BIOGRAPHY
Wendy Barratt is an artist who is fascinated with representing the human - both in portraiture and life drawing. Her portraiture is made primarily in oil paint whereas life drawing becomes an experiment in mostly dry media.
Wendy's portraiture is led by the stories that shape her sitters lives as well as the shapes and connections she finds whilst studying her subjects. Her primary aim when creating a portrait is to find the emotion and expression as well as the human connection between artist and sitter.
After a 40 year career as a freelance Graphic Designer, Wendy launched herself as a full-time artist in early 2023. Her career as an artist has seen her paintings accepted for the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Awards, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. She was elected a member of the Contemporary British Portrait Painters in early 2024. She is also the winner of Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 Series (10) and her winning commission of Dame Jane Goodall now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
2025 - Royal Institute of Oil Painters annual exhibition, Mall Galleries London. Winner of the Roger Remington Award for an outstanding painting.
2025 - Longlisted for Women in Art Prize
2025 - Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition, Mall Galleries London
2025 - Contemporary British Portrait Painters exhibition, The Department Store, Brixton
2025 - Longlisted for Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award
2024 - Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Awards, National Portrait Gallery
2024 - Contemporary British Portrait Painters exhibition, The Department Store, Brixton
2024 - Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition, Mall Galleries London
2024 - Elected member of the Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP)
2023 - Winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2023, Series 10
2023 - Commission of Dame Jane Goodall portrait, primary collection at the National Portrait Gallery
2023 - Royal Society of Portrait Painters, annual exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2021 - The Long Call, ITV crime drama series - Commissioned to paint a portrait as a major prop