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Portrait Artist Of The Year - General Discussion

ElectricBoogaloo
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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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Artists are getting their time in the spotlight with "Portrait Artist of the Year." An esteemed panel of judges travel across Europe in search of the brightest star in the art world.

Each episode features a regional competition and contestants are challenged to produce a portrait of one of three famous sitters. The judges select who moves onto the semifinal. When three are remaining, the finalists will have their work displayed in the world-famous National Portrait Gallery in London and the winner will receive a $10,000 commission to become a permanent part of the British Library.

Such famous sitters that are featured are Sir Ian McKellen, Sophie Turner, Sophie Dahl, Maisie Williams, Julian Fellowes, Alan Cumming, among so many more.

 

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GaT

GaT

I'm watching too! **raises hand**. I enjoy this show, but I have to admit I like Landscape Artist of the Year better. One thing both shows have taught me is that I apparently know nothing about art. The phrase "are you kidding? that's the winner?" has come out of my mouth many, many times.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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14 hours ago, GaT said:

I'm watching too! **raises hand**. I enjoy this show, but I have to admit I like Landscape Artist of the Year better. One thing both shows have taught me is that I apparently know nothing about art. The phrase "are you kidding? that's the winner?" has come out of my mouth many, many times.

Yay, I'm glad that I'm not the only one watching! I've been watching both shows and apparently my taste in portraits veers towards realism because it always confuses me when one artist paints a totally lifelike portrait and doesn't even make it into the top 3 while someone doing weird colors or effects does.

Since you're into the landscape show too, I'll start a separate thread for that show!

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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On 2/12/2020 at 8:41 PM, GaT said:

I actually approved of the winner!

Same here. She did a great job of capturing Russell Tovey.

I also loved the guy who said that he'd been doing four hour portraits to prepare for the show. That's the kind of preparation I totally approve of!

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oldCJ

oldCJ

Does anyone else dislike the artists who only draw from their cellphone or tablet? I feel it is disrespectful to the sitter who is holding still for four hours (!) and they never look at them after they take their photo. Zooming in and copying a still image is not the same as drawing a portrait of a live person. It’s been a pet peeve of mine since I started watching the show. 

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GaT

GaT

9 hours ago, oldCJ said:

Meh. Wasn’t a fan of any of the finalists, and I am never a fan of returning artists. 
Can’t remember seeing pyrography on previous series, but that was an amazing likeness. 

I agree, I really liked the pyrography.

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oldCJ

oldCJ

6 hours ago, GaT said:

 

I thought the winner's portrait made the sitter look terrified.

 

I’d also look terrified if someone scraped off half my face. 😆😆😆

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2727

2727

I've gotten pretty good at predicting which artists the judges will choose:

"New/fresh/interesting/has promise" translates to impressionistic and modern. Attractive, detailed, representational art may get shortlisted but won't win. (Although the sitters most often choose those to keep.)

It had better be paint. Charcoal, ink, colored pencils, lino blocks, felt pens, even watercolors are mostly left by the wayside.

Weird bias against the use of palette knives.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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When I saw the self portraits that this group submitted, I thought there were some real clunkers. I ended up liking some of the finished portraits so I was pleasantly surprised. I liked how striking that elongated portrait was with the bold colors but I knew it wouldn't win because it didn't look enough like her. I also found it interesting that Wunmi Mosak mentioned how much she had been chatting with the three artists doing her portraits. We don't really get to see them interact much so I was surprised when she said that. I guess four hours is a long time to sit still surrounded by people and not talk to them.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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S6.E9: Elaine Paige

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It's the semi-finals of Portrait Artist of The Year 2020, and the qualifying artists step up to paint the First Lady of musical theatre - Elaine Paige. But only three can impress the judges enough to make it through to the final.

Original air date: 3/17/20

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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I liked the portrait that Elaine chose. It was in my top two. My other favorite was the really close up portrait (I think Toby painted it?) which was the one that looked the most like Elaine.

Most of the others were really lacking for me. There was one that gave her a lollipop head, another that looked like it was shot through a camera with vaseline smeared on the lens, and one that looked NOTHING like Elaine.

I was really disappointed that they gave Elaine such a beautiful and dramatic backdrop with that huge red curtain and the lights, yet many of the artists didn't include those elements.

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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S6.E10: Lemn Sissay

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It's the last chance for the finalists to impress the judges as they use all their artistic flair to capture Lemn Sissay.. Only one will win a £10,000 commission to paint music legend Nile Rodgers.

Original air date: 3/24/20

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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Christabel's portrait was my least favorite of Lemn but I loved her portrait of the miniature artist. It was so striking and bold.

I really liked Toby's and Inga's portraits of Lemn. When taking into account the second portraits, I preferred Toby's portrait of Chef Nieve but I hated how he just slapped his self portrait into the foreground.

It always cracks me up how British people always find the absolute worst way to pronounce non-English words so I laughed really hard when the host pronounced tapas as TAP-ASS. I had to go watch this video afterward:

 

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oldCJ

oldCJ

Anyone else watching the new series? Usually I’m yelling at the judges about their terrible choices (although not as much as during Landscape). This week, however, I completely agreed with the winner. 
The social distancing was subtle, like the judges keeping back from the artists and no handshakes or cheek kisses from the celebrity sitters. And I really didn’t mind the lack of spectators at all. 

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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S7.E1: Ncuti Gatwa, Lady Glenconner, Fay Ripley

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The painters have the pleasure of capturing the star of Netflix's `Sex Education' Ncuti Gatwa, actress and author Fay Ripley, and peeress and former lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret, Lady Glenconner.

Original air date: 10/14/20

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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I loved the female artist who did the beautiful drawings of herself and her subject. She had such restraint and a delicate touch. That technique meant there was nothing to hide behind if she made a mistake.

In general, I liked all three of the portraits of Ncuti Gatwa but two of them painted the finger in a way that made it look like he was about to pick his nose.

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GaT

GaT

On 10/15/2020 at 2:31 PM, oldCJ said:

Anyone else watching the new series? Usually I’m yelling at the judges about their terrible choices (although not as much as during Landscape). This week, however, I completely agreed with the winner. 

I absolutely hated the winner's self portrait. The way she painted the hands creeped me out. They looked enormous & deformed.

On 10/18/2020 at 2:58 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

In general, I liked all three of the portraits of Ncuti Gatwa but two of them painted the finger in a way that made it look like he was about to pick his nose.

Yes, they did. You would think they would have done something to correct that.

I didn't realize this was starting again & I wondered where Joan was. Turns out she's hosting "Portrait Artist of the Week"  instead & won't be backing hosting this show this series. The weekly show doesn't interest me at all, but I miss her.  Joan & Stephen will be back hosting "Landscape Artist of the Year" together. While I was searching for where Joan was, I ran across her Wikipedia page, I had no idea she was so accomplished.

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

I just watched this show for the first time, specifically, "Portrait Artist Of The Year 2020 - Episode 2," (https://youtu.be/NvVl87Ap94M) and thought to myself, "I could do that!" but, unfortunately, it is only open to those who "have been resident in the UK, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Republic of Ireland for at least one year on
15thOctober 2020" (https://www.skyartsartistoftheyear.tv/wp-content/uploads/PAOTY-S8-Ts-and-Cs-Final-Approved-by-Sky.pdf)--which I suspected based upon the accents.

I didn't yell out loud, but I did a lot of head shaking, LOL.

 

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GaT

GaT

The winner was really bossy. “Pam, turn towards me”, “Pam, take a break”. What about the other 2 artists? What if they didn’t want Pam turned towards her? What if they weren’t ready for Pam to take a break? She just decided for everyone. I didn’t want her to be in the top 3, never mind win.

Ray was a terrible sitter, she kept bopping to her music & doing things on her phone. I guess she didn’t understand that she was supposed to be still. Good thing she didn’t have the winner painting her.

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shok

shok

On 12/14/2020 at 3:57 PM, TVbitch said:

Anyone watching the current season. I am furious they keep putting the scribble guy through! 

 

You must have loved the ending then. ;)

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RealityCheck

RealityCheck

Joan Bakewell was diagnosed with colon cancer January 2023 and underwent surgery followed by chemotherapy.  I'm glad Joan Bakewell appears to be fully recovered from the cancer treatment.  And I hope I'm half as energetic as she when I reach 90 years old.

I only found this competition recently so I binged watched all the competitions.  I took figure drawing classes for several years and specialized in drawing the head and shoulders so I have the strong opinion that a portrait should bear a strong resemblance to the subject.  So I shook my head a lot at some the judges' decisions.

I was curious about Tai-Shan's artistic style and found this video at his exhibition where he explained his approach.

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RealityCheck

RealityCheck

(edited)

Portrait Artist of the Year to Debut in Norway, Returns to Denmark

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All six episodes of the Norwegian version will be recorded in museums across the country ... and the show returns to Denmark for a fifth season.

Details of the upcoming UK season:
 

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Hosts of Portrait Artist Of The Year, Dame Joan Bakewell and Stephen Mangan, will return with the programme on October 4.

The UK show will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a special episode that will see the winner of each series returning to paint Dame Judi Dench September 30.

This year, celebrity sitters include politician turned podcaster Rory Stewart, Love Actually screenwriter Richard Curtis, Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid and Good Luck To You, Leo Grande star Daryl McCormack.

The artists who make it to the semi-final will paint Spice Girl Emma Bunton before the three finalists depict Dame Joan.

This year’s winner will receive a £10,000 commission to create a portrait of conservationist Dame Jane Goodall, which will be exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in December.

 

I wonder if the US would be interested in developing its version of the show.

Edited by RealityCheck
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TVbitch

TVbitch

@RealityCheck, do you know where one can watch the Norway/Denmark ersions?

If the US did have a version, it would probably have Gordon Ramsay as host and he would call all the painters "fooking donkeys" and all the painters would tell us about how they've overcome addiciton or some terrible disease. 😬😁 

Lovely portrait @shapeshifter!

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