...when you’re enjoying yourself!
HOWEVER… I can see that the studio journal is WAAAAY overdue and I can only blame the paint, the teaching, the talks and LOTS of procrastination.
As it’s now well over year since I was announced as Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on my first year as a full time, professional artist and show you some of the highlights.
The whirlwind that was Portrait Artist of the Year jettisoned me from being a freelance graphic designer to fully fledged artist in one fell swoop. My idea of trying to get myself out there into the art world, rather than hiding MANY portfolios away in the attic worked way better than I'd ever imagined.
My year has been full of some wonderful opportunities including a whole list of commissions, exhibiting, teaching, artists talks and yet another TV appearance. I have met some really wonderful fellow artists, sitters, students, art enthusiasts and TV programme makers on the way… and I’m hoping I’m lucky enough for it to continue on into the foreseeable.
In the next couple of months I will be uploading original drawings that I have made in the life room for sale in my shop. Watch this space...
Here are my 2024 highlights, including a couple from early 2025. I hope you enjoy...
May 2024 - The Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual exhibition at The Mall Galleries, London
The Wave, oil on canvas, 50cm x 60cm
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition shows an incredible array of contemporary portraiture. The main rooms are filled with work from the members of the society as well as giving wall space to any portrait artist who succeeds in getting through their open call process. Early 2024 I painted another portrait of Fred and I was very honoured to have it accepted to be shown in the gallery for the second year running. This year I managed to make the private view - I had missed the 2023 PV as that day I was filming the semi finals for Portrait Artist of the Year!
May/June 2024 - Just Life art school
Teaching a 1 day life drawing and a 3 day emotive portrait workshop in Sancreed, West Penwith was a slice of heaven. Run by the lovely Rose who is on a mission to provide quality portrait and life drawing to artists living in the far end of the UK. The students were totally dedicated and produced some amazing drawings and portaits of our two fantastic sitters.
May ‘24 - Pallant House Art Gallery, Chichester
During the year I have been lucky enough to teach on a regular basis in the wonderful setting of Pallant House Art Gallery. Watching over the proceedings are artworks from some giants of the art world such as Frank Auerbach, Bomberg, Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, John Piper and Graham Sutherland. A very inspiring place and well worth a visit. I have also been lucky enough to run life drawing events as part of the main exhibitions which are put on throughout the year, such as Glyn Philpot, Gwen John and more recently Dora Carrington.
June 2024 - The Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP) exhibition, The Department Store, Brixton.
Martyn Joseph, oil on canvas, 55cm x 40cm
Early on in 2024 I was very honoured to be invited to become a member of The Contemporary British Portrait Painters (CBPP) - a group who had definately been on my radar ever since they were founded by Ian Goldsmith in 2018. Their members are some of the best contemporary portrait painters in Britain today and I am proud to be part of not just such a talented group but such a friendly and supportive band of artists.
My painting 'Martyn Joseph' was shown as part of the exhibition and was commissioned by the musician after he watched Portrait Artist of the Year. You can check out him and his music here
June '24 - Clare College, Cambridge - unveiling of the portrait of Loretta Minghella, first female Master of Clare College
Loretta Minghella, oil on canvas, 110cm x 90cm
Cambridge is such an amazing city to visit and it was such an honour to enter into the Masters Lodge at Clare College to meet Loretta and her assistant Sophie. The sittings consisted of lots of chat, sketching, finding out about Loretta's illustrious career and those of her siblings, listening to her late sister sing jazz, plus visits to the chapel to witness evensong rehearsals and to take images of Loretta in preparation for the painting. An experience I will treasure always.
The painting now sits alongside a portrait of Sir Eric Ashby, painted by Bryan Organ.
July 2024 - The Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London
Self, oil on canvas, 55cm x 40cm
For years I had been a regular visitor to the annual BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery and at the time could only ever dream that one day my portrait would be included in this prestigious exhibition. 2024 was the inaugural Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award which replaced the BP portrait Award after 4 years of it's absence and I was literally blown away to have my self portrait accepted as one of only 50 exhibits from over 1600 worldwide entries. This really was a dream come true. I never realised how far this self portrait would take me - it has quite a story to tell!
July ‘24 - Draw, Brighton - Teaching a 2 day portrait painting course with an emphasis on making connections to the sitter.
I always love working at Draw Brighton, it's such a supportive and creative place and the students created some incredible paintings. Unfortunately I was too busy teaching to take any photos... sorry! :(
September ‘24 - Portrait painting live at Waterloo station London as part of National Rail’s ‘Hidden Heroes’ campaign.
It's always lovely to do something a bit different so when I got a call asking if I'd like to paint a portrait live at Waterloo Station, I obviously said yes! I got to paint alongside the 2019 Portrait Artist of the Year winner Duncan Shoosmith and the 2023 semi-finalist Sara Reeves. It was such a great day albeit quite a challenge to paint surrounded by crowds, flashing billboards, train announcements and upbeat music. I painted Anita who is a Network Rail first responder - she can often be found sorting out problems like fallen trees on the line complete with hard hat, high vis and chain saw! The portrait will be touring the country sometime this year as part of the '200 years of the railway' celebrations.
September ‘24 - Draw, Brighton - Teaching a 2 day portrait painting course with an emphasis on drawing with paint.
I felt so lucky to be invited back to the Draw Studios and agian, the students produced some absolutely wonderful work. It seemed that giving them the opportunity to 'draw with paint' opened up a lot of creativity and a new way of working.
October ‘24 - West Dean College of Arts and Crafts, West Sussex - Teaching a 2 day portrait painting course with an emphasis of making connections with the sitter.
West Dean College is quite an extraordinary place. Transformed into a centre for education and creativity by visionary patron to the arts, Edward James in 1971. This is a place for learning arts and crafts from tapestry to painting to creative writing and everything inbetween.
Teaching there means that you are also a resident and so was a wonderfully immersive experience. The students produced some absolutely fantastic work.
October ’24 - filming at the Sky studios in London for Artist of the Year: Masterclass
The two episodes that we filmed that day were shown just before Christmas on Sky Arts and Now TV.
The series is being repeated on a Wednesday evening during the spring at 9pm and 9.30pm. My masterclasses will be on 19th February and 9th April. Sky Arts is free to watch if you have Freeview.
The 2 episodes were filmed in a day and was such great fun. As always the Story Vault production team were so supportive and patient. Talking direct to camera is DEFINATELY out of my comfort zone - although I think I got the hang of it by the end of the day!
Filming Artist of the Year: Masterclass at Sky Studios
Things to look out for:
Artist of the Year: Masterclass. Available on Sky Arts or Now TV. The first series is being repeated at the moment (January - April '25) on a Wednesday evening at 9pm and 9.30pm. The Masterclasses that I filmed show you a thing or two about using a limited palette and how I bring drawing into painting and will be shown on 19th February and 9th April
ETC: Artist talk. On Friday 31st January 2025 at 6.30pm Jake Spicer interviewed me about my journey to becoming an artist. Available to watch on Draw Brighton YouTube channel here - along with many other wonderful ETC: Artist talks
Sussex Portrait Artist of the Year
The Venue, Worthing. Saturday 22 March 1pm - 6.30pm
The tables have turned and I've been very honoured to be asked to be one of 3 judges for the Sussex Portrait Artist of the Year along with fellow artist Amy Dury and gallery owner Eden Maseyk. Helping to choose the contestants was a tough job as there were SO many great entries. Choosing a winner will be even harder! It should be a great afternoon so come along to watch the artists create, the celebrities sit (still - hopefully!), the judges being judgemental and hosted by broadcaster Gary Mansfield. See you there!
Infomation and tickets can be found here
Teaching: I am teaching at a few various venues around the country this year from Devon to Yorkshire. All courses sold out in record time and I didn’t have time to promote them on my socials or website. So sorry to those who have missed out.
For those of you who live on the south coast of England, keep a look out on the Pallant House Gallery website as I do teach there for special events.
I miss teaching on a regular, weekly basis but for now I want to concentrate on my painting practice and give this wonderful opportunity my all. I hope to return to more regular teaching in 2026. Again... watch this space!
I'll be back soon to chat about what I taught on my Artist of the Year: Masterclasses for all you budding painters.
All the best for the oncoming spring and ventures new!
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