Sponsorship of the "BP Portrait Award" competition has ended

One of the most prestigious portrait competitions in the world - held at the National Portrait Gallery in London - is no more.  Below I cover:

• the announcements to date about the BP Portrait Award
• announcements about the future of "a portrait award" competition
• thoughts about some of the issues any future portrait award should address

Tomorrow's post will be about Winners to date of The Portrait Award organised by the NPG - plus links to the commissions and my reviews plus photos and videos taken by me.

In summary, the position is:

• BP will have no further involvement in the sponsorship of the National Portrait Gallery - which given the various well publicised assaults on various galleries of late comes as no surprise to me.
• The National Portrait Gallery:
• plan to continue with some form of award 
• are currently "thinking about it" - in terms of activities supporting their future strategy; and 
• hope to make an announcement  at some point in 2023.

Video of the last major protest about BP Sponsorship
at 4:15pm, on the last day of the 2019 BP Portrait Award exhibition 

at the National Portrait Gallery.

The BP Portrait Award: The Announcement

 In the aftermath of my surgery, I missed the announcement back in February 2022, that 

bp and the National Portrait Gallery have together confirmed that their partnership will not extend beyond December 2022, when their current contract comes to an end. 

Throughout the partnership, which spans more than 30 years, bp’s support of the Gallery’s Portrait Award, one of the longest running cultural events in London, has enabled more than six million visitors to enjoy free admission to the exhibition and contributed to the career development of more than 1,500 portrait artists, from aspiring young painters to established professionals. bp and the National Portrait Gallery announce end of partnership 

This was followed by reports in various journals

• National Portrait Gallery and BP to cut ties after 30 years | The Guardian
• National Portrait Gallery ends BP sponsorship after 30 years | Art Review
• National Portrait Gallery cuts ties with BP after more than 30 years | Museums Association

The oil and gas company has sponsored the London institution’s BP Portrait Award since 1989, but the partnership has come under increasing pressure in recent years following campaigns to end fossil fuel sponsorship of arts and culture.

In 2019, the artist Gary Hume resigned from the award’s judging panel over the issue, and a blockade by the anti-oil activist group BP or not BP? forced guests to climb over a wall to enter the awards ceremony. Eighty leading artists subsequently signed a letter calling on the gallery to cut ties with BP.

In 2020 the gallery confirmed that there would be no BP representative on the judging panel that year. The BP Portrait Award is not being staged in 2021 and 2022 while the National Portrait Gallery’s building is closed for redevelopment.

On the BP Portrait Award website (2020), there is a low key announcement

The National Portrait Gallery and BP have together confirmed that the current sponsorship of the BP Portrait Award will not be extended beyond December 2022, when the current contract comes to an end. Update 2022

The statement also makes clear

• there is no BP Portrait Award in 2022
• the NPG is currently considering options for the Portrait Award following the re-opening of the Gallery in 2023 and beyond.
• the NPG looks forward to developing the future Portrait Award
• you can sign up for our emails and follow us on social media for the latest updates and information on how to get involved.

My expectation is that the announcement will come in the second half of the year - AFTER the National Portrait Gallery reopens to the public on 23 June 2023, following the most significant redevelopment in its history.

What sort of portrait award?

The need for change

My guess is they will 

• launch a new version of the Portrait award as part of the celebration of the new Gallery re-opening in 2023
• BP will be "retired" as the patron/sponsor 
• recruit / entice another more appropriate sponsor will be found for the exhibition. Ideally one which 
• offends nobody in relation to environmental, cultural or ethical matters.
• complies with the currently non-existent policy on Sustainability!!! (i.e. the ability to exist constantly) as well as any other relevant policies such as the Equality and Diversity policy 

No BP Portrait Award in 2021 and 2022 | Making A Mark 24 September 2020

One key issue the NPG will need to address relates to space allocated and revenue generation:

• should a "free to enter" Portrait Award Exhibition have more space than a paying exhibition? ie 
• latterly the Exhibition was moved out of the largest gallery into a smaller gallery - and to my mind the hang very much suffered as a result - and when crowded, viewing was very difficult;
• I was told that the income generating exhibitions had to take priority over the popular ones (however given the faulty practices the NPG experienced re collection of statistics, that's maybe a notion that should be revisited)
• by way of contrast the major exhibitions which then occupied the larger gallery space always seemed to be almost deserted when I visited
• should it be a paying exhibition?

I'm more interested in thinking behind the SCOPE of the competition which I think needs a really radical rethink

Two assertions are made which I think need challenging i.e. that this portrait competition is

• the most prestigious portrait painting competition in the world
• represents the very best in contemporary portrait painting

BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2019 (Part 1): Overview critique

KEY QUESTIONS are:

• Is this still a prestigious exhibition - and if not what it was, what needs to change?
• What, in particular, makes this competition distinctive?
• Should the number selected go back to the 60 originally agreed and maintained for many years - prior to the reduction in recent years

Comparison of the number of entries and the number of portraits selected 2004-2019

- see BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2019 (Part 2): Analysis

• Should it be limited in any way? e.g.
• Should it be national or international?
• Should it be limited to Young Artists only on a periodic basis (say) every other year?
• Should international artists be limited to no more than 50% or some other percentage (given the tendency in recent years for international artists to predominate - which does little to support portrait artists in the UK!)
• Should the Travel Award continue?
• Should it support the development of a cadre of artists who can be commissioned to paint portraits for the National Portrait Gallery (i.e. its original purpose!)
• Should it widen the media considered acceptable?  
• i.e. given the scope to produce work in other media in other prestigious portrait competitions around the world
• Should it include drawings as well as paintings - to reflect the collection of the NPG (e.g. see the drawings of past winner Stuart Pearson Wright)
• Should there be a focus on portraits of Groups or Teams or Families of important people  - something which features significantly in the NPG's own collection but not in portraits submitted to the competition in the past.
• Should it include awards to recognise the "national" in National Portrait Gallery? 
• e.g. awards for artists from Scotland; Wales; NI (and Ireland?); North of England; Midlands; South West and South East.

The latter in particular provides scope for collaborative links to other art galleries in Great Britain - highlighting local artists who did well by being selected for the The Portrait Award Exhibition - and exhibiting their portraits.

If you want to send me your thoughts I'm happy to make representations to the NPG.....

TOMORROW: I'm listing all the winners of the Portrait Award

• organised by the National Portrait Gallery
• sponsored - since 1980 - by Imperial Tobacco, John Player & Sons and BP

AND providing links to 

• their commissioned portraits and 
• where you can find them now.

Reference:

• National Portrait Gallery not reopening - until 2023 - in which I first speculated about what would happen next - including the
• No BP Portrait Award in 2021 and 2022 

VIDEO: Carl Randall paints Waterloo Bridge, London and 57 people from life

Carl Randall has produced another stunning large painting of an iconic place with lots of people in London. His painting of Waterloo Bridge, London

• measures 6.5 feet wide (200cm)
• includes 57 people who each sat for their portraits to be painted from life
• took 5 months to complete

He's also created a video (see below) which shows how he created this.

This blog post is about

• the creation of the painting, 
• the artists included in it (see if you can spot them
• portraits of places and why we need more painters who paint both people and 'scapes - people in context and context with people
• how Carl creates his paintings
• what I like about his work and his website
• his impressive profile/biography - and where you can find him on line

About Waterloo Bridge, London and London Portraits

Waterloo Bridge, London (2018) by Carl Randall
Oil on canvas, 200 x 93cm

Anybody who knows London during peak commuter times will be familiar with the absolute  HORDES of people who stream at a very fast pace across the bridges over the River Thames. The stations at Waterloo and London Bridge are on the South bank - and the City of London and many tube lines are on the North Bank - hence the rapid transit on foot!

I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if this painting ended up in major office building in the City!

The Artists in the Painting

It's worth going to the website to see a much bigger version and to see if you can spot the portraits of some of the artists who are included in the painting.  They are:

• Jock McFadyen RA - Lead Curator of the RA Summer Exhibition 2019
• Ishbel Myserscough - won the BP Portrait First Prize 1995
• Antony Williams RP PS NEAC - very easy to spot! Won the Ondaatje Prize in 1995 and 2012
• Benjamin Sullivan RP NEAC - won BP Portrait First Prize in 2017 and was the youngest person ever elected to the RP and NEAC.
• Susanne du Toit - won BP Portrait First Prize 2013
• Simon Davis VPRP -  elected Vice President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2014
• Sadie Lee - won the BP Travel Award in 1996

Oddly enough I thought some of them looked rather familiar before I knew they were included!

About portraits of places

I have been pleading for more artists to create more large scale paintings of people in context for YEARS!

Carl was one of the artists who stimulated this request. His paintings of groups of people in Japan in his BP Travel Award exhibition in 2013 were very impressive - and made me realise what we're missing.

The thing about "places" is they are both structures / scapes AND people. You have to go to some very remote areas to find landscapes without people and cityscapes with no signs of human life!

VIDEO: Carl Randall paints 70 people in Piccadilly Circus

This video by Carl Randall documents how he created a very LARGE painting of Piccadilly Circus. 

Crop of part of Carl Randall's painting of Piccadilly Circus

The video is very short (1min 42 secs) and is speeded up so you can see his painting process and how he progresses the painting in terms of

• the backdrop of the architectural features of Piccadilly Circus
• the foreground of people - which includes 70 portraits of people painted from life

First he mapped in the background

Next he started painting the individual heads - from life

About Carl Randall

Carl is a figurative artist. The thing that makes his portrait paintings work very distinctive is that he locates people in a cultural context and specific location.

He also likes to paint in monochrome as well as colour.

I first encountered Carl Randall at the BP Portrait Exhibition in 2012 when he had a painting included which I really liked (see Review: BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 (Part 2)) plus he won a prize - see Carl Randall wins BP Travel Award 2012.

Since then he has moved from Japan back to London and I've seen his very distinctive portraits from time to time e.g. his London Portraits by Carl Randall were exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery - and two of them are currently in the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Nick Park and Raymond Briggs - painted by Carl Randall
included in the 2018 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

However what I best remember him for is the outcome of winning the travel award - and Carl Randall's Japan - the best BP Travel Award Exhibition ever! I loved it!

On his website you can see:

• London Portraits
• Japan Portraits which starts with the very first painting of his that I saw - Mr.Kitazawa's Noodle Bar, Tokyo
• Japan Sketchbook - monochrome drawings in pencil and ink on paper
• Videos - more documentary videos about his work - which are an excellent way of sharing artwork!

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BP Travel Award - Laura Guoke exhibits portraits from a refugee camp

Last year, The BP Travel Award 2016 was won by Lithuanian artist Laura Guoke. This year we can see the results of her efforts in terms of travel and portraiture in the BP Portrait Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London

Laura Guoke with her two portraits of people in the Ritsona Refugee Camp near Athens
(left) Monica - a volunteer from Switzerland
(right) a Syrian mother and her child

About the BP Travel Award

The BP Travel Award is an annual prize that enables  artists to work in a different environment on a project related to portraiture.

The prize of £6,000 is open to applications from any of the current year's BP Portrait Award-exhibited artists, except the prize-winners.

In 2016 the award was won by Laura Guoke

BP Travel Award winner Laura Guoke and her portrait of Petras, a Lithuanian engineer and taxidermist pic.twitter.com/2T013E7FoT

— Portrait Gallery (@NPGLondon) June 22, 2016

There seem to be two strategies used by those who win the Travel Award. They either produce one or two large paintings or a series of smaller paintings. Either way there is a clear theme and story behind the portraits exhibited in the exhibition of the following year's Portrait Award.

About her proposal

Laura's proposal won because she proposed proposal to travel to one of the refugee camps, for those feeling Syria, in Ritsona, Greece (80km from Athens).

Her plan was to use sketches, photographs and filmed material to create large-format portraits of the most vulnerable refugees from Syria and the volunteers helping them.

About the exhibit paintings

Laura's aim was to show migrants as people with names, faces and individual stories, using her work to convey personal themes which may otherwise be difficult to put into words.

Laura has produced two large-format paintings in acrylic for the exhibition - one of a volunteer and one of refugees - based on the material she collected while working in the camp.

You can see them in the BP Portrait Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and on its tour around the UK.

• Monica is a Swiss volunteer. 
• Rima is a Syrian mother of five children. 
• They are a similar age but have very different experiences.

Monica, Rima and Ahmed by Laura Guoke
acrylic on canvas 2016

Monica was volunteering at the camp for a second time, having put her degree in business studies on hold.  Laura has kept in touch with her and Monica is about to return to the camp for a third time.

Laura said

Our society should be proud of these volunteers who have come from all over the world to carry out difficult work for free

Rima is shown with her son Ahmed.  Rima fled Aleppo with her husband and children and her son was born in Athens.  When Laura met them, they had been living at the Ritsona Refugee Camp for several months.  At the time that Laura was visiting, Ritsona was designated a "red camp" by the UN due to inadequate toilets, showers, electricity and medical care.

Laura said of the painting of Rima and Ahmed

I have attempted to reveal the trauma, exile, hopes and fortitude that have marked the lives of the refugees

Rima and her family are currently living in Athens and hoping to be resettled to Ireland.

You can read an interview with Laura on the NPG Blog - it includes photographs of the camp and sketches done by Laura while she was there.

About Laura Guoke

Laura Guoke graduated with a BA in fine arts at Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. She followed this up with an MA at Siauliai University (2008-2010). Her work has been seen
in group exhibitions in New York, London and Vienna and in several solo exhibitions in Lithuania and Estonia.

Laura travelled to the Ritsona Refugee Camp and stayed there for two weeks in September 2016. She also worked as a volunteer in the Refugee Camps while she collected material for her portraits.

‘I didn’t think it would be right just to go there to carry out my artistic project; I wanted to be helpful,’ she explains. ‘Meal vouchers are given to each tent in the camp and the food is distributed three times per day, with volunteers working in shifts.’

If you'd like to tell Laura what you think of her portraits you can contact her on

• Twitter @lauraguoke
• Facebook - Laura Guokė

London Portraits by Carl Randall

Carl Randall's London Portraits - on display at the National Portrait Gallery

When Carl Randall won the BP Travel Award in 2012, he produced an exhibition of portraits of the people of Japan at the National Portrait Gallery the following year which demonstrates a cross-section of old and new Japanese society and placed all the people in the context of both traditional and contemporary Japanese places.  

'In The Footsteps of Hiroshige: The Tokaido Highway and Portraits of Modern Japan' proved to be very striking and memorable and you can see the images and read my thoughts on his paintings in my review Carl Randall's Japan - the best BP Travel Award Exhibition ever!

Now he's back at the National Portrait Gallery in 2016 with a new series of portraits - this time of London and featuring places in London.

London Portraits

His most recent project is called ‘London Portraits’.  This is a series of 15 portraits of people who have contributed to British culture and society.  His Japanese influenced style makes for a very different sort of portraits and they're very striking.

He met all the participants in person and asked each of them to choose a place in London which was meaningful to them for the background of their portraits.

A documentary video ‘London Portraits’ has been made which shows the making of the paintings and sitters explaining their choice of location.  Do watch it - it's really interesting about process and sitters.

LONDON PORTRAITS - CARL RANDALL from Carl Randall on Vimeo.

Documentary about Carl Randall's 'London Portraits' 

11:06mins. © Hawkeye Productions 2016.

The participants

Jon Snow - presenter of the Channel 4 Evening News
in the Channel 4 studios

© Carl Randall

• Newscaster Jon Snow - who as usual has a very luminous tie for newscasting!  (I sketched Jon Snow once in the Restaurant at the top of the National Portrait Gallery.) 
• Comedienne Jo Brand - outside the Comedy Store in Oxendon Street

Comedienne Jo Brand
outside the Comedy Store
© Carl Randall

• Animator Nick Park - (of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep fame) in the Dinosaur Gallery
• Illustrator Raymond Briggs - outside 65 Ashen Grove where he was born and brought up
• Novelist David Mitchell - in St Paul's Cathedral

Novelist David Mitchell
in the Whispering Gallery in St the dome of St Paul's Cathedral
© Carl Randall

• Actress Katie Leung - outside The Shed on the Southbank
• Poet Benjamin Zephaniah - in Epping Forest
• Illustrator Dave McKean in front of St Giles Church
• Movie producer Jeremy Thomas - outside Bar Italia
• Film-maker Julian Temple - outside Temple Station
• Poet Simon Armitage - outside the Royal Festival Hall
• Dancer Akram Khan - in a skate park
• Zoologist Desmond Morris - at London Zoo
• Actor Antony Sher and Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company Greg Doran - at the Noel Coward Theatre
• Actress Julie Walters - across the River Thames from the concrete monolith known as the National Theatre

Julie Walters
with the National Theatre in the background
© Carl Randall

The portraits are available as prints from the National Portrait Gallery. You'll find a display of them in the basement next to the cafe.

Display of the London Portraits as prints next to the NPG cafe

Links:

• Website: http://www.carlrandall.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carlrandallpainter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlrandallartist
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarlRandallArt

How to enter the £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2015 - and improve your chances of being selected

The website for the BP Portrait Exhibition 2015 is now online - complete with information about how to enter. As I have done in previous years, I've compiled my very popular Making A Mark Guide to help make sure you have spotted all the really relevant "need to know" facts.

Read my guide (below) first and you'll get the hang of the official pages more quickly! Or at least that's what a lot of the artists who enter tell me every year!

Thomas Kanter, winner of the BP Portrait Award 2014
meets Winner of the 2013 Award Susanne du Toit

This post covers:

• the major change to the entry process for BP Portrait Award 2015 is the introduction of DIGITAL SUBMISSION for 100% of the entries. There is no more postal entries - which I've already alerted people about in BP Portrait Award 2015 entry goes digital
• why this is a competition worth entering 
• how to get selected
• a review of the entry details for those who don't like very small white print on a black background! 
• links to past posts about the BP Portrait Award and exhibition reviews on this blog

It is of course no substitute for the real thing and I won't cover every last detail - so you still have to read all the conditions.

Don't forget to let me know if your entry gets selected!

What's different in 2015

The major change for 2015 is that entry is going to be 100% via digital image submission.

We will no longer be accepting postal entries for the competition. All submissions must be made online via the website.

The entrants who are successful in this round will then be invited to hand-deliver or courier their work to a venue in London for the second round of judging and final exhibition selection. 

The benefits of the move to 100% digital submission are:

• it opens up entry to artists who may be seriously deterred by the expenses associated with the previous requirement to submit the actual portrait painting. 
• it's going to cut costs significantly for ALL those who submit - but don't make the cut for the second round of selection. 
• The only cost will be the entry fee and any costs associated with a decent digital image. 
• Most can eliminate the travel or courier costs totally and forget about the expense of framing for exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery
• it saves time - no more visits to the framers for most artists, or the couriers or the National Portrait Gallery
• it's much more cost-effective for artists, judges and the gallery!  You may be surprised when I say judges and gallery - but remember the paintings had to be stored - and the judges had to sit for a very long time while the portraits are paraded in front of them!  

The challenges associated with digital submission

• the competition increases significantly. Last year, in the first year of digital submission - the entries increased by over 20%
• you need access to a computer even if you don't have one or use one
• you MUST submit a good quality digital image
• if you can't afford the fees of a professional photographer you may need to learn about how to take photograph and create a digital image! Fortunately the competition organisers have provided a comprehensive guide to How to photograph your work.

Why enter the BP Portrait Award 2015?

10 reasons to enter this competition

Sophie Ploeg and The Lace Trail - BP Travel Award exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

Sophie Ploeg's BP Travel Award exhibition 'The Lace Trail" can currently be seen at the National Portrait Gallery in London - until 21 September 2014.  It then tours to Sunderland and Edinburgh in 2014-15.

Sophie Ploeg with part of The Lace Trail
the exhibition for the BP Travel Award 2013
at the National Portrait Gallery - 26 June - 21 September 2014

The exhibition follows on from Sophie winning the BP Travel Award in 2013.  Her exhibition is about Fabric and Lace in Early 17th Century Portraiture - An Interpretation in Paint. To my mind it's a bit of a masterclass in how to portray complex fabrics in portraits - in the past and the present - as well as an academic exercise in understanding something about the art history of the portrayal of lace and how paintings from the past can inspire those of today.

What follows is:

• a video interview with Sophie Ploeg
• photographs of Sophie and her models - with their portraits
• photographs of the exhibition
• a review of her book - produced as a result of her project.

I'm afraid this post got bumped by the proofing and final stages of my book and then my unexpected admission to hospital. However the book is on its way to the printers and I'm now getting back to blogging more normally, so.......

Sophie Ploeg in front of
She Becomes Her (2013)
oil on linen, 1010 x 660mm

The Lace Trail

As my video interview with Sophie makes clear, winning the BP Travel Award does not actually give you a year to deliver a project.

The paintings all need to be completed and ready to hand in well before the opening of the exhibition.

So a good deal of preparation and planning and being very organised helps enormously when it comes to producing a quality exhibition - in just 8 months!  It's very evident that Sophie was very organised and got all the trips, work and the paintings finished on time - at the same time as being a wife and mother of two young sons!  This was a woman on a mission!

The exhibition

The Lace Trail exhibition forms part of the BP Portrait Award exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery - if you go to one you will see the other. Sophie's exhibition is near the door and is the section hung on grey walls.

Background to the "The Lace Trail" - some facts

Sophie Ploeg was born and bred in the Netherlands. She came to the UK in 2000 and now lives in the West Country with her husband and two sons. She's a practising professional portrait artist working in oils and pastels (who also paints still life - very often of fabrics) and undertakes portrait and garment commissions.  Her work has been exhibited in the annual exhibitions of a number of national and major regional art societies - including the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Pastel Society.

Note: Having seen a lot of Sophie's work in prestigious exhibitions in recent years I'd highly recommend her for anybody who wants a permanent painted record of a particular fabric or clothing. She's definitely one of the best I know at portraying material and fabrics - which can be so important to the completion of a portrait or sometimes even be a record of a person or event in their own right.

She studied art and architectural history (MA, Ph.D) at Dutch universities. Consequently she came to her project very well versed in the art of research related to her interests!

Her winning proposal outlined a project to explore how fashion and lace was represented in 17th century art, as well as in modern applications.

The project has involved a lot of work besides painting! In pursuing her project she has:

• visited famous lace-making centres such as Bruges in Belgium and Honiton in Devon
• met modern lace makers and artists, 
• viewed antique lace collections in Bruges, Honiton, Bath and Gloucestershire
• visited 17th century art collections including, amongst others:
• the National Portrait Gallery, The National Gallery, the Tate Gallery in England, and
• the Rijksmuseum and the Frans Hals Museum in The Netherlands
• spent 8 months reading around the subject and undertaking a significant amount of research about art history and the history of lace.
• produced 10 paintings in total as a result of her project - of which seven are on display in the exhibition.
• written a book - The Lace Trail

A lot of information about the project is also available on a sub-domain of her website - http://www.lacetrail.sophieploeg.com. For example you can:

• read about her adventure in lace on her blog and her website (see research 1 and research 2)
• see A Year in Pictures - a slideshow of photos taken during the course of her travels and work

Video interview with Sophie Ploeg

I interviewed Sophie prior to the opening of the exhibition to the public and she provided a splendid account of what it's like winning the award and the work involved to deliver the exhibition - and a book to accompany it.

The Four Ages of Women

What I found very pleasing is that all of her portraits were of women. Sophie's portraits also provide a contemporary twist on the early 17th century portraiture she studied in museums across the UK and the Netherlands.  I found myself guessing which portrait paintings had inspired her!

Sophie and her models

Another layer to the portraits completed are the portraits which inspired Sophie's portraits.

I wanted to honour these women (in the 17th century paintings) and the lace in my portraits. Although the sitters were often rich and famous they were still just women, like me and perhaps you, with their own feelings and taste. Their beautiful portraits inspired me to create portraits of women today: 21st century women. I have created four portraits that each represents a phase in our life, four generations of women. he women are not related in any way, except they share many things with us and the women of 400 years ago.

Below you can see Sophie's portrait painting and her models for her series The Four Ages of Women.

The Four Ages of Woman - a series of four paintings
oil on linen, 50 x 60cm
This series portrays modern 21st century women at various stages of their lives
Their portraits portray them wearing an authentic piece of early 17th century lace, as often seen in 17th century portraits.
(top left) The Lacemaker
(Top right) A Fine Thread
(Bottom left) Repeating Patterns
(bottom right) The Pearl Necklace

The models were told to wear what they liked and then Sophie added an original piece of antique lace - acting as a remnant and echo of the past.  She took as inspiration one or more of the paintings she had identified during her research.

The four paintings are:

• The Lacemaker - a nine year old girl - the age at which girls were already lacemakers in early 17th century. Inspired by Portrait of a Girl Dressed in Blue, Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck, 1641
• A Fine Thread - a young woman wears a strip of Dutch or Flemish bobbin lace c. 1640. The portrait was inspired by Portrait of Maria van Strijp, Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck, 1652 in the Rijksmuseum.
• Repeating Patterns - inspired by lace collars often seen in early 17th century portraiture. 
• The Pearl Necklace - The model wears a (modern) collar edged with a very fine authentic Italian bobbin lace from around 1620. It was inspired by a portrait of by Catherine Killigrew, Lady Jermyn by Marcus Gheeraerts, (c.1561-1635)

Other paintings

Three more paintings are in the exhibition. These are:

• Pleating Time - I think this is one of my favourites, Sophie had to learn how to produce a ruff to paint this self-portrait
• She Becomes Her - Another favourite - partly because of the face but also because of the spectacularly good painting of the fabric
• The Handkerchief Girl - this is a play on the recurring motif of a handkerchief in 17th century portraits

Pleating Time by Sophie Ploeg (2013)
oil on linen, 400 x 600mm

The Tour

After the exhibition finishes in London it will then tour to

• Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens - 4 October – 16 November 2014 - twmuseums.org.uk
• The Scottish National Portrait Gallery - 28 November – 12 April 2015 - nationalgalleries.org

Prints and Book

Cover of 'The Lace Trail' book

The Book 'The Lace Trail contains details of Sophie's findings about

• early 17th century portraiture in England and The Netherlands, 
• the history of early lace, 
• styles of painting lace
• the background story to her paintings and 
• a catalogue section with all 10 paintings.

It includes lots of interesting detail - including details of Sophie's assessment of how past artists such as Rembrandt, Franz Hals and William Larkin painted lace.

You can buy a signed copy of the book direct from Sophie

Alternatively you can order her book and/or prints of the portraits from the National Portrait Gallery online shop or buy them in the shops within the Gallery.

Follow Sophie Ploeg

If you'd like to follow Sophie here are the links to her website and various social media sites:

• Sophie’s Website
• Sophie’s Facebook
• Sophie Tweets

More about the BP Travel Award

The BP Travel Award 2013 was judged by:

• Sarah Howgate, Contemporary Curator, National Portrait Gallery, 
• Liz Rideal, Art Resource Developer, National Portrait Gallery, and 
• Des Violaris, Director, UK Arts and Culture, BP.

My blog post year about Sophie winning the award contained Tips for Travel Award Applicants

See also my previous BP Travel Award posts on this blog

• 2012 - Carl Randall wins BP Travel Award 2012 [UPDATE: and Carl Randall's Japan - the best BP Travel Award Exhibition ever! ]
• 2011 - BP Travel Award 2011: Jo Fraser travels to Peru
• 2010 - BP Travel Awards: 2010 (Paul Beel) and 2011 (Jo Fraser)
• 2009 - BP Travel Award - 2009 and 2010
• 2008 - Exhibition Review: BP Travel Award 2008 - Emmanouil Bitsakis
• 2007 - BP Travel Award: Gareth Reid and the Finnish winter bathers
• 2006 - View the BP Portrait Award 2007 and BP Travel Award 2006 exhibitions

Edward Sutcliffe wins BP Travel Award 2014

Edward Sutcliffe with Copycat - with Li Wu Da
Oil on canvas, 150 x 60cm

This is the proposal which won Edward Sutcliffe the BP Travel Award 2014 (£6,000).

Any artist who submits work for the BP Portrait Award can also submit a proposal for the BP Travel Award - but your proposal is only reviewed if you are selected for exhibition.

The Travel Award is based on the idea that an artist of merit should have the opportunity to work in a different environment on a project related to portraiture. The portraits painted as a result of the project then receive their own mini exhibition in the following year’s Portrait Exhibition.  Which means you are then able to say you have had an exhibition of your work in the National Portrait Gallery!

The proposals have been wide-ranging and have resulted in exhibitions which appear to have an ever increasing high standard. So if you submit beware you have a very high standard to live up to.

‘Straight Outta Compton’ BP Travel Award Proposal 2014 – Portraits from Compton Cricket Club

A few miles south of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood lies Compton, an area of Los Angeles synonymous with poverty and crime. It was from this environment twenty years ago that Compton Cricket Club was formed as an initiative to help encourage and empower the disaffected youth of a neighbourhood pulsing with gangs and lawlessness. It is their amazing story, rich in character and powerful in emotion that I am inspired to paint.

It is my ambition to Travel to Los Angeles this summer and witness this wonderful group of people that have transformed their lives through Compton Cricket Club. By spending as much time with the team as possible (whether on the pitch or in their everyday lives) and seeing the impact playing cricket has had on these amazing individuals from some of L.A.'s toughest streets, I will be able draw, paint and document the players, producing a group of astonishing portraits to be included in next year’s exhibition.

Cricket is a wonderfully chivalrous game that has never lost its Victorian ethos of fair play and I want my work from this project to be a series of startling paintings that fuse the starched whites and leather on willow (typified so vividly in the portraits on display at Lords) with tattoos, low slung jeans, and baseball caps that have come to symbolise the distinctive visual culture of South Central Los Angeles.

I have recently made contact with Katy Haber, the founder of Compton Cricket club and the club captain , Ted Hayes. Since the formation of the club they have both helped to arrange tours to the UK, Australia and are even currently arranging a trip to South Africa. They are both very excited about the possibility of my visit and feel it would be fantastic for the club. They have suggested where and when I should visit and would be invaluable in helping me to successfully complete this project.

Travelling for three weeks this summer will give me enough time to gather all the source material to produce a series of paintings for the following June. Budgeting £1000 for flights, £2500 for accommodation and living expenses, £700 for equipment for the trip and a further £1500 for materials and framing, I can successfully complete this project for under £6,000.

I believe that having this opportunity will enable me to create an exhibition of portraits that show an amazing visual fusion of two very different cultures and tell a wonderful story of the people that have fallen for the game of cricket embracing it's ethos of fair play and honestly.   Edward SutcliffeApril 2014

More about past years of the BP Travel Award 

See my previous posts on this blog

• 2013
• Sophie Ploeg wins BP Travel Award 2013 - This contains my tips for Travel Award Applicants at the end
• Carl Randall's Japan - the best BP Travel Award Exhibition ever!
• 2012 - Carl Randall wins BP Travel Award 2012
• 2011 - BP Travel Award 2011: Jo Fraser travels to Peru
• 2010 - BP Travel Awards: 2010 (Paul Beel) and 2011 (Jo Fraser)
• 2009 - BP Travel Award - 2009 and 2010
• 2008 - Exhibition Review: BP Travel Award 2008 - Emmanouil Bitsakis
• 2007 - BP Travel Award: Gareth Reid and the Finnish winter bathers
• 2006 - View the BP Portrait Award 2007 and BP Travel Award 2006 exhibitions

Copycat by Edward Sutcliffe with Li Wu Da

Edward Sutcliffe is an 'old hand' at the BP Portrait Award. He has had work included in the exhibition in 2000, 2007, 2009-2012. His painting this year is of John Myatt - a well known art forger. Sutcliffe works in a highly realistic style and is interested in the processes of copying and mimicry, He commissioned Chinese artist Li Wu Da to paint the appended distorted mirror image of the portrait at the foot of the panel to add a further copy and reinterpretation.

What I liked most about this portrait is that on the face of it looks highly realistic until you look at it closely. That's when you realise that the skin is made up of an intense pattern of calligraphic type squiggles. In a way it's akin to a Chuck Close painting which looks very real at a distance and much less so close up.  It's abstraction within realism - something I've always found very curious and entertaining and so much more interesting than a straight copy of a photograph!

BP Portrait Award 2014 - Video of presentation to prizewinners

Thomas Kanter, winner of the BP Portrait Award 2014
with (left to right) Bob Dudley, Sandy Nairne and Nigel Havers

Last night Thomas Ganter won the £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2014 at the National Portrait Gallery in London - and below is a film of the awards ceremony.

I filmed the presentation ceremony with Mini iPad in one hand and my camera in the other taking photographs - hence there's an odd wobble in this video and less than wonderful framing at times. If you want to skip the Havers speech, the awards ceremony actually starts at 2 minutes 30 seconds.

Prizewinners

The Awards are (in order of presentation)

• BP Travel Award (£6,000) - Edward Sutcliffe
• BP Young Artist Award (£7,000) - Ignacio Estudillo Pérez (Spain)
• BP Portrait 2014 - 3rd Prize (£8,000) - David Jon Kassan (USA)
• BP Portrait 2014 - 2nd Prize (£10,000) - Richard Twose (UK)
• BP Portrait Award Winner 2014 (£30,000 and £5,00 commission) - Thomas Ganter (Germany)

Nigel Havers, the actor presented the BP Portrait Award prizes to the prizewinners - assisted by Bob Dudley, the BP CEO and Sandy Nairne, the Director of National Portrait Gallery.

This Awards Ceremony was special for two reasons. It marked the 25th anniversary of BP's sponsorship of this Award. This was also the last Awards Ceremony to be hosted by Sandy Nairne. Last week he announced his intention to retire from his post as Director - although he won't be going until early 2015.  he's been the Director since 2002.

Brownie points go to those who spot last year's BP Travel Award winner in the video! ;)

I'll be writing a number of posts for this blog this week, following interviews with the prizewinners and a proper tour of the exhibition.

BP Portrait Award - previous years

I've been covering the BP Portrait Award for some years and have an extensive archive of posts relating to previous competitions which I know are much studied by those contemplating an entry!

BP Portrait Award - Shortlisted artists on Making A Mark:

• BP Portrait Award 2013 - The Shortlist 23 April 2013
• BP Portrait Award 2012 - The Shortlist 05 Apr 2012
• BP Portrait Award 2011 Shortlist 18 Apr 2011
• BP Portrait Award 2010 - Shortlist announced 28 Apr 2010
• BP Portrait Award 2009 - the shortlist 27 May 2009
• BP Portrait Award shortlist announced - a womanwill win! 25 Apr 2008

BP Portrait award 2014

• BP Portrait Award 2014 - Call for Entries 03 Dec 2013

BP Portrait Award 2013

• BP Portrait Award 2013: Call for Entries The competition is open to all artists living anywhere in the world who are aged 18 and over on 1st January 2013.
• BP Portrait Award 2013 - Selected Artists and Statistics - list of selected portraits / exhibiting artists for the 2012 Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
• BP Portrait Award 2013 - The Shortlist - identifies those shortlisted. See if you can guess which work won before reading my review post.
• Susanne de Toit wins £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2013 - BP Portrait Award 2012 Prizewinners
• BP Portrait Exhibition 2013 - Video & Review - A Makingamark Video of a walk around the BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2013 at the National Portrait Gallery
• Sophie Ploeg wins BP Travel Award 2013 - information for those interested in the Travel Award
• Carl Randall's Japan - the best BP Travel Award Exhibition ever!

BP Portrait Award 2012

• Call for Entries: BP Portrait Award 2012 11 Dec 2011
• BP Portrait Award 2012 - 55 Selected Artists 30 May 2012
• Aleah Chapin wins £25,000 BP Portrait Award 2012 19 Jun 2012
• BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 (Part 1) 20 Jun 2012
• BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 (Part 2) 21 Jun 2012
• Video of BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 23 Jun 2012

BP Portrait Award 2011

• BP Portrait Award 2011 Shortlist - identifies shortlisted entries and artists. See if you can guess which work won before reading my review post.
• BP Portrait Award 2011: links to Selected Artists - artists selected for the exhibition in 2011
• Review: BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2011- my review of the exhibition (later than usual)
• BP Travel Awards: 2010 (Paul Beel) and 2011 (Jo Fraser) - information for those interested in the Travel Award
• BP Portrait Award 2011: People's Favourite & Statistics - this is the post in which I analysed last year's entry statistics

BP Portrait Award 2010

• BP Portrait Award 2010 - Shortlist announced)
• BP Portrait Award 2010: List of Exhibitors and Brian Sewell and
• Daphne Todd wins BP Portrait Award 2010
• Two American Artists win BP Portrait Prizes
• BP Portrait Award: Michael Gaskell's unparalled record
• a video of the exhibition see Video - BP Portrait Exhibition 2010 opens today

BP Portrait Award 2009

• BP Portrait Tour & Portrait of the Nation (24 Sep 2009)
• Sue Rubira makes her mark on BP Portrait (18 Jun 2009)
• Exhibition review: BP Portrait Award (18 Jun 2009)
• Peter Monkman wins first prize in BP Portrait Award 2009 (17 Jun 2009)
• BP Portrait Award 2009 - the shortlist (27 May 2009)
• BP Portrait Award - who enters and who gets selected (28 May 2009)
• BP Portrait Award 2009 - Call for Entries (15 Dec 2008)

BP Portrait Award 2008

• Craig Wylie wins BP Portrait Award 2008
• BP Portrait Prize 2008 - exhibition opens

BP Portrait Award 2007

• Making a Mark: Paul Emsley wins BP Portrait Award (22 Jun 2007)
• View the BP Portrait Award 2007 and BP Travel Award 2006 exhibitions(15 June 2007)