Shortlist for The Portrait Award 2024

The Portrait Award 2024 at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG)in London received 1,647 entries from 62 countries.  

This is the latest 'edition' of this very prestigious art competition's history at the NPG which dates back to 1980. During that time it has had over 40,000 entries from more than 100 countries and the exhibition has been seen by over 6 million people.

That said, having looked back at some of my previous posts (a number of which have focused on the numbers) there have been fewer entries this year. However, I think that's hardly surprising for an art competition attempting a relaunch with a new name after a three year break (due to the three year refurbishment of the NPG)!

Given the length of time since the last Portrait Award, this post covers:

• What is The Portrait Award? - a brief history plus a reference to past sponsors, past and past winners and their commissions
• The Portrait Awards 2024 - for the latest version of this very popular and prestigious portrait competition
• The Shortlisted Artists - who they are and what the shortlisted portraits look like
• The Judges - and how these have changed over the years....
• The Exhibition - dates and access and future blog posts!

The Portrait Award 2024: Shortlisted Portraits
- see more below

What is "The Portrait Award"?

If you're wondering exactly which competition this is it's important to know that the sponsorship has changed.

It is now called, as from 2023/24 "The Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award" i.e. the sponsorship changed to being an international law firm. (see my post NEW! Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2024 REPLACES BP Portrait Award (November 21, 2023)

Previous Sponsors

The award has had three sponsors to date:

• Imperial Tobacco (1980-82) - this was a competition which was set up with the specific aim of encouraging more young painters to take up portraiture. 
• The 1982 winner was Humphrey Ocean
• John Player & Sons (1983-89) - all entrants had to be under 40 and the entries had to be painted in oils or acrylic from life. 
• Winners during this era included Alison Watt OBE FRSE RSA and Tai-Shan Schierenberg
• BP (1990-2020) - the under 40 age group requirement was dropped in 2007. Winners included: James Lloyd, Stuart Pearson Wright, Benjamin Sullivan and Miriam Escofet
• after which the NPG was closed for three years for substantial refurbishment - reopening last summer.

which I covered in Winners of the National Portrait Gallery's Portrait Award + Commissions (January 17th 2023) which LISTS:

• ALL the artists who have ever won the Portrait Award organised by the National Portrait Gallery in London
• PLUS a link to ALL the commissions offered as part of their First Prize.
  

Each of these might be regarded as seeking to improve both brand recognition and reputation by sponsoring prestigious art institutions and awards. It's a fact of life everywhere you go. However, the nature of the sponsorship triggered lots of protests in latter years - including the refusal of prizes.

From my practical perspective, "short and snappy" is a requirement for the title of a competition which is referenced a lot.  (eg Australia has "The Archibald"). I cannot even remember all the names of the new sponsor (I kid you not!), let alone which order they come in so, as previously indicated, I am just going to call it "The Portrait Award" or "The Herbert". 

The Portrait Awards 2024

The new Portraits Awards are reduced by one - there is now no third prize:

• First Prize: £35,000 The prizewinning portrait will need to be retained by the Gallery for up to six months after the tour of the exhibition so that it can be displayed at the National Portrait Gallery (please note this is at the Gallery’s discretion). 
• Second Prize: £12,000 Third Prize: £10,000 
• Young Artist Award: £9,000 All selected artists aged between 18 and 30 will automatically be considered for both the Young Artist Award and the Portrait Award, but an individual cannot win both.  
• To be eligible for the Young Artist Award, artists must be 30 years of age or under as of 1 January 2023.

The Shortlisted Artists

The major change this year - with the new Portrait Award - is that only three artists have been shortlisted. 

Hitherto it has always been four - for the First, Second and Third places and the Young Artist Award - but it appears that the Third Prize has been ditched. Also no sign of a Travel Award...

Three artists have been shortlisted for the prestigious Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2024.

• Zizi (2023) by Isabella Watling
• Jacqueline with Still Life (2020) by Antony Williams
• Lying (2020) by Catherine Chambers

So we have:

• two women and one man
• two are in their early 30s and one is in his 50s (my guess - since their ages have unusually not been listed)
• one very large painting and two paintings of a very similar size
• two portraits painted in 2020 - possibly for the last exhibition - which never happened?
• one Portrait Award stalwart, one by an artist who has been selected before and one by an artist selected for the first time.

I'm going to use my standard profile analysis for the information below - which I think other artists find helpful in seeing who gets selected

Graham Crowley wins John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Last week it was announced that Graham Crowley, age 73, has won the John Moores Painting Prize 2023 with his painting of 'Light Industry' (see below). 

The John Moores Painting Prize 2023 (£25,000)

The award brings a prize pot of £25,000 and a  a solo display at the Walker Art Gallery in 2025.

Light Industry by Graham Crowley

I'm surprised.

I can only reiterate what I thought when I reviewed all the paintings when they were shortlisted

I've got the big versions of the images of these paintings and this one has been produced by wiping paint in different directions to create a background - and then drawing into it while it's still wet. It's a neat and effective painting technique and worth highlighting - but I'm not sure it does enough to merit winning the first prize.

I haven't changed my mind.

I know the judging is anonymous - but one does wonder.....  However I am now inclined to believe the prize might be in part be not so much to do with an individual painting so much as maybe recognition of an artist who has been repeatedly selected for the John Moores Painting Prize - having had a painting selected 10 times over FIVE DECADES - in each of these years: 1976, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1993, 2004, 2006, 2016 - and 2023!

"Light Industry" was apparently inspired by a visit to a motorcycle dealer in Framlingham, Suffolk – which the artist describes as part workshop, part counter-cultural ‘museum’.

Graham Crowley commented as follows

“The John Moores Painting Prize is without doubt the UK’s pre-eminent painting competition and exhibition. One of my ambitions, apart from painting the best paintings I possibly can, has always been to win. Exhibiting as part of the prize in the past has played a significant part in establishing my reputation as a painter. This is important as I, like most practicing painters, am not represented by a gallery or commercial interest.”

“The prize has an authoritative history of post-war painting in the UK, and its credibility and longevity are testament to the anonymous judging process. I am thrilled to be the first prize winner this year.”

About Graham Crowley

Graham Crowley in his Studio

• Born in Romford, Essex in 1950
• Art Education:1968 – 69 Foundation Studies, St Martin's School of Art, London
• 1969 – 72 Diploma in Art & Design, St Martin's School of Art, London
• 1972 – 75 MA (RCA), Royal College of Art, London
• 1978-85 – Visiting lecturer in painting, RCA.
• Crowley worked originally as an abstract painter but began to paint figuratively in the 1970s.
• His work has been shown extensively in England and Europe, including exhibitions at the Venice and Paris biennales and at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
• He is included in a number of public collections and has also completed several large-scale public commissions.
• He has been living and working in Suffolk since 2014.
• This is his CV

Other Prizewinners

Shortlisted Artists (£2,500 each)

By way of introduction (from me)

• there are four "technique paintings" (for want of a better term) - only one of which interests me
• and a genuine original which has both substance and impact.
• my favourites are by the two youngest painters.

The four other shortlisted artists who will each receive £2,500 are: 

• Social Murder: Grenfell In Three Parts by Nicholas Baldion, 
• Stochastic 14 by Emily Kraus, 
• Other Light by Damian Taylor and 
• Champagne Cascade I by Francisco Valdes.

You can see details of  these artists - and their paintings - in my post Five artists shortlisted for John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Lady Grantchester Prize 

This award (supported by Winsor & Newton) has been developed to support artists in the early stages of their career. 

This is the first time this prize has been awarded. It comprises £5,000, a residency and £2,500 worth of art materials for her work.

Emma Roche in her studio knitting her acrylic!

Emma Roche won the Lady Grantchester Prize.  Her work is made of knitted acrylic painting on wooden panels. She commented as follows

“I really value this recognition and support from the John Moores Painting Prize. I am interested in pushing painting to its limit through the different processes that I use, so the work is not always immediately recognised as painting or as paint. I was thrilled to find out that I made it through to the exhibition stage and to be a prize winner is surreal. I feel very grateful.”

Emma has B.A. in Fine Art Painting, N.C.A.D., Dublin, 2006; an M.A. in Visual Arts Practices, I.A.D.T. Dublin, 2010; and attended the Turps Banana Art School, London 2016-2019 

Comment

So one painter in his 70s wins the big prize and one much younger artist wins the "support the career prize". 

In my view, I'd have preferred to have seen a Lifetime Achievement Award for an older painter and the big prize going to somebody much younger.

There are those of us who think somebody winning a very major prize in the early part of their career is actually the best possible support to the future career of an artist. There's a fair few painters who have won this one early on who can support that view.

Visitors' Choice Award (£2,023)

Visitors to the exhibition are now invited to vote for their favourite painting to win the popular Visitors’ Choice Award, sponsored by Rathbones. The winning artist will receive £2,023

The Exhibition

The John Moores Painting Prize is the UK's most well-known painting competition, bringing together the best contemporary painting from across the UK to Liverpool.

The 70 paintings - selected from a record 3,357 entries - included in the John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition are now open to view at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool 16 Sep 2023—25 Feb 2024.

I'm guessing the record entries are in part generated by the demise of several other art competitions with serious prize money.

REFERENCE

Previous blog posts

• Call for Entries: John Moores Painting Prize 2023
• Selected artists for the John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Five artists shortlisted for John Moores Painting Prize 2023

Five artists have been shortlisted for The John Moores Painting Prize 2023 - and this post:

• tells you who they are - and provides a judges summary plus a profile
• shows you the image of the painting which has been shortlisted
• shows you images of the selectors and the selection process
• and finally.... you get my prediction as to which work will win the £25,000 First Prize and a Solo Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in 2025.

The John Moores Painting Prize is the UK's most well-known painting competition, bringing together the best contemporary painting from across the UK to Liverpool.

The exhibition of all the artists selected for the longlist will be held at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool between16 Sep 2023—25 Feb 2024. 

The Shortlisted Artists

Paintings by Nicholas Baldion, Graham Crowley, Emily Kraus, Damian Taylor and Francisco Valdes shortlisted from more than 3,000 entries.

Links to their websites are embedded in their names below.

Those not winning the first prize of £25,000 will each be awarded £2,500.

The Selectors gave each painting careful scrutiny

The 2023 jury - Alexis Harding, Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE, Marlene Smith, The White Pube and Yu Hong – chose the prize winners and the long list of other exhibiting artists from more than 3,000 entries – the most the John Moores Painting Prize has ever received.

From large scale canvases, bold in brush strokes and colour, to exquisitely detailed pieces, the exhibition covers a wide range of styles, united by their use of paint.  

By way of introduction (from me)

• there are four "technique paintings" (for want of a better term) - only one of which interests me
• and a genuine original which has both substance and impact.
• my favourites are by the two youngest painters.

Four artists shortlisted for the Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station

The names of the four artists shortlisted to create the planned Windrush Monument were announced last week. Their designs for the Monument - which will be located at Waterloo Station - will be displayed around the country this summer.

 

Images of the shortlisted artists
(L to R: Jeannette Ehlers, Thomas J Price, Valda Jackson, Basil Watson)

This post covers:

• the aim of the Windrush Monument
• the shortlisted artists
• arrangements for consultation with the Caribbean community in the UK.

 

The Windrush Monument

The Windrush Monument will be a permanent tribute to a generation of arrivals from the Caribbean to Britain – from the arrival of MV Empire Windrush in 1948 and in the decades that followed.  Artist shortlist for national Windrush Monument revealed |Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Windrush Commemoration Committee 

 

The aim of the Monument

 

The intention is that the Monument will be:

• An ambitious public artwork 
• A testament to the contribution of Caribbean pioneers in communities across the United Kingdom. 
• A visible statement of shared history and heritage
• A permanent place of reflection and inspiration. 
  

Specifically the monument will recognise how the Windrush Generation have - over the last 70 years:

• enriched the history of the UK
• made invaluable contributions to all aspects of British life, from our health and transport services to our politics, businesses, literature and culture. 

That's quite a challenge for any artist!

 

Location: Waterloo Station

 

Waterloo station in London is where thousands of Windrush pioneers first arrived in London, after the M.V. Windrush docked at Tilbury, before starting new lives across the UK. 

 

The station's strong association with the stories of many members of the Windrush Generation means it was chosen as the location for the sculpture - to celebrate their arrival and contribution to the UK.

I remember vividly my own moment of arrival, as a 10 year old – stepping off the train and standing on Platform 19 at Waterloo Station. That spot, familiar to so many of us and our parents, is less than a few hundred metres from where the Windrush monument will stand in perpetuity. Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE

The intention is that the Windrush Monument will be unveiled on Windrush Day 2022.

 

Shortlisted artists

Unsurprisingly, the four artists shortlisted to design the monument are all of Caribbean descent. Two are from the UK and two are based outside the UK - but have a Caribbean heritage.

They include world renowned, established and up and coming artists working across the visual arts. 

The artists were selected by the Windrush Commemoration Committee (WCC), chaired by Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE. 

The four artists chosen to make up the final shortlist are listed below. Links to their websites are embedded in their names.

BP Portrait Award 2020: Shortlist and Exhibition announcements

BP Portrait Award 2020 - Shortlisted portraits

An Online Exhibition

The BP Portrait Award Exhibition is to be online. It will open as a virtual exhibition on Tuesday 5 May on the National Portrait Gallery website.

Key features are:

• The prize winners will be announced on Tuesday 5 May via the National Portrait Gallery’s social media channels. (I'll see if I can find out what time they're planning to make the announcement)
• All 48 works selected for the BP Portrait Award 2020 exhibition will be shown in a virtual gallery space that replicates the rooms of the National Portrait Gallery. 
• This will enable online visitors to 
• view the portraits collectively, 
• read the labels and get insights from the artists, 
• explore each individual work in more detail. 
• The Visitor’s Choice Award - which enables the public to vote for their favourite portrait - will also run online.

I must confess I'm not surprised and have been fully expecting this to happen. The National Portrait Gallery is of course, like every other art gallery and museum, closed at the moment due to the Pandemic Lockdown.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery London says:

‘I am pleased we have been able to find a way to share the BP Portrait Award 2020 exhibition with our visitors at home, during this uncertain time and hope that staging a virtual exhibition will provide us with the opportunity to bring the very best in contemporary portrait painting to an even wider audience. The BP Portrait Award is tasked with finding and recognising portrait paintings that combine technical accomplishment and a demonstration of insight and empathy for the subject and sitter. It is a tough challenge, but, this year, one that has been responded to with great prowess and I would like to congratulate all the shortlisted artists and those selected for exhibition.’

It is not yet known if the exhibition will be able to be shown at the National Portrait Gallery before building works begin on Inspiring People, the Gallery’s major redevelopment project, at the end of June.

However, the BP Portrait exhibition is set to tour to Aberdeen Art Gallery towards the end of the year and details and dates will be confirmed in due course - so it's entirely possible that the only place people will be able to see the portraits in person is in the north of Scotland during winter!

I'll be writing more tomorrow about

• the artists selected for the exhibition
• the numbers who applied and where they were from
• the Travel Award

Shortlisted Artists

Three artists have been shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2020. 

The three portraits in the running for the £35,000 First Prize are

• Night Talk by Jiab Prachakul; 
• Portrait of Denis: Actor, Juggler and Fashion Model by Sergey Svetlakov and 
• Labour of Love by Michael Youds. 

You can read more about them and see larger images of their portraits below.

However I can tell you that it's the first time that 

• any of the three shortlisted artists have been shortlisted for the Award or selected for exhibition.
• the competition has shortlisted artists from Russia or Thailand (at least in my memory!)

Making A Mark - the 20 most popular blog posts in 2019

I've split the 20 most popular blog posts in 2019 between

• those written in 2019
• those written between 2006 and 2018 - which demonstrates just how much traffic some old posts can generate!

All posts are ranked according to the number of page views they generated - which are all in the thousands.  Some of those which have been around for some years get a lot more than those written in 2019 - I guess because they're referenced by various websites.

These posts are - unrelated to art competitions on television. To see these read yesterday's blog post The Most Popular Art Programmes on Television in 2019

Points to note:

• Art Competitions and Open Exhibitions fall in and out of favour
• Blog posts with global appeal with always get a bigger audience than those of interest just to a UK audience
• "How To" posts about matters relating to art are always welcomed - and constantly referenced!

In 2019

I play a little game with myself and try to guess what might be in the top 10 It's surprising what I'd already forgotten - such as the death of Charles Reid or the fire at Notre Dame.....

1. Call for Entries: Portrait Artist of the Year 2020 

Although this is television related it's about the entry to this art competition and hence I'm treating it as any other Call for Entries post. What's so very interesting is that it beat the RA's Summer Exhibition post - and the Call for Entries for the BP Portrait Award 2019 - which says rather a lot!

2. RA Summer Exhibition 2019: Call for 12,000 entries 

+ RA Summer Exhibition 2019 UPDATE + prediction re emphasis of selected work - one post in two parts. Plus it's worth also noting OFFICIAL: No 12,000 cap on entries to RA Summer Exhibition + dates change which is an an update on - and clarification of my original Call for Entries for the Summer Exhibition

3. Owner of Artist Network, Wet Canvas & North Light Books files for Bankruptcy 

I guess a global audience for this one helped a lot. This was major news for artists around the world who used one or more of their activities. I helped a couple of artists who had to file in Court in order to try and get their unpaid royalties for books they'd written for North Light. Plus I ended up names in one of the Court documents which was recording all the authors of books published by North Light!
This is the follow up post F&W Media Bankruptcy Protection UPDATE re SALES of Artist Network, Wet Canvas & North Light Books

4. Selected Artists and statistics - BP Portrait Award 2019

This post is about the artists behind the 44 portraits selected for the BP Portrait Award 2019 Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

5. About Charlotte Johnson Wahl - artist and mother of Boris

Although a television programme, I'm including it here because it's more like a story about an artist. It's a retrospective of a retrospective exhibition by the woman who is mother of the man who is now Prime Minister - and who has continued to paint every day despite mental health issues and Parkinson's Disease. I watched it again recently and found it very rewarding to watch.

6. 40th BP Portrait Award (2019) Shortlist

This is my Making A Mark analysis of this year's shortlisted portraits - and the artists who created them.

The portraits shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2019

7. RIP Charles Reid (1937 - 2019)

I'm sure all of us who were fans of him all have our own memories of "our connections" with Charles Reid - even if we never ever met him. This post was about mine.....

8. Call for Entries: Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2019 

Well done to the Society of Women Artists to be the first 'ordinary' national art society call for entries to be in this TOP 10 list. Women on top!

9. 10 Best Paintings in the Sunday Times Watercolour Exhibition 2019 

The 10 paintings in the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2019 which impressed me. By which I mean

• They caught my eye on my first turn around the gallery - from a distance of some 6 feet+.
• Then kept it on my second go round - when I'm looking more closely at the paintings. 
• Then survived the cull as I went around for the third time to work out my 10 best paintings!

10. The Destruction of Notre Dame - only the stone will remain

Many, many people in Paris and around the world watched as huge flames burst through what was the roof of Notre Dame and then watched it collapse. Both sides of the Seine were also lined with thousands of people watching the fire.

The Destruction of Notre Dame

In addition two of my Blog Pages remain perennially popular. These are:

• Major UK Art Competitions
• UK Art Societies: Open Exhibitions

PAST: posts from previous years (2006-2018)

Posts from previous years - unrelated to art on television - have proved to be perennially popular and some have almost taken on a life of their own!

Note that five of the ten are "how to" posts. If you write a good "how to" post about perennial topics it can be of value and generate traffic for very many years.

40th BP Portrait Award (2019) Shortlist

The shortlist for the BP Portrait Portrait Award 2019 was announced last week. I'd been inspecting my inboxes for an email from the National Portrait Gallery and checking the NPG website on an almost daily basis for all of April to no avail.

I knew if I went away it would be announced - and so it came to pass!!

So - one week late - here's the Making A Mark analysis of this year's shortlisted portraits - and the artists who created them.

Four portraits shortlisted for 40th BP Portrait Award 

The portraits shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2019

• Sophie and Carla (1520mm x 920mm, oil on polyester) by Emma Hopkins
• Quo vadis? (900mm x 600mm, oil on aluminium) by Massimiliano Pironti
• The Crown (500mm x 400mm, oil on linen) by Carl-Martin Sandvold 
• Imara in her Winter Coat (1200mm x 900mm, oil on canvas) by Charlie Schaffer 

Interestingly we have:

• a completely new set of artists producing shortlisted portraits
• three of the artists entered for the first time this year
• four portraits all use a portrait format
• there are two small and two large portraits
• ALL artists painted in oil
• four different supports were used for the shortlisted portraits

Below there is a brief summary about the competition and then information about each of the artists

The BP Portrait Award 2019

The Open Entry

This year's open and international entry comprised 2,538 digital entries (minus 129 entries) from 84 countries (minus 4 countries).

Selected Artists

Only 44 portraits have been selected.  This is a very significant reduction on the number (50+) which have been selected in the past.

• 20 from the UK
• 24 from international artists

Effectively this means that over time, the number of UK artists being selected for this competition has halved.  It's now very much an international competition - not a UK one. I'll be publishing my blog post about selected artists on Wednesday.

If you want a small image of your portrait included in my post please send me an image.

The Judges were:

• Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director, National Portrait Gallery (Chair)
• Gaylene Gould - Head of Cinemas and Events at the BFI Southbank + Cultural Ambassador for London appointed by the Mayor
• GaryHume - artist (member of the YBAs and a painter but not known as a portrait artist)
• Dr. Alison Smith - Chief Curator of the National Portrait Gallery 
• Des Violaris - Director, UK Arts & Culture, BP and 
• Zoé Whitley - Senior Curator of the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London.

Exhibition and Awards 

The winner of the £35,000 BP Portrait Award and other award winners will be announced on 10th June 2019 at the National Portrait Gallery, London at the Awards Ceremony.

• First prize: £35,000 + a commission worth £7,000 (agreed between the National Portrait Gallery and the artist). 
• Second Prize: £12,000 and 
• Third Prize of £10,000 is also awarded. 
• The BP Young Artist Award, with a prize of £9,000 goes to one selected artist aged between 18 and 30. 

The exhibition will be held at:

• National Portrait Gallery - 13 June to 20 October 2019
• Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh - 7 December 2019 to 22 March 2020; and 
• Ulster Museum, Belfast - March to June 2020.

Artists shortlisted for BP Portrait Award 2019

Below you can find profiles for each of the shortlisted artists

Shortlist for Jackson's £5,000 Open Art Prize published

The shortlist of finalists for the Jackson's Open Art Prize (£5,000) are listed below.
The prize aims to celebrate exceptional artworks by artists at all stages of theirs careers

There's some admirable work included in the shortlist. This a link to images of the shortlisted artwork in 2019 - the names of the artists are below.

A selection of those shortlisted for the Prize

There are a number of Prizes worth £10,000 overall

• Overall Winner of the Jackson's Art Prize - £5,000
• People's Choice Award (of all the entries received) - £1,000 - Voting is now open
• Emerging Artist Award - £1,000
• 6 Category Prizes - £500 each

Bottom line - it's an Art Competition worth entering (see more details at the end)! 

Those shortlisted artists who choose to do so will submit their work for exhibition at the Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead (9-12 May 2019)

This is a link to the longlist of artworks eligible for the People's Choice Awards. 

• It's NOT in the least bit obvious but there are images on more than one page
• I predict that all those NOT on the front page of each category will received fewer votes as a result

Names of shortlisted artists for Jackson's Open Art Prize

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

BP Portrait Award 2017 - The Shortlist

The three artists shortlisted for the First Prize in the 38th BP Portrait Award are:

• Thomas Ehretsmann (France) for Double Portrait
• Benjamin Sullivan (UK) for Breech! 
• Antony Williams (UK) for Emma

All the shortlisted portraits feature female sitters and are painted in three different media - egg tempera, oil and acrylic.  All the painters have previously had works selected for the BP exhibition. Each of them is guaranteed a prize - but only one has previously won a prize in this very prestigious art competition.

Below is a summary about each artist. The names of the first, second and third prizewinners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony, which will be on the evening of Tuesday 20th June. It must be nice to go to it 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 £8,000 and £30,000.

Tomorrow's blog post will be about the artists selected for the exhibition.  (Artists can start emailing me images of their portraits if they'd like to see them featured in the post)

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

• National Portrait Gallery, London all summer. It opens to the public on 22 June and continues until 24 September 2017 (Admission Free)
• Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery Exeter (4 October – 3 December 2017); 
• Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh (December 2017 – March 2018); 
• Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens (March – June 2018.)

Artists shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2017

This highly successful annual event is aimed at encouraging artists over the age of eighteen to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work.

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

• First Prize: £30,000 plus a commission worth £5,000 to paint a portrait for the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection, to be agreed between the Gallery and the artist. 
• Second Prize: £10,000 
• Third Prize: £8,000.

In terms of the competition as a whole:

• The Entry: The shortlist of three was selected from 2,580 portraits by artists from 87 countries (the entry is limited to one portrait per artist). 
• Selected Artists: Tomorrow's blog post will be about who got selected for the exhibition. I'll be linking their websites to the names of the artists and doing a brief synopsis of the artist and their work.
• The Best of the Rest: the closing date for How to enter my BP Portrait "Best of the Rest" 2017- of those not selected - is Friday.

Thomas Ehretsmann

Double Portrait by Thomas Ehretsmann
(300 x 400mm, Acrylic on board)

Age: 42 (Born in Mulhouse France in 06.07.1974)

Nationality: French
Occupation: artist and illustrator. His illustration work has been featured in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Elle Magazine.
Current home:
Art education: a degree in illustration from the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, Strasbourg

Previous appearances in this award: Vacuum 2 was selected for the BP Portrait Award 2016 exhibition
Website: http://www.thomas-ehretsmann.com/en/
Title / Media: Double Portrait (300 x 400mm, Acrylic on board)

Subject: Double Portrait captures a moment when the artist was walking in the park with his wife, Caroline. The title, Double Portrait, suggest the passage from one state of being to another as Caroline was eight months pregnant at the time.

Ehretsmann was struck by the light on Caroline’s face which he said reminded him of the work of naturalist painters Jules Bastien-Lepage and Emile Friant. 

I met Thomas last year - see BP Portrait Award 2016 - Artists with their paintings - so this is the first year for me that I've met all three artists prior to the announcement!

This year, as last, his paintings comprises multiple layers of semi-transparent acrylic paint - painted in very small hatching marks. He's also a master of tone control in muted and darker passages of the painting.

I met Thomas last year at the preview

Benjamin Sullivan

I've had Ben Sullivan 'tagged' as a future BP Portrait First Prizewinner for as long as I've been writing this blog and covering this competition!

He paints absolutely beautifully and also captures extremely good likenesses of everybody he paints.

He's exhibited in every BP Portrait Exhibition every year since 2006. I love the fact that in addition to his regular commissions, he also paints his family. It was wonderful to finally meet up with Ginnie and Edith, their new baby, at last year's Awards Ceremony when Ben won 3rd Prize. She was such a big hit with everybody, I'm not in the least bit surprised in the choice for this year's portrait!

£30,000 BP Portrait Award 2016 - The Shortlist

Three very impressive and very different paintings have been shortlisted for the £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2016. Each of them is guaranteed a prize. 

They are:

• Girl in a Liberty Dress by Clara Drummond - a portrait of her friend and a fellow artist
• Hugo by Benjamin Sullivan - a portrait of the poet Hugo Williams; 
• Silence by Chinese artist Bo Wang - a portrait of his dying Grandmother.

Both Clara and Benjamin have been selected a number of times previously. In fact Benjamin has been labelled by me as a future BP Portrait Award winner a number of times! However Bo Wang is selected for the first time.

They're brilliant portraits - I love them all! I've also got the big high res images of them and after close inspection I'd find it very difficult to choose between them.  However if you read on, you will realise that past experience suggests one is a clear front -runner......

The portraits and artists are highlighted below

In terms of the competition as a whole:

• The Entry: The shortlist of three was selected from 2,557 portraits by artists from 80 countries (the entry is limited to one portrait per artist). 
• Selected Artists: More about who got selected for the exhibition tomorrow when I will link websites to the names of the artists whose portraits have been selected to be in the exhibition
• The Best of the Rest: the closing date for my invitation to the "best of the rest" - of those not selected - is Friday.

Shortlisted artists

The BP Portrait Award is said to be the world’s most prestigious portrait painting competition - with total prize money of £60,000. 

Just being selected, never mind shortlisted or winning a prize is a great honour.
The prizes are as follows:

• First Prize: £30,000 plus a commission worth £5,000 to paint a portrait for the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection, to be agreed between the Gallery and the artist. 
• Second Prize: £10,000 
• Third Prize: £8,000. 
• The BP Young Artist Award of £7,000 will be awarded to the work of an entrant aged between 18 and 30. 

Who has won which prize will be announced at a special Evening Reception at the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery on the evening of Tuesday 21 June 2016 - and prizes will be presented by athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill.

Girl in a Liberty Dress by Clara Drummond

Clara Drummond is shortlisted for the first time.

Girl in a Liberty Dress

oil on board, 260 x 370 mm (10.2 x 14.5 inches)

copyright Clara Drummond

There's lots to like about this portrait.

The oil in this portrait is applied very thinly and sensitively almost in the style of a watercolour painting. - a technique which we sadly see far too little of. It reminds me very much of the way in which Jennifer McRae (a former BP prizewinner) works - it's all about the composition, tone and the draughtsmanship. There are also echoes in the pose of Jane Morris who inspired any number of portraits.

• Age: 38 years old (b. 27 September 1977)
• Nationality: British
• Occupation: artist
• Current home: Cambridgeshire (born in Edinburgh, Scotland)
• Art education: Prince’s Drawing School. (She studied studied modern languages at Cambridge University)
• Previous appearances in this award: previously selected five times for the BP Portrait Award Exhibition (2006, 2009, 2013 and 2014)
• Previous notable portraits for this award: Iris Palmer for BP Portrait Award 2009, and her friend, actor Ben Whishaw (2005 exhibition).
• Website: http://www.claradrummond.co.uk/
• Title / Media:  Girl in a Liberty Dress (260 x 370 mm, oil on board)
• Subject: Friend/artist Kirsty Buchanan (also painted for her exhibited works in the BP Portrait Award in 2013 and 2014)

The model Kirsty is a friend and fellow artist - and the subject of two previous works which have been selected for the BP Portrait Exhibition. On this occasion, both artists were working with the William Morris Society archive on an exhibition at the time and were looking at the hand drawn patterns for fabrics, wallpapers and tapestries by Jane Morris and May Morris, William Morris's wife and daughter. Hence the Liberty Print dress seemed appropriate for the context of the time.

Drummond says of Kirsty that

she is inspiring because she is always immersed in the ideas around whatever she is making at the time, history, nature, mythology and art all feed into her work, so when I am drawing or painting her it feels more like a collaboration than a portrait sitting.'

Hugo by Benjamin Sullivan

Benjamin Sullivan is shortlisted for the first time.

Note this is the ONLY one of the three paintings which demonstrates torso, head and hands - and I refer people back to last year's analysis of the paintings selected and my observation

all the portraits which have WON the BP Portrait Award since 2010 have all included hands

The John Ruskin Prize 2015: Shortlist

Thirty artists have been shortlisted for The John Ruskin Prize 2015. The Prize winners will be announced at the private view on 25 February 2016.

This is an annual art competition about drawing - with a theme. The Prize was established in 2012 to support emerging British artists. It aims to uphold Ruskin’s belief that drawing helps us see the world and its fragility more clearly.

The theme this year is Recording Britain Now: Society to re-assess their practice and focus on the prevalent social issues of 2015/16. 

In the same way that Recording Britain sought to map familiar townscapes and countryside under threat, this will be an invitation to engage with a society in rapid transition.

I published my post about The John Ruskin Prize 2015: Call for Entries back in June - and this set out some of the background to the Recording Britain now initiative associated with the Second World War.

“It is enlightening to compare the observations of our 30 finalists with those of the 63 artists commissioned by Sir Kenneth Clark (with funds from the Pilgrim Trust) to document Britain under threat during the Second World War. Creating an accessible online gallery from the V&A's historic Recording Britain collection and the contemporary imagery shortlisted for this Prize will make many more people aware of art's power to comment, provoke and urge action”.
Sue Grayson Ford, President, The Big Draw 

The John Ruskin Prize 2015: Short-listed Artists

Links below are to the 'about' pages on the websites of the shortlisted artists. These are:

• Timothy Betjeman -  graduated with a BA in Visual Art from the University of Chicago plus post-graduate diploma in Drawing from The Royal Drawing School
• David Borrington - His website says This website publishes latest artwork exploring strange unique analysis, of social political and current affairs.
  
• Julian Bovis - an Urban Landscape Artist who predominantly works in pen and ink on paper, producing large-format illustrations and limited-edition Giclee Prints. 
• Jessie Brennan - a London-based British artist whose practice explores the inter-relation between people and place, through drawing and dialogue. Last month she did a presentation of her project Regeneration - which describes the politics that led to the rise and fall of Robin Hood Gardens - from socialist-inspired post-war public housing to its eventual privation under neoliberalism

What’s highlighted are the dramatically different perceptions of the estate by academic/architectural institutions and the people who actually live there.

• Sally Cutler - a printmaker whose preferred medium is linocut. She's been developing a series of a series of heads of people living in different locations in the UK. Each head is a real person who lives in, works in or visits the region in the title.

Richmond, North Yorkshire Heads by Sally Cutler

Party Wall (2015)
Mixed-media.
copright Nathan Ford

• Nathan Ford -the blurb on his website makes for an interesting read. I've long been familiar with the amount of draughtsmanship and drawing that underpins his paintings - I always love looking at them. His work is above this bullet point - and is very different.

The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2016: Shortlisted Artists

Six artists have been shortlisted for The Columbia Threadneedle Prize of £20,000 plus a solo exhibition at Mall Galleries.

Exhibition

All visitors to the exhibition in February 2016 will be encouraged to vote for their favourite to win the second major prize - the £10,000 The Visitors’ Choice Award.

The exhibition will be at 

• The Mall Galleries including Visitors’ Choice Award: Wednesday 3rd to Saturday 20th February 2016 - open daily 10am to 5pm. Admission free.
• Palazzo Strozzi, Florence: Mon 27 June to Sun 24 July 2016

There's no Facebook Page for the Prize any more - just an event listing on Facebook.

The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2016 - Shortlist

The six artworks and artists who have been shortlisted  are listed below

Peter Clossick (linked website) - Member of the New England Art Club; Past President of the London Group and Freeman of the Painter-Stainers Guild

Summer Solstice
copyright Peter Clossick

Lewis Hazelwood-Horner - He's a graduate of the London Atelier of Representational Art and had works in the ROI and LARA exhibitions at the Mall Galleries last week.

Salt in Tea
copyright Lewis Hazelwood-Horner

Nicholas Holmes - Nick has spent most of his time in the north in terms of art education and exhibitions. He was longlisted for John Moores Painting Competition in 2014.

Shortlist for £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2015 announced

More than 2,748 portraits from a record 92 countries were digitally submitted for consideration by the Judges of the BP Portrait Award 2015.

Just three have been shortlisted for the £30,000 First Prize - and you can see them below. The portraits and artists are:

• Annabelle and Guy by Matan Ben-Cnaan (Israel)
• Eliza by Michael Gaskell (UK); and
• My Mother and My Brother on a Sunday Evening by Borja Buces Renard (Spain) (can anybody suggest a better link?).

I have to say having seen the high resolution images, my money is very definitely on Michael Gaskell - not least because:

• he's been selected five times, shortlisted three times and and runner up twice and I can't believe they'd be so cruel as to select him again and make him the runner-up again!
• it's the best painting I've seen him do - the technical expertise used is impeccable and the portrait itself is absolutely stunning.

Below you can find out about:

• the prizes on offer - those selected already know they've won at least £8k!
• more about the artists - and see the images shortlisted.

Tomorrow I will be highlighting the 55 selected artists whose work has been selected for the exhibition. The portraits selected for the exhibition will be on show at the BP Portrait Award 2015 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 18 June to 20 September 2015 and will tour subsequently.

Prizes on offer

The winners  of the prizes will be announced shortly before the opening of the exhibition to the public in June

• The First Prize is £30,000 plus a commission worth £5,000 to paint a portrait for the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection. The subject of the commission is agreed
  between the Gallery and the artist.
• The Second Prize winner receives £10,000 
• The Third Prize winner received £8,000. 
• There is also a BP Young Artist Award of £7,000 for the work of an entrant aged between 18 and 30.

Shortlisted Portraits and Artists

Annabelle and Guy by Matan Ben Cnaan

Annabelle and Guy by Matan Ben Cnaan

1200 x 1300mm, oil on board

Copyright: Matan Ben Cnaan

Age: 35 years old (born 23.04.1980)
Nationality: Israeli - he comes from the north of Israel
Occupation: a contemporary Israeli painter

Current home: Emek-Jezreel, Israel

Art education: studied fine arts at Haifa University

Previous appearances in this award: None

Website: http://matanbencnaan.com

Subject: his friend Guy and step-daughter Annabelle. However the portrait is an allegory.

In my work I study and capture the local Israeli with a non-romantic yet sentimental view. The land and its people partake equally in my view of today’s Israel.... Politics as well as Historical and Biblical themes are for me like the mythological and religious inspirations for the Old Masters creations.

He's used two friends as models for allegorical painting. The allegory in his painting relates to the biblical story of Jephthah. This is the man who vowed to God that if his side is victorious in the battle with the Ammonites, he will sacrifice the first thing that greets him upon his home-coming. The convention is that it's assumed this would be his dog. However his daughter gets there first and Jepthah realises what an awful mistka ehe has made - but nonethless upholds his vow and sacrifices his child.

‘Unified by the blinding light, all the objects in the picture become one. The tension imminent in the moment of realisation of the horrible price one must pay is reflected in the composition. The rough wall and rugged gravel echo the grittiness and grief in Guy's (Jephthah's) character, whilst the fig tree, casting an ominous shadow, presages Annabelle’s fate. Her strong posture reflects her own resolve and her role, in both the biblical story and in Guy’s life, in carrying his burdens and misfortune. Being no more than a child, Annabelle attempts to process her tragic fate’.

Eliza by Michael Gaskell

Eliza by Michael Gaskell
(370 x 270mm, acrylic on board)
Copyright: Michael Gaskell

I've met Michael Gaskell twice. That's because:

• he has been selected for BP Portrait Award exhibitions five times (1999, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2010) 
• he's been commended twice (1999 and 2001); and 
• on three occasions his portrait has taken the second prize (in 2003, 2009, 2010).
• he's already been commissioned by the NPG to paint portraits for its collection (a portrait of climate scientist Sir James Lovelock)

All I will say is that it's not unusual for the portrait which wins First Prize to have an artist who has a good record at BP Portrait Prize - and Michael fits that brief better than anyone else I know - see BP Portrait Award: Michael Gaskell's unparalled record)

This time he has painted his entry in acrylic rather than the egg tempera that he very frequently uses. The attention to colour, tone and texture is absolutely unbelievable - every warp and weft in the fine linen of the blue shirt is visible. The treatment of flesh and its blemishes is absolutely superb. More importantly still, the portrait is arresting.

What's also very interesting is that this year, Michael has submitted a larger painting (approximately twice the size of ones he has submitted in 2009 and 2010).

I'm thinking this will mean the painting offers a better 'presence' and also conforms rather closer to the sort of size of portrait that the NPG likes to have in its collection. Maybe this will do the trick and enable him to convert a magnificent track record into a First Prize this year. I know a lot of people will be very pleased if that happens - not least Michael!

Age: born 1963
Nationality: British - he comes from Sheffield
Occupation: a contemporary British artist
Current home: he now lives in Leicester
Art education: studied at St Helen’s College of Art and Design and Coventry Polytechnic
Previous appearances in this award: selected five times, shortlisted three times; won second prize twice
Website: http://matanbencnaan.com
Subject: His niece Eliza age 14 (She first sat for him as a small child - but that painting has not yet been completed!)

I hope this painting conveys a sense of Eliza’s growing confidence as she develops into a woman but retains some of the self-consciousness which was also present at the time.’

The work has been primarily influenced by Michael's study of the portraits of the great fifteenth century  Dutch painter Hans Memling (c. 1430 - 1494) who followed on from van Eyck. (You can see paintings by Memling here). His study of Memling was triggered by a commission to produce a painting for an Americna collector and fan of Memling.

My Mother and My Brother on a Sunday Evening by Borja Buces Renard

My Mother and My Brother on a Sunday Evening by Borja Buces Renard
1500 x 2000mm, oil on canvas
Copyright: Borja Buces Renard

Age: age 36, born 1978
Nationality: Spanish
Occupation: Artist
Current home: works and lives between Madrid, Spain and Florida, USA
Art education:  ?
Previous appearances in this award: None
Website: http://www.renard.es
Subject: his mother Paloma and his brother Jaime - painted in the living room of his parents’ house on a typical Sunday when the family would gather and talk

The painting has forms dissolving on the edges and is influenced by the progressively debilitating illness of his father who died a few weeks after it was finished. The illness accounts for his absence from the painting and his death is why the portrait is dedicated to his father Jose Antonio, and to his mother Paloma.

‘Making this weekly event slowly disappear, I wanted to portray this emotion in my paintingwith the image of my father missing and that difficult time for all of us, especially for my mum whom had dedicated herself to taking care of him. Our living room, in which we all spent many evenings together was the place that would best capture that moment. I had painted my mother, father and brother many other times on that same couch, so I was pretty sure about how I wanted to use the light and colour’. 

Other than that, it seems to me that his painting is a classical exercise in the golden ratio. Just look at where the eyes are and how the main horizontals and verticals bisect the portrait

Judges

The competition was judged from original paintings by:

• Pim Baxter, Chair of Judges and Acting Director at the time of judging, National Portrait Gallery;
• Sarah Howgate, Contemporary Curator, National Portrait Gallery;
• Kim Mawhinney, Head of Art, National Museums Northern Ireland;
• Peter Monkman, Artist;
• Simon Schama, Historian; and
• Des Violaris, Director, UK Arts & Culture, BP.

More about the BP Portrait Award

I'll be writing later in the week to comment on the record numbers who entered this year and how digital submission changed the profile of the entry.

BP Portrait Award - previous years

I've been covering the BP Portrait Award for some years and have an extensive archive of posts relating to previous competitions which I know are much studied by those contemplating an entry! :)

Entry for the 2016 BP Portrait Award opens in November 2016.

The Shortlist

• Shortlist announced for BP Portrait Award 2014 - Making a ...
  17 Apr 2014
  Review of the portrait painters from Germany, UK and USA, shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2014.
• BP Portrait Award 2013 - The Shortlist 23 April 2013
• BP Portrait Award 2013: Call for Entries 04 Dec 2012
• BP Portrait Award 2012 - The Shortlist 05 Apr 2012
• BP Portrait Award 2011 Shortlist 18 Apr 2011
• BP Portrait Award 2010 - Shortlist announced 28 Apr 2010
• BP Portrait Award 2009 - the shortlist 27 May 2009
• BP Portrait Award shortlist announced - a womanwill win! 25 Apr 2008

BP Portrait Award 2015

• MAKING A MARK: BP Portrait Award 2015 entry goes digital 18 Aug 2014 - BP Portrait Award 2015: An overview of the change to digital entry and tips on how to get good quality digital image of your painting.
• How to enter the £30000 BP Portrait Award 2015 24 Nov 2014

BP Portrait Award 2014

• BP Portrait Award 2014 - Call for Entries 03 Dec 2013
• Shortlist announced for BP Portrait Award 2014 17 Apr 2014 - Review of the portrait painters from Germany, UK and USA, shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award 2014. 
• BP Portrait Award: From 2,500+ entries to ... - A short 3 minute film about the artists shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award - made by the National Portrait Gallery
• BP Portrait Award 2014 - Video of presentation to prizewinners- A video of the awards ceremony for the BP Portrait Award 2014 - exhibition is at the National Portrait Gallery. 
• A video interview with Thomas Ganter, Winner of the BP Portrait Award 2014
•  Richard Twose and David Jon Kassan ...
  27 Jun 2014
  Here are my next two video interviews with artists winning prizes at the the BP Portrait Award 2014 Ceremony
• BP Portrait Award 2014 Exhibition - review and video - A video and review of the BP Portrait Award 2014 Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
• Edward Sutcliffe wins BP Travel Award 2014 - Making a Mark
• Sophie Ploeg and The Lace Trail - BP Travel Award exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

BP Portrait Award 2013

• BP Portrait Award 2013: Call for Entries The competition is open to all artists living anywhere in the world who are aged 18 and over on 1st January 2013.
• BP Portrait Award 2013 - Selected Artists and Statistics - list of selected portraits / exhibiting artists for the 2012 Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
• BP Portrait Award 2013 - The Shortlist - identifies those shortlisted. See if you can guess which work won before reading my review post.
• Susanne de Toit wins £30,000 BP Portrait Award 2013 - BP Portrait Award 2012 Prizewinners
• BP Portrait Exhibition 2013 - Video & Review - A Makingamark Video of a walk around the BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2013 at the National Portrait Gallery
• Sophie Ploeg wins BP Travel Award 2013 - information for those interested in the Travel Award
• Carl Randall's Japan - the best BP Travel Award Exhibition ever!

BP Portrait Award 2012

• Call for Entries: BP Portrait Award 2012 11 Dec 2011
• BP Portrait Award 2012 - 55 Selected Artists 30 May 2012
• Aleah Chapin wins £25,000 BP Portrait Award 2012 19 Jun 2012
• BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 (Part 1) 20 Jun 2012
• BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 (Part 2) 21 Jun 2012
• Video of BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 23 Jun 2012

BP Portrait Award 2011

• BP Portrait Award 2011 Shortlist - identifies shortlisted entries and artists. See if you can guess which work won before reading my review post.
• BP Portrait Award 2011: links to Selected Artists - artists selected for the exhibition in 2011
• Review: BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2011- my review of the exhibition (later than usual)
• BP Travel Awards: 2010 (Paul Beel) and 2011 (Jo Fraser) - information for those interested in the Travel Award
• BP Portrait Award 2011: People's Favourite & Statistics - this is the post in which I analysed last year's entry statistics

BP Portrait Award 2010

• BP Portrait Award 2010 - Shortlist announced)
• BP Portrait Award 2010: List of Exhibitors and Brian Sewell and
• Daphne Todd wins BP Portrait Award 2010
• Two American Artists win BP Portrait Prizes
• BP Portrait Award: Michael Gaskell's unparalled record
• a video of the exhibition see Video - BP Portrait Exhibition 2010 opens today

BP Portrait Award 2009

• BP Portrait Tour & Portrait of the Nation (24 Sep 2009)
• Sue Rubira makes her mark on BP Portrait (18 Jun 2009)
• Exhibition review: BP Portrait Award (18 Jun 2009)
• Peter Monkman wins first prize in BP Portrait Award 2009 (17 Jun 2009)
• BP Portrait Award 2009 - the shortlist (27 May 2009)
• BP Portrait Award - who enters and who gets selected (28 May 2009)
• BP Portrait Award 2009 - Call for Entries (15 Dec 2008)

BP Portrait Award 2008

• Craig Wylie wins BP Portrait Award 2008
• BP Portrait Prize 2008 - exhibition opens

BP Portrait Award 2007

• Making a Mark: Paul Emsley wins BP Portrait Award (22 Jun 2007)
• View the BP Portrait Award 2007 and BP Travel Award 2006 exhibitions(15 June 2007)