Review: £10,000 Commission for Landscape Artist of the Year 2025

The Commission Prize comes right after the we find out who won Landscape Artist of the Year for 2026 - see my post Kim Day wins Landscape Artist of Year 2026

This post is about the Commission:

• the brief for the Landscape Artist of the Year commission
• the Commission Programme - what's involved in understanding the brief and the constraints on the artist
• the Commission Painting produced by the winner of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023.

Before the Unveiling of the Commissioned Painting of Croagh Patrick

The Commission

It's probably worth saying that this is not a prize in the sense that a nice tidy sum of £10,000 lands in your bank account. 

First you have to work for it!

What you get in effect as a prize is an opportunity to EARN £10K through creating a painting - which everybody will want to comment on (and have done!)

The Challenge

The Commission is both like and unlike a commission an artist usually receives.

Usually it's only illustrators who get a tight brief and an absolute deadline for delivery - and given her day job is being a scenic artist for film and television Kim will have been very used to working on commission.

However most artists have some flexibility about deadlines (i.e. you say whether to accept it or not and when you can do it / deliver it) and briefs when doing a commission. This one you have

• a very specific subject - it has to be a painting about Croagh Patrick, the holy mountain associated with St Patrick in County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland
• a very specific deadline - for delivery to the National Gallery of Ireland and the filming of the Winner's Commission programme
• considerable latitude as to what you do and how you do it - within the context of media allowed in the competition - and the constraints of being followed around by a film crew the whole time

The winner will receive a taxable fee of £10,000 (ten thousand pounds) (“the Winner’s Prize Fee”) for creation, completion, and delivery of an artwork (“the Winner’s Prize Artwork”) of a landscape (“Winner’s Prize Location”) on dates and times and locations to be determined by the Producer at its absolute discretion. Extract from the Series 11 Terms and Conditions

The Brief

The first part of the Commission is a visit to the National Gallery of Ireland to meet Dr Brendan Rooney, Head Curator and Curator of Irish Art to:

• get the brief
• ask questions

PAOTY - What are the winners doing now? (series 1-6)

This is about the first six artists who achieved the title of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year. (Series 1-6) The year at the end of each heading below relates to the year the series was broadcast and not the year it was filmed.

My previous post PAOTY - What are the winners doing now? (series 7- 11) covered the winners of Series 7-11. 

Portraits of Amir Khan and Sir Ian McKellen painted by Christian Hook

Today's post is about

• Series 1: Nick Lord
• Series 2: Christian Hook
• Series 3: Gareth Reid
• Series 4: Samira Addo
• Series 5: Duncan Shoosmith 
• Series 6: Christobel Blackburn

Links to their websites are embedded in their names.

Nick Lord - Series 1 (2013)

The very first series began with heats held in London, Cardiff, Glasgow and Dublin. 

Nick Lord (Instagram) won the very first series in 2013 by beating the 1,800 applicants to become the overall winner. 

He was born and raised in Cardiff. He studied for a BA in Fine Art at Kingston University and graduated in July 2011 with a BA in Fine Art First Class Honours from Kingston University  

Nick won with a portfolio of work done throughout the series

• He painted Gavin Henson in his Cardiff heat. 
• For the Final

• he was commissioned to paint Lance Sergeant Johnson Beharry VC
• and he painted Sophie Dahl in Paris - with the other artists

The unveiling of Nick Lord's commissioned portrait for the Final
of Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry VC

After winning the series, as his prize, he was then commissioned to paint a portrait of double-Booker author Hilary Mantel for The British Library

Nick Lord with Hilary Mantel at the unveiling at the British Library.

Oddly, I can identify an Instagram account but no website. He also did not participate in the Portrait Artist of the Decade programme to celebrate 10 series of Portrait Artist of the Year and there is no bio that I can find about his subsequent career.

Christian Hook - Series 2 (2014)

I find that Christian Hook is probably the artist who gets mentioned most by those thinking back to who was the artist that had the most impact on them or the one they liked the most.

He has an amazing ability to use contemporary texhnciques and yet get a good likeness every time. He combines accurate portraits which really look like the sitter with Gerhard Richter type swipes of paint.

For the final he painted

• Sir Ian McKellen in 4 hours
• a very large painting of Amir Khan for his commissioned portrait

Waiting to hear who has won Series 2 of PAOTY
Christian Hook in the middle has the two biggest portraits from
the 4 hour painting in the Final Session and the commission completed beforehand

Never ever underestimate the impact of very good portraits in the Final which are also very big!

His commission painting for the Scottish Portrait Gallery of Scottish Actor Alan Cuming.....

PAOTY 2025: Commission Painting of Hannah Fry

This is about "The Winner's Story - Painting Hannah Fry" and the very last episode of Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year (2025)

I include this here, because of course this is not painting so much as printmaking. I guess that the good people at Storyvault Films forget that artists and painters are not interchangeable words - and one is a subset of the other.

Either that or they made up this graphic in advance of the series on the basis you might as well get all the titles done at the same time.....

Title frame for the Winner's Story - Episode 11 of Series 12 of PAOTY (2025)

That illustrates how much a PAINTER is expected to be the winner. 

Yet this year Chloe Barnes, who is a mono printmaker, won and hence this winner's story is about the process of moving from winning to getting the commission to create a portrait of Professor Hannah Fry for the Royal Society started, worked on, done and then unveiled - as a MONOPRINT.

The portrait was commissioned by the Royal Society as part of a year-long celebration of the 80th anniversary of the first women elected to its Fellowship, Kathleen Lonsdale FRS and Marjory Stephenson FRS.

The Sitter and the Unveiling

We'll start at the very beginning and then the end - with the Sitter and the Unveiling

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

The Commission

Every year, the winner of the Portrait Artist of the Year Award receives a £10,000 commission to 

• create a portrait of a specific individual - who is typically well known and has contributed in a significant way to public life.
• for a particular organisation - who would like to have a portrait of that individual. 

The Client

So this year the organisation was The Royal Society 

• formally founded in 28 November 1660 and  formally known as The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, 
• It is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. It is also known as

the oldest scientific organisation in continuous existence in the world

In 2025, the Royal Society is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the admission of the first women to the Royal Society Kathleen Lonsdale and Marjory Stephenson in 1945.

The Sitter

The Sitter, Professor Hannah Fry, is the 

• first ever Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Previously she was the Professor of the Mathematics of Cities at University College London (UCL)
• President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications
• a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
• has received various awards, including latterly the Royal Society's David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2024 in recognition of her significant work in public engagement with science and for her prolific role in popularising mathematics. The medal is bronze, is awarded annually and is accompanied by a gift of £2,500.
• plus she has 1.7 million followers on Instagram @frysquared

Interestingly she is NOT a Fellow of the Royal Society - although I'm assuming that this will probably follow.

In November 2025, she also joined Goalhanger to deliver a brand new podcast The Rest is Science with educator Michael Stevens (Vsauce). This is what's currently all over her Instagram account @frysquared - NOT the portrait!

The Unveiling

First we all wait, 

Left: Royal Society people and programme presenter
Right: Chloe Barnes and Prof. Hannah Fry with her two daughters

Then we all take a jolly good look

Keith Moore, Head of Library at the Royal Society comments on the fact
this is the first print portrait of a living female scientist at the Royal Society

and then, like at all good parties, we get a pic taken with the most important person in the room i.e. the monoprint

Posing for photographs - Hannah Fry and her daughters
with the monoprint by Chloe Barnes

....and then the Royal Society publish a news statement / press release about the new portrait of Professor Hannah Fry. 

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..and then we get to see the portrait

Review: £10,000 Commission for Landscape Artist of the Year 2025

This post follows on from my review of the Final of Landscape Arrtist of the Year - see Ben MacGregor wins Landscape Artist of the Year 2025 - and deals with all aspects of the Commission.

This post is about:

• the challenge of the Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 10) commission
• the Commission Programme
• the Commission Painting produced by the winner of Landscape Artist of the Year 2025

I confess part of this review is also part guide to the places Ben visited - because I've visited them too!

The Commission Challenge

Every year a different organisation provides both the brief and budget for the commission. 

For the 10th Anniversary, the production team were looking for a prestigious client and commission

I wrote about the Commission Challenge back in April 2024 in 10th Anniversary Prize Commission for Landscape Artist of the Year

Last week Sky Arts announced the organisation which will receive the commission and the location of the 10th Anniversary Prize Commission for the next series of Landscape Artist of the Year has been announced.

• The Courtauld Gallery will be the recipient of the £10,000 Prize Commission - meaning the winner will have their commission painting hung in the Courtauld. (You can see online versions of paintings in the Courtauld Collection - but always best to visit to see the real thing and appreciate its impact)
• The location for the Commission will be the South of France

Following in the footsteps of famous painters like Monet, Cezanne and Van Gogh, the winning artist will travel to the south of France to create a work inspired by one of the most famous coastlines in the word.

Ben visiting the Gallery holding the Permanent Collection of the Courtauld Gallery

Ben Macgregor visited the Courtauld Gallery to meet Barnaby Wright, Deputy Head of The Courtauld Gallery and Curator of 20th Century Art. 

He advised Ben of what the £10,000 Commission Challenge comprised and how it related to three important paintings in the Courtauld Collection (see below)

Ben Macgregor getting his briefing from Barnaby Wright

What we would like you to do is to go to those different sites where those three artists painted and were so inspired and produce your own contemporary response to those three landscapes.

Barnaby Wright

Wow - you've just given me goosebumps!

Ben MacGregor

I thought it was a very challenging commission. I could see the rationale behind it but it would have had my stomach doing somersaults of it had been me!

The Commission Programme

PAOTY 2024 - The Commission and the Reveal

This is about Brogan Bertie painting Lorraine Kelly for the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland - his £10K prize for winning Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2024.

It covers:

• preparedness to paint a commission
• painting with Lorraine Kelly
• painting back in the studio
• the big reveal - unveiling of the Commission
• what do people think

Later this week, I'm doing a post which provides a critique of the format of the programme and the way the judging works. I won't be pulling punches....

Preparedness to Paint a Commission

It became very obvious very quickly that the Judges had chosen somebody who 

• had never ever done a commission before and 
• actually wasn't very clued up about how they typically work in practice / real life

That could be because he'd only taken up portrait painting six months previously and to date had only painted his friends who were happy to sit for him as he painted from life. (I shall comment further tomorrow when I get round to tackling how the series was run!)

"I think painting from life gives it an energy that I don't get when painting from photographs"

Brogan Bertie

Personally, I think he's dead set on being "the second Lucian Freud" who insisted on painting from life and never painted from photographs. There is so much of "how he paints" which is influenced by Freud who appears to be one of his heroes. He's a great hero to have, but maybe some more awareness of the stages Freud went through before he arrived at his mature stage might be educational and promote a better sense of the pace of change.

The Transition to Portraiture

There's a section after the chat with his parents - which leads straight into an important backstory.

Review: Landscape Artist of the Year 2024 - The £10,000 Sustainable Orkney Commission

This review of the £10,000 commission won by the winner of Landscape Artist of the Year is always a really odd review to write.  This post is about why - and includes:

• the £10,000 Commission
• the challenge of the Landscape Artist of the Year commission
• the Commission Programme
• the Commission Painting produced by the winner of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023.
• how you can see it at the Science Museum.

There are two main aspects to the review

• the programme
• the commission artwork

I know all I'm doing is looking to see whether, to me, it looks like an artwork worth £10,000 - and hence the client has not been diddled.

In this instance Monica very clearly demonstrated in her commission painting produced for the Final - of her neighbourhood where she lives - that she's clearly capable of a lot more than the small paintings she was producing in just 4 hours (for the heat, semi-finals and final).

The £10,000 Commission

First - a quick preliminary - about the Commission

The £10,000 Commission is, of course, the Prize for winning Landscape Artist of the Year 2024.  (See my blog post for my review of the Final - Monica Popham wins Landscape Artist of the Year 2024)

The Client for the Commission is the Science Museum.

The Science Museum in Exhibition Road in South Kensington.

The 2024 Landscape Artist of the Year prize was a commission by the Science Museum Group to capture the story of Orkney's central role in the UK's transition to low-carbon, renewable energy.

Does the client get the artwork irrespective of what sort of artwork the winning artist turns out? I thought there must be something in the rules somewhere which indicates "best efforts" etc. But instead I found this

If the Winner rejects the Winner’s Prize or otherwise fails to carry out the creation of the Winner’s Prize Artwork on such dates and times and locations required by the Producer, then the Producer reserves the right to take the Winner’s Prize away from the Winner and the Producer shall be entitled to select another Winner.  

The Challenge of the Commission

I've always thought that the commission is typically a prestigious view for a prestigious client. In other words it:

• brings a very worthwhile prize pot 
• alongside something which is a difficult challenge to confront and address. 

Plus you might get to go to an interesting place.

Call for Entries: Landscape Artist of the Year Series Ten

This is about the Call for Entries for Landscape Artist of the Year (series 10). 

• First some basics about how the Landscape Artist of the Year (LAOTY) competition and how this television series works
• Then the details for entries for the heats which will be filmed this summer and broadcast at this time next year
• Finally - at the end - are all my previous blogs are listed providing access to all the Themes, Learning Points and Tips I've written about in past series. This advice is perennial!

Given there was a celebration of ten years of PAOTY, it's reasonable to expect the same thing may well happen for LAOTY.

The Basics of Landscape Artist of the Year

This is a televised competition. Artists enter with a landscape artwork created within the last 5 years. They are selected on merit by our panel of expert judges. At the heats they are given four hours to paint a particular, stunning landscape somewhere in the UK (locations announced closer to the time). Six heat winners get to compete at the Semi-Final. Three Semi-Finalists are selected for the Final. Just one Finalist is selected as the overall winner.

For the winner

• a prize of a commission valued at £10,000
• the title Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year - for either portrait or landscape

For all participants

• LOTS of publicity for you and your art
• traffic to your website and social media sites - so long as you remember to create then and publicise them!
• looks good on your CV

Basic of the Entry Process

• Amateur and professional artists aged 16 or over can enter IF they are:
• in good health
• have been resident in have been resident in the UK, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Republic of Ireland since 11th October 2022
• All media allowed except sculpture and photographic or digital elements.
• You must complete an online form
• You need to submit a landscape of your choice - made within the last five years and limited in size (both in reality and as a file size)

The work may be abstract or expressive as long as it is recognisably a representation of a landscape that has been produced within the last five years. It should be a maximum of 1220mm [height] x 914 mm [width].

• Artwork you submit can be a LOT more important to whether or not you win a heat than many people think. 
• Your digital image of your submission is critically important. Your artwork won't be seen in person by the Judges until you get selected and it is hung for the Heat.
• you need to commit to being available for all relevant dates
• see ‘Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year Series 10’ (working title) CompetitionTerms and Conditions for Entrants 

Basics of the Heat Process

PAOTY 2023: Commission Painting of Dr Jane Goodall

This is about the winner's story about painting the commissioned portrait in the 10th series of Portrait Artist of the Year.

Every year, the winner of the Portrait Artist of the Year Award receives a £10,000 commission to paint a specific individual for a particular organisation - who would like to have a portrait of that individual. The latter is typically famous and has contributed in a significant way to public life.

The unveiling of the commissioned portrait of Dr Jane Goodall
by Wendy Barratt
in the History Makers Gallery at the National Portrait Gallery

In this instance:

• the winner is Wendy Barratt, (see Wendy Barratt is Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 (Series 10)

"a great painter with a sensitivity for the human condition - and that combination is magical" Tai Shan Shierenberg

• her sitter is the esteemed ethologist (a scientist who studies animals in their natural environment), activist and conservationist, Dr Jane Goodall who nearly 90 and is considered to be the world's foremost authority on chimpanzees following her groundbreaking research with a colony of chimpanzees in the 1960s. She also continues to campaign on behalf of the natural world around the world.
• and the organisation commissioning the portrait is the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) - who have been trying to get a proper portrait of Jane Goodall for some time!

The £10,000 commission

The National Portrait Gallery already has a portrait of Jane Goodall - as part of a Panel 1 of a newly commissioned artwork about Work in Progress for Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture (see below).

Sarah Howgate, the Senior Curator for Contemporary Collections suggested to Wendy that:

• it was important for the NPG to represent more environmentalists
• the commission portrait could be a head and shoulder, as a full figure of Jane Goodall (plus chimp) in her younger years has already been incorporated in the "Work in Progress" frieze mentioned above (on the left below).
• plus she has an incredible face.

On the left of this "Work in Progress" frieze
is a much younger Jane Goodall with a chimp

The Portrait Process

I thought that this particular episode was particularly good because, from beginning to end, it's a complete education in how one artist pursues her process by talking and showing us what she does.

Other programmes about the commission have similarly followed the process - but I think Wendy is particularly articulate about all the stages she follows and it was a sheer pleasure to watch.

I'm going to try and note the process - with quotes - below!!  I also highly recommend that you go back and watch it again to appreciate the pathway she pursues.

Also bear in mind this is a good process for whoever you are painting a portrait of!

The process

• meet the artist - having watched her produce three separate portraits, the programme introduced us to a bit more about the artist and how she works
• her style is rooted in tradition - but she tries to introduce expression as well
• she loves lines
• she's an oil painter who does more drawing than painting - she wanted to know why she couldn't draw with a brush and then started to draw into her paintings using a small flat hogshair brush
• she loves painting people with a story and likes to bring out the heart and soul of the sitter.

"What drives me is constant looking and learning. It's about experimentation" Wendy Barratt

• meet the client - and find out what they want. In this instance 
• Wendy met Sarah Howgate at the National Portrait Gallery (below)
• she saw the new History Makers Gallery and the nature of the scale, size and style of the different portraits (see second pic below)
• Wendy's favourite gallery in London has always been the National Portrait Gallery so it must have been intensely meaningful for Wendy to know that she would be painting a portrait for the national contemporary collection.

Wendy meeting Sarah Howgate at the new entrance 
to the refurbished National Portrait Gallery

The NEW History Makers Gallery at the National Portrait Gallery

• First Sitting: getting to know the sitter - on their own territory. Wendy visited Bournemouth and Dr Goodall in the house in which she grew up and where she still lives. They talked together in the garden. In a way it's interesting that this approach is routed in ethology - of getting to know an animal in its own space.

"I would love Wendy to be able to capture determination and compassion..... so who can capture 90 years worth of experience and living? It's really difficult!" Dr Jane Goodall

• Wendy brings pre-conceived ideas about what she wants to do
• however first sittings are about trying to take everything in
• at the same time as remaining open to her instinct
• it's about keeping ideas about the portrait loose and fluid so it can change

"I hate looking at myself. I hate photographs" Dr Jane Goodall

• Wendy is making notes - in charcoal - about Jane's face
• She focuses on structures and shapes and how to achieve them
• she takes photographs - at the end AFTER Jane has relaxed from the observation during the drawing session

Note that this section is also wonderful for Jane Goodall talking about what she did and how she did it.

• drawing from life - Wendy is a huge fan of drawing from life and always starts her portraits by making a drawing to get to know the head and face of the sitter. 
• taking photographs - Wendy took numerous photographs for reference to begin to try and work out what might be the best composition for the portrait

Wendy and Jane - getting to know one another prior to starting the drawing

• more studies: 
• working through the size, proportion of the composition and developing drawings of the face from photos and sketches
• she also drew her while Jane was giving a talk in London - while relaxed and at her most animated without thinking - with chimpanzee noises
• then sketching again after she's walked away from the meeting of the face while still fresh in her mind's eye.

"She's so petite and fragile but so strong" Wendy Barratt

• use of life drawing - to stimulate expression
•  she runs a life drawing class in Worthing
• Wendy draws from life a LOT which is probably one of the reasons why she could capture a good likeness so quickly in the heat and subsequently
• Second Sitting: painting from life plus more photos - a second visit brought an opportunity to paint rather than draw Jane. 
• Except of course, Wendy drew her in first to get the shape, size and relative proportions right which underpin the likeness - using a brush. 
• she uses a limited palette of two colours and white to get a number of related tones and develop a tonal painting
• more photographs now she has learned her face and Jane is once again less likely to tense when the camera comes out

I know I can get likeness. That wasn't the sort of thing for today. Today was see what squidging paint around on the surface would do for the story and what I'd glean from that Wendy Barratt

Second Sitting at the Natural History Museum

"She's small and quite quiet but with a strength that sort of almost punches you in the stomach" Wendy Barratt

• working out the final design - this is gathering all the information together in terms of drawings and photographs and different perspectives
• she wants to go through the painful process of working things out
• the studies have helped to eliminate some of the options

Some of the photos and studies of Jane

• painting the final portrait: Wendy's aims include that viewers - when standing in front of the portrait - should be: 
• drawn in by the face alone
• see how serious Jane is
• see also the life in Jane and her emotional spark; and 
• for the face to give an emotion to the viewer

"It's like being at the top of the rollercoaster.... I could end up with really white knuckles and really poorly at the end!!" Wendy Barratt

"I'm not expecting her to like it - but I'm hoping she might appreciate it" Wendy Barratt 

I think she succeeded and then some. It's an amazing portrait painting.

I hope others wanting to do well will also learn from Wendy's process.

 

The unveiling of "the biggest commission on Wendy's life"

The portrait was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery - in the Gallery were it will hang - History Makers on Floor 0 

This gallery includes paintings of people who are really making a difference to Britain today.  It also includes the portrait of Lenny Henry by last year's winner Morag Caister - see PAOTY Commission - Painting Sir Lenny Henry (aka Len) and the 

Two women with character and strength - waiting for an unveiling

"I think we need a portrait which knocks it out of the park and nothing less" Kate Bryan

Part of this you have captured is me - and part of it is the icon. It's interesting Jane Goodall  

I thought it was a brilliant portrait and I'm looking forward to seeing it "in real life"!  I also really appreciate how Wendy shared her process so very clearly and I hope others learn from it.

PAOTY 2023: Portrait of Dr Jane Goodall by Wendy Barratt
 - for the National Portrait Gallery

Some comments from my Facebook Page 

I was in tears when I saw her portrait of Jane Goodall. I keep going back to it, spellbound.

When I saw the commission programme I knew that she was the only one who could have connected so well with Dr Jane . It was hard to imagine either of the other finalists making such a good connection. Ruth Mann

I felt exactly the same about her connection with Jane Goodall. I'm not sure either of the other two could have achieved it. It really brought it home to me that technical ability is only part of artistic talent, especially where portraits are concerned. It's the artist's ability to see things AND get that vision down on the canvas (or whatever) that makes the difference. Lesley Waring

Previous PAOTY Commission blog posts

• 2022: PAOTY Commission - Painting Sir Lenny Henry (aka Len)
• 2021: incorporated in this post Calum Stevenson wins Portrait Artist of the Year (Series 8 Autumn 2021)
• 2020: PAOTY Commission: Curtis Holder draws Carlos Acosta
• 2019: ncorporated in this post Duncan Shoosmith is Portrait Artist of the Year 2019
   

My favourite subjects to draw and sketch

How do we identify the special subjects we like to sketch, draw or paint again and again?

Sometimes we don't realise for a very long time what they are until we've done enough to see a pattern.

Landscapes with extensive views

For me, it dawned on me after I first created my website for my artwork that it was landscapes with VERY BIG vistas! There were an awful lot of them....

Here's an example. This was a commission I did 11 years ago for the American wife of a cyclist who loved his time cycling up Mont Ventoux in Provence (YES! There really are people who commission paintings for their spouses!) 

Mont Ventoux from the Hotel Crillon Le Brave
12" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils on Arches HP 

The commission was triggered by a sketch on a blog post on the blog we created for a painting holiday in Provence 

Painting in Provence
This is the story of four women who were drawing, sketching and painting in Provence in June 2011.
We shared a house and held a painting party!
You are invited to share our preparations, our sketches and paintings, comings and goings and general conviviality!and the original sketch

This was the original blog post Sunday lunch and sketching at Hotel Crillon Le Brave and two of the original sketches. 

The view from the terrace of Mont Ventoux and Bedoin in the distance

Meals in restaurants

The second sketch is my lunch - also known as what I was eating while sketching! 

Also known as my second favourite subject for sketching: meals in restaurants and cafes

I've got absolutely masses from a number of different countries! I have pondered on doing some more research and maybe creating a book! ;)

I have a record of the meal on my main sketchblog The view of Mont Ventoux from Crillon Le Brave

• Soupe de Pöisson, Crouton et Aioli mediterranean fish soup, aioli and croutons;
• Thon à la Planche, Salade Fenoil, Tartibe de'Aioli tuna steak, shaved fennel salad and aioli tartine
• Floating Island in lavender

My three course lunch at the Hotel Crillon Le Brave:
mediterranean fish soup, aioli and croutons;
tuna steak, shaved fennel salad and aioli tartine and
a floating island in lavender

The sketches were all done in a large Moleskine Sketchbook using pen and ink and coloured pencils. 

I've always very much enjoyed eating out - and developed a rule while travelling of "If I'm eating in a new place I should really try to eat something I've never had before".   Very educational - travels broaden the mind - and sometimes the tum!

The big advantage of sketching food for me is that I had to be fast and eating enforced breaks from sketching - which helps a lot when trying to protect your hand from tenosynovitis / osteoarthritis through gripping pens and pencils for far too long! (See yesterday's blog post about Golden Oldie #3: Artists and Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI))

Now that I'm more mobile and steadier on my feet, I really ought to start taking a small sketchbook and a small pencil case out with me - and eat out more!

EXTENSION of Deadline for Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 9)

Do not fear! The deadline for the Call for Entries for the next Series (9) of Landscape Artist of the Year is not tomorrow. 

REJOICE! The deadline has been extended until noon on Monday 1st May 2023.

If you paint landscapes regularly you've still got time to enter!

They do this - extended the deadline - every single year.

Normally I read this as meaning that 

1. they've had a look at all the applications they've received to date and 
2. they are short of decent calibre artists for the pods.

So if you fancy having a go, you've got all of the weekend and the morning of the Bank Holiday on Monday to get your submission together - even if you've not done anything about it to date!! :)

How to Enter

You can read all the details about the Call for Entries which covers:

• who can enter
• terms & conditions
• eligible landscape paintings for your entry
• how to complete your digital entry

in my blog post about the Call for Entries: Landscape Artist of the Year 2024 (Series 9) (published December 2022)

I cannot emphasise enough HOW IMPORTANT THE SUBMISSION LANDSCAPE IS. This is the painting that:

• gets you into the competition;
• counts as part of the assessment of how you might deliver a commission - given there is no limit on the amount of time required for your submission painting
• decides whether or not you will be a Heat Winner i.e. it will be lined up alongside your heat painting if you get in a pod and get shortlisted to determine who wins
• goes to the Semi Finals and the Finals - should you get that far - and 
• counts as part of the process for deciding the overall winner

In other words it's never ever JUST the Heat Painting which decides how you progress in the competition.

My blog post also includes

• a commentary on the very particular nature of the Landscape Artist of the Year competition
• how to paint a landscape in 4 hours
• why Sky Arts really needs to upgrade the competence of the people in the pods or get better at picking good people (because some are regularly outperformed by the wildcard artists who weren't selected for a pod!)

Don't forget that only the pod artists who get some expenses and it's entirely possible you could be out of pocket if you decided to be a pod artist.

The Series 9 Heats will be filmed around the UK on the following dates

• Heats One and Two: in the week commencing 12th June 2023
• Heats Three and Four: in the week commencing 19th June 2023
• Heats Five and Six: in the week commencing 26th June 2023
• in July(?) 2023 re. the Semi Finals, Finals (and Commission?)

If you get a wildcard spot there's no guarantee that the heat you're allocated to is one near your home. Last year people were flying out to Northern Ireland!

Review: £10,000 Commission for Landscape Artist of the Year 2023

This post is about:

• the challenge of the Landscape Artist of the Year commission
• the Commission Programme
• the Commission Painting produced by the winner of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023.

This week I went to Greenwich to view the £10,000 Commission Painting painted by Finn Campbell-Notman as winner of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 for the Royal Museums Greenwich. 

You can find photographs of the painting hung in the Queen's House below.

The LAOTY 2023 Commission

Like many others I watched last week's programme about the development of the Commission with interest. (It followed on from the programme about the Final). 

For me, it threw up so very many questions - which I'd been asking myself all the way through the series

Personally I thought that the commission might be described as "a poisoned chalice"! Sounds good - until you start to think about how to do it!

So what was the commission and when did the artists find out what it was?

I've heard from artists participating in the series, including at least one of the finalists, that NOBODY knew what the commission was until after the competition finished and the winner was announced. 

I've talked to other artists from previous series about this and nobody knew what their commission was until they'd got to the point where they needed to know. 

The programme suggested that even the Judges didn't know what the Commission was!

According to Robert Bligh, the Senior Curator: World and Maritime History at the National Maritime Museum - who is presumably not somebody who often commissions paintings - the commission was as follows...

A contemporary seascape and maritime painting inspired by the lives and work of the Van De Veldes

The rationale was that the NMM was holding an exhibition at the Queens House in 2023 - which opened last week - to mark the 350th anniversary of the arrival of the Van De Veldes - Elder (father) and Younger (son) in 1672 in Greenwich as leading maritime artists. (I'll be writing my review of the exhibition next week having viewed it for the second time on Monday).

What I shall never ever understand about this series - and irritated me throughout - was that the commission as presented bore no relation to either:

• locations chosen
• knowledge / skills of the various participating artists

The fact that each programme, when broadcast, was prefaced by the announcement of the prize commission for the winner (i.e. commission for the National Maritime Museum relating to the Van de Veldes Exhibition in Greenwich) 

However - and it cannot be repeated too much - the subject and scope of the prize commission was NOT KNOWN BY THE ARTISTS at any time during the course of the competition! Or it would appear any of the people making the programme!!

Which means:

• only one of the locations related in any way to the commission i.e. Lough Neagh is an inland sea like one which exists in the Netherlands - but is also tidal.
• none of the artists were really tested in relation to painting water - except in the last heat. The opportunities that Blackpool and Castle Ward presented were wasted as the pods focused on structures rather than the sea.

The Commission Programme

As well as a commission, Finn Campbell-Notman also had to make a television programme about working out how to do the commission!

Call for Entries: Landscape Artist of the Year 2024 (Series 9)

The deadline for entries for the art competition - Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 9) is NOON on Friday 28th April 2023. This is filmed in Summer 2023 and normally broadcast in early 2024.

This is a VERY LONG post!

Below I provide my OVERVIEW OF THE CALL FOR ENTRIES - plus TIPS

The order below is

• Key Features of the competition
• So you want to paint a landscape in 4 hours on television?
• Can SKY ARTS upgrade the competence of those in the pods?
• You may be out of pocket....
• Who can enter
• Eligible Landscape paintings - for submission
• Your digital entry (and what will disqualify you)
• What are the Judges looking for?
• My Reviews of Previous Heats (2018 - 2022)

You might want to have a think about whether you want to enter and/or defer finalising your application until AFTER:

• you've seen what the competition looks like on screen: 
• You can the previous series in a major binge on Sky/Now TV - where ALL PREVIOUS EPISODES are available
• I'll be also reviewing the series filmed around the UK during 2022 when it is broadcast in January 2023. ( See yesterday's post Dates for 2023 series of Landscape Artist of the Year announced). 
• read / view look my reviews of past series (listed at the end of this post) which include lots of pics and quite a few tips

PAOTY Commission - Painting Sir Lenny Henry (aka Len)

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

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

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

Before the Unveiling

About the Commission

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

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

How one dog artist markets for commissions

How do you market commissions if you make or aim to generate most of your income from commissions?

This is a question which applies to very many artists whether they draw or paint adults, families, kids or their dogs or cats - or other creatures.

Yesterday - on my long walk around my local huge (prizewinning) park - I spotted this in The Hub Cafe.  

As a result, this post is about how one dog artist (Ryan Hodge) markets his work as an artist who produces dog portraits - and the lessons that others can learn from his exemplary marketing practices.

Woof Portraits

I also spotted several things which were, to me, obvious good practice

• an example of the work of the artist
• a business card which contains all the contact details
• a QR Code (quick response) for scanning and finding out more quickly
• good presentation of content and information - so no need to bother the cafe staff with questions
• plus an ideal location - in the centre of major dog walking territory

I was intrigued so looked into the set-up a little more - which is why it's now getting a blog post.

I have to say the website I found is a model of good practice in terms of keeping things simple but presenting everything potential clients need to know and do in a logical way