Review: Episode 5 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2024

This is my long overdue review of Episode 5 of Portrait Artist of the Year which was first screened last Wednesday evening.

Turning the portraits of Lucy Worsley around

I much prefer to write the reviews in one sitting and this proved absolutely impossible last week. You can blame 

• the time I needed to recover from staying up to watch the American Election results and then the time required to digest the result. 
• Plus a major family event in Manchester last weekend. 
• Plus I'm currently chairing a Panel of Judges reviewing applications for an Art Award which is proving to be very interesting but also very time-consuming.

The PAOTY series is televised on Sky Arts (Freeview) every Wednesday at 8pm - and can also be watched on Catchup if you have access to Sky or Now.

There's another tomorrow night! The Sitters are listed at the end of this post.

Episode 5: The Sitters

The three sitters were

• Lucy Worsley - age 50, a British historian, author, curator, and television presenter. She is the joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces but is best known as a presenter of BBC Television and Channel 5 series on historical topics. I always find her a riveting watch!
• Musa Motha - age 29, a South African full-time professional dancer, choreographer, and motivational speaker. He is also a cancer survivor after his leg was amputated. He impressed with his appearance on Britain's Got Talent.
• Ricky Hatton - age 46, former British professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2012 and held multiple world championships.

Episode 5: The Artists

The artists in Episode 5 of PAOTY 2024

Love Beth Kaiden's look at Stephen Mangan looking a wally in a beret!

There was a considerable amount of side eye in this heat......

All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname - but are not differentiated between professional and amateur.

Given Sky Arts has given up on providing links to their website and social media sites, this blog is now the ONLY site where you can find them! The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available.

• Chris Draper - an architectural illustrator from Wiltshiree. He studied at Southend Schopol of Art and Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture. His self portrait was done in watercolour and gouache and was done after he had been in hospital following a stroke.
• Luca Guarino (Instagram) - He is a a multimedia artist working with traditional and digital mediums - he's more of a figurative artist than a portrait artist. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2020 with a First-Class Honours in painting and printmaking. He was one of the Royal Scottish Academies RSA New Contemporaries 2022. He also did The Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School in 2022 - which is why he seemed familiar to me as I go to their End of Year Exhibition most years. (The latest one opens tomorrow!) He currently works as an art tutor. His website may be private but he needs to get his act together on a public one!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Luca Guarino (@lucajguarino)

• Beth Kaiden (Instagram) - age 18 at the time of filming. She is a Barista and a Netball Umpire from Kent. Interesting and impressive video about her time as a Foundation Student in Art and Design an UAL in London. I think we'll be seeing more of her!
• Amy Sasaki-Fletcher (Instagram) - an art student based in Cheshire
• Geoff Shillito (Instagram) - a former graphic designer, based in Dorset. He was elected a member of the Bath Society of Artists in 2005, and elected an Academician of the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in 2020. He's participated in numerous group exhibitions and competitive open entries. He likes dynamic compositions and playing with scale.
• Rachel Stedman (Instagram) - an illustrator and portrait and landscape artist living and working from her Sussex studio in the South Downs near Lewes. She graduated in Illustration at the Brighton Art College in 1988. As a result she has had a long and exciting career in animation working as a background and development artist. She was the Wildcard Winner in the LAOTY Hever Castle Heat in 2023 (with a different surname). She also exhibited in Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition in 2024. I must confess I much prefer her landscapes which are stylized and stunning!
• Josh Thompson (Instagram) - a barista from Glasgow who studied physics before he found painting.
• Lorna Wadsworth - Born in Sheffield, she is now based in East London. She She studied BA (Hons) Illustration at Falmouth College of Art before undertaking The Drawing Year at the Prince's Drawing School (now the Royal Drawing School). Interestingly I immediately recognised her from back in 2005-7 when I was doing classes there with James Lloyd. She was selected for the John Moores Painting Prize in 2023
• Jenna Waldren (Instagram)- a figurative and portrait artist based in North London. She was awarded a First Class, BA (Hons) Painting by The University of Edinburgh / Edinburgh College of Art, (2017- 2021). In 2024 she was a Winner of the BTA Rising Star Award. In 2023 she was longlisted for the Scottish Portrait Award, 2023. She already has a very impressive listing of group exhibitions on her website dating back to 2018.

The Self Portrait Submissions

Think about the small girls

This morning, I had to take myself off to the shops to do some routine shopping to stop me thinking about all the ramifications for the US, the UK and Europe of what happened last night. I've been up half the night and can't look at or listen to the television, radio or read the newspapers right now as I am so very depressed.

However as I was walking home, I started to think about the messages the result will convey for lots of young girls in the US - especially black children - and then got in, opened my macbook and saw this.

The Problem We All Live With (1963) by Norman Rockwell

oil on canvas, oil on canvas, 36 x 58 inches

Illustration for LOOK, January 14, 1964. 

Norman Rockwell Museum Collections. ©NRELC, Niles, IL.

(do click the title to read about the artwork and the story behind it)

...and I thought again of 

• all those little girls whose hopes will have been dashed, 
• all those young girls who might now become very ambivalent about the risks of becoming pregnant and child-bearing in the future; and 
• all those mothers and grandmothers who are feeling very, very let down - again!

It was good to stop and think about what it's like for others.

I know it's a LOT more complicated than that - and that there are LOTS of other very valid perspectives on different issues across the country and between different groups - and that people tend to vote for what's best for them and their families

.....but please just spare a minute to think about what it's like today for the small girls growing up in the current prevailing culture in the US

Plus how artwork is a way of highlighting contemporary issues.

So - having written this - I'm now going to spend the rest of the day assessing grant applications and trying not to think of all things that might now worry me - if I let them....

P.S. Ruby Bridges was born the same year as me. We're 70 this year.

She created the Ruby Bridges Foundation to promote “the values, tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences.”

My message is really that racism has no place in the hearts and minds of our children.
Ruby Bridges

14th November is "Walk to School Day". 

Reference

• The Problem We All Live With | Wikipedia
• The Norman Rockwell Museum
• Norman Rockwell | Google Arts and Culture
• Norman Rockwell + The Problem We All Live With | Learn why a controversial painting became a symbol of the American civil rights movement | Kennedy Center

Drawing people in very long queues to vote

Fancy improving your skills in drawing people in a natural stance? 

Back in 2008, I stayed up to watch the results of the American Election - which Obama won. One of those moments in history. Next day I published Another kind of surge which started....

The following comment was reported on a New York Times blog.

Overheard in a North Carolina polling place line:
“How long have you been waiting?”
“About 200 years…”

It also noted that I drew people waiting in queues to vote while waiting for the results to land - and it also included this image (BELOW - which I've made bigger for this post). 

I highlighted the image again in 2016, while waiting up for the predicted winner in Sketching the Vote in 2008

The thing I remember that was so remarkable then were the huge long queues of people waiting to vote.

There were so many images of them in the press and online that I decided to start my very own queue and sat adding sketches images of individuals from the various images online until I'd created my very own queue led by an elderly African American lady with a flag.

Another kind of surge
(or what I did while waiting for the results)
11.5" x 8.5", pencil
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Drawing queues to vote in 2024

In 2024, what has struck me very forcibly is the length of the queues to get into rallies and the length of queues for early voting opportunities.

This time I'm thinking of drawing all women in the queues.

If you are watching the results too and want to draw your own queues too I'd love to see the results! Comment on my FB post today to watch out for you. Or message me on FB or via sites highlighted on my linktr.ee

TIPS:

• I added individuals from many different sources. Reference many media images of people in queues for sources of people to include. Stopping videos is good. 
• Focus on stance/posture and clothing and NOT on people's faces. A suggestion of eyes is often all you need
• The zigzag enables you to get more people on the page! Plus cater for different angles....
• Try and tell a story
• You might want to try a few people before you get started. 
• You'll be amazed how your drawing improves as you build your queue!

This time I'll be waiting up again - tomorrow night into Wednesday morning - with all my fingers crossed that the "gold standard" pollster Ann Selzer has got it right - after doing her Iowa Poll "the right way" (i.e. proven sound methodology + track record over time). She has an absolutely exceptional track record - check the tabulation of her poll predictions over the years on Wikipedia. Also listen to Rachel Meddows.

Prior to the 2024 United States presidential election, Selzer & Co. released their final Iowa poll that had Kamala Harris leading Trump 47% to 44% in the state, markedly different from other polls that showed Trump with a significant lead.[18] Trump criticized the accuracy of the poll. Selzer responded by saying the poll used the same methodology as in 2016 and 2020, and that, "It would not be in my best interest, or that of my clients—The Des Moines Register and Mediacom—to conjure fake numbers."[19] Wikipedia

References:

• 10 Tips for How to Sketch People (2008
• Drawing people (2018)
• Which are the best books about Portraiture? (2013)
• Van Gogh: Drawing media and techniques (2007)

and

• Another kind of surge (2008)
• Sketching the Vote in 2008 (2016)

PS Yes, there is a red vertical line. I hadn't quite given up on my old malfunctioning Canon Printer/Scanner at that time!

PPS Do not underestimate the effect that allowing people to bet on elections in the USA has had on the incentive to keep other polls looking very close.  I don't think it's close at all. I think it's going to be comfortable heading towards landslide. This is because too many male commentators have totally missed the commitment of women to voting and getting the vote out.

Review: Episode 4 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2024

This is my review of Heat 4 in Series 11 of Portrait Artist of the Year which was filmed last Spring at the Battersea Arts Centre. 

Judges discussing the shortlisted artists and their artwork
- which was much smaller than usual

The series is televised on Sky Arts (Freeview) every Wednesday at 8pm - and can also be watched on Catchup if you have access to Sky or Now.

Episode 4: The Sitters

top right: Rosie Jones; Bottom left: Linton Kwesi Johnson

The three Sitters were

• Rosie Jones - age 34 who is a Comedian, Presenter, Author and Disability Rights Activist;
• Linton Kwesi Johnson - age 72 who is a Jamaica-born, British-based Poet and reggae artist. His performance poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican patois over dub-reggae
• Andy Cole - age 53 who is retired footballer and Sports Personality who achieved records for scoring goals or as Steven Mangan said he's a "football legend"

Episode 4: The Artists

All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname - but are not differentiated between professional and amateur. 

Given Sky Arts has given up on providing links to their website and social media sites, this blog is now the ONLY site where you can find them! The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available.

The artists after completing their heat paintings on the steps of Battersea Arts Centre

The artists are :

• Sophia Ambrose (Instagram) - a painter, writer DJ, and Spiritual Awakening Coach  
  who lives in London. She returned to painting age 45 and gradually changed careers. These are her portraits. She uses a ginormous palette which you can see here (on the table). 
• Jennifer Anderson (Instagram) - a portrait painter who paints on metal. She grew up just outside Glasgow and now lives and works in the city’s West End. She attended Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, graduating in 1997 with a 1st class honors degree in Fine Art (painting).  She has exhibited widely throughout the UK and internationally in New York, Singapore, Florida, Zurich, and Toronto and received a number of awards. She's very experienced at working on commission and has produced a number of portraits for Oxford Colleges and other universities. Her website has an interesting explanation about why and how she makes artistic choices.  I first mentioned her on this blog back in 2008 when she was selected to exhibit in the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize exhibition and I've first got her on record as an exhibitor in the BP Portrait Prize back in 2009 (This blog is wonderful for tracking artist's careers if you enter art competitions! The April 2024 edition of Artists and Illustrators included an interview with her - In the Studio with Jennifer Anderson (Do read it!)
• Vincent Michael Brown  ( Website | Facebook | Instagram ) - from Bristol. He's been a professional artist since 2002 and participated in 2020 (in Episode 7 of Series 7). began first selling my art and taking commissions at the age of eleven. He's co-founder of Artime (a gallery, studio, art school and shop) with a good track record in art competitions. He's been Shortlisted for the 2021 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize and exhibited at 2022 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - with the painting he entered as his self portrait - which took 150 hours to paint. This is a link to his post about his experience this year
• Steven Mackus (Instagram) - An artist, wood carver and (at the time) a speciality barista working across the highlands. This is his link to very tiny his self portrait. Unusually, he went bigger than his self-portrait for his heat portrait! He refers to himself as producing imperfect oil paintings.
• Nadia Padayachy (Instagram) - a marketing manager in Cambridgeshire. Her self-portrait featured in an article titled ‘The Art of PR’ Showcases The Work of Artists Working in UK Public Relations (You can see it in The Art of PR Exhibition, which is open to the public between 18th and 23rd November 2024 at The Coningsby Gallery, 30 Tottenham Street, London)
• Michelle Pang - an art graduate from Gloucester. In 2022, she graduated from De Montfort University with an Fine Art BA (Hons). You can watch her painting on TikTok

Filming took place at the vibrant @batterseaartscentre in London earlier this year, and what an unforgettable moment it was! From the intense pressure to the unexpected surprises, the whole experience felt like a dream. I faced challenges I never imagined, but it was beyond rewarding and truly an amazing experience. Michelle Pang

• Giulia Quaresima (Facebook, Instagram) - an Italian portrait and figurative artist living and working in Cambridgeshire. She has had an extensive art education: in 2006, she graduated with a BA in Painting (Hons) from the Academy of Fine Arts, Carrara, in 2009, she gained BA (Hons) in Cultural Heritage Studies at the University of Pisa, Italy in 2012 she completed her MA in History of Contemporary Art (Hons) at the University of Pisa, Italy. She's exhibited at Women in Art Fair, Society of Women Artists, Society of Graphic Fine Art in London and across the UK.
• Conor Quinn - a painter, sculptor and animator living in London. He's studied at the Royal Drawing School (2018), then studied Animation Production at Arts University Bournemouth (2022) and is currently studying at the Royal College of Art (graduating 2025). He won a British animation award (2022). Check out this self portrait (not the one in PAOTY)
• Jemima Spence -  a figurative painter and mural painter living and working in Armley in Leeds. Her murals are very impressive! She studied Graphic design and Illustration in Liverpool. She's an early career artists but has exhibited her work locally in Leeds and Bradford, as well as in London at the Mall Galleries.

The Self Portrait Submissions

Judges viewing the Self Portrait Wall before the heat begins

I analysed how the self portraits stacked up in terms of format, size and scope.

The range of sizes were extreme.

Expressions in Blue: Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff

Last night I was at the PV for two NEW exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens:

• Expressions in Blue: Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff - reviewed below;
• Botanical Blues - a selection of botanical paintings from The Shirley Sherwood Collection in Gallery 6 - which will be reviewed shortly on my Botanical Art and Artist News Blog. This showcases works from botanical artists including Susannah Blaxhill, Jinyong Feng and Ursula Romero, depicting many remarkable plant species which can be found in Kew’s Living Collections.

About the Exhibition

This is the largest solo exhibition to date of monumental ceramics in made by Felicity Aylieff. 

It's certainly a "must see" for anybody interested un unusual approaches to creating porcelain, enamelled posts and BIG pots.

 

I gather the exhibition - which opened at the weekend has attracted large numbers very keen to see the monumental porcelain. 

It's certainly an exhibition quite unlike any other exhibition I've ever seen of ceramics.

Felicity Aylieff with her monumental Qing Hua porcelain pots

I'm somewhat surprised to see it at Kew Gardens - as opposed to the shrine of ceramic treasures which can be found in the Ceramics Collection on the sixth floor and other main galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

I gather the reason it's at Kew is because 

• the gardens allow some of the monumental pots to be located outside - and there are two huge ones right outside the museum (which I couldn't see last night in the dark) but you can see in my friend Laurence Hill's photosgraphs of the exhibits
• some of the pots have been decorated with patterns derived from plants and specifically paintings included in the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Botanical Art

I think overall I'd have preferred to see an emphasis by Kew in its marketing on the particular aspects of the exhibition which relate to plants - given that this is a Gallery of BOTANICAL Art - rather than being enticed by the huge monumental blue and white pots (see publicity image above) - nice as they are.

In other words, given the exhibition is at Kew and not the V&A, what's special about the ceramics in relation to plants?

Monumental 'Qing Hua' pots decorated with cobalt blue chloride
The people at the Private View give an indication of the size of the pots

It includes:

• a selection of new, specially created blue and white works, including incredible 5-metre-tall vases painted using a vibrant range of cobalt blue oxides in a technique known as Qing Hua, a signature of Aylieff’s work.
•  a selection of colourful Fencai enamelled vessels, hand painted with designs inspired by the botanical illustrations from the Shirley Sherwood Collection.