A new Judge for Landscape Artist of the Year!

FINALLY! One small step after very many moans over very many months and years.

We have a new Judge for Landscape Artist of the Year. Kate Bryan has stepped away!!!

Plus they have announced the new Judge - who is Eva Langret, Director of Frieze - of which more below. Note: tomorrow I'll be discussing locations for the new series.

At Dover Castle: the new Judge Eva Langret (in yellow)
with Kathleen Soriano, Tai Shan Shierenberg and presenter Stephen Mangan

Kate Bryan no longer judging LAOTY

We can speculate as to the reasons why - but this is what has been said....

This is what she said

After ten incredible and memorable years on the show, it feels like the right moment to hand over the baton. It’s been a privilege to be part of something that means so much to so many people and to witness such extraordinary talent from the wildcards to the artists to the exceptional crew that make it all possible. Eva is a wonderful addition, and I can’t wait to see how the series evolves with fresh eyes on the panel. I am delighted to be still be continuing with Portrait Artist of the Year alongside my brilliant fellow judges, Tai and Kathleen.”

Press releases are often designed to obscure the reason why.

I’d like to thank Kate for a) opening up arts criticism to me and our millions of devoted Landscape Artist of the Year viewers, b) looking windswept and interesting at all the sunny and not so sunny locations she’s travelled to as a brilliant judge on the show, and c) being a total delight to work with.

Kate is a real expert in her field – she wears it lightly and communicates brilliantly, opening up the visual arts in an intelligent and accessible way. The Landscapes will miss her, but luckily for us she’ll continue to lend us her eyes and ears on Portrait Artist of the Year for which we are grateful.

Phil Edgar-Jones, Executive Director of Unscripted at Sky 

NO we're not. Many regular viewers would be very happy if the very obviously bossy and on occasions completely inarticulate Kate stepped away completely and waved Bye Bye forever.

I'm not going to labour this, but would merely ask

• how many times has she browbeat the others into going with her choice?
• how many times has she come out with "bryanisms" - words which are not recognisable in the lexicon of terms for describing art?

Personal theory - she's pregnant and is happy to do judging at Battersea - which means sleeping at home every night - but no longer wants to travel with a small child at home and another on the way - which would be compoletely understandable. Or just the latter minus the pregnancy.

About the new Judge: Eva Langret

Cedric Morris at Philip Mould Gallery

I gather that a number of people have now been to see "Garden to Canvas - Cedric Morris and Benton End" at the Philip Mould Gallery at 18-19 Pall Mall (immediately opposite the Reform Club!) until 18th June 2025 - and liked it very much!

Garden to Canvas - Cedric Morris and Benton End

I saw it on Tuesday morning this week. The oil paintings are well worth viewing in terms of an artist who loved his plants and loved painting them. They also have enormous impact.

Benton End - his house and garden were also home to the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing established in 1937, which Lucian Freud joined in 1939.

Guest-curated by James Horner, Head Gardener at Benton End, the exhibition brings together works that have played a key role in the revival of Morris’s historic Suffolk garden.

Benton End, a sixteenth-century house near Hadleigh, was the home of Morris and his lifelong partner Arthur Lett-Haines (1894–1978). From this remarkable setting, the pair ran the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing – a place where art, horticulture, and community thrived side by side. With its free-flowing spirit, open-minded ethos, and rejection of academic conventions, Benton End became a haven for creative freedom. Many artists, including a young Lucian Freud, acknowledged that it was here where their true artistic identities first took root.

The works to revive the garden have been ongoing for some time and there's about another year to go. We have mentally made a date to visit Benton End - now a subsidiary of the Garden Museum - in Spring 2026 when hopefully the garden renovation will be complete and the irises will have returned and blooming again. Plus also see where Lucian Freud started out on his artistic career.

More oil paintings of flowers from the garden of Cedric Morris at Benton End

I'm putting an album of my photographs of the paintings in the gallery on Facebook and will come back and insert a link when I've done that

However I highly RECOMMEND that you download the excellent catalogue from the website and salivate over the paintings and the story of Cedric Morris in front of your computer.

CLICK HERE to download the exhibition handbook

See also 

• Benton End House & Gardens – Garden Museum
• Facebook - Benton End
• Instagram - Benton End

PS You can also see drawings and paintings by some early 20th century artists in the display in the basement - including 

• a wonderful painting of Tenerife by Cedric Morris (who will have been there for the plants!)
• a drawing by Augustus John. A snip at ££38,500

Plantae 2025 - 40th Anniversary Exhibition by the Society of Botanical Artists

For all those interested in botanical art, I've been immersed in Plantae 2025 for the last couple of weeks. This was the 40th Anniversary Exhibition at the Mall Galleries by the Society of Botanical Artists.

Some of the hardworking and amazing team of SBA members who made it all happen

Botanical art largely disappeared off this blog 10 years ago after I developed my Botanical Art and Artists website - which is now #1 in the world for botanical art (coming up to 4 million visits). However I remind people reading this blog about it from time to time! Not least because of the very skilled paintings and drawings produced by very many botanical artists

Plantae 2025 - the Society of Botanical Artists' 40th Anniversary Exhibition

I've compiled various photo albums on Facebook and written three blog posts about it.

These are the blog posts 

Pretty much the same thing as I do for other societies exhibiting at the Mall - with a bit more detail.

• A look back at Plantae 2025 - a 40th anniversary exhibition to remember! (5th June 2025)
• SBA Plantae 2025: Awards and Certificates + Photos (6th June 2025) - so many prizes and awards! Including my own Making A Mark Award.
• SBA Plantae 2025: pricing for botanical artists (11th June 2025) - which looks at their exhibition metrics - and how to improve them.

You can find the albums of photos on my Botanical Art and Artists Facebook Page

• SBA Plantae 2025 - West Gallery (53 items)
• SBA Plantae 2025 - North Gallery (54 items)
• SBA Plantae 2025 - East Gallery (DLDC / CPGFS / Munstead Wood etc.) (18 items)
• SBA Plantae 2025 - Awards and people with artwork (47 items)

Which have had the most amazing reception internationally.....

The Coronation Portraits and The King's Tour Artists - at Buckingham Palace

Charles III and Camilla - the Coronation Portraits

This post is about:

• my comments on the Coronation Portraits
• how to see the Coronation Portraits in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace
• a new exhibition in the Throne Room about those artists who have been commissioned to go on an official tour with King Charles (or Prince of Wales as he was then) - and the artwork they have produced. Which I may well visit as he has a good choice in artists who have accompanied him in the past

The Coronation Portraits

I said on Facebook that I'd leave comments until I had seen them up closely - and now I have!

Last week, I visited the National Gallery - ostensibly to see the new entrance. I'd completely forgotten that the Coronation Portraits were on display - so coming across them was something of a surprise.

I have also posted my photos in a post on Facebook so if you want to see larger versions of the images in this post, that's where to go.

Otherwise, if you want to see them, you now need to visit the Throne Room in Buckingham Palace when the tours of the Palace reopen on 10th July (until 28th September). Whatever you do, do NOT get tickets from third parties which are often much more expensive. Instead click the link above which takes you direct to the Royal Collection Page and the basic cost of tickets which are not cheap - but not excessive as third party ones are.

Tickets also give you access to the exhibition in the throne room of 70 paintings executed by artists who have accompanied the King over the course of the last 40 years when he has been on Royal Tours. Of which more below.....

The Coronation Portraits

The Coronation Portraits in the National Gallery

What do I think of the Coronation Portraits? Pretty much the same as most people

• two different styles - but within the range acceptable for royal portraits i.e. realistic and a bit painterly
• hers is better than his
• there is something wrong with the proportions in the King's portrait
• the symbolism within the portraits is interesting

The main point to make is we are of course talking about PAINTED portraits of the individuals in their coronation robes. It's much more usual these days, for portraits to be photographic ones. Indeed the most famous one of Queen Elizabeth II was a photographic portrait by Cecil Beaton who produced a masterful image.

Different styles

The two different styles thing is easy to accommodate. 

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: