is my review of Episode 3 which covers:
    • the three sitters
    • the nine artists
    • self-portrait submissions
    • themes arising in the episode
    • who the sitters chose
    • the shortlist for a place in the semi-finals of PAOTY 2026
    • the winner

    Episode 3: The Sitters



    The sitters were:
    • Matt Weston - the UK Olympic Champion and Double Gold Medal Winner in the "Skeleton" (think tea tray going down an ice tube very fast) from the Winter Olympics in Cortina. He is the first Brit to win two Golds at the same Games. He brought with him his medals and the shoes he wore.
    • Nikita Gill - a poet, writer and illustrator of Irish-Indian descent, specifically of Kashmiri, Punjabi, and Sikh heritage, born in Belfast to Indian parents. Raised in India before moving back to the UK.She has reimagined the myths of the Ancient World. She has also written eight volumes of poetry and is one of the most followed poets on Instagram. She explained how her jewellery has a long history in South Asian families. They represent love and insurance!
    • Dexter Fletcher OBE - started out as an actor age 6. Age 9 he featured in Bugsy Malone playing Babyface. As an adult he appeared in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Band of Brothers. Subsequently he became a film director  (of Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman). He had very thoughtfully dressed to interest the artists!

    Episode 3: The Artists


    There is a profile of the artists on the PAOTY website.  Below you get a mini profile of each artist which is missing from that page.

    NOTE: 
    One of the weird things about The PAOTY artists page is that they have 
    • stopped including links to the artists' websites and Instagram (eg see Series 12)
    • started including contact emails instead - which they never did before, because you can contact artists via their sites!
    • There is a very good reason that very many people never ever put their contact emails on their website or in the public domain - they get harvested by naughty people.
    • I wonder if they've told the artists they're doing this. If Sky Arts is doing this without their explicit written permission, then they're breaching GDPR!
    There again I keep feeling, post the death of Stuart Prebble, there's a new team producing the show.....
    THE ARTISTS, in alphabetical order, are:
    • Vanessa Brassey (Instagram) - Describers herself as "A contemporary painter recording the quiet anatomy of ordinary intimacy" Obviously experienced, she was selected for the RA Summer Exhibition and has just finished exhibiting at the Affordable Art Fair at Battersea. She paints on "found book covers" - which seemed to me to bit of a ddgy thing to do given they're not made for longevity or paintings. She is exhibiting a set of porcelain books at ING Discerning Eye. I love her instagram post published as she set off at the crack of dawn to get to Battersea on time. She will be writing up her experience 

    • Imogen Fleming (Instagram) - a visual merchandiser and London based artist working with a mixed media practice incorporating painting, drawing, print and traditional craft media. She is based in South London. She painted the largest self portrait submission.
    Imogen deliberately embraces an aesthetic often dismissed as girlish and unserious, her works are unapologetically sentimental, maximalist and romantic - characterised by segmented blocks of vibrant colours and patterns, and themes of friendship and beauty.
    • Moira Lam - An Art Director and Oil Painter.  She is a a British-born Chinese artist, specialising in oil portraiture with studios in SE London. This was her self portrait Tentacle in the Bath. She also works as an Art Director for advertising clients. She used a very tight graphic grid to start her painting which made the Judges nervous.
    • Paul Majek (also spelled Paul Majec) (Instagram) - a London-based contemporary fine artist. He graduated  in Fine Art from the University of Oxford in Fine Art in 2023 and he is a postgraduate of Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School.
    His work explores the fluidity of figures, engaging with themes of memory, generational dialogue, and spirituality. Working primarily with oil, acrylic, and charcoal on wood, canvas, and paper, he employs layering techniques to experiment with opacity and transparency. Drawing from family archives and personal narratives, he integrates painting with video, sculpture, and found objects, creating altar-like installations that evoke intimacy and a sense of home.
    • Conor O'Connell (Instagram) - currently based in Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon and recently graduated from NCAD, Dublin, having studied Fine Art Painting and Education.
    • Polly Pincott (Instagram) - an Oxfordshire based Artist working in a variety of media, favouring oil paint, pencil and charcoal. She was a semi finalist in PAOTY Series 11. This is a video she made with Sky Arts as a result of that experience. She produced a fine drawing in charcoal pencil as her submission - but painted in the heat. 
    • Viktoriia Riasniaska (Instagram) - Lived in Kiev, Ukraine until the war and has been a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine since 1999. Studied with Odessa Fine Art College and the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (Kiev). She has been taking part in national, international and personal art exhibitions since 1989. She moved to Durham in the  North of England when war broke out.
    • Alex Robertson (Instagram) - works as a Senior Art Director in Advertising and draws faces when he's not working. His submission was drawing fineliner with layers of hatching. He swopped to a pencil for the heat.
    • Clarissa Shanahan (Instagram) - a figurative painter working in oils and gold leaf, who also works in pastels based in East Sussex. Born and trained in the United States. She studied drawing and painting at the New York Academy of Art, The Art Students League of New York, and completed her BFA in Painting and Art History at University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2005.​ She became a scenic artist working with filmmakers.
    Below Clarissa talks about what it feels like on the show, after the show and watching the episode!



    Self Portrait Submissions
    The wall of self-portrait submissions


    I still do not understand why people send small portraits in. 
    • Can they only paint small? 
    • Are they not really sure whether or not they want to do the show?
    • Have they never thought about or tried painting bigger portraits?
    • They're obviously not reading my reviews!
    This is a portrait competition which can make all the difference to an artist and it deserves to be treated as if it did.

    Format:
    • 1 x landscape
    • 8 x portrait
    Size: 
    • 0 x extra large
    • 1 x large
    • 2 x large medium  
    • 3 x medium
    • 3 x small
    The submissions indicated 
    • a range of subjects - in the bath with a giant tentacle as an emotional response to the experience of endometriosis
    • a range of styles - including one completely blue painting
    • drawings as well as paintings - one in very carefully hatched fineliner which I liked a lot and the Judges really appreciated how he rendered fabrics
    Only one took the opportunity of doing a whole body - and should be congratulated for so doing. It's always nice to see self-portraits that are not just about looking in the mirror.

    The Judges commented that
    • they'd never seen a portrait like Paul's blue self portrait
    • they noted that Connor's taxidermy gave a much more rounded view of the individual.

    #3: 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.
    • Think long and hard about whether the medium you are using is one which would be used for a commission.

    Episode 3: Themes in this episode

    Two of the segments

    Judges analysis and comments - and "mentoring"


    It's going to take a whole (other) blog post for me to comment on 
    • what we're getting from the Judges' Comments
    • what's missing from Judges comments
    • criteria for what the Judges can and cannot say
    • criteria for their judgements
    I will say however that I thought 
    • the discussion at midday was maybe more helpful than usual.
    • the discussion about all the artists works when finished was, as per this series to dat, totally non-existent - and it's very clear from comments on social media that this is much missed by many viewers.
    So we'll leave it there for today.

    However, I am noting your contributions in comments on the episode and you may well find your words quoted in a future post.


    Fast versus slow starts

    Take any group of artists and they will all start in different ways. The Judges commented on watching the artists and how they had started in terms of composition, techniques and speed of getting something down on their support. It did make me wonder how often they have watched artists painting.
    Being a quick painter helps you to catch the character of your sitter (Viktoriia)

    The Judges liked the sense of immediacy in her submission which she achieves by working quickly from life.

    I'm just going with light shape, form, colour (Paul Majek) - as he sketches in the overall shapes within his portrait in pastels

    I start slow and then as it starts to build it should all come together (Polly Pincott)

    TIP: It really does not matter HOW you start, whether you do the whole picture or a close crop. What really matters is knowing whether you can produce a good portrait in four hours (less interruptions) - and what method works best for you. 

    TIP: You can also increase your confidence by doing some four hour paintings of friends and family. in advance

    Who would have guessed that Moira, starting with a slow and careful gridded approach, would end up painting what I (and others) thought was an excellent portrait and very good likeness of Dexter which appeared to be very loose - on top of a well defined structural underpinning.


    Art Directors and Scenic artists

    I found it very odd that there was more than one artist involved with television / film, scenic art and commercial art. Is this who Artist of the Year is pitching too?

    One wonders if there is a general marketing effort in terms of those who read the commercial press - whatever that is. Or maybe professional bodies? eg the Association of Scenic Artists.

    Portraits and the Judging


    Who the sitters chose

    Matt Weston chose Polly Pincott's portrait of his profile which was the simplest of the three portraits and also the best likeness.

    Nikita Gill chose the red painting by Paul Majek. 

    Dexter Fletcher chose Connor O'Connell's painting of the whole figure plus table and object  - which surprised me.

    Some of the viewers' comments
    The artwork could have been anybody - in fact I think it looked a bit like a death mask!
    the other thing is why is a judge helping the painters I don’t understand he’s actually given her ideas and telling her how to do it that’s so wrong 
    I prefer my portraits to at least bear some likeness to the subject
    I do not like the new format and miss the original judges
    I felt it was a very unsubstantial painting/sketch that didn’t even try to reassemble the sitter. Felt like “an emperor’s new clothes” moment
    Ive been watching the first 2 series, 2013/14 on Now. 100% focus on the artists with continual discussion of their techniques and style. Cant believe how much the current programmes have deteriorated.

     

    The Shortlist



    Shortlisting for PAOTY Episode 3
    Shortlisting for PAOTY Episode 3


    As before we went straight from the sitters choosing their favourite portrait to the shortlisting - with absolutely no commentary on the nine artworks produced. 

    In which case, why not limit the programme to the announcement and not bother with any of what has gone before?

    Only one of the artists shortlisted was also chosen by the sitter - and that was Paul Majek.

    The Shortlist was:
    • Vanessa Brassey - the one who painted on books
    • Moira Lam - who would have been my winner
    • Paul Majek - who creates artworks in one overall colour
    The shortlisted portraits

    Vanessa Brassey

    There was no view of both her self portrait and heat artwork.

    Frankly, some of the Judges might get "excited" about different supports for a portrait but I'd find it difficult to include a self portrait which is already coming apart at the seams of the spine of a book cover!

    "Excited" was by the way the most overused inappropriate word in this heat.

    Moira Lam

    Submission and heat portrait by Moira Lam

    I thought Moira's submission was highly unusual and very impressive. It certainly succeeded i its purpose of catching the Judge's eyes by being "different".

    I thought the portrait of Dexter was actually the best portrait in the heat.

    Paul Majek

    Submission and heat portrait by Paul Majek

    I can do no better than quote what was said.

    Stephen Mangan said
    Now I suspect there will be a lot of people watching this at home really looking forward to hearing your reasons for putting Paul in the final three. Is that a portrait in the sense that we normally expect it to be
    Eva Langret replied
    I guess the question there is this portrait of Nikita is a portrait of Nikata's soul. It's not necessarily a portrait of Nikita's face. He's interested in capturing people on a vibrational level. That, to me is extraordinary.
    Katie Hessel added
    And if I was walking around the National Portrait Gallery, you know I want to be stopped and stunned. I think these paintings are the one for me that actually make me think, "Oh, what am I actually looking at here" You feel the sort of brushstriokes on that surface. There's a depth to it. So, for me, I'm moved"
    To which my response would be, I'm hard put to think of ANY portrait in the National Portrait Gallery which is about the soul and lacked a likeness.

    I'd also refer the Judges to the Commissioning process.

    Readers might also like to take a look at recent acquisitions of paintings.

    One of those commenting on the Artist of the Year Facebook Page
    Not a portrait.
    Definition of a portrait:
    'A portrait painting is a work of art that captures the likeness, personality and idetitiy of a specific human subject...'The winning decision on this latest episode was a travesty in my opinion. I know i am not alone in thinking this.


    PAOTY 2026 Episode 3 Winner


    Paul Majek

    Paul Majec is the artist going through to the semi-final because he impressed the Judges with originality and unique visual language
    Paul stood out for us as the artist who has how own vision for what portraiture is and who was really able to capture the many ways that Nikita is in such a unique and sensitive way. Eva Langret
    Paul thinks he might bring a whole new approach in the semi-final, whatever comes with the sitter and the moment and just go with that.

    I would add that Paul's career credentials to date suggest he has a serious future as a figurative artist.

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    Next Episode


    Again, no reference at the end of the programme as to who are the sitters in next week's programme.  Have they not yet worked out the order of programmes?

    However given I'm writing on Sunday I can tell you next week's sitters are:
    • Danny Beard
    • Yalda Hakim (who?)
    • Arti Shah (who?)

    on

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