PAOTY Commission - Painting Sir Lenny Henry (aka Len)

I thought the programme about "Painting Sir Lenny Henry" - the £10,000 National Portrait Gallery Commission of Sir Lenny Henry, painted by the winner of Portrait Artist of the Year 2022 - was one of the best commission episodes ever in the history of the programme

This is a review of that programme and the process of the commission undertaken by Morag Caister - the winner of Portrait Artist of the Year (see Morag Caister wins Portrait Artist of the Year 2022 (Series 9) ).  It will "unveil"

• the commission
• the sitter
• the artist and her process
• the likeness and the skin

Before the Unveiling

About the Commission

Every year the last episode in each series of the "Portrait Artist of the Year" programmes, made by Storyvault Films and broadcast on Sky Arts, is about the £10,000 Commission awarded to the winning artist.

The commission this year was from the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London. Sarah Howgate, the Senior Curator of Contemporary Collections at the NPG - who manages the Gallery's Commissioning process - explained how the Gallery has several photographs of Sir Lenny Henry at various points in his career - but no painting and how they'd wanted to commission one for a while.

Review: Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2022

This exhibition is on for longer than most of the annual exhibitions of the art societies based at the Mall Galleries. The Annual Exhibition 2022 of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters opened at the Mall Galleries on 24th November and closes on 10th December.

This is a review of what I found when I visited in the first week. I've previously written about the prizewinners in Prizewinners at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2022

Annual Exhibition 2022

This exhibition comprises 285 paintings which are hung in the three galleries at the Mall Galleries. (This compares to 304 in 2019 which was the last ROI exhibition I went to and is the second lowest total since 2014)

The first thing is that I've uploaded my photos of the exhibition to my Facebook Page - by gallery - as follows:

• West Gallery
• East Gallery
• North Gallery
  

Part of the hang in the East Gallery

Part of the West Gallery

I've highlighted paintings I liked and/or was intrigued by through photographs of the  individual paintings.

You will appreciate that I've reviewed such exhibitions many times - although I've missed the last two ROI Annual Exhibitions due the pandemic and shielding prior to surgery. (I got as far as the hospital a year ago today - before being sent home again!)

So I'm splitting this review into two halves

• what I noticed
• what I liked.

It's always interesting to do a review a little while after a visit to see if you still think the same as what you noted at the time.....

What I noticed

Themes for my commentary are as follows

• Groups of artworks by members
• Changing Times (Theme)
• Young Artists
• Small = Affordable?
• Framing
• Media
• Sales

Groups of artworks by Members

I liked the grouping of artwork by members with very distinctive styles. It makes for a more impactful presentation.

Art Society Exhibitions (December 2022 - March 23) - at the Mall and Bankside Galleries

Here's a list of the upcoming Art Society Exhibitions at the two main venues in London over the winter months - the Mall Galleries and the Bankside Gallery.

Click the title of the exhibition to find out more about each exhibition

DECEMBER

Royal Institute of Oil Painters | Annual Exhibition 2022

Venue: Mall Galleries

Dates: 24 November 2022 to 10 December 2022 (10am to 5pm)

Admission: £5

More info:

• ROI 2022 Annual Exhibition – Prize winners | ROI website
• Prizewinners at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2022

Mini Picture Show

Mini Picture Show 
Robin Richmond RWS, Summer Cadaques, Spain (detail),
watercolour & acrylic on handmade paper

Affordable works on a small scale by artists from the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers. Contemporary watercolours and original prints, both framed and unframed, may be taken away immediately. Prices start at £50

I'm always rather surprised more national and local art galleries don't do something similar. I've visited this show in the past and come away with what I regarded as some real bargains.

• Artworks
• Venue: Bankside Galley
• Dates: 9th December 2022 - 29th January 2023
• Admission: Free
• 
  

JANUARY

Mini Picture Show (continues)

• Artworks
• Venue: Bankside Galley
• Dates: 9th December 2022 - 29th January 2023
• Admission: Free

Mall Galleries: no exhibitions

FEBRUARY

Mall Galleries: no exhibitions

I can't remember the last time (prior to the pandemic and other than last year due to surgery) when I didn't visit the Mall Galleries in January and February - but maybe that's because there's fewer art competitions?

Personally I don't get it. Summer months provide a lot more competition for people's time. Having a nice exhibition to go to during the winter months is to my mind an excellent outing! Bottom line it all depends on what the impact is on the number of visitors to the exhibition - and the number of sales....

MARCH

RWS Open

• Venue: Bankside Galley
• Dates: 3rd - 19th March 2023
• More Info: Call for Entries: Royal Watercolour Society Open 2023

Royal Society of British Artists 

• Venue: Mall Galleries
• Dates: 3rd - 11th March 2023 (10am to 5pm daily)
• Admission: £5
• More info: Call for Entries: 200th Anniversary Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists

Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours - 211th Exhibition

• Venue: Mall Galleries
• Dates: Thursday 30 March - Saturday 8 April, 5pm (10am to 5pm daily)
• Admission: £5

Graeme Drendel wins $150,000 Doug Moran Portrait Prize 2022

Graeme Drendel with his portrait of fellow portrait painter Lewis Miller

Last week it was announced that Victorian artist Graeme Drendel has won Australia’s richest portrait prize, the $150,000 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize 2022 (DMNPP), for his painting of fellow artist Lewis Miller.

Portrait of Lewis Miller 
by Graeme Drendel 

It's not all about the size - because this is not a large painting - in very stark contrast to the winner in 2017 (see Tim Storrier wins richest portrait prize in the world) when the winning portrait was 2 metres high!

It is however a very fine and sensitive head study of the portrait painter who painted Graeme Drendel for his entry! Now there's a tip for portrait painters needing a sitter!

You can read more about the background to the prize and its history below

Doug Moran Portrait Prize 2022

The prize encourages both excellence and creativity in contemporary Australian portraiture by asking artists to interpret the look and personality of a chosen sitter, either unknown or well known.

This is the web page about the Doug Moran Portrait Prize 2022.  There is no physical exhibition this year.

The Winner

Graeme Drendel's artwork is strongly figurative (and allegorical?) - although not hyperrealistic - and often includes figures in the Australian landscape in his work. I recognised allusions to paintings by famous painters in art history. He works in oil, gouache and watercolour. 

His subjects are figures of solitude and introspection, even when depicted in groups or clusters. Their expression and attire are suggestive of larger obscured narratives, left to the viewer to decipher.

He was born in Victoria in 1953 and, since 1990, he has held thirty solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra. He is represented in many public and private collections throughout Australia.

He was a finalist in the Archibald Prize for Portraiture in 2018.

You can see more of his artwork online on his website and his Instagram account

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Graeme Drendel (@graemedrendel)

The Finalists

There are 30 finalists in the online exhibition of the Finalists' work. Unfortunately there is no narrative from the artist about the rationale behind the portrait. Nor is there any statement of media, support or size - which is a great pity.

I particularly liked the portraits by three women portrait painters

Morag Caister wins Portrait Artist of the Year 2022 (Series 9)

Morag Caister won the Final of  Series 9 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2022 on Wedensday night this week! 

This is a slightly different review this week. One which seeks to explain what we saw, what the Judges opined and why we arrived at the eventual result.

It covers

• The Artists in the Final;
• The Judges' Perspective
• The Portraits - all 5 - and my comments
• Why (I think) Megan won.
• READ: How to enter the competition in 2023

Waiting to hear the Final PAOTY 2022 decision

The Three Finalists - and the sitter

The three finalists were, in alphabetical order

• Morag Caister
• Binny Mathews
• Nina Ruminska

The Artists in the PAOTY 2022 Final
(left to right: Morag Caister; Binny Mathews and Nina Ruminska)

You can find profiles of the first two in Portrait Artist of the Year - The Semi-Finalists

The Day Science Met Art
An overview of the Final with the three artists, the sitter and all the cameras and film crew

The sitter for the Final is a very clever man and articulate communicator who we first encountered - as a nation - during the Pandemic Briefings at No. 10. 

The sitter was the former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Sir Jonathan Stafford Nguyen-Van-Tam MBE FRCPath FRSB FMedSci. His speciality is influenza, including its epidemiology, transmission, vaccinology, antiviral drugs and pandemic preparedness which provided an excellent basis for his support during Covid-19 Pandemic.

He also has a very strong head - and stare!

The Sitter - Sir Jonathan van Tam

The Judges' Perspective

The Judges recognised that they had intentionally selected three very different ways of creating portraits - with different approaches to line, colour, tone and likeness.

What they were looking for on the day was:

• somebody who doesn't project their own feelings - but rather somebody who picks up on the 'vibes' of the sitter and responds to those
• something new and refreshing

The Final Portraits - and my comments