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

Archibald Prize 2024 Finalists announced + Packing Room Prize

 The finalists for The Archibald Prize 2024 have been announced. 

The Archibald Prize is awarded annually to the best portrait, 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics, painted by any artist resident in Australasia’.

The Archibald Prize for portrait painting is Australia’s most celebrated and democratic – sometimes controversial – art award. Open to any artist living in Australia or New Zealand, since 1921 it has reflected the unique experiences of the people who live in this region, highlighting figures from all walks of life. 

Some Archibald Prize Facts

• there were 1005 entries from artists resident in Australia (i.e. don't even think about entering next year's competition unless you live in Australia!)
• of these 57 artworks were selected as finalists for the Prize and will be hung in the exhibition. That's 5.6% of the entry.
• the entries were judged and the finalists were selected by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales
• the winner of The Archibald Prize will be announced on 7th June 2024.
• the exhibition will be open at the Art Gallery of New South Wales between 8 June – 8 September 2024

You can VIEW ALL THE FINALISTS ONLINE. See if you can work out who has won!

Sitting here in London I'm looking at the finalists' artwork and wondering who on earth are the sitters. That's not to say I might not also have a view about the portraits irrespective of not knowing the sitters or the artists!

Interestingly, the portraits are not at all conventional and indeed many of them might be termed "very contemporary". 

The Packing Room Prize

Winner: Packing Room Prize 2024

Rhythms of heritage by Matt Adnate

spray paint and synthetic polymer paint on linen

220 x 188.5 cm (86 inches x 75inches)

In the meantime, the Packing Room Prize has been announced. 

The 2024 Packing Room Prize has been awarded to 'Rhythms of heritage' by Matt Adnate who normally creates very large scale murals and who has been a finalist multiple times in prestigious art competitions such as the Doug Moran and the Archibald Prize. His portrait of Yolŋu rapper, dancer, artist and actor Baker Boy and the painting is BIG!

I've always really liked the fact of the existence of the Packing Room Prize - which is for the work that has been judged to be the best by the Art Gallery Staff who receive, unpack and hang the entries.

I've always had a sneaky suspicion that they never ever favour those packed by people who don't know how to make a package secure and/or those who pack like a complete nightmare for unpackers!

Royal Society of Portrait Artists Annual Exhibition 2024

I should have written about the Annual Exhibition 2024 of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP) last week - but my "mega spring clean" rather got in the way.  

Suffice to say this is one of the very best RP Annual Exhibitions I've ever seen - and I'm very sure that those who have seen it have been broadcasting that fact far and wide.

In fact, it's so good that I'd be very surprised if the The Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills) is any better.

How to see the exhibition

You can see the exhibition at the Mall Galleries. The last day is 18th May and the exhibition is open between 10am and 5pm.

View of the East Gallery from the Reception area
- the semi circle is the commission area

You can also see images of the portrait drawings and paintings hung in the exhibition on the Mall Galleries website

I've also now posted my albums of photos of the work in the show on my Making A Mark Facebook Page - and you can view them there. These are:

• North Gallery - which mainly comprises most of the artwork by those who are not members of the RP and who entered via the open entry. 
• East Gallery - which includes some impressive work by non-members of repute as well as portraits by RP members.
• West Gallery - these are mainly be members.

You can also see all the artworks which won awards or were shortlisted or received runner up awards on this link.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that all those aspiring to be selected for a future RP Annual Exhibition should pay particular attention to the following when viewing the artwork

• this is a very competitive open exhibition. This year the RP received 3,500 entries (which is more than BP Portrait used to get!)
• the kind of portraits selected for the exhibition - particularly those by non-members. Also note my comments below about how portraiture has changed over time and with this exhibition in particular
• the quality of the artwork - which is very high
• the media used i.e. there are drawings in a variety of media as well as paintings.

North Gallery

North Gallery

I saw the exhibition on Private View day - which is actually not the best day to see the artwork. That's because of the very high number of visitors which an exhibition like this generates. 

• You've got artists and their friends and families, plus sitters, plus people who get invited to these things - like me. 
• It is however the very best day for talking to people and seeing people you've not seen in a very long time.

Or in the case of Joshua Donkor, who I've not seen since 25th April when I met him at the RBA Rising Stars exhibition as one of the young artists shortlisted for the Rome Scholarship! 

I really liked his painting of his grandmother with one of her grandchildren - there are so few artists who can portray black skin in all the wonderful colours it can be - but Joshua can! I also liked how he built in echoes of the past in terms of photos which are suggested in the background. It's much more complex and layered than is suggested by only a quick glance.

He also received a Highly Commended Award for The de Laszlo Foundation Award for the most outstanding portrait by an artist aged 35 years or under

Worlds Apart by Joshua Donkor
(in the North Gallery - middle room)

I've been hanging on all day to find out who won what re the two biggest prizes for portraiture - but cannot find anything yet....

I'll add it in here later......

Review of the Exhibition

Overall, this is an exhibition which displays one genre - portraiture - of a very high standard - with a wide diversity of subjects, styles, sizes and media. 

It's very much changed and developed since I first started reviewing the annual exhibition 15 years go. (see the end for links to previous reviews).

The RP contains a broad collection of stylistic and intellectual approaches that continue to make a significant contribution to the ongoing tradition of portraiture in Britain today. The Society looks to uphold the values and practices of its long and distinguished history, but at the same time, it seeks to explore and develop new artistic models and perspectives. (Catalogue)

Given this exhibition is about portraiture, the artwork leans heavily towards realism although a lot does not try to look photographic.

I was very impressed. Some of the artworks were not to my personal taste - but the standards of execution were uniformly high and some portraits were - whether by RP member or open entrant - of the very highest standard 

The exhibition includes 241 portraits. Of these:

• members of the RP are showing around about 100 portraits - and I noted not all members are showing an artwork.
• There are 125 artworks selected from the open submission and 
• the remaining artworks are by artists who have been invited by a member to exhibit. 

One of my tests of how good an exhibition is revolves around how well I can remember it after I've seen it. I have an excellent visual memory for things I like and with good exhibitions I can take a tour around and see it again in my head - as attested by those who have commented on my ability to remember particular artworks and where they were hung in an exhibition in the past!

Rather than review it the same day - or even the next - I often now review it a little later to see which artworks are still shouting for attention in my head.

This review will highlight some of these below

Commissions: the end of the "stuffed shirt"

This is an exhibition which aims to celebrate the best in contemporary portraiture. 

Interestingly it's also an exhibition where I think very high quality entries from the open submission have influenced members over time.

As I commented last year, the main aspect of the exhibition which immediately struck me is how much it did NOT look like exhibitions in earlier years which have, on occasions, had rather too many stuffed shirts relating to formal commissions from organisations. 

While understanding that:

• commissions are a portrait artist's "bread and butter" income
• this exhibition is very much a marketing exercise for members of the RP
• most commissions tend to come from significant organisations who like to record the people who've headed them up

however it's interesting how the personality and the profile of the person being portrayed is now much more evident in portraits. In general, they are now much less formulaic as in "this is what we normally do..."

Of course, the more you show variation in how you can paint for a commission, the more you get more interesting commissions as people endeavour to inject their personality into the painting. 

One of the people who has led the charge to become more flexible in how people are portrayed is Alastair Adams who is a Past President of the RP.

Selected artists for the John Moores Painting Prize 2023

The selected artists for the John Moores Painting Prize 2023 have now been announced and are as detailed below - name plus title of the artwork plus links to websites or social media sites of some.

The Jury

“It’s a real privilege to have been able to soak up and absorb a snapshot of British painting as part of the jury. It’s so dynamic, exciting, and wrought with a lot of debate and discussion. The anonymity factor allows us to get straight to the factuality of the painting, and being able to see each painting face to face has been a delight.” juror Alexis Harding - first prize winner in 2004

The John Moores Painting Prize 2023 Exhibition opens at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool on Saturday 16 September 2023. 

The first prize winner will receive 

• £25,000 and 
• a solo display at the Walker Art Gallery in 2025.

Always the bridesmaid ...about 3000 enter The John Moore's Painting Prize and about 300 get chosen for stage two, then around 67 make it to the exhibition. Kinda chuffed I got chosen for stage two. Next year I'll smash it Lolly Golding

 

Selected Artists - John Moore Painting Prize 2023 

If your website or Instagram / Facebook can be found in 5 seconds you have a decent chance of getting a link below. If you've also created a decent summary of who you are and what you do, you might just get referenced too. But I don't bother with those not keen on marketing their art or themselves. Plus I'm afraid I don't do guessing games on those who have common names. If you want a link let me know via the post associated with this one on my Facebook Page.

• Dale Adcock - Wall - classic example of somebody who's not looked at the CV on his website in a while
• Tim Allen - Dancing the Future Melting the Past 
• Linda Aloysius - The First Painting in History To Be Recognised By a Public Museum as Painted By a Working-Class Single Mother Artist  
• Tahira Asghar - TAKE IT ALL TAKE IT ALL TAKE IT ALL 
• Nicholas Baldion - Social Murder: Grenfell in Three Parts 
• Mollie Balshaw - My studio is on the bus 

• Ella Belenky - Spell Lulu Bennett - Float 
• Richard Burton - Simulac 
• Danny Cameron - Madonna & Child 
• Deepa Chudasama - Cluster Series with grid 
• Noemi Conan - Sheela Na Gig 
• Daniel Coombs - Woman in the Park 
• Rhys Coren - Slicing Time Differently 
• Mark Corfield-Moore - Sweet Tooth 
• Martyn Cross - The Comin' Through 
• Graham Crowley - Light Industry 
• Richie Culver - Untitled 
• William Drummond - Here's Looking At You - a Petworth based artist with a focus on animals and landscapes. William studied fashion at New York’s FIT before working for a range of designers including Tom Ford, Marchesa and Theory before teaching himself to paint.
• Ryan Durrant - Untitled (HW) 
• Jack Foster - After Fra Angelico 
• Ray Gill - Slide 
• Magdalena Gluszak - Holeksa - Her husband didn't die, he just became beautiful b.1990 in Polnad. Lives in Hertfordshire. Studied MFA Fine Arts at University of the Arts London, Wimbledon College of Art
• Matt Golden - Ladders (Dark Blue) 
• Gina Hammersley - Smile for the Camera 
• Christopher Hanlon - Untitled 
• Christopher Hanson - Ama 
• Dereck Harris - Web Zeal 
• John Wood & Paul Harrison - Not a painting kind of painting 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by John Wood and Paul Harrison (@woodandharrison)

• Harriet Mena Hill - Taplow Shadows: The Aylesbury Fragments 
• Leo Holloway - Untitled 
• Ben Hughes - They'd had ten years to plan their revenge ... 
• Reece Jones - Phantom A and Phantom B - absolutely zero about the artist on his website!
• Betsey Kilpatrick - Love Vortices 
• Helen Kincaid - Stage ll 
• Emily Kraus - Stochastic 14 
• Michael Lacey - I Met A Traveller From An Antique Land 
• Dale Lewis - Garden Party 
• Angela Lizon - Horseman - BA(Hons) in Fine Art; Post-graduate scholarship funded by the Polish government and the British Arts Council for study at Krakow Academy of Fine Art in Poland; Elected Academician at Royal West of England Academy, Bristol; Studio holder at Top Floor Studios, Spike Island, Bristol
• W.K. Lyhne - Stabat Mater 111 
• Henry Miller - Fun Boy Three - Tunnel of Love 
• Chris Milsom - Mirror Mirror 
• Reuben Murray - Ada 
• Richard Phoenix - The Ladder (The Choice) 
• Emma Price - British Values II 
• Yin Yung Sabrina - Pun Emergency Order Convention 1 
• Samantha Rebello - At the King's Table: The Queen's Habit (Blancmange) 
• Phil Redford - Exodus 
• Zachariah Riley - Untitled (Dummies no.3) 
• Emma Roche - Hurl 
• Francisco Rodriguez - The Golden Hour 
• Stevie Ronnie - Thirty Hours or So of Being Awake 
• Michael Samuels - Big Exit 
• Elinor Stanley - Big Babe 
• Amy Steel - Because I Know so Little I Grope for More 
• Alan Stewart - I Hear Them Coming 
• Damian Taylor - Other Light 
• Mimei Thompson - Weeds at the End of the World (Ultramarine, Magenta) 
• Emma Tod - Ludic 
• Francisco Valdes - Champagne Cascade I 
• Covadonga Valdes - Homeland 8 - landscape painter; 1988-92 BA (Hons) Chelsea College of Art, London; 1992-94 MA The Slade University College, London
• Jack Vickridge - Untitled 
• Lorna May Wadsworth - Salvator Mundi 
• Julian Wakelin - LBGE - TBGE 
• Casper White - Saint Michael the Archangel Andrea Della Robia filmed at The Met with pleated kilt by @aria.puga
• John Whitehill - Island Sanctuary 
• Joanna Whittle - Forest Shrine (Witness) 
• Suzy Willey - Just like that!…there! 
• Reed Wilson - Book Stack 
• Tom Woolner - Internal Weather (Idyll)

About the John Moores Painting Prize

The John Moores Painting Prize has awarded more than £685,000 in prize money across 31 exhibitions, which have showcased more than 2,350 works of art. It presents a rich history of post-war painting in Britain. The first exhibition was held only six years after the Walker Art Gallery re-opened following the Second World War.

Previous winners of the John Moores Painting Prize have included artists such as

• 1959: Patrick Heron - "Black Painting - Red, Brown and Olive: July 1959
• 1967: David Hockney - Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool
• 1972: Euan Uglow - "Nude, 12 vertical positions from the eye"
• 1993: Peter Doig - "Blotter"
• 2014: Rose Wylie - "PV Windows and Floorboards"

See a virtual exhibition of John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition - Winners since 1957

REFERENCE: see my post about Call for Entries: John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2023: Prizewinners and selected artists

Yesterday the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters opened to the public at the Mall Galleries and I visited. In this post I'm going to focus on 

• those winning prizes and 
• those whose artwork was selected for this very prestigious annual exhibition.

My review of the actual exhibition will follow on Sunday and will highlight:

• commentary on what's different this year
• observations on the content
• portraits I particularly liked

Prizewinners | RP Annual Exhibition 2023

The William Lock Portrait Prize: £20,000 for the most timeless portrait with a real feeling for paint and its aesthetic potential

Charlotte, by Saied Dai RP NEAC, 

80.5 x 60.5 cm (90.5 x 70.5 cm framed)

Saied Dai's portrait of his artist wife Charlotte Sorapure is timeless. It's both classical and contemporary. It's colourful and yet shows wonderful appreciation of tonal planes and light.

He's painted his wife before but somehow this time we get much more sense of the real woman.

This couple are both very accomplished and have won many awards.

What I'd really like to see is an exhibition which includes a couple of portraits from them - painted at the same time - of each painting the other.

The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture: £10,000 plus the Society’s Gold Medal
- awarded for the most distinguished portrait in the Society’s annual exhibition

Toby Wiggins RP

Winter's Work; Russell Woodham at rest while laying a hazel hedge in the Dorset Style,

121.5 x 151 cm (125.5 x 155 cm framed)

Toby was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2006. He won the Prince of Wales Drawing Award in 2005 and 2013, the Changing Faces Prize in 2006 and the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize for figurative painting in 2009.

In 2006, after winning the BP Travel Award, Toby made portraits of the rural community of Wessex, which were exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in 2007 and subsequently at Dorset County Museum in 2008.

One of his drawings for the painting is also in the show. My first encounter with Toby was seeing his wonderful drawings of people working in rural communities which were completed for the BP Travel Award.

Toby Wiggins
A Blackbird's Tongue: Russell Woodham, the Dorset Hedgelayer
Pencil, charcoal, ink on prepared paper

 

The de Laszlo Foundation Award: £3,000 plus a Silver Medal for the most outstanding portrait by an artist aged 35 years or under

Phoebe-Louise Stewart Carter, 
Self Portrait in the Winter,
85 x 50 cm (105 x 70 cm framed)

This is a very quiet but extremely well painted portrait. It's a curious pose as it would be one difficult to ask an artist to hold - but easier if the subject is yourself!

The RP Award 

£2,000 will be awarded to the artist whose work best represents the year's chosen theme - which for 2023 is "Clothing"

Zac Lee, 
Sunday Afternoon, 73 x 53 cm

It's unclear who Zac Lee is online. Which is a missed opportunity for this artist.

The RP Prize for the Best Small Portrait: A prize of £2,000 for the best small portrait in the exhibition, measuring not more than 38 x 30.5 cm (15 x 12 inches) unframed

Carles Belda

Study for Something Never Ends, 19 x 15 cm (29 x 25 cm framed)

To be perfectly honest, I thought there were a LOT of small portraits which were excellent and certainly provided very worthy competition for this portrait. Which is a polite way of saying I'm really not sure why this one won the prize.

I feel art societies would generally be very helpful to ALL artists if they provided a brief explanation of why someone won a prize. Its omission in this instance left me wondering....

Raw Umber Studios Prize Value £2,000.

This is a new prize in 2023 - and was won by the current Vice President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Raw Umber Studios believes that the most exciting contemporary portraiture lies at the intersection of technical excellence and creative expression. Their annual prize, inaugurated in 2023, encourages and rewards such work.

Simon Davis RP RBSA, 
Warren Ellis
61 x 51 cm (67 x 57 cm framed)

The Smallwood Architects Prize for Contextual Portraiture: £1,000 for a portrait in which architectural or interior features play an important part.

Paul's Emporium by Martyn Harris

80 x 110 cm (86 x 116 cm framed)

Rather less architectural than usual.

Missing prizes?

I couldn't find

• a drawing awarded The Prince of Wales's Award for Portrait Drawing (£2,000 and framed certificate for a portrait in any recognised drawing medium) and note it's not part of the list if prizewinners on the Mall Galleries website. If it has come to an end that would be a very great pity - although obviously it needs a name update!
• any reference to The Burke’s Peerage Foundation Award for Classically Inspired Portraiture - which also appears to no longer awarded. 

Selected Art and Artists | RP Annual Exhibition 2023

Last November, I wrote my annual blog post about the Call for Entries: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2023. 

Subsequently artists who entered via the open entry were notified (you can see a list of who made it to the exhibition below) and yesterday I visited the exhibition on the first day it was open to the public.

The RSPP got 3,466 entries for this very prestigious exhibition with over 1,000 coming from artists living and working outside the UK.

Some of the names are odd - insofar as they are very obviously extremely competent career portrait painters - and yet they've not applied for membership of the RP. I can name names! :). It occurs to me that:

• either, nobody has ever told them how they can apply for membership
• or the artists like it just the way it is at the moment.

I'll be featuring some of them in my review on Sunday - in which I'll be highlighting a number of portraits I particularly liked.

However it was pleasing to see a lot of names of people I don't know. It's always good to see lots of fresh new talent.

These are the names of the selected artists - in surname, first name format.

• Ali Kazmi, Imran - Girl with the Red Rose
• Allen, Richard - Els I
• Arenson, Laura - Don't Tell Anyone I'm Here
• Arenson, Laura - December's Goodbye
• Attie, Philippe - 800-pound Gorilla
• Avila, Jeff - Uneasy Sleep
• Barratt, Wendy - Grief
• Bays, Caroline - Stripey T-shirt
• Bedeman, Oliver - T'Nia Miller
• Beecht, Thomas - Georg
• Beharrell, Jane - Girl in Black
• Belda Roman, Carles - Study for Something Never Ends
• Birch, Ashley - Artist Mother ('In a field of its own')
• Braiden, Simon - Girl on a Sofa (Gemma)
• Burton, Abigail - Mauricia
• Burton, Abigail - Priscilla
• Butterworth, Hillary - Juana
• Caldwell, Steve - Reid 2
• Caldwell, Steve - June
• Cannon, Steve - Adrian Seated
• Cannon, Steve - Self Portrait with Avocado Plant
• Classi, Angela - Gaetano
• Clatworthy, Jane - Claudio in the Red Chair
• Clayden, Sam - Josh
• Clayton, Tom - Her Name was Magill
• Coles, Lizzie - Tameka
• Comoretti, Vania - Shadow
• Conway, Anita - Clive Myrie
• Cosgrove, Ken - Shannon
• Coulson, Alan - Elly

Elly by Alan Coulson

​Alan exhibits regularly in both the UK and US, notably as part of the prestigious BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery London, where in 2012 he was awarded third prize for his portrait of Richie Culver. Alan has produced commissioned work ​​for clients including The New York Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Bloomberg Markets Magazine, Carlton Books, The Chronicle Review and Club Wembley.

• Crozier, Belinda - Friday Art Club
• Crozier, Belinda - Judith
• Cullen, Annabel - Untitled
• Davies, Kerry Lisa - Gabriel
• Day, Estelle - Small Self Portrait in Studio
• Di, Kexin - Mama
• Di Taranto, Davide - Andreas
• Di Taranto, Davide - James Edward
• Doherty, Mark - Self Portrait in Studio
• Donadeo, Jacqueline - Enough
• Dorothee, Clauss - Alex
• Draisey, Mark - Jack
• Draisey, Mark - Jatinder Singh Durhailay
• Dury, Amy - Rae
• Ejoh, Wallace - Red Shawl
• Fei, Yangtao - The End of Life of the Father Series
• Fletcher, Nancy - Portrait of Bea, Otis & Rufus
• Granitsioti Mathianaki, Panagiota - In the Studio
• Hanbury, Clementine - Self Portrait at 25
• Harris, Martyn - Paul's Emporium
• Hawkins, Julia - Self-portrait with casts
• Hayes, James - Self Portrait
• Hillman, Aelfred - Guitarist in a Red Shirt
• Holder, Curtis - Hirsute III
• Hope, Laura - Self Portrait
• Houston, Florence - Bella and Bakelite
• Hume, Celia - Juniper
• Johnson, Hero - Winter PJs
• Kinsler, Jeannie - Byrne at the V&A
• Kitson, Richard - Portrait of Suzi
• Korteweg, Anna - Portrait of Lotus
• Larin, Anna - Gaia
• Lee, Keh Wee - Sunday Afternoon
• Leho, Stephen - Leaning on the History of Art
• Lorentzen, Mette - Mom September 2021
• Marrucchi, Alessandra - Self Portrait with Pearl Earring
• McKendry, Kenny - Back to the Light
• McNicholas, Mick - Lockdown - Self-Portrait
• Medhurst, Asa - Maxim with Avatars
• Melling, George - Portrait of an Unknown Painter
• Milne, Janis - Gazelle
• Moock, Helena - Kember's Room
• Moock, Helena - Self Portrait with Covid
• Morgan, Jordan - Portrait of the Artist's Parents
• Morris, Luis - Girl on a Chair
• Morris, Luis - Self Portrait
• Morzuch, Joe - Blue Self-Portrait, 5
• Muller, Robin L - Astrid
• Munday, Daniel - Intersection
• Munro, Jason - Caspernaut
• Nelis, Daniel - Man with Closed Eyes
• Orlowski, Stefan - Estuary Days
• Ozel, Mustafa - Portrait of James Bland
• Ozel, Mustafa - Marina
• Pierrepoint, Oriane - Dr Sinan Rawi
• Poderys, Mantas - Family at the Table - Daly MacGabhanns
• Purtill, Liz - Paulus Seeing Me
• Ribeiro Lyra Leite, Filippe - Self-portrait with Striped Shirt
• Riley Shope, Tucker - Portrait of Claudio
• Rivilis, Tania - An Endless Summer Afternoon
• Robertson, Saul - Journeys
• Rooney, Alex - Henry Marsh
• Shadbolt, Daniel - Catherine
• Shaw, Sarah - Portrait of J.P
• Sidelnikova, Valeriia - Halya
• Sidelnikova, Valeriia - Mama
• Slater, Hattie - Soldiers
• Smith, Paul P - Portrait of Vanessa Lubach
• Stern, Varvara - The Wisdom
• Stevanovic, Milenko - Leontios and Michalis
• Stewart Carter, Phoebe-Louise - Self Portrait in the Winter
• Stopford, Lucy - Artist’s Son
• Stopford, Lucy - Fred
• Timko, Bernadett - Jimmy
• Toal, Sarah - Self Portrait at 64
• Vercesi, Cristina - Reflection
• Wang, Binhong - Journey
• Waterhouse, Joshua - The Surgeon
• Watkins, Rosalie - Jessica
• Wattles, Mike - Sculpture
• Wilcox, Graeme - D in Stripes
• Williams, Sophie - Brother in Stripy T-Shirt
• Wood, Steven - Aster
• Yuqing, Florence - Self Portrait
• Yuqing, Florence - Clementine
• Zeoli, Monica - Carnage
• Zhou, Congran - Grandma

The Wynne Prize 2021 - Selected artists

The Wynne Prize is an annual award ($50,000) for Australian landscape painting or figure sculpture which dates back to 1898.

The prize will be awarded, in the terms of the bequest of the late Richard Wynne of Mount Wilson, to the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours or to the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists completed during the 12 months preceding the date fixed by the Trustees for sending in entries.

This year there are far more Aboriginal artists selected for this exhibition - which mean far more examples of the Aboriginal approach to recording the landscape and the stories associated with their homeland. I really enjoy the art so I'm really pleased to see this.

Some of the images of art included in the Wynne Exhibition

I'm also wondering if this is in any way connected with the fact that the Art Gallery of New South Wales website now opens to this statement.....

The Wynne Prize 2021

The Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales invited artists to submit works in competition for the Wynne Prize 2021. In summary, to enter:

• the artwork must have been completed between 30 April 2020 and 30 April 2021
• the artist must be resident in Australia in the year of eligible work.

Eligible artwork

• the artwork must be either
• landscape painting in oils
• landscape painting in watercolour
• a figure sculpture 
• the actual artworks must NOT exceed the size limit of 90,000 square cm (eg 3 × 3 m, 1.5 × 6 m). 
• Sculptures must NOT exceed 3 m in height, 2 square m in area or 1000kg in weight. 
• It can be
• a multi-panel work - as long as the overall dimensions do not exceed the size limit above and/or
  
• a landscape painting in oil, watercolour, acrylic or mixed media. Seascapes and cityscapes are acceptable and/or
  
• a figure sculpture in stone, metal, wood or mixed media. The work may be abstracted, but at the same time clearly derived from a figurative source, human or animal.
• As always it MUST be the artist's original work and must NOT infringe the copyright, moral rights or other rights of any third party.

Plus various MUST dos and don'ts related to delivery, display and hanging.

Prizes

Besides the main prize - Entries in the Wynne Prize competition are also eligible to be considered for:

• The Roberts Family Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Prize – value $10,000 - Also known as the Roberts Family Prize), which may be awarded to an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artist and was first was first awarded in 2018.
• The Trustees’ Watercolour Prize – value $5000
• John & Elizabeth Newnham Pring Memorial Prize – value $1000  - Commonly known as the Pring Prize, which may be awarded to the best watercolour by a woman artist and was established following a bequest by Bessie Pring – herself a watercolourist, who died in 1965 – in honour of her parents. It was first awarded in 1966. 

Every time I wrote about The Wynne Prize, I end up pondering on why there's nothing similar in the UK. 

• Does it just need a Sponsor and a Gallery willing to hold and exhibition and organise the entry? 
• Or is what's missing someone who has the gumption to make it happen - in a way which is beneficial to both the country and landscape artists?

You can also see past winners of the Wynne Prize all the way back to 1898 on the website.

It's an interesting way of tracking styles and fashions in Australian landscape art.

Recent past winners of the Wynne Prize

 

Selected Artists

The website displays their selected artwork and lists the selected artists - with a page for each artwork.

This year there were

• 660 entries
• 39 artworks were selected (i.e. 6%)
  

Among the 39 finalists, there are 20 works by Aboriginal artists – the most on record – and, for the first time, there are more works by women than men. Interestingly Aboriginal artists appear are more likely to get selected in multiple years and a number have won in previous years (see below). I find fascinating that 

• the oldest art also sometimes looks like the most contemporary....
• women aboriginal artists are particularly strong in art competitions
  

You can see the artwork of the 39 finalists on this page and read about who they are below

I started to look through the entries - and a number reminded me of all the climate challenges and natural disasters within the landscape that Australia has been suffering in recent times. It's certainly a theme which came through strongly in a number of artworks.

 The selected artists are: 

Selected artists for John Moores Painting Prize 2020

The Judges have worked their way through 3,000 entries and just 67 artists have got a painting into the biennial exhibition of the John Moores Painting Prize 2020, the UK’s oldest painting prize.

Past prize winners have included include David Hockney (1967), Peter Doig (1993), and Rose Wylie (2014). Sir Peter Blake, winner of the junior prize in 1961, is patron of the Prize.

The John Moores Painting Prize is organised in partnership with the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust. The exhibition will be held at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool between 12 February – 27 June 2021 as part of Liverpool Biennial 2021, the largest festival of contemporary art in the UK, taking place across the city’s public spaces, galleries and museums from 20 March to 6 June 2021.

I wrote about the exhibition in February this year in Call for Entries: £25,000 John Moores Painting Prize 2020 + NEW Prize and this post tells you a lot more about the background to the prize and how it works - which I'm not going to repeat here.

All images © Robin Clewley 

Selection Process

In its more than 60 year history the Prize has evolved but one fundamental rule has remained the same; paintings are judged anonymously, allowing the works to speak for themselves and giving the process and final exhibition a unique authenticity.

The Jury for the 2020 Exhibition are:

• Michelle Williams Gamaker - an artist working with moving image and performance.
• Jennifer Higgie - staff writer and Editor-at-large of Frieze magazine, and the writer and presenter of Bow Down; the podcast about women in art history.
• Gu Wenda, an artist born in Shanghai. 
• Hurvin Anderson, a painter whose work explores spaces occupied by Caribbean immigrants
• Alison Goldfrapp - a British-based artist who studied fine art at Middlesex University before embarking on a career in music that has spanned more than 26 years.

The jury also 

• select a final shortlist of five paintings, from which the £25,000 first prize winning work will be chosen and four additional prizes of £2,500 will be awarded. 
• identify the recipient of the first £2,500 Emerging Artist Prize, supported by Winsor & Newton.

The names of the five prizewinning artists will be shared in January 2021

The names of the first prize winner and the Emerging Artist Prize will be announced at the opening of the exhibition.

John Moores Painting Prize 2020 judges.
From left to right, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Hurvin Anderson, Gu Wenda and Jennifer Higgie.  

For the first time in the history of the Prize the judging was all done online. 

High spec cameras, screens, speakers and AV software allowed judges to appreciate the scale, texture and detail of the works in real time (see below)

“Judging the John Moores Painting Prize this year at a distance presented a new challenge in the Prize’s history. Instead of standing with the artworks we zoomed right in, carefully scanning the surface of each painting. Ultimately our decisions were based on a number of themes that emerged and resonated with the other jurors in our collective discussions. We were deeply inspired by all of the artists from Stage 2 who showed clear commitment, talent and love for painting. We could feel this through the technology, that enabled us to view the work, and it was so inspiring to see artists achieve this, particularly in these uncertain times.”  Michelle Williams Gamaker

 

Selected Artists

67 paintings were  longlisted for the exhibition from almost 3,000 entries.  All the images below were taken during the selection process. You may see your painting - but it also gives people an idea of the sort of paintings that are entered.

The artists selected to exhibit paintings in the John Moores Painting Prize 2020 are as follows. I've highlighted artists I've previously featured on this blog - plus added in those who have tweeted about the selection

B

• Dohyun Baek - Mom's Birthday Follows the Lunar Calendar
• Nicola Bealing - The Horse
• G L Brierley - Untitled (Corpo)
• Rory Biddulph - Smoker
• Louise Bristow - Citizens
• Hannah Brown - Hedge 4
• Lindsey Bull - The moors
• Robbie Bushe - The Neanderthal Futures Infirmary

C

• Mary Castle-Millner - Man with a Hose
• Leah Michelle Cayol - Lickkle Man
• Lara Cobden - A Year of Ghost Wishes
• Noemi S Conan - Las, Laska, Lass (Hilary Emerging)
• Paul Crook - Yellow Escalator

D

• Peter Davis - Wetin dey
• Pedro De Siqueira - Note to Karen from finance: can power transcend?
• Sam Douglas - Standing Stone
• Michelle Dovey - Bird Tree 2019

E

• Sarah J Earnshaw - Hazel Grundy, 1988
• Liz Elton - Tender

F

• Maria Farrar - Pearl Necklace
• Alan Fears - The Paper Tiger
• Michele Fletcher - Compost
• Max Fletcher and Andrea Celeste La Forgia (collaboration) - Postcard to A.G.

G

• Tricia Gillman - MOMENTS 1: Mind's Eye
• Rachel Glittenberg - Night Swimmers
• Melanie Goemans - Hawthorn (triptych)

Some wonderful news to share #MelanieGoemans painting ‘Hawthorn (triptych)’ has been selected as part of the prestigious @JMPaintingPrize 2020
Huge congratulations to Melanie, seen here at Cornwall Contemporary with two of her exquisite paintings, which can be seen on our website pic.twitter.com/1gI7kPW6qi

— CornwallContemporary (@sarah_cornwall) November 5, 2020

• Steph Goodger - The Motherland
• Massimiliano Gottardi - Jung /Jungle (spatial crease)
• Robin Greenwood - Untitled

H

• Christopher Hanson - Mother
• Lily Hargreaves - Didn't That Used to be Part of the Fun?
• Rebecca Harper - Between Two Worlds
• Georgia Hayes - Proboscis Crossing
• Michael Hempstead - Dead Soul's Boogie-Woogie: Dancing Now

J

• David Jacques - Sargasso
• Alison Jones - Connoisseur (my 1970s)

K

• Caroline E Kent - Two Minute Silence
• Sally Kindberg - Hang Loose
• Matthew Krishanu - Riverboat

L

• Laura Lancaster - Invocation
• LANTAIN - HORTUS CONCLUSUS: Le Rouge et le Noir
• Stephen Lee - March
• Brendan Lyons - Plasticity Horizon - an artist based in Liverpool.

M

• Kathryn Maple - The Common - Kathryn won the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition Winner 2014 and 2016 (see my blog posts for 2014 and 2016). She now works in acrylic and oils.
• Peter Matthews - Summer Sequoia
• Barry McGlashan - Klavierkonzert
• Robert McPartland - Field 2. Grapefruit.

O

• Pat O'Connor (Mrs Walter Lang)
• Laurence Owen - A Plant Fizzing with Air Bubbles Bursting in its Plumbing
• Sikelela Owen - The Knitter

P

• Shanti Panchal - The Terrace - Shanti was one of the five artists shortlisted for the Prize in 2018. moved from India to work in Britain in 1978 and has developed a unique approach to watercolour painting which means, for me at least, his painting style is one of the most recognisable I know. He has been selected for numerous art competitions

During my early years in London, and while travelling to Europe and America, I observed that, historically, the potentials of watercolour had not been explored to the same extent as those of oil and acrylic. Watercolour paintings were too limited to pretty flowers and sweet landscapes. It was a very frustrating experience. I was not prepared to accept the conventional limits of the medium.

I started working obsessively, even to the point of damage, from 12’x6′ canvas to 12″x6″ paper. To achieve depth, the colour has to penetrate the paper. I do not mix colours on a palette but directly on the paper itself. Through the process of hammering and scraping the surface, shifting images and ideas, working and reworking, my success and failure have become an integral part of the painting. I use layers and layers of colour – layers and layers of life’s experiences injecting into the very fibre of my existence, so ecstatic and at the same time so suicidal.

• Mandy Payne - Remnants of a Welfare State
• Lyle Perkins - O.R.B
• Katie Pratt - Darnington

R

• William Riding - The Geometer
• Philippa Robbins - Cactus Against a Blue Wall - Also selected - with 3 artwork - for the ING Discerning Eye 2020

S

• Miho Sato - Windy Day
• Brian Sayers - Encounter
• Caroline Streatfield - Portal
• Annika Ström - I am Curious Pink (no.1 of The One Hundred) 2020
• Edward Sutcliffe - Floral Painting 1 - Edward won the BP Portrait Travel Award 2014

V

• Nicholas Vaughan - Tunnel of Tusk
• Kiki Xuebing Wang - Untitled (Loafer)

W

• Harry Whitelock - I'll Break My Neck For You
• Charles Williams - Watercolourist Mask - Artist, writer, lecturer, illustrator and Venice Biennale participant (Website | Instagram | Facebook). Charles won Heat 1 in Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2020
• George Wills - Paranoia

Y

• Fleur Yearsley - To The Moon & Back

“This exhibition is an extraordinary chapter in the John Moores Painting Prize’s long history. From the Call for Entries which launched just weeks before the first national lockdown, to the challenge of bringing together hundreds of paintings from across the UK, we’re delighted to have got to this stage and to finally have a truly exciting longlist."
Sandra Penketh, Director of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool