BP Portrait Award 2018 - The Shortlist

Four artists - three women and a man - have been shortlisted for the First Prize in the 39th BP Portrait Award. They are:

• An Angel At My Table - Miriam Escofet’s portrait of her mother, 
• Time Traveller, Matthew Napping - Felicia Forte painting of her partner Matthew DeJong asleep in bed (Instagram)
• A Portrait Of two Female Painters - Ania Hobson's painting includes a self-portrait and a portrait of her sister in law, Stevie Dix, and 
• Simone - Zhu Tongyao’s portrait of his Italian neighbour.

An Angel At My Table by Miriam Escofet © Miriam Escofet; Time Traveller, Matthew Napping by Felicia Forte © Felicia Forte; A Portrait of two Female Painters by Ania Hobson © Ania Hobson; Simone by Zhu Tongyao © Zhu Tongyao

The BP Portrait Award 2018

The winner of the £35,000 BP Portrait Award will be announced on 11th June 2018 at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

It must be nice to go to an awards ceremony as a shortlisted artist knowing the worst that can happen is you're coming away with a cheque for a considerable sum of money - somewhere between £9,000 and £35,000.

The prizes for this competition, which attracts entries from all over the world, are as follows

• First Prize: £35,000 plus a commission worth £7,000 to paint a portrait for the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection, to be agreed between the Gallery and the artist. 
• Second Prize: £12,000 
• Third Prize: £10,000.
• The BP Young Artist Award: £9,000 - to one selected artist aged between 18 and 30 (i.e. born 1988 and after - which means you can work out which shortlisted artists are NOT eligible for this award)

That's a prize post of £66,000 - this is a serious prestigious exhibition from an international perspective.

In terms of the competition as a whole:

• Purpose: This highly prestigious competition aims to encourage international artists over the age of eighteen to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work.
• The Entry: The shortlist of four was selected from 2,667 (+ 87) portraits by artists from 88 (+1) countries 2,580 87 countries (the entry is limited to one portrait per artist). 
• Selected Artists: I shall also be publishing a blog post about the 47 artists whose portraits were also got selected for the exhibition. I'll be doing a brief synopsis of the artist and their work and highlighting their websites. (Why would the Judges choose c.6-8 fewer artists than usual is the question we'll all be pondering over in the next few days!)

Later this week I will start my post profiling the 44 other artists also selected for the exhibition. This year the total number of portraits/artists selected for the exhibition is 48 - which is significantly fewer than usual - even when the exhibition has included enormous portraits.

The BP Portrait Award Exhibition will be on display at the following venues:

• National Portrait Gallery, London - 14 June to 23 September 2018
• Wolverhampton Art Gallery - 13 October – 2 December 2018 and 
• Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh - 15 Dec 2018 - 10 March 2019.

It's the 39th year of the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery and the 29th year of sponsorship by BP. 

Artists shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2018

BELOW you can find PROFILES for each of the shortlisted artists

Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2018 - Call for Entries

The  First Prize for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2018 has been reduced!
Somehow or other the Sunday Times and the organisers both forgot to mention this in the newspaper, the blog post, the Facebook posts or any of the tweets to date about the call for entries! See below for more details in the Call for Entries section. 

The deadline for the 2018 entry is 5pm, 25 June 2018

Viewing last year's exhibition of the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibion

Inevitably, a reduction in the top price will mean allegations that the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition is being devalued.  Once the top prize drops below £10,000 it no longer ranks alongside some of the top painting prizes around the world - and drops out of the Premier Division.

Maybe it's time for a new sponsor? After all the Sunday Times took over from Singer & Friedlander after the Icelandic banking collapse.

Who else remembers the "good old days" when "the Singer & Friedlander" was a really excellent watercolour competition with "top notch prizewinners"?

Personally I always think it's a HUGE mistake to pretend something hasn't changed. You simply MUST address "the elephant in the room" - which in this instance appears to be the diminishing interest on the part of the The Sunday Times. This is possibly due to the need to cut costs due to the continuing decline in sales and advertising coupled with the lack of a proper journalist covering art.

(My version of addressing last year's "elephant" was to pointedly refuse to do a prizewinners post last year after what won First Prize i.e. a painting which could have been hung in the annual exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters!! I wrote What does "watercolour" mean to you? and 10 Best Paintings in the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition instead!)

Maybe it's time to give this very old competition a chance to revert to what it was in the past - an excellent competition for those who painted in "proper watercolour" - much loved by very many art fans in the UK and oodles of amateur artists.

I for one would be extremely pleased to see a brand new sponsor with funds that would also support it reverting to the standards of its Singer & Friedlander days when people like Leslie Worth (sublime watercolour painter!) and Jennifer McRae used to win.  As of 2017 it was a heavily compromised competition and exhibition which in my opinion had been undermined by its judges.

Call for Entries: Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2018

Anyway, back to this year and this competition. Every year I do a blog post about the CALL FOR ENTRIES for - and this is it!

CALL FOR ENTRIES: The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2018 — submit up to four works by June 25
https://t.co/upOOfjD4IP pic.twitter.com/SnXLndbcgo

— Sunday Times Culture (@ST_Culture) April 1, 2018

(I am not in the least bit surprised to see this painting used for publicity - they could hardly use last year's first prizewinner and hope for a decent entry!)

Below you will find - for the 2018 competition:

1. Exhibition - a summary of venue and number of paintings to be exhibited
2. Summary of the prizes, selection process and the judges (but not much!)
3. a summary of the entry process
• who can enter 
• what you can enter 
• how to enter 
• the timetable 
4. brief reflections on past competitions
5. tips for those thinking of entering this prestigious watercolour competition; and
6. plus links to all the blog posts I've written in previous years about the exhibition, who won prizes and who got selected - and links to their websites!

EXHIBITION

A maximum of 100 works will be exhibited at the Mall Galleries, London.

The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition Exhibition will be displayed at the Mall Galleries, London from 17 – 23 September 2018 (Admission is FREE). It's unclear whether there will be any tour given the other sponsor (Smith and Williamson) has also pulled out.

Realistically the exhibition has not reached 100 paintings for quite some time. It's oscillated between mid 70s and low 90s in recent years.

By way of contrast, for the same entry fee, you can see 150+ paintings in water-based media at the Mall Galleries right now - selected from the open submision - in the 206th annual exhibition (total 400+ paintings) of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours. It seems very likely that you have a better chance of being exhibited in this much bigger exhibition which also draws the crowds.

SELECTION and Judges Panel

The job of the judges is to select around about one hundred works in watercolour that reflect the true breadth of the medium but it partly depends on size and how much of the galleries are hired for the competition.

The 2018 judging panel has NOT yet been invited/selected/whatever
EXCEPT, according to the website, it includes "Louis Wise, Critic and Writer, The Sunday Times".
EXCEPT that I'm not sure he knows much about art (as opposed to music and film), is now freelance and no longer an employee of the Sunday Times and has yet to master social media!

The announcement of the prizewinners is generally in advance of the exhibition.

PRIZES and prizewinners

Shame about the prize money....

How to get | print | use Pascal Anson's lined papers for a still life collage

If you want to download those tonal lined papers used by Pascal Anson for the Big "Cut Out a Still Life" challenge this is the blog post to go to - DRAWING IS DIFFICULT! Perspective, Still Life, Lids and Bananas - they're at the bottom and available to download.

Lined sheets of paper by Pascal Anson - for constructing still life collages

You can then print on plain or coloured paper

RECOMMENDED: Plus he has a video showing you how to use them - definitely worth watching

Tonal paper. Photocopied lines in different density to help you identify light and dark tone. Not colour. Draw with scissors, not with a pencil. Use the direction of the lines to think about paint strokes. See my YouTube for a still life demo. #art #painting #bigpaintingchallenge

A post shared by Pascal Anson (@iampascalanson) on Apr 1, 2018 at 3:17am PDT

You're asking for the tonal paper in the #bigpaintingchallenge masterclass. Tutorial and paper download is here https://t.co/Jw49F0AQ9s pic.twitter.com/PmmhVYYdV2

— Pascal Anson (@iampascalanson) April 3, 2018

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Review: Still Life - Big Painting Challenge 2018

This post is about the First Episode of The Big Painting Challenge - Still Life which was nominally focused on Still Life.

It follows on from my first post about The Big Painting Challenge (2018) - The Issues which highlighted my niggles about this BBC programme - specifically whether this was a talent show or Edutainment - and why it should be better than it is.

This episode is available to watch on BBC iPlayer for the next 27 days.

To recap, what the episode was actually about was:

• introducing us to the new contestants for the third series of this very popular programme
• getting them started with nominally their "signature bake"
• a couple of exercises (the "technical challenge") with the mentors focused on how to portray volume and tone
• finally, the Big 4 hour Challenge - the outcome of which was assessed by the two Judges

The Still Life Episode
all 10 participants - and their two mentors - up for the big challenge

The Contestants / Participants

See my first post:

• they're contestants if this is a knock-out Talent Show
• they're participants if this is an Edutainment show

We got the introductions to throughout the course of the first episode. I'm going to have to make a note of who they are here because the BBC has "forgotten/neglected" to include the profiles of the contestants on the series website.

How you can have a programme about real people artists and forget to say who they are? 

• It's as bad as Sky Arts neglecting to put up the names of the artists as they are introduced on their programme - and excluding them from the list of who appeared on the programme. 
• If we're going to have members of the public appearing can we please at least let them appear in the credits. After all THERE IS NO PROGRAMME WITHOUT THEM!

The programme makes clear that they "have very different experience levels, they were selected for their potential to learn"

Links in their names below are to either their website or Facebook account or Page (where public).

I can even tell you the name of their upcoming Group Show! (see below)

If past participants are anything to go by, I'm sure they'll be posting their paintings and comments as the weeks go by! :) (Note: Anybody who'd like me to remove the link please say and I'll do so immediately - just leave a comment)

1. 90-year-old Raymond Halliday, a former auditor from Gateshead - who loves watercolour and didn't take up painting until he was 73. 
2. Callum Stephen (#interestingbutweird)- who is a 23-year-old Welsh bricklayer who loves photorealism and painting packets of sweeties. His story of how he came to be involved is interesting. Apparently the programme staff saw his Instagram and invited him for an audition and before he knew it he was one of the final 10! (Article in local paper). He now lives in the South of France. Read all about it on his Facebook - given he spent time filming for several weeks I take it he doesn't go soon despite the problems (not looking) in this first episode.
3. Bokani Tshidzu, (art website) a 30 year old Zimbabwe-born tech entrepreneur who lost both parents to Aids and was adopted by her aunt and brought to the UK. 
4. Oliver Freeston -  BA (Hons) in Professional Dance and Performance from the Central Ballet School. Has travelled the world performing in classical and contemporary ballet companies and latterly in musicals. He and his partner live in Texas with two rescue dogs. He began painting while on a tourist visa in the USA. He now does Canine Commissions.  See the article in his home town newspaper A Hertford ballet dancer will be competing in the Big Painting Challenge on TV this weekend
5. Chris Davies - the chap who has a vision impairment (ocular albinism) and uses indoor binoculars to see the still life. On his website he indicates that he loves doing very large paintings.
6. Elizabeth (Tilly) Farnham - the one who's afraid of Daphne and who got the Grrr! She's a self-taught artist living in the Cotswolds.
7. Jane Voss the Life Skills Coach who now owns and is the Creative Director of an Ice Cream parlour called Silly Moos making artisan ice cream in Lytham St Annes. She seems to have a real enjoyment of colour.
8. Susan Farrell - The lady with contemporary and colourful glasses and earrings (love them!) - who started painting as an occupation after having treatment for breast cancer. I've got a hunch she's going to be interesting.
9. Surjit Kali Rai - a Pharmacy Technician from Solihull in the West Midlands - the one who sat to sketch and stood to paint.
10. Anil Patel (Facebook) - a graphic designer who lives in Leicester and is a big supporter of the local footie team, and who won my "fastest painter of the episode" award. I think it's possible he's both got a lot more experience than the others and has maybe practiced painting to a time constraint. 

Their Chapter Ten "after the show" show of paintings - done without the pressure of cameras -will be at 112 St. Martin's LaneLondon, WC2N 4BD next month (May 2018)

The Still Life Challenge

Before we start, for those who want to learn about "Still Life" try my 2007 blog post on What is a still life? in which I examined what the still life is all about and the different types of still life in art history.

The thing is this programme wasn't actually about Still life. It was actually about learning how to see and record shapes, volumes and tonal values accurately.  In fact I do believe we actually heard some of the Elements and Principles of Design discussed very briefly during the course of the programme - without actually mentioning that this is what they are.
See:

• Composition - The Elements of Design
• Composition - Principles of Design

I predict we'll be hearing more about these in the coming weeks!

The contestants were asked to bring an item that was meaningful to them. The mentors then created a still life setup out of five completely unrelated items.

To say that the still lifes looked like the artistic equivalent of a really bad car crash is an understatement. They were so bad that Mariella Frostrup even started making jokes about them.

Speaking personally I have NEVER ever seen a worse set-up for a still life. I cannot believe that the BBC believes that this has educational content!  It was almost as if the mentors were willing their students to fail!

All the meaning that would normally add value to a still life painting of objects chosen by an artist was smashed to smithereens by the diabolical arrangement. Plus where were the shadow boxes or screens behind to make it easier to isolate the items

...and what was that blue material all about???  TOTAL CAR CRASH!

The Big Painting Challenge (2018) - The Issues

This is the first of my series of reviews of the BBC's new series of The Big Painting Challenge.  Each week I'll be reviewing the programme and highlighting what I perceived as:

• issues (with the BBC format) and 
• tips (what they said - and what I think!). 

People seem to have enjoyed these posts previously and I hope you do again!

CAUTION: I'm now going to get Four BIG BBC Format Issues out of my system in one fell swoop - before moving on to the actual programme (tomorrow) - which you can watch on demand on iPlayer - Big Painting Challenge - Still Life

It's a bit of a cathartic process for me!

Issue #1: How many series?

The participants in the BBC's Big Painting Challenge 2018 - a.k.a. Series 3 by me!

The first thing I learned when I sat down to write this blog post is that the BBC can't count.

So we have the programme websites for:

• The Big Painting Challenge (2015)- Series 1
• The Big Painting Challenge (2017) - Series 1
• The Big Painting Challenge (2018) - Series 2

Huh?  Somehow the BBC seems to have decided to have amnesia and behave as if the 2015 series never happened.

I have news for the BBC.

Series reinvent themselves and change programme makers ALL THE TIME but IF you stick to the same title AND keep the same judges (even if you change the presenters) then you count the series consecutively.

Which makes this series 3!  However to avoid the problem with me knowing this is Series 3 and the dimwits in BBC programme commissioning calling this Series 2, I shall reference the year in the titles of future episodes.

Issue #2: Talent show or Edutainment?

The format is officially listed by the BBC as a "Talent Show". Which prompts my next issue with the format....

We know from shows like Sky Television's Portrait Artist of the Year that there are some very talented amateur artists out there.

However it seems as if there is a very BIG divide between the talented amateurs that turn up at:

• the Wallace Collection for Sky and 
• some interesting heritage property somewhere in the UK for the BBC.

Personally I find those on the BBC programme wholly representative of very many amateur artists in very many painting groups around the UK.

As such, I can completely understand that these participants must be much easier to relate to for the thousands out there watching the programme who want to improve their painting skills.

However, if that's the case then should this really be classed as a talent show (which is how it is officially classified by the BBC)? (You can picture my quizzical raised eyebrow as I write this!)

For me it's much easier to make the case for it being actually educational (hence the mentors) - or "edutainment" as I think it's called.  They could as easily keep all ten painters in to the end and then award a prize to the "most improved amateur painter on TV"!

I guess the point I'm making is that this programme is Educational - dressed up as "a talent competition" - rather than a genuine Talent Competition.

In a proper Talent Competition, when we have 10 contestants that means we've got to that bit of a series where we're down to the final 10 after "Judges Houses" and "Boot Camp" and the various Heats around the UK to find the best from the hundreds and thousands who entered.

But it's NOT THE BEST TEN - because we know there is much better amateur talent out there.

So it's neither one thing nor the other.  It's not pure education and it certainly isn't a genuine talent show as such.

The Reductive Drawing Exercise in Episode 1
- a great example of how to learn how to improve your tonal control

Which I think is why I now FINALLY understand why the Sky Artist of the Year Fans have always previously commented on my reviews of this programme to the effect that they much prefer the Sky programme - which does at least have a a better sense of being a talent show - even if the Judges do come up with some very odd decisions!

Having said that the programme makes the point at the beginning that the contestants were selected for "their ability to learn" - which is why this programme is more correctly classified as Edutainment and NOT a Talent Show.

Also why, in my opinion, they should just eliminate the elimination of a candidate each week and move to a notion of just having a Heat Winner each week and then, at the end of the series, have a "most improved painter over the whole series" prize.

Issue 3: Demographics and Diversity Rule

I KNOW the BBC has to be socially responsible and represent every last social demographic and diversity dimension of the viewing public - because it's been told off in the past for forgetting to do so. 

What appears to be a NOT very diverse set of people at the BPC Heats

However I watched Episode 1 last night and found myself starting to tick off the "representative caricature individuals" which somehow seem to get into programme makers heads when they make series like these.

• the one with the disability
• the one with an Afro-Caribbean heritage
• the one with the Asian heritage
• the immigrant who has made a success of their life
• the middle class one from the home counties
• the one who is incredibly old but still going
• the one who has had a major health challenge
• the one who is getting on with life after the death of a loved one

Not forgetting the fact that EVERYBODY always seems to have an interesting back story.

Do people with mundane lives - who get a lot of joy out of painting - never ever get a chance to be on television programmes like these?

The local art group of one of the participants

The thing for me is that:

• it appears somewhat remote from the actual composition of most amateur painting groups around the country - most of whom are pensioners. Maybe the BBC could check the audience profile for this programme?
• the profiles always seem to miss out the percentage needed to address the 'working class' element - for want of a better way of putting it.  This is a VERY middle class programme!
• people who take up painting for a health reason always seem to have a disease or physical  health problem that people readily understand (eg the sight problems of one man and the breast cancer challenge which had been faced by one of the lady participants) - rather than recognising, for example, that art and painting is an activity very much promoted by those who work with people who have mental health problems.  I'm sure the Duchess of Cambridge could enlighten the BBC about her interests in both art and the need to make sure that those with mental health issues are treated equally and receive good support. One way to do this is to recognise their personal challenge when trying to reflect diversity in a positive way.

In other words the BBC's programme makers might be trying to do better in addressing ethnicity and physical disability - but they are still missing the point in relation to the actual reality of diversity within the population of people interested in painting.

Issue #4: The 4 Hour Rule

Why do so many contestants struggle with the 4 hour challenge?