Portrait Award 2024: Artists with their paintings

Two portraits in the HSF Portrait Award 2024

If your portrait IS selected for the Portrait Award 2024 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, you can expect the following might happen

• your portrait will be seen by over 200,000 people visiting the exhibition in London.
• your CV will be very much enhanced by selection for this prestigious exhibition. This then helps your career when trying to interest art galleries in your work
• your website will get enquiries for portrait commissions - (so make sure you have one and it provides decent information about commissions and how to contact you!)
• you get photographed with your painting for this blog post!

What follows is my annual post about "Artists with their Paintings" - all 33 of them!

Somehow I seem to have photographed more artists than ever before! So this is an ABSOLUTELY MAMMOTH BLOG POST!  It's only taken two days. I had to forego my walk today to get it finished!!

Lots of photos and lots of profile info about each artist - differentiating between those who are first time exhibitors and those who are have been selected for the Portrait Award in more than one occasion. 

This is where the painters in this post currently live.

EUROPE

• UK: England - Wendy Barrett, Oliver Bedeman, Tm Benson, Jane Brodie, Morag Caister, Laura Carey, Catherine Chambers, Alan Coulson, Peter Davis, Estelle day, Peter James Field, Ruth Fitton, Lewis Hazlewood-Horner, Emily Ponsonby, Carl Randall,  Charlie Ratcliffe, Ray Richardson, Ilara Rosselli del Turco (originally Italian),Michael Slusakowicz (originally Polish), Antony Williams
• UK: Northern Ireland and Ireland - Comhghall Casey, Shane Keisuke Berkery, Daniel Nelis
• Germany: Dan Gaasch, Massimiliano Pironti
  
• Russia: Sasha Sokolova

AFRICA

• South Africa: Emily Stainer

ASIA

• Japan - Shinji Ahari

NORTH AMERICA

• USA: Kyle Hackett, Rebecca Orcutt, George Shapter

What my photographs help you to do - which the online gallery does NOT - is to see the size of the painting relative to the artist who painted it

What the profiles help you with - If you've never entered the Portrait Award you can get a good sense of whether you're working at a similar level. The level of information varies with 

• whether I remembered to photograph the label (not always - and the website very unhelpfully neglects to provide the information)
• how much an artist chooses to share (and sometimes overshare). 

I try to pick out the useful information and the good bits and any themes which seem to emerge.

Portrait Award 2024: Where self portraits change to being portraits in interiors

Artists with their Paintings

The selection of the artists photographed for this post is not scientific - and is certainly not complete.  Essentially they are 

• those who were at Awards Ceremony or the Press View 
• AND I managed to spot their "Artist" Blue Badge (Awards) or small red oblong sticker (Press View) declaring them to be an artist. 
• AND they didn't leave before the end of the Press View!

(Tip: never ever hide your label at a Press View. Plus stick to the Artist Button - they're much easier to see!)

The narrative below includes reasonably LARGE PICS - but you have to

• click the pic to see the LARGE VERSION 
• click the link below the narrative - to go to the artist's website. Details of where you can see the exhibition are at the end of the post - together with the same post in previous years (2015-2018)

I'll also be posting these photos on Facebook in an album now I've completed this post. But given it's taken two days - I might have a break first!!

There are links to their websites or other social media sites embedded in their names.

UK - ENGLAND

Wendy Barrett

Wendy Barrett - who is actually a lot more smiley than her self portrait
Self (2022) Oil on stretched canvas
55cm x 40cm

Wendy Barratt is a first time exhibitor who has risen to prominence in the last 18 months. Her self portrait which got her into Series 10 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist iof the Year - which she won - also got her selected for this exhibition too! Her preliminary drawing was straight to canvas. She uses a rigger brush to emphasise certain colours and tones.

In recent years, the winning of a portrait competition with a high profile has typically paid off in a major way for the winners - and I now keep seeing Wendy's artwork being exhibited everywhere, from her commission hanging in the NPG to a basement in Brixton where she was exhibiting as a brand new member of the Contemporary British Portrait Painters. 

She has also been an Art Tutor for over 25 years and set up the Drawing Room in Worthing to host weekly life drawing classes - which she kept going via Zoom during Covid! This is a story about how she got Back to Life.

Education: BA (Hons) in Design and Communication Media, Manchester Polytechnic

Recent achievements include:

• Winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 (see Wendy Barratt is Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 (Series 10)
• Her prize - a £10,000 commission painting of Dr Jane Goodall currently hangs in Room 33 of the National Portrait Gallery (see PAOTY 2023: Commission Painting of Dr Jane Goodall. 
• 2023-2024: Exhibited in Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition

Oliver Bedeman

Oliver Bedeman

Oliver Bedeman's painting is in oil on glass - which means he paints the entire portrait in reverse, starting with the eyelashes! The technique of back painting glass dates back to the Romans and is a method that was once described by Cennino Cennini who wrote the "how to" on late Medieval and early Renaissance painting. It's acquired various terms since then including Verre églomisé. 

If you leave part of the glass without any paint, then you can see shadows from the paint on the rear wall - see below for an example. This catches people's attention and then amazes them when they realise the entire painting has been painted backwards!

Note the shadows on the wall
behind the arm and the head

 

He has painted T'nia Miller who is an actress. He contacted her via Instagram and then arranged a sitting at her home where he took reference photographs and made drawings

Recent Achievements: 

• 2022: Artist in Residence at Dumfries House, Scotland,
• 2021: First Prize, Bath Society of Artists, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
• 2020: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy,
• 2019: Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, Shortlisted
• Royal Drawing School Tutor - Young Artists Programme at the Ashmolean, Oxford

Previously shortlisted: BP Portrait 2018

Education: Postgraduate Drawing Year, Royal Drawing School 2007-08 ; B.A (Hons) Fine Art Painting, University of Brighton 2004-07.

Tim Benson

The Athenaeum is back!

 It appears that The Athenaum database of artworks is finally back online.

Many readers will recall I've been a big fan of this HUGE art history resource of public domain images in the past and frequently referenced it when writing about various artists of the past. 

It started back in 2001 and sadly went offline in April(?) 2020. 

I then wrote Goodbye to the Athenaeum Art Database? after it seemed to have disappeared and was only available via the Internet Archive. 

Thanks to Debra Levie for alerting me to the fact that it was back online.

The Athenaeum is a free, user-built online portal for art and the humanities. You can browse over 100,000 artworks by thousands of artists, or join us and help improve the site!

 

Home Page of The Athenaeum

Looking at the Internet Archive it appears as if it came back late last year.

However due to the fact that the website does not have a security certificate - and is prefixed by http rather than https - some people (including me) will have problems accessing it via the  Google Chrome browser as this browser basically stops access to sites which are not secure. It's part of their process of keeping people safe on the Internet. 

(PS If you're not using a security certificate and the https prefix for your website you need to!)

I found it much easier to access using my Apple Safari browser. I've not tried others but my experience is that if a website is not accessible via Chrome - or only very slowly.

We still don't know what happened to The Atheneaum in 2020. I think most of us assumed that the owner was ill and/or preoccupied with other matters and/or ran foul of an allegation of copyright infringement and/or just got very tired of technical problems and spammers (it happens a lot to big sites which have been up for some time).

Somebody who wrote to me following my blog past knew the email addresses of the owner but said that neither were getting a response.

I'm going to suggest that if the owner ran into financial problems hosting it - or just got very tired of technical problems - that they should maybe consider:

• having a digital donations box on the site (but this needs a security certificate!) I know a lot of people very much value the site and would like to keep it going....
• asking / looking for support in terms of both volunteers for forum moderation and technical aspects of the site

I know I'm very pleased to see it back - and I know a lot of other artists and those interested in art history will be too.

PS I still want to know who rocsdad is!! His contributions over the years have been amazing!

A Generous Space and the Artist Support Pledge

Artist Support Pledge now has a real exhibition space as well as an online one.

View of part of A Generous Space

Immersed in pre-surgery stuff - and accordingly not travelling anywhere last November - I missed the press releases about the Exhibition which is now taking place at Hastings Contemporary.

Which accounts for why I've not seen it - but I can tell you about it.

A Generous Space

A Generous Space is a manifestation of the first ever exhibition by the Artist Support Pledge (ASP). This opened on 25th November and moved the artwork from just being online to a space in the Hastings Contemporary Gallery in Sussex. 

Hastings Contemporary

The exhibition has been crowdsourced from Instagram and there were more than 3600 submissions to take part in the show, all made via Instagram using the #aspshows hashtag

The exhibition now includes more than 300 works created by artists from around the world - which gives a slightly less than 10% success rate.

The artwork includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, photography, basket making, weaving and needlework. The has travelled to the UK from countries including America, Canada, India, Republic of Moldova, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, and Republic of Ireland. There is also a strong representation from local and regionally based artists.

A view of A Generous Space

The ASP founder, artist Matthew Burrows MBE and a group of selectors selected works to be included in the exhibition. The selection panel included 

• Kate Bryan – Head of Collections for Soho House
• Jes Fernie – Curator and writer
• Julie Lomax – CEO of a-n The Artists Information Company
• Lakwena Maciver – Artist and 2020/2021 Hastings Contemporary exhibitor
• Natalie Melton – Creative Director at Crafts Council 
• Javier Pes – Art writer and editor
• Sally Shaw – Director of FirstSite, Colchester
• Jo Baring – Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art

The exhibition lasts until 17 April 2022 - and you can view the exhibition in this video

For a list of artworks available to purchase in this exhibition, please click here.

You can find Hastings Contemporary on Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW

On the website it says

All the works featured in A Generous Space – the design for which is inspired by an Instagram grid – have an accompanying label that includes the Instagram details of the artist, so anyone interested in buying the work can get directly in touch with the artist to do just that. The same egalitarian ethos as the online version of ASP.

except, on the basis of the video an the website that doesn't seem to be quite how it works

• I can't see a label next to the paintings
• nor can I see where the individual paintings are being profiled online

If anybody would like to help me out with this aspect I'll be pleased to change this comment. 

Context

Matthew Burrows started the Artist Support Pledge on on the 16th March 2020 in response to the COVID19 pandemic. 

The Artist Support Pledge is the blog post I wrote about it back in May 2020

Other posts include

• A Pledge to Help Artists Becomes a Lucrative Lifeline | New York Times

Website www.artistsupportpledge.com

Instagram: artistsupportpledge

Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr

Andrew Marr is currently telling the stories behind some of the world's greatest paintings by famous painters on Channel 5. 

works made with almost supernatural skills, fierce passion and extraordinary brainpower
Andrew Marr

The World's Greatest Paintings with Andrew Marr (on Channel 5)

I'd have missed it altogether if "he who must not be bored" hadn't spotted it and asked me if I was watching the series. On which basis I'm assuming a few other people may also not be aware that this series is currently available to view.

I very much recommend the series. Andrew Marr (who describes himself on Twitter as elderly amateur painter and presenter of the BBC1 Andrew Marr Show) is surprisingly good at both telling both the story and indicating his appreciation of the artwork. You also get to find out all sorts of details you never knew before.

How much of it is Marr and how much of it is research by art history experts is unclear - but the programmes certainly have a distinct Marr flavour to them. He's no stooge for the words of others.

It's also great for all those who will never ever get to the Museums in which you can find these paintings on view 

Great Paintings of the World

You can watch on Channel 5 at 6.15pm - 7.05pm on Saturday evening. If using on demand some are different timings e.g. 8.15pm

Paintings covered to date (plus the link to the episode on Channel 5 on Demand) are:

• Episode 1: Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (The Louvre) - The story of the portrait that attracts eight million onlookers every year, Da Vinci's the Mona Lisa - which didn't become famous until it was stolen in 1911

It’s hard to imagine Simon Schama devoting a programme to the Mona Lisa. Come on, she’s art’s queen of clichés, a tourist magnet drawing crowds to grab selfies. But snobbery be damned, because Andrew Marr opens his series on great paintings by properly examining why this modest portrait – not even his favourite work by Leonardo da Vinci, he says – has become the most recognisable work of art there is.

He does a good job, too, taking us back to the “culturally swaggering” world of Renaissance Florence, where Leonardo was in his 50s by the time he set about painting the young wife of one of his father’s clients. That sideways pose and direct gaze were revolutionary, we gather; the use of “sfumato” blurring around her mouth was the special effect that brought the about-to-smile half-smile to life; and it wasn’t until 1911 that the painting became a global celebrity – by being stolen. (Radio Times)

• Episode 2: Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh (National Gallery) 

Screen capture from Radio Times which is devoting an article to each episode (so far)

• Episode 3: The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner (National Gallery) - the story behind The Fighting Temeraire, JMW Turner's masterpiece, once voted to be the nation's favourite painting.

With the last one I loved the fact he pointed out all the things wrong with the painting! For example - being painted the wrong way round - because the setting sun should have been on the other side of the painting if it was being towed up the River Thames to Rotherhithe (speaks woman who worked this out a long time ago given the fact she is regularly blinded by sun setting in the west at her home in Bow immediately north of Rotherhithe!)

UPDATE: MY APOLOGIES

Below is what I wrote when I thought the series was 10 programmes - but looking back now at Radio Times they've got it listed as a series of 3 programmes.

I'm now wondering if the discontinuity between the press release material I found (see below) and the reality is down to the Pandemic - and the rest will come later?

A new TV series is set to tell the story behind ten of the greatest painting in the world - but according to a new study, only six per cent of adults can correctly identify them. article about the new series (my bold)

PS They definitely had a trailer for the next episode re Picasso at the end of Episode 3 when I watched!!  Plus as you will realise the opening shots all involve the paintings listed below - strongly suggesting more episodes to come

I'll update again if I find out more.

Next week's episode is going to focus on The Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso (Tate Britain) - which is, of course all about Guernica and the model for the painting was Dora Maar who was his mistress between 1938 and 1944.

I'm speculating what the remaining seven "iconic paintings" will be. If the introduction to the series is anything to go by I'm expecting

• Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (Le Galerie degli Uffizi, Florence)
• Rembrandt van Rijn's The Night Watch (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
• Diego Velázquez's The Toilet of Venus (The Rokeby Venus) (National Gallery)
• John Constable's The Hay Wain (National Gallery)
• John Millais's Ophelia (Tate Britain)
• Claud Monet's Water Lilies - the murals (Musée de l'Orangerie)

Andrew Marr sat in the basement of L'Orangerie - viewing one of Monet's great paintings of water lilies

I'm absolutely certain one of the future programmes is going to be about Monet's Water Lilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris (because of the pics for the series). These paintings absolutely overwhelmed me and filled my eyes with tears the first time I saw them. I was incredibly lucky to see them for the very first time incredibly early one Saturday morning in the late 80s with nobody else in the room. I'd arrived in Paris on the Motorail from Provence (a service which is no longer available!). My visit to the water lilies was followed by a very nice lunch near the L'Orangerie and my driving out to Giverny to visit Monet's garden - and then to Calais for the ferry and back home to London.

A day I will never ever forget - I've got a very clear visual memory of it even now!

Anyway - back to the topic - I very much recommend this series of programmes and suggest you catch up with the first three episodes and then watch the rest. You won't regret it.

The Artist Support Pledge

Matthew Burrows started the Artist Support Pledge on on the 16th March 2020 in response to the COVID19 pandemic. 

In the last two months it has:

• become a global movement of support for artists and makers by other artists, makers and art collectors
• generated 174,804 posts on Instagram (it had generated 175,277 posts by the time I finished this post!)
• collected 41k followers on the Artist Support Pledge Instagram account

How the Artist Support Pledge works

The best ideas are always very simple - as this one is.

View this post on Instagram

This is the HOW TO guide to participate in ARTIST SUPPORT PLEDGE anyone anywhere in the world can take part. 1. post your image/s on your Instagram account 2. If possible use the ARTIST SUPPORT PLEDGE logo and text (swipe to see) by reposting or using a screenshot. You can also cut and paste from my website (see link in bio). 3. give details of the work and price (no more than 200USD, 200GDP, 200 EURO or 20000JPY) 4. ask for anyone interested to DM you 5. add #artistsupportpledge NB: singular - one ‘s’ not two 6. follow the # 7. when you have sold $1000 worth of work fulfil the pledge and spend $200 on another artist/s work. 8. If in doubt do it in a spirit of generosity, that's all that matters A creative generosity creates a generous creativity 9. Stay connected for more opportunities by following @artistsupportpledge NB/ we DO NOT select work to be seen. You may not see your own work as there are so many images but others are seeing them. Text for posting below: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many artists around the world have found themselves without work, teaching, technical support, gallery work, exhibitions and sales have disappeared. In an attempt to help alleviate some of this stress @matthewburrowsstudio has instigated the #artistsupportpledge The concept is a simple one. You post images of your work to sell for no more than $200 (£200, €200, ¥20000) each (not including shipping.) Anyone can then buy the work. Every time you reach $1000 of sales you pledge to buy another artist's work for $200. So make a pledge and post your work with the #artistsupportpledge and follow the #. keep updated on news and further opportunities @artistsupportpledge Repost and tell your friends, colleagues and collectors. Stay well and live generously. #supportartists #covid19 #coronavirus #livegenerously #artistsupportpledge

A post shared by Artist Support Pledge (@artistsupportpledge) on May 1, 2020 at 12:53am PDT

This is how the Artist Support Pledge works in terms of raising money for artists:

• First of all you need to post an ARTIST SUPPORT PLEDGE logo and text to 
• explain how the system works and 
• alert people to the fact you are participating 
• (The Instagram post above provides the detailed explanation) 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many artists around the world have found themselves without work, teaching, technical support, gallery work, exhibitions and sales have disappeared. In an attempt to help alleviate some of this stress @matthewburrowsstudio has instigated the #artistsupportpledgeThe concept is a simple one. You post images of your work to sell for no more than $200 (£200, €200, ¥20000) each (not including shipping.) Anyone can then buy the work. Every time you reach $1000 of sales you pledge to buy another artist's work for $200.

• Artists post an image of their work, on their Instagram account which they are willing to sell for no more than £200 each (i.e. not including shipping). 
• Make sure you include 
• details of the work (eg media / size / original / print etc) and 
• price (no more than 200USD, 200GDP, 200 EURO or 20000JPY)
• you can price for less than £200
• Add #artistsupportpledge  (NB: singular - one ‘s’ not two i.e. artist+support+pledge)
• Follow #artistsupportpledge to see the work posted by other artists
• Anyone can buy the work. 
• Ask for anyone interested to DM you
• Fulfil your pledge and buy another artist's work for £200 + delivery when you have made £1,000 in sales  (and, I suggest, have been paid!) i.e. sell £1,000 and net £800 + a new artwork for your collection!)
• Keep updated on new opportunities and announcements @artistsupportpledge 

Other hashtags used by those participating are:

• #supportartists 
• #covid19 
• #coronavirus 
• #livegenerously

MY TIPS

• PLEASE DO NOT post art if you're NOT a career artist whose livelihood is currently in jeopardy due to Coronavirus. There's way too much amateur art being posted by people who cannot possibly be paying their household and business bills through the sale of their art. That, to my mind, is just plain selfish and attention-seeking given the intention of this project is to support those self-employed professional artists who have lost their ability to earn their normal income e.g. from sales of exhibited paintings in art galleries and art fairs, teaching art to students and the normal sort of work which many professional artists engage in.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many artists have found themselves without work, teaching, technical support and gallery work. Exhibitions and sales have disappeared. In an attempt to help alleviate some of this stress I have instigated the ARTIST SUPPORT PLEDGE #artistsupportpledge (Matthew Burrows)

• DO NOT be one of the very silly artists who uses the hashtag but doesn't follow the rules
• DO NOT post "tat" and ask £200 - it devalues both the project and the pledge - and it also won't sell! I checked out all the artists I didn't know in the curated list below....
• DO NOT use the #artistsupportpledge UNLESS you are participating properly. It's sadly become one of those generic hashtags which people include willy nilly!
• DO calculate package and shipping costs before you post for different places e.g. UK only - you're likely to get more responses
• DO post work for less than £200. 
• Your artwork does not have to be valued at £200 
• You have the option to sell more artworks for less money. 
• This works particularly well for those selling prints

Who has contributed to the Artist Support Pledge?

Here are some of the artists and artworks which have been posted for the Art Support Pledge
I'm posting good quality artwork by those taking the pledge seriously.

Below I've identified five artists - and will do a curated collection of another five artists next week if you like the idea.

Gareth Reid - who won Portrait Artist of the Year in 2017 and was the portrait painter for Portrait Artist of the Week yesterday (on Facebook Live) was an early contributor. He is selling prints of his drawing.

He also provides an excellent example of how to detail your work on your post.

Goodbye to the Athenaeum Art Database?

I have serious concerns about whether The Athenaeum Art Database - one of my absolute favourite repositories of quality images of paintings over time - is offline.

At the moment, I can only reach it via the Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20200316103127/http://the-athenaeum.org/

It appears to have been active up until 16th March 2020 - having started up in May 2002 and accumulated more than a 250,000 great images of artworks since that date.

• Has it forgotten to pay its host or domain name registrar? (i.e. the normal reason websites go offline)
• Has the owner been affected by the coronavirus crisis?
• Have they just shut down for the duration of the crisis?
• Are they coming back after a spell of ventilation elsewhere?

This is serious - art history fans need to know!

A number of the links appear to be dead. However it is still possible to access

• the alphabetical list of artists
• an individual artist - see my pic re Turner below (minus an image by another artist)
• the list of artworks for that artist - see pic below

Do let me know if you know anything about what is happening - and particularly if the database resurrects and comes back online.

Athenaeum Profile Page for JMW Turner

Alphabetical List of Titles of Turner Artworks in the Database

Call for Entries: Jackson's Painting Prize 2020

This is a bit of a different Call for Entries - as I got asked to be one of the Judges for this one! 

I have a bit of March next year marked up in my icalendar as "Judge Jacksons Painting Prize"!

Jackson's Painting Prize: Call for Entries

Jackson’s Painting Prize exists to recognise and appreciate original, 2-dimensional fine art works in any painting or drawing media.

I'm just going to carry on as I normally do - sharing the call for entries. This post looks at:

• who can enter
• what sort of artwork you can enter
• why enter
• how to enter (registration / timeline / digital images etc)

This is the link to Jackson’s Painting Prize 2020. The deadline for entries is 4th March 2020.

Who can enter

Jackson’s Painting Prize is open to all artists of all abilities and at all ages.

UNLESS you or an immediate family member is an employee of Jackson’s Art Supplies

You can live anywhere.

What sort of artwork can you enter

Bear in mind this is a PAINTING PRIZE!

You can submit up to 5 paintings.

Artworks for the competition MUST be:

• submitted by the artist who created it (i.e. no entries by your gallery, your best friend or your mother who thinks your painting is wonderful!)
• your own intellectual property. i.e. do NOT submit any artwork that 
• either directly copies other people’s work (this does not include artistic interpretations) 
• or works that are made from a tutorial.

We take each submission and the information regarding it in good faith. We will not conduct any background checks unless we believe there are grounds for disqualification or we have been alerted by an additional party. Disclaimer

After that it's probably easier to say what CANNOT be entered

• Printmaking, pure photography, computer generated or manipulated artwork and 3D sculptural works are NOT eligible for selection. 
• Drawings or paintings of an inappropriate or offensive subject matter will be removed from the competition. 
• artwork that has previously won a major competition 
• artwork that has been extensively exhibited in any established galleries.
• artwork that has been sold i.e. you must have access to the original / it must be in your possession

Jackson’s Art Supplies may ask for artworks to be sent for further inspection and consideration before or outside of longlist / shortlist / prize winning selection. The winning work must be available for viewing, if requested, and must be like the digital photo submission.

They may also ask for a photograph of you standing next to your painting.

If you want to gauge whether or not your artwork is suitable for this painting competition......

Shortlisted works in previous years

You can view the artworks listed for prizes in previous years of this painting competition on the following pages - plus those which were shortlisted on the following links

• 2019 competition
• 2018 competition under construction
• 2017 competition under construction
• 2016 competition under construction

You can also see the 2019 shortlisted entries on their Instagram account for the competition https://www.instagram.com/jacksons_competitions/

Why enter?

Well.......

• apart from the prizes - which are much better than most open exhibitions by national art societies 
• Overall Winner £5,000
• People's Choice Award: £1,000
• Emerging Artist Award: £1,000
• Category Winners: £500 x 6
• IF YOU ARE SHORTLISTED (AND you live in the UK) you will have the chance of submitting your work to the Affordable Art Fair Hampstead (30 April - 3 May 2020). 
• The Affordable Art Fair team make the final selection.
• the maximum size of artwork that can be hung at the Art Fair is 1.2metres
• any artwork sent to be hung in the art fair must be ready to hang in an exhibition
• there's also the marketing that Jackson's does for its exhibition and the artists that get selected. 

I only associate my name with companies that I like and have time for and Jackson's Art Materials is one of those. It also has one of the very best art materials blogs going and a sound social media presence online.

How to enter

You need to pay attention to:

• registration (form filling)
• the timeline for submissions, announcements and the exhibition
• the various detailed requirements listed in 
• Guidelines and Criteria
• FAQs
• Publicity

Registration

You must register in order to submit an entry.

You can register to enter BEFORE the the exhibition opens for entries.

The user profile you need for the competition registration MUST be different to that you use for any account you may have with Jacksons.

Timeline

• Submission opens 2nd December 2019 (two weeks today)
• Submission closes 4th March 2020
• Longlist announced: 17th March 2020
• Voting for the People's Choice starts: 17th March 2020 (and closes on 15th April 2020)
• Shortlist announced: 7th April 2020
• Category prizewinners announced: 14th April 2020
• Emerging Artist and People's Choice prizewinners announced: 17th April 2020
• Winner announced: 21st April 2020
• Exhibition at Affordable Art Fair Hampstead - opens 29th April 2020

Digital images

Entry is via a digital entry - and there's a lot you need to consider before taking the photograph and submitting the image.

• The maximum jpeg file size is 3MB. 
• Images of artwork must be at least 1000px wide (with a resolution of at least 72px per inch). 
• Please ensure that your image is the correct way up before submitting. 
• Artwork with a copyright stamp or watermark on it will NOT be accepted. 
• The image of the artwork should be 
• a clear, high quality photograph 
• it must NOT show any unnecessary or irrelevant content, such as frames, mounts, walls, tables or any other kind of background. 
• The image should be 
• an accurate representation of the art work, 
• taken in bright natural light, 
• as well as being of a high resolution for reproduction online.

Affordable Art Fair

• all work submitted must be for sale
• the maximum price i £6,000

The Judges

Judges for the 2020 exhibition

You can read more about the judges by clicking their photos on the competition section of the competition page. Links to their websites are embedded in their names below

The Judges for the Jacksons Painting Prize 2020 are:

• Adebanji Alade - Artist, Author, Presenter & Educator
• Rosalind Davis - Artist, Curator, Teacher & Writer
• Elizabeth Dellert - Affordable Art Fair UK Fair Director
• Terry Greene - Artist & Writer
• Iain Nicholls - Artist & Winner of Jackson’s Open Painting Prize 2019

and moi!

• Katherine Tyrrell - Artist, Teacher & Writer (must do something about my disappearing eyebrows!)

Selected Artists: John Moore Painting Prize 2018

• 2,700 paintings were entered for the John Moore Painting Prize 2018 
• 258 paintings were anonymously shortlisted for stage 2 judging
• 60 artists have had their work selected for exhibition - for the 60th year of this competition.

The selected paintings and their artists are listed below. The names of the five prizewinning artists will be announced on Thursday 12 July. You'll be able to see all the paintings at The John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery from 14 July to 18 November 2018.  This exhibition is also a key part of the Liverpool Biennial which happens this summer.

Motif for this year's competition designed by Sir Peter Blake
60 Paintings by 60 Artists in the 60th Year of this competition

The competition culminates in an exhibition held at the Walker Art Gallery every two years, and 2018 will mark the art prize’s 60th anniversary and its 30th exhibition, having championed contemporary British painting for over two decades longer than any other art prize of its scale.

At the end of this post is a video made to celebrate 60 years of the John Moore's Painting Prize and its 30th exhibition

For those who want to know more about sort of paintings are eligible for the prize please read my blog post about the £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize 2018 - Call for Entries

The jurors were

• Lubaina Himid MBE - Born in Zanzibar, Tanzania, 1954. Lives in Preston, UK. An artist and professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire. She won the 2017 Turner Prize.
• Marvin Gaye Chetwynd - Born in London, 1973. Lives in Glasgow, UK. An artist whose practice intertwines performance, sculpture, painting, installation and video. 
• Jenni Lomax - Born in Manchester. Lives in London. An independent curator who was Director of Camden Arts Centre, London, from 1990 to September 2017
• Bruce McLean - Born in Glasgow, 1944. Lives in London. A sculptor who has used a variety of mediums, including photography, impersonation, video and drawing over the last 50 years.
• Liu Xiaodong - Born in Liaoning Province, China, 1963. Lives in Beijing, China. Currently professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. 

Today’s the day! Its been like Christmas working on the Art handling team @JMPaintingPrize unwrapping hundreds of paintings! 📦🙌🏼 #judgementday #jm2018 #JMPaintingprize @k__lloyd @walkergallery @traincurator pic.twitter.com/3rfD2wYOj6

— Kevin Hunt (@sculptureartman) March 27, 2018

John Moore Painting Prize 2018 - Selected Artists

The artists seem to be a shy bunch - I can't find ANY of the shortlisted works online except for one