I can’t believe that November was the last time I put something on here, the time has flown by!
I became absorbed with the 2014 Sky Arts portrait competition and followed it through to the final which was won by Christian Hook with his portrait of Sir Ian McKellen . Hook then went on to paint another actor, David Cumming, commissioned by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Two works of each of the three finalists (the others being Laura Quinn and Aine Divine, a water-colourist) were on show at the National Portrait Gallery in London and earlier this month I went to have a look at them. On that particular display which included their self-portraits, I was equally impressed by the versatile Laura Quinn and felt very glad that I had not been one of the judges, the styles were so different! However, the winner, Christian Hook, was chosen on the basis of works which were not in this display, which excluded the Ian McKellen portraits.
The judges were Kate Soriano – an independent curator/art historian, Kate Bryan – Director of the Fine Arts Society and Tai-Shan Shierenberg – a professional artist and portrait painter. The programmes were presented by Joan Bakewell and Frank Skinner.
The pressure on the artists in the competition must be very intense as they only normally have four hours to complete their portrait; they also have to paint in public and cope with being interrupted by the judges and presenters while they are working! The ultimate winner was certainly the most consistent in producing excellent likenesses and a very distinctive style throughout the stages of the contest. In view of the time deadlines, I therefore decided to try painting at speed, using acrylics, and produced the following sketch of Ian McKellen in just over two hours but, there’s no way I could achieve a decent effort under the conditions the competitors were facing.
One useful piece of information I discovered was that some artists were using fast drying Alkyd oil colours for the competition (Laura Quinn being one), so I decided to order some to see how I manage with them. I now have two works in progress, both portraits, which will be finished using these paints. Watch this space! If I do get on with them it will avoid the frustration of waiting ages for some of the traditional oil paint colours to dry.