"Turning Thirteen" by Frances Bell wins HSFK Portrait Award Visitor's Choice

I have to say I am not in the least bit surprised that "Turning Thirteen" by Frances Bell has won the Visitor's Choice award - as announced by the National Portrait Gallery this afternoon on Facebook and Instagram.

Visitor's Choice Award - Frances Bell

Frances Bell and her daughter 
with her portrait of "Turning Thirteen"
at the HSFK Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Gallery, London
© Making A Mark

Here's what I had to say about Frances Bell and her portrait back in my post Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Children and Parents)

Here's MY reasons for why Frances's portrait won.

Call for Entries: Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2027

You have TWO MONTHS to submit a portrait as an entry to the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2027 (aka The Portrait Award!)

The BIG CHANGE this year is 

• you do NOT have the Christmas break for final titivating - because....
• the deadline for your entry is Tuesday 1 December 2026

This date change is not highlighted on the website. If you have friends who sometimes / always enter it might be worth making sure they're aware of the date change. You could always send them a link to this blog post! :)

This is about:

• WHY enter the HSFK Portrait Award?
• WHO can submit an entry?
• WHAT sort of portrait you can submit?
• HOW to complete and submit your entry

Very many artists who have succeeded in being selected for this exhibition in the last two decades started out by reviewing my summary of the call for entries! I know because they told me at the Private View!

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award  2027
CALL FOR ENTRIES IMAGE

First of all the full title of both the competition and the award is the "Herbert Smith Kline Portrait Award" - but that's too much and too long so I ALWAYS refer to it as either

• the HSFK Portrait Award
• or THE Portrait Award

The links to the official information are all included below.

Portrait Award 2026: The 10 portraits I liked the most

This is a post about the ten portraits I like the best in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery. 

At the end I say which portrait will, I think, win the Visitors' Choice Award.

Portraits hanging in the HSFK Portrait Award competition
at the National Portrait Galllery

The Ten Portrait Paintings I liked the best

I've been reviewing the Portrait Award at the NPG since 2008 (see end) - which means I've looked at a lot of top quality portraits over the last 18 years.

• After my first impression on the Awards Night Viewing, I generally know which portraits have made a big impression on me 
• Interestingly they are not necessarily the winner or even the winners.
• It's something to do with being able to see the portraits in the context of an exhibition - and next to one another
• The next morning I get to see them all over again at the Press View morning - which enables me to check out whether I still think the same
• I then get to think about the portraits again while writing about the Artists with their Paintings (which used to be one very long post (eg Portrait Award 2025 - Artists with their paintings) but this year turned into five! (See the end for links to my blog posts). This always depends on whether the artist turned up AND wore their badge so I could spot them! (Some artists have not yet worked out yet that the buttons they are given to wear can generate them publicity!)

So what follows are:

• the portraits which stuck in my head
• the portraits which made me look more closely at them
• portraits which include some clever composition and design
• the ones with interesting sitters
• the ones which generated an emotional response
• a complete absence of prizewinners - except for one which I could not exclude

I should also mention that this list excludes some very good paintings which include things I really do NOT like - my classic example being tattoos - and hence got excluded simply because of that (given the title of this post!).

I've also noticed that a lot are by women artists - which is interesting. That's not why they were chosen though.

The Ten Portrait Paintings I liked the best

There is no rationale about the order in which they are listed - except I have ordered them by size - after the one which once seen can never be forgotten

The One which stuck in my head the most

The Tale of the Portrait Award Catalogue 2026 - and two major mishaps

This is about the debacle of The Portrait Award Catalogue 2026 - and why I do not have a copy.

Portrait Award Catalogue 2026 - as advertised on the NPG website

Every year I usually get the catalogue of The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. I use it when writing my review of the exhibition. You'll note no review to date....

However this year there have been two major mishaps

1. The Printing Error
2. The "ready to ship" date.

The Printing Error

This year, 2026, the catalogue, sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, was found to have a serious error in the original printed version.

Now printing errors in museum publications are not unheard of

• many are relatively minor (eg a name spelt incorrectly) and 
• they are normally corrected in the next print - 
• and an errata slip put in the edition with the error.

My guess as to why the original catalogue was NOT released at all is that it the error is too significant/important - and this most likely reason is it involves the sponsor's name.

The name that keeps changing. It started as "Herbert Smith Freehills" - and last year it became "Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer".

That's important enough to stop the release of a catalogue.

The alternative might be that the colours were badly wrong. Except, as somebody who used to be responsible for producing marketing material for my professional qualification, I know that sort of error gets caught very easily at the proofs stage. So long as you have somebody competent doing the job and piping up as soon as they spot a problem. 

Approving proofs is the signal to "go to print". 

When I did it, my publications lady did all the checking - but the proofs were signed off by me after I had checked them carefully too. It's much too expensive to get wrong hence all mistakes have to be spotted!

So I can only assume that whoever was responsible for collating, drafting, designing and checking - and double checking and authorising - the catalogue proofs did not do their job properly.

That's a very expensive mistake. That's because once you have approved the proofs, you are agreeing liability for the costs of the print run. Which means NPG will be charged for that error and in effect will have paid for the catalogue twice.

For the record, I did ask what the print error - but was nobody knew and/or was prepared to say.

The "Ready to Ship" date

I was thinking of going into the NPG today to pick up a catalogue. However I wasn't optimistic it would be there (I know how long print runs take - particularly if a job is contracted out to Asian printers as many are - ships take a long time to dock!) so checked the website first.

That's when I found the page related to the Portrait Award Catalogue for sale in the shop.

Which states

Expected to ship from 29 July 2026.

That's seven weeks late - given the exhibition opened to the public on 25th June.

Which leads us to the next issue.....

Details of the Portrait Award Catalogue

The cost of the mistake

Mark Dalessio wins £35,000 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026

American/French artist Marc Dalessio has won the £35,000 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026. He was presented with at an Awards Ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery in London on Tuesday night.

Marc Dalassio with his award-winning portrait 

Jean-Denis, 2025 © Marc Dalessio

With a notably restrained and economical use of paint, Marc Dalessio’s Jean-Denis achieves a striking immediacy, where every mark carries weight. The judges enjoyed the subtle sliver of white from the sitter’s shirt that becomes a focal point, activating the composition. The portrait offers an empathetic depiction of its subject, conveying a timeless presence that feels both regal and understated.

The Judges Comments  

For the record, all my guesses of who would win what were CORRECT!

The two youngest award winners
- just before they announced the prizes!

Below you can see 

• photos of the artists with their portraits which were taken Tuesday evening.
• Plus a photo of them receiving their award. Apologies for the side on view. I usually pick a better spot.

[I was hoping for access to the NPG ones being taken by the photographer who was in prime position - but for some unfathomable reason, rather than being available Wednesday morning (as they always used to be) they're not likely to be available until the end of the week.
So these are the only photos of the Awards Ceremony online so far!!]

Below are the profiles of the artists and the portraits which won the prizes. 

Words about the painting and what the Judges thought are from the press release - hence quotes.

Selected Artists (Part 2: I - Y) for The Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery

This is Part 2 of my post about the artists selected for the Annual Exhibition of the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026.

It's rather longer this year as most of the artists have been sending me their portraits - see below!

You can also read my previous post Selected Artists (Part 1: A-H) for The Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery

NOTE: If you can't see the portraits which are pics embedded from Instagram, this is probably because you're not logged into Instagram. 

Artists Selected for The Portrait Award 2026

There's a lot of artists selected for the first time in this half of the 52 artists selected for this year's exhibition.

The Portrait Award too is an amazing event. It’s like the Oscars of the Portrait Painters world (for those who don’t know or might be unfamiliar with the name of the current sponsor)....I am… utterly gobsmacked. And won’t probably really truly believe it until I’m standing there next to my painting in June. Ros Koch

Selected artists who want to see my photos of past exhibitors - taken on the Artists Press View morning - should take a look at my reference where they all my "Artists with their Paintings" posts are listed.

Selected Artist Statistics

I'm proposing to do a statistical analysis of the artists ( re. male/female; country; first/previous exhibitor) as the National Portrait Gallery has not published one this year. I publish this in another post.

PART TWO

This covers the artists whose surnames start with "I" through to those who start with "Y".

Links to their websites are embedded in their names - and Instagram accounts indicated if they have one (that can be found easily!)

I've also indicated which artists are prior exhibitors - and the years in which they exhibited. All other artists are First Time Exhibitors.

• Shinji Ihara (Instagram) - (Prior Exhibitor - 2024, 2025) - a painter and contemporary artist based in Hiroshima, Japan. Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1987, he received his MFA in Oil Painting from the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. He is the Founder of HDL+ (formerly Hiroshima Drawing Lab), an artist-run space in Hiroshima. He has had multiple solo exhibitions in Tokyo and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Japan and internationally, including Asia and Europe. Previously selected for the Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in 2024 and 2025. I predicted he would be back again and I believe him to be a future prizewinner. 

Working primarily through painting, Ihara explores memory, relationships, and the position of the individual within society. Portraiture has been central to his practice, through which he examines the dynamics between seeing and being seen, presence and distance

After the rain, we remain by Shinji Ihara
oil on canvas, h72.7 × w91 cm
© Shinji Ihara

J

• Martin Jessup - a portrait painter living in Kent, working in traditional oils, specialising in highly detailed portraits for private clients and institutions and accepting a limited number of commissions each year.

Diane M Benoit 
oil on stretched canvas, 60 X 40 inches

K

• Ros Koch (Instagram) - Contemporary South African painter. Born in the UK and she has lived in South Africa since 1998. Paints landscapes and portraits. Ros is a self-taught artist, who - thanks to traditional parents and schooling - took a long time to allow herself to transition from ‘art as hobby’ to ‘art as a career’

The Age of Adolescence (2024) by Ros Koch

Oil on board, framed in Kiaat; 250 x 250mm 

© Ros Koch

The fact that THIS painting - my first ever submission to the HSFK Portrait award - has been accepted to hang in the NPG is a beautiful full circle moment for me. It’s a coming of age (both in its title and artistic affirmation) and homecoming of sorts. Like many other artists, I used to go to the NPG as a child, always drawn to the people and their lives. And it is truly serendipitous that this one has been selected as its subject matter is so immensely meaningful and deeply personal to me, representing the intersection of things things I feel most passionate about.

Selected Artists (Part 1: A-H) for The Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery

Every year I highlight ALL the arrtists selected for the Annual Exhibition of the  Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026

The 2026 Exhibition will be held at the:

• National Portrait Gallery (25 June to 7 October 2026)
• Derby Museum and Art Gallery (21 November 2026 – 21 February 2027) and
• The Gallery at The Arc, Winchester (5 March – 9 June 2027)

This year, word got around and I've had lots of emails - hence many more pics than usual! 

So this year I'm splitting this selected artists post into roughly two halves by surname

• Part 1: starting with A through G
• Part 2: from H through Y

In this post, my aim is to provide a profile of the artist. A later post will focus on "Artists with their Paintings (and/or the review) will focus on the stories behind the portraits.

There is, from my perspective, a very clear underlying theme to the selection this year. I'm not going to comment on it in this post but rather save it for the review.

However, you might want to see if you can work it out....

Artists Selected for The Portrait Award 2026

I know a number of the selected artists well either from this exhibition - and their repeat selection - or that of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters or ROI. Hence some entries are longer than others.

Repeat selection is often an indicator of somebody who might be a prizewinner in due course. Although Ben Sullivan (First Prize Winner 2017) pointed out getting selected for the Portrait Award is the best method of generating commissions so repeat selections are always very welcome!. He managed 11 selections before he finally won!

I have developed over time (ie the last 19 years!) the ability to spot a prospective repeat exhibitor - and you will see comments to this effect. I'm rarely surprised by those I see again

Every artist gets a mini bio, largely dictated by space and the need for brevity but also what I can find out about them online. Some, as requested, have written to me and filled in some of the gaps and sent me an image.

Everybody is a first time exhibitor unless otherwise indicated.

PART ONE

A

• Adebanji Alade - Current President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Professional artist, teacher, author and television presenter (BBC One Show). He has a studio on Lots Road in Chelsea, London. I first met Adebanji years and years ago. I think I've known him almost as long as I've had this blog! I've also seen this portrait before - and I think it's wonderful. It was exhibited at the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters last November and it just blew me away. His family have always been very much part of who Adebanji is and this is a great record of his two kids painting with him at home. This is the first time he's been selected for this exhibition.

Copycats (2025) by Adebanji Alade

Oil on canvas, 101cm x 76cm, 2025




• Zena Assi - Born in Lebanon, in 1974, Zena Assi lives and works in London. She graduated with honors from l’Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA), worked in advertising and taught in different universities. Many of her pieces are repeatedly shown in different international auction houses and are part of various public as well as private collections.
• Paul Aston - see his painting of The Costumer below. He is a figurative painter working in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. His subject matter varies from portraiture to landscape and still life. In 2023 he was a contestant in heat 2 of Portrait Artist of the Year.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Paul Aston (@paulastonpainter)

B

• Liam Barden - Painter and Teacher living in Folkestone. Co-Owner of @bardenartschool

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Liam Barden (@colourfulgoo)



• Frances Bell - born in 1983 and raised in Suffolk, UK. Multi-award winning portrait painter. Classically trained in Florence, Frances works in a traditional way with a contemporary style. Her portrait is of her daughter. Frances is a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI), the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP) and The Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP). I confidently predict Frances will win this Award one day.

Frances has been a full time professional painter since 2004, taking commissions all over the world for individuals, family’s and institutions. Frances has won over 25 Awards for her work and has participated in many exhibitions in the UK and internationally.

• Paul Benney - Currently holds the mantle of "most selected artist never to have won". Previous exhibitor nine times: 1994,1996 (Winner – BP Visitors’ Choice),1997 (Winner – BP Visitors’ Choice), 1998, 1999, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2014. He has worked as an artist and musician in both the U.S. and U.K. He has painted many prominent political and cultural figures. His work is represented in public collections world wide including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Australia, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Collection, and a plethora of other prominent private and corporate collections. 
• He is the artist who was chosen to paint the State Portrait of HRH Queen Camilla.  (see my blog post The Coronation Portraits and The King's Tour Artists - at Buckingham Palace
• the link in the title of the portrait below explains the background to the portrait. 

Benney has twice won the public choice award in the BP Portrait Awards and has been short listed on two occasions. 

Fiona by Paul Benney
© Paul Benney

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026

The Call for Entries for the HSFK Portrait Award 2026 has been published.

Artists aged 18 and over are invited to submit entries of painted portraits to this prestigious annual competition and exhibition which is run by and held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The deadline for entries is 22.00 (GMT) on Tuesday 6th January 2026

Those which are shortlisted will be displayed in the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery held between 25 June and 7 October 2026. 

Very many artists who have succeeded in being selected for this exhibition in the last two decades started out by reviewing my summary of the call for entries! I know because they told me when I met them at the Awards Ceremonies and the press views (2008-2025).

The highly successful competition aims to encourage artists over the age of 18 to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work. Since its inception, the competition has attracted over 40,000 entries from more than 100 countries, and the exhibition has been seen by over 6 million people.  

Summary of Key Information about the Call for Entries

Note: Anybody who thinks I'm going to repeat four totally unmemorable names every time I write about this competition is mistaken. There was a reason the BP was called the BP!!  Hence I refer to this competition as The Portrait Award or The HSFK Portrait Award. 

I am going to start as I did last year - by highlighting the many good reasons why all aspiring portrait artists should enter this competition.

This post, written in 2023, tells you why you should enter WHY enter The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery (London)

Why enter The Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery?

Just getting selected - of itself a very valuable addition to any portrait painter's CV - means 

• your portrait painting will hang in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London from 25 June - 7 October 2026
• you are also eligible to win one of the prizes! You could also win one of the valuable prizes
• first prize is £35,000
• second prize is £12,000
• third prize is £10,000
• the Young Artist's Prize (for artists aged between 18 and 30) £9,000
• i.e. no increase from last year.

All selected artists aged between 18 and 30 will automatically be considered for both the Young Artist Award and the Portrait Award, but an individual cannot win both. 

The aim of the Young Artist Award is to profile their talent and support the development of their practice. I met a number of young artists at the exhibition last year.

Rachit Khandelwal (b.2004) with Finlay Trevor (b.2003) both exhibited in 2025 

and were both art students in Scotland 

(at the Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh School of Art respectively)

The portrait is Finlay's Quest for The Mackintosh Man (2024)

Note that those shortlisted for prizes MUST attend the Awards Ceremony on the evening of Tuesday 23 June 2026.

PLUS, there is the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Artist Commission worth £14,000 

• ALL ARTISTS chosen to exhibit in 2026 and 2027’s Portrait Award exhibitions will be considered for the bi-annual Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Artist Commission, which has a value of £14,000. 
• This will be announced in 2027.

Now you have a better appreciation of the incentives - on to the practical matters......

Portrait Award 2025: The 10 portraits I liked the most

This is a post about the ten portraits I like the best in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 at the National Portrait Gallery. 

I've been reviewing the Portrait Award at the NPG since 2008 (see end)

• I generally walk out of the Awards Night Viewing knowing which portraits have made a big impression on me - and they are not necessarily the winners. (see Moira Cameron wins the £35K HSF Kramer Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery)
• It's then interesting to go back the next morning for the Press View morning to see whether I still think the same
• I then get to think about the portraits again when I'm writing Portrait Award 2025 - Artists with their paintings - but of course that, in part, depends on whether the artist was there and could be spotted (some artists have not yet worked out yet that the buttons they are given to wear can generate them publicity!)
• I visited again earlier this month to see whether I still felt the same. This time to also make sure that I looked at every single portrait properly - because sometimes the impression you get depends on size and where they are hung - and my list changed!

I think it very likely that one of the ten portrait paintings you can see below will be the winner of the Visitor's Choice Award.

I'm also still waiting to hear which artist, from last year's exhibition and this one, has won the award of a commission by the NPG......

The Ten Portrait Paintings I liked the best

A strong "blokey" corner of the exhibition

I've got two lists. The one I wrote down after the Press View and the one I wrote when I visited the exhibition again at the beginning of this month. Nine are the same - I changed just one (and I'm not going to say which!). 

You will find bios for most of these artists in my last post about artists with their paintings.

So that says something for my taste I guess and/or the impact of the paintings listed below.

I need to emphasise that my personal view is that, in general, you need to know the person to want to hang a portrait (as opposed to a figurative painting) in your own home. It's very rare to create a portrait of a person which you would hang as art as opposed to a painting. Which is not to say portraits are not good art - but does serve to explain why portrait commissions are the life blood of most portrait painters.

It's a challenge to make people really interested in a portrait......

Those entering this competition must ponder long and hard about what makes a difference....

Do not read anything in to the order of the portraits presented below. There is nothing significant about the way they are listed, however I have decided to group them by size.

• Big
• Small
• Large Medium
• Small Medium

At this point I will comment that I think the National Portrait Gallery does all of the artists a major disservice by failing to state on the website or the label in the gallery what the dimensions of the portrait are. It essentially means online viewers have no idea whatsoever which are large and which are small.

It's one of the reasons I feel the need to do my post about artists with their portraits. That's because there is a HUMONGOUS DIFFERENCE in the size of different selected portraits - but you'd never ever know it if all you had to go on was the images on the website!

It was also impossible to buy the catalogue (which, from recollection, had the dimensions) when I went back - because they'd run out! How can you run out of a catalogue which is on exhibition for another 11 WEEKS?!! 

(PS Same thing had happened with the Jenny Saville Catalogue. I think somebody in NPG catalogue ordering needs a performance review and/or retraining!)

The Big Portraits I liked

Portrait Award 2025 (Part 1) What's changed and what's not

This is my review of the HSFK Portrait Award 2025 Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery - sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehill Kramer - and its Awards Ceremony.

The view as you enter The Portrait Award Exhibition

It covers:

• how you can see the Portrait Award Exhibition - in person or online
• what's changed, what's not and what needs to!
• what I like - and what I'm less enthusiastic about

At the end are notes about

• Why I write about the Portrait Award - a short note about my personal history with this exhibition 
• followed by all the blog posts I've written about it in the last 18 years - since 2007! ( I haven't counted - but it's a lot!)

My next two posts are:

• Portrait Award 2025 (Part 2): Artists with their Paintings - which I know is much appreciated (hopefully on Sunday) and    
• Portrait Award 2025 (Part 3): "My 10 best portrait paintings in the 2025 exhibition - after I've been back to the exhibition and seen it again (probably next week) and studied the paintings in more depth. If I have time I'll also be adding in more analysis as I've done in the past around:

• size, format and colour
• type of model
• type of portrait

How to see the Portrait Award Exhibition

The Portrait Award Exhibition can be seen 

• in Gallery 2 (the very far end of the second floor)
• at the National Portrait Gallery in London
• from 10th July (today) until 12th October 2025.

The exhibition then travels to 

• the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle.
• from 28 March – 5 September 2026

You can also see it online in the Visitor's Choice Section where you can also vote for your favourite portrait.

How the numbers have changed

First of all - an important observation which may have escaped some people.

In the last 10 years, the number of entries and artists and portraits hung seem to keep on reducing.

• the number of entries have halved 
• the number of countries sending entries has reduced by a third.
• the number of artists selected have reduced from 55 to 46

Bottom line: The number of portraits now hung is a lot less than it used to be. 

Everytime the NPG reduces the numbers hung I'm very much of the view that this makes it less likely that those entering will get hung - and at some point they start asking "what's the point?". 

Around 50-55 was the norm for a very long time. This year it is just 46 paintings.  

Is it a less prestigious competition and exhibition? What's the rationale for cutting numbers?

Compare how the numbers have dropped

• 2025: Those hung this year were selected from 1,314 entries from 61 countries.

This compares to (reaching for my past blog posts and annual analysis)

• 2012: 2,187 entries received from artists in 74 different countries
• 2013: 1,969 entries from 77 different countries
• 2015: 2,748 entries from artists in 92 countries

I suggest somebody has a very long hard think about the target number of artworks to be hung if they want to retain the prestige of this competition.

Review of the Exhibition

I'm finding as I get older that the effort invested in 2 x 2 hours on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning - plus associated social media posting (eg write a blog post between getting up at 6am on Wednesday and shooting out the door to get to the press preview by 10am) leaves me a lot more tired now that I'm 70 than it did when I was in my 50s. 

The process is identical - get round as many of the 40+ artists present, take their photos, hear their story and learn about their painting - but the effort and concentration involved tends to leave me feeling slightly "wired" - as if I'd had rather a lot of coffees! Then on the third day, I end up feeling tired - which is today!

Which makes it quite interesting trying to work out what the story is re this exhibition - beyond the story of the numbers.

Moira Cameron wins the £35K HSF Kramer Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery

Moira Cameron (right) - Winner of the HSF Kramer Portrait Award
by Victoria Siddall, the new President of the National Portrait Gallery.

Four awards with a value of £66,000 were announced last night at the Awards Ceremony for the HSF Kramer Portrait Award 2025 at the National Gallery. 

The prize winners were as follows:

• First Prize £35,000: Moira Cameron for A Life Lived (Oil on canvas 2200 x 200mm)
• Second Prize £12,000: Tim Benson PPROI for Cliff, Outreach Worker (Oil on canvas, 1520 x 1220mm)
• Third Prize £10,000: Martyn Harris for Memories (Oil on board 400mm x 400mm)
• Young Artist Award £9,000: Michelle Liu for Kofi (Oil on canvas, 500 x 400mm)

Tim Benson receiving his award from Victoria Siddall

Below are the profiles of the artists and the portraits which won the prizes Words about the painting and what the Judges thought are from the press release - hence quotes.

First Prize Winner (£35,000) Moira Cameron

Selected Artists for Portrait Award 2025 at the National Portrait Gallery

46 portraits have been selected for the HSFK Portrait Award 2025 at the National Portrait Gallery. Want to see some of them before the exhibition opens? READ ON!

Those selected for inclusion in the exhibition were chosen from 1,314 submissions entered by artists from 60 countries.   

For me, it just goes to show how changing the people doing the selection changes the focus and the preferences of those judging. Many of the names I'm used to seeing on a fairly regular basis have not been selected - although some have. 

Those that are here again are very good. However, I think it might be the lowest number of previous exhibitors for some time.

We'll have to wait until the exhibition to see whether the choices made make for a better exhibition than usual - or otherwise!

The Portrait Award exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery in London from 10 July - 12 October 2025. It used to travel but I think that has stopped with the change in sponsor.

I do this preview of who gets selected to help those who will be applying next year.

• the link in their name is to their website
• plus I include their Instagram account where identifiable
• I embed Instagram posts of their artwork where possible.

It follows on my post Shortlist for the £66K HSFK Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery - and I have not repeated information about the artists shortlisted for prizes in this post.

 

I've been reviewing this exhibition on Making A Mark since 2006 and I'll be at the Awards Ceremony in July. I'll also be publishing a review of the exhibition and pics of artists with their paintings. For all those artists who want a pic with their painting in this blog, make sure you find me on at the press review the following morning!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Artists who describe themselves as "shortlisted" for this exhibition - but who are not listed in my previous post are deceiving themselves and others. It makes you look amateurish. The only artists "shortlisted" are those who will win a prize. Everybody else is SELECTED.

Selected Artists Portrait Award 2025

Images being used to advertise the Portrait Award Exhibition
- which is a prize in itself!

The selected artists exhibiting in THE Portrait Award are, in alphabetical order: