Review: Episode 2 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12)

This is a review of the second episode of Portrait Artist of the Year (2025) - which included the youngest ever participant in the whole twelve series to date.

I've linked to yo the NOW TV version for those who have not yet seen it and not got Sky.

I'm told that Episode 2 was actually Heat 6.

Episode 2: The Sitters

The three sitters in the second episode are as follows:

• Si King - from Newcastle. A cook and the surviving half of the long running "The Hairy Bikers" BBC television series. He was one of a pair of British celebrity chefs known for their unique blend of cooking, travel, and humor, which included riding motorcycles.
• Joe Marler - an English former rugby union player who is currently appearing on Celebrity Traitors (smar agent!) and posting a podcast. In a past life, he played as 
• a prop for Premiership Rugby club Harlequins
• for the England national team until his retirement in November 2024.
• Elif Shafak - a Turkish-British author known for her novels and essays. She is a public speaker, political scientist, and activist, and has written books like The Forty Rules of Love and The Island of Missing Trees.

Episode 2: The Artists

The artists in Episode 2 on the steps of Battersea Arts Centre
where the knockout heats are held

All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname - but are not differentiated between professional and amateur. The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available.

As always I've dug around online, and the profiles below typically provide more information than the programme does - but only if it was shared online by the artist.

The mini bio provided in the programme skips over some rather important information about some of the participating artists.

• Yaz Bon (Instagram) - a video editor for a club culture tv programme based in London. She  produced what was described as a "tour de force of texture" for her self portrait
• Helen Cakewell -  a British artist and illustrator, with a background in design, based in Buckinghamshire. Focuses on fun cartoons and story telling through quirky doodles. Currently working as a product/graphic designer in the action sports industry.
• Colin Fitzpatrick (Instagram) - a landscape designer from County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. 
• Julianne Guinee (Instagram) - a an artist from Cork in Ireland.
• Paulina Kwietiewsska (Instagram | Linktr.ee) a Polish-born professional figurative artist working primarily in oil. Based between London and her hometown of Łódź, Poland, her practice is rooted in classical painting techniques. She is largley self-taught but also has studied at the London Atelier of Representational Art. She also teaches workshops
• William Lea - a freelance writer / researcher based in London
• Robbie Leitch (Instagram) - Produced his large self portrait age 16 of himself standing while painting in his bedroom. Student at the The Edinburgh Drawing School. He's planning on studying medicine at University.

• Ispahani Mukaj - brought up in Cameroon (BA in Art History, University of Bamenda, Cameroon) and now based in Birmingham, working as a Health Care Assistant. He produces evocative biro drawings of people. His work has been exhibited nationally at venues including the ING Discerning Eye, the Coventry Open, and the RBSA Drawing Prize. He was the global winner of the 2020 UNHCR Youth with Refugees Art Contest and won first prize at Birmingham Open 25.
• Lindy Wright (Instagram) - professional ceramacist and retired teacher living in Bath. She graduated with a master of arts degree from the Royal College of Art. She currently works as a portrait painter from her studio in Bath. Currently developing a series of portraits of Chefs in their whites. Invited to become a member of the Bath Society of Artists in 2018. She had a sad story to tell about her painting post the death of her son two years ago.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lindy Wright (@lindywrightartist)

Episode 2: Self-Portrait Submissions

The self portrait wall for Episode 2

About Wally Torta - and what happened next

Of late, I've taken to wondering about people who were a big part of my blogging life back when I began.

One such is Walt Taylor aka via his various nom de drawing plumes "Wally Torta" and "Crackskull Bob" and "Reuben Fletcher"

Those who were around all the good drawing blogs back in the early days of blogging will remember him. He was one of the very best when it came to drawing people and encouraging others to do the same. He was also hugely innovative in terms of using various media and he very much engaged with everything possible in digital terms.

Walt Taylor drawing people in his Drawing Group (see below)

I've been wondering why I've seen so little of him of late - and now I have the answer (although I'd more or less guessed what was happening)

It's made me realise how old I'm getting and how long ago it was when I started out on my blogging journey. 

In full it says (on this post on his Walt Taylor Facebook Page - where you can read the many comments by his friends.

VIDEO: Andy Goldsworthy - Fifty Years

Most people are familar with Andy Goldsworthy's artworks via his photographs of his land art.  Very few have seen his art in exhibitions - and yet there is an exhibition of his artwork on right now - and it is unique!

Never seen before and never to be seen again, this exhibition is set to cement Goldsworthy’s position as one of the leading artists of our time.

Oak Passage by Andy Goldsworthy

The exhibition Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years can currently be seen at the Royal Scottish Academy until Sun 2 Nov 2025. It's open daily, 10am–5pm - but with the opening hours extended for the final two weekends.

What is unique about it is that it is the largest ever indoor exhibition by Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years has been conceived by the artist as a single immersive artwork in response to the space, materials and character of the RSA building. Occupying all of the upper rooms and most of the lower floor, the exhibition is at once beautiful and ambitious in scale. The interrelationship of humans and the working land is a recurrent theme in Goldsworthy’s art and in the exhibition. He often presents the land as a hard, hostile and brutal place. Fences and barriers feature prominently, in the form of rusted barbed wire stretched across a room, and a massive, cracked clay wall. As in nature, beauty and danger co-exist.

Or you can view this 7 minute video of Andy Goldsworthy talking about the work in the exhibition - which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND! 

The show is a combination of 

• 200 works in total
• stunning installations made in situ in response to the iconic Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) building, 
• drawings, photographs, films, sketchbooks and archival items dating back to the mid-1970s.

All of the artworks installations have been constructed in the space. I found the section on how they created Red Clay Wall absolutely fascinating. There are few men who can envision artworks so big and yet be so meticulous about how they are made!

It's very appropriate that this major "restrospective" should be an exhibition in Scotland as Andy Goldsworthy, although born in Cheshire and worked in Yorkshire, has been living in Dumfries and Galloway (south west Scotland) for the last 40 years. 

South west Scotland, he says, was affordable and welcoming. "I liked the right to roam, the openness of the farmers, and the ability to enjoy the land."

He spent weeks transporting all the portable art from there to Edinburgh for the exhibition

Reviews of the Exhibition

The Visual Art Podcasts on Apple

I'm interested in podcasts about art and artists. I'd love to hear from you - via Facebook or Instagram about the ones you really like - and WHY.

As some of you will know, one of the reasons for my reduced level of blogging is the essential need for me to walk every day for at least an hour. 

• It's the only way to keep my severe osteoarthritis from getting worse i.e. keep me mobile and prevent me from stiffening up. 
• I also remember listening to Stephen Fry talk about how he lost weight when he started walking everywhere - and how this was much easier after he discovered audible books and podcasts.

So my audible listening to was triggered by trying to lose weight prior to my ankle surgery - and getting fit for surgery - back in the early 2020s when my daily limit for steps was strictly no more than 3.5k steps if I didn't want to be crippled the next day. Podcast listening then was dictated by how long my walk took me!

Now I aim for at least 5k steps a day and one of the ways I keep walking regularly is to listen to podcasts. I've been known to take the longer route home to make sure I get to the end of the podcast!

Art Podcasts on Apple

I only have Apple devices so all my art podcasts are limited to Apple and the BBC. 

• The BBC now ignores art so effectively it's what's on Apple. 
• I'm not a huge fan of Spotify 
• but am an Audible subscriber - which doesn't seem to have art podcasts.
• Some also have a Youtube equivalent where you get the visual version and that means can play through your screens or television.

Here's a taster of what you get if you put "art' into Apple Podcasts Search. 

getting their pics shown when I search for "art"
probably means these are the top ranking art podcasts.

BELOW are some of the podcasts I follow - although I have to emphasise how much I listen to them varies a LOT.

• Mostly because I always hit latest episodes first - the podcasts which get the most frequent listen are those who produce the most episodes - as in not behind "special subscriber" barriers. 
• They also have to look interesting to get past the other (more addictive) podcasts I listen to.

The list below is more or less alphabetical (minus "the"). 

Review: Episode 1 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12)

....and so another series begins. At 8pm on Wednesday 1st October, the first episode of the brand new series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 was screened by Sky Arts on Sky, Freeview and Now TV.

Portrait Artist of the Year - Series 12 (2025)

Except it was actually available earlier online and I watched it in the afternoon and then started this review.

Each episode of Series Twelve is always repeated at 7pm the following night on Sky Arts.  

What qualifies me to review this series? Well.... I've reviewed lots of exhibitions and lots of art on television programmes in the last 20 years and every episode of every series of Portrait Artist of the Year since Series 4 in 2018.

If you've not yet watched and are not familiar with my posts, this review continues in the same pattern as all the reviews I've written for the last eight series.

This review post considers:

• The Competition
• Then Commission
• The Judges
• The sitters
• The artists
• Self-portrait submissions
• Themes observed during the episode - and observations on different approaches
• Portraits and the Judging
• Shortlist
• The winner
• Next episode

The Portrait Artist of the Year Competition

The competition 

The format is the same as always

• eight heats - with nine artists in each heat, creating portraits in four hours working three artists to one (usually celebrity) sitter
• semi finals
• finals
• commission / the winner's story

The Commission

This year's portrait commission is for The Royal Society – the world’s oldest continuously operating scientific academy and home to leading scientists. It will mark the 80th anniversary in 2025 of the election of the first women Professors as members of the Royal Society.  The sitter will be the mathematician and broadcaster Professor Hannah Fry who was awarded the Royal Society's David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2024 in recognition of her significant work in public engagement with science and for her prolific role in popularising mathematics. She is also the Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and president of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

That should present some challenges around providing context in the background!

 

The Judges

(L to R) Kathleen Soriano, Tai-Shan Shierenberg and Kate Bryan
with the presenter Stephen Mangan

As always the Judges for the series are the same as they've been from the beginning: 

• Kathleen Soriano - who describes herself as Curator, Telly person, Museum/Gallery Advisor/Consultant, Qualified Coach, Chair Liverpool Biennial, Chair Art UK, National Trust Specialist Advisor
• Kate Bryan - who describes herself as Art Addict. Art TV presenter, curator, writer & mentor. Chief Art Director @sohohouse (She continues to do PAOTY but has bowed out of hiking around the UK for LAOTY)
• Tai-Shan Shierenberg - the British painter (I've put the link to his 2024 page of Heads new and old on his website)

As always, we will shout at them on the TV screen, take issue with their decisions and I especially will highlight any complete art twaddle that comes out of their mouths!

I have however noticed a new and renewed respect for the concept of "likeness" in this first episode - of which more later.

Episode 1: The Sitters

Keep these faces in mind when you get to the portraits produced!

The three sitters in the first episode are as follows:

• Alex Jones (top right) - an author, podcaster and presenter of "The One Show" on BBC1
• Kyla Harris (bottom right) - a filmmaker, writer and activist who is also tetraplegic and uses a raised power chair. She is probably best known for co-creating and co-writing"We might regret this", on BBC2/iPlayer, which she also acted in and produced.
• Yungblud (Bottom left) - is an English singer, songwriter and actor who has had two UK #1 albums and over 6 billion Spotify streams

In general, I find that the people in the first episode very often have something they want to promote  around the time of the broadcast. Not that they are naff enough to do so on the programme - but it raises their profile and helps to get people looking at who they are and what they do.

Episode 1: The Artists

The artists in Episode 1 on the steps of Battersea Arts Centre
where the knockout heats are held

All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname - but are not differentiated between professional and amateur. The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available.

As always I've dug around online, and these profiles provide more information than the programme does.

The mini bio provided in the programme skips over some rather important information about some of the participating artists.

• Edie Bound (Instagram) - b.2002 is originally from Wiltshire but now lives in South London. She did a foundation year at Camberwell School of Art and then chose to work at a ceramic studio whilst pursuing oil painting in her free time. 
• Natalie Charles (Instagram) - an artist based in London. She is a a Drawing Year 2023/4 alumnus from the Royal Drawing School. In 2025, she was selected for RBA Rising Stars, the Delphian Gallery Open Call and the Richard Ford Award, a funded residency at the Prado Museum in Madrid.
• Ian Dawber (Instagram) - He graduated from Wigan Art School in 1978 and then worked as a professional Graphic Designer/Illustrator in both Liverpool and Manchester agencies. He took up painting in later life and is an an elected member of the Society of Illustrators, Artist and Designers attaining Fellow membership. His portfolio includes an excellent portrait of Lenny Henry during the world record attempt. (He needs a proper website!)
• Ephraim Haywood (Instagram) - a charity worker from South London who specialises in drawing portraits and plants. (He's very good at the latter) His self portrait involved merging three different drawings of himself.

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A post shared by Ephraim (@ephraim.haywood)

• Alice Hesketh (Instagram | Facebook)- very succinct to the point website tells me that she is 
• a graduate of Camberwell College of Art
• a fine artist who specialises in contemporary figurative paintings and drawings. 
• She has a studio in Eastbourne where she paints and teaches small art classes. 
• She also hosts portrait workshops, demos and events in and around East Sussex.
• Angel Mitov (Instagram) - a self-taught tattoo artist from Bulgaria - who speacialises in realistic tattoos - who came to the UK to study art in Glasgow
• Sonya Watt - an Executive Assistant from North London
• David Weekes (Instagram) - a retired financier from London who works solely from observation. He studied full time at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and completed a diploma in portraiture (with a portfolio that was highly commended by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters). He now works as an artist full time from a studio in South East London and enjoys painting a range of subject matter

Participation is not for the shy or those who don't like people looking directly over their shoulder!  This heat looked a lot more crowded than normal.

Sonya Watt working on her painting of Alex Jones
- with the crowd right behind her and a camera just behind her right ear!