Careful what you wish for!

Finally I can tell you that on 21st April I had the fun of painting in Portrait Artist Of The Year, the Sky Arts annual TV portrait competition. This year is the 10th anniversary series of “PAOTY”, and a fantastic opportunity for all the selected artists to participate.

The show will be aired this Autumn, so you won’t find any spoilers here. BUT in the weeks running up to filming day, I practiced hard on unsuspecting friends and family and honed my process to a tee. So until it’s aired, I can share my practice runs, palette, brushes, and the process that I evolved to do my best on the day.

What is PAOTY?

Artists apply to be on the show by submitting a self portrait. If selected, they are one of nine competitors in a heat. Each heat has three celebrity sitters, with three artists assigned to each of them. In front of a studio audience, we had a total of 4 working hours (plus breaks) to produce a portrait. The day is a glorious mix of artists, celebrities, presenters, judges, cameras, and audience, all kept on track by the wonderful Storyvault staff. At the end of the 4 hours, the sitters each get to choose their favourite portrait to take home, then the judges (Kate Bryan, Kathleen Soriano, and Tai-Shan Shierenberg - collectively “The Judgementals”) select a heat winner. The heat winners all go through to a semi-final, then three go through to the final. The prize is a £10,000 commission for a major art gallery.

My submission was this self portrait. I painted it over a few days, while doing the Strada Easel challenge. For information and process videos, click the picture. The portrait also saw me into the Ruth Borchard 2023 Self Portrait Prize Exhibition, I owe it a lot!

Program researchers (Storyvault/Sky TV)

After the initial call to say I'd made it onto the show, the universally lovely Storyvault team contacted me several times. This included a detailed pre-show interview, talking through my art journey, practice, materials, thoughts on the show, etc. I got the impression they were looking for interesting things for the judges and presenters to pick up on. There was considerable ‘due diligence’, and a lengthy contract to sign. They came across as a well-oiled machine (it was the 10th series after all), with all the staff being really upbeat, enthusiastic and kind. They even asked for food preferences for breakfast and lunch (it’s a very early start on filming day!).

The heats aren’t necessarily aired in the order they are filmed, but luckily I was allocated to Heat 4, so had a good few weeks to prepare. 3 of those weeks were taken up with a sailing holiday (more about my ‘on board practice’ below).

Something that really caught my interest in the preparatory notes was that contestants are allowed to work through breaks. So in theory there was potentially a 6 hour time window to paint. I kept my practice runs down to a 4 hour painting time, but being blessed with good stamina, was hopeful that on the day that contingency would be very useful. You’ll have to wait until it’s aired to find out how that went!

My research

I cannot recommend the Making A Mark blog enough. SO much information, I binge read lots of posts, hoovering up tips on everything from canvas size to how best to talk to the judges. Here is the post about entering this year’s competition.

I also re-watched lots of previous episodes of the show with my daughter - it was absolutely great revisiting old favourites, and seeing so many great contemporary artists who've since benefitted from that unique platform.

My starting point

I am generally in the habit of doing lots of life drawing (from the figure), and sketching friends and family as often as they permit! I regularly take commissions, from photos and from life. I have also done live event sketching, under the umbrella of The Royal Portrait Society, and at Heart Of The Tribe Gallery - sketching people quickly from life. So I’m used to talking to a sitter, dealing with interruptions, and getting a likeness when the sitter is mobile.

Practice runs

The experience was, of course, amazing - from how the researchers prepared us for the program, to the filming day in Battersea Arts Centre. But the most valuable takeaway of all, giving lifelong benefit, was the intense practice I was motivated to do in the run-up.

So here is where I owe friends and family an apology - they came to model for me out of kindness, without knowing anything about the show! It takes a certain sort of person to volunteer their time to model like this. In order to practice from life, I needed to feel sure that if it was a disaster, or unflattering, they would be OK with that too. In many cases I had a stopwatch, to keep to the 4 hour limit. Most of them didn’t know what/why I needed to practise such a precise timeframe, but they just went along with it, like the brilliant friends they are!

So here are my four-hour oil portrait practices, in order, with notes. They are are all oil on canvas, roughly 100 x 70cm.

Grace

Grace was the perfect first sitter, as I know her to be (amongst many wonderful qualities) absolutely comfortable in her skin. There were several things that really helped this portrait:

The clothes Grace had chosen were an absolute gift - interesting, complimentary, but not overpowering. Also her chosen pose fitted really well on the canvas. Being no stranger to a bit of meditation, she made light work of staying still and focussed.

So the painting went smoothly, which raised my confidence and got me off to a great start. The fine balance between confidence and caution is hugely important for me to give my best.

The natural light coming in from the side was also ideal, but given the amount of practice I needed to do, I decided I’d have do the next ones downstairs in my studio rather than occupying the family space for weeks on end.

See the varnishing of Grace’s portrait here.

Izzi

Unlike most of the sitters, being my daughter Izzi was aware of WHY I needed to practice! She was also deep in A level revision, so kindly sat for me on the sole condition that she could carry on working. Together we are avid watchers of PAOTY, so it became a really nice break for both of us from our respective intensive crusades to re-watch and analyse lots of episodes. As an artist herself, Izzi was an invaluable help on strategy, and encouraged me to look for ‘pops’ of interesting colours to liven up portraits. Although this isn’t the best likeness, I was very happy that this portrait captures a moment in our lives, and it gave us precious memories and time together before she heads off to university in the Autumn. I was also very happy that Izzi found a moment in her schedule to come for the filming - her reflections on my progress during the show were really helpful.

Ray

I was happy with most of this portrait, but it clearly demonstrates my exposure with hands. I don’t think Ray particularly enjoyed the sitting process, he was definitely doing it as a favour, although we had a lovely chat as always, and listened to a podcast. Here you can see the plinth I built for sitters. Balanced on paintpots, it was admittedly precarious! He told me afterwards he thought he was just coming round for a coffee, but look at that happy face at the end. I was pleased with the backdrop, not least as a challenge, but with hindsight I can see the lighting wasn’t doing me any favours.

Cilla

I learned that many people really do like cushioning, and that it’s important to raise your sitter up as close to eye level as possible, so they aren’t looked down on by the viewer. I hung a blue sheet over the coloured background. My plan was that even if the PAOTY background was busy, I’d probably want to simplify it - not least to save time, but also to keep the focus on the sitter. Again, you’ll have to watch the show to see if this approach worked out on the day.

You can see from the finished portrait at Cilla’s feet that I’d cropped her to be roughly life size on the canvas. This was my planned strategy if the celebrity sitter was an older woman, ie to have her ‘take up space’ in an affirmative way. Cilla said afterwards that her friends thought the portrait was a very good likeness, but she felt I’d aged her - she does have a very youthful energy to her character that I failed to capture, a delightful presence in the neighbourhood. On the upside, she also said that she had felt like a queen, being painted!

Debbie

It was Debs who was most vocal in egging me on to enter PAOTY, having frankly been on at me for years! For countless episodes, we have exchanged post-match analyses after watching the show, occasionally having a rant about The Judgementals’ decisions, and trying to guess the winner. I also knew her to be a big Stephen Mangan fan.

So I did let Debs in on the plan, and sent her all my practice portraits, with photos of the sitters, for analysis. Contestants are allowed to put people on the audience guest list, so I invited her and husband Jon on the day. I knew from experience that she would tell me EXACTLY what she thought about progress, which I really value. Even if she’d tried to hide it, as a friend of 30+ years, I would be able to read her face in the audience. Here we are with the wonderful Stephen Mangan (Jon was relegated to photographer!).

Caroline Higgins

Caroline is a brilliant local artist, whose open studio I thoroughly enjoyed. I really like the strong disruptive feminism that underlies her work. We had such an interesting chat, and, like Grace, Caroline has an instictive eye for outfit and pose. The way in which likeness lies in posture is something I love to use in my work. Here you can see a progress shot, probably about half way through. I didn’t have time to address the hands (aka left them till last out of insecurity and conveniently ran out of time!), but they feel a bit less jarring than Ray’s. I plan to make some final adjustments to this before giving Caroline her portrait. You can see the paintpots supporting the plinth (which is a chipboard mounted lino, from an old camel linocut). The cushion and folded sheets are comfort/background options which I was offering models by that time.

Angela

Well, what can I say? If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that Angela has sat for me countless times, since we first met. I guess (hope and suspect) that she enjoys it as much as I do. The first picture (below) was a 4 hour practice. I was experimenting with going for a smaller canvas size, and tighter crop. The other pictures are a small selection of the many portraits I’ve done of my great entrepreneurial friend, all (except for “Industry”) from life. Here is a varnishing video of Angela’s portrait.

Other practice

Whilst I wanted to practice my process ready for the competition, I also wanted to continue portraiture for the fun of it, the connection with others, and to boost my skills in any way possible. Having committed to keep my participation a secret, I made it my business to turn every social engagement possible into a portraiture opportunity! One of my favourites, was having Caitlin and Billie (two local artists who I’ve met through life drawing groups) for a studio visit. We took it in turns to model, and had a brilliant time. It was so refreshing to see their portraits of me, which amply demonstrate their unique skills, and the vastly different approaches one can take. It was also good to experience sitting ‘in the hot seat’ myself - far more relaxing than being on the other side of the easel!

Beyond that, I used whatever chances I had to practice blocking in - even without finishing a portrait, it is possible to practice composition, and how you are going to fit the figure into the canvas. I would say this was a really helpful element of my preparation. I carried on going to life drawing too, as it is fundamentally the ultimate practice. On my visit to the Cezanne exhibition, I chose his bathers as a subject to sketch. I did lots of little drawings, including quick-fire portraits with the wonderful Drawing Is Free online sessions

When we were sailing, I tried to fit in a portrait each day, although it was pretty hectic with 5 of us on board, at sea most days. Whenever possible, I like to do ‘warts and all’ portraits, as I strongly believe the true person is wonderful enough without embellishment. But Tom developed chicken pox between Grenada and Trinidad, so given that he was feeling pretty miserable, I left the spots out of his portrait at his request!

Glen

2 days before filming, I had booked Angela’s wonderful Auntie Glen in to sit for a final 4 hour practice. Having been quite pleased with the portrait of Caroline, I was a bit worried that if this one didn’t go well it would shake my confidence. But that’s an occupational hazard, and was far outweighed by the value of the experience together, particularly as I hadn’t taken the oil paints on holiday at all. It was great to have an unfamiliar face, and also to get to know Glen - we had a lot to chat about. By this time I’d realised the huge impact that lighting can have, so I deliberately set my plinth up with flat light. This minimises shadows, creating quite a challenge for rendering form. This was because I didn’t know what the lighting might be like in the show. I will share more about my process in the next blog, but whilst I wanted to work from life in the competition, I planned to use a photo in the 3rd hour to check and tighten up the likeness. You can see in the picture below that I rotated the canvas and photo through 90 degrees (which I find really helps with shape abstraction). My tablet and marl stick are hooked over the top edge of the canvas. See a video of the varnishing process here.

Especially for you

That’s all for now. Surely anyone who watches the show has dreams (or nightmares) about what it would be like to be a contestant. Feel free to ask questions in the comments (I won’t be giving any spoilers!), and I’d love to know how you think you’d approach it if you were a competing artist?

I will leave no stone unturned in sharing the experience with you in my following blogs, including my hour-by-hour process, tools and materials.

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