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Best Portrait artist UK and Ireland
Nesta Robbins
Posts: 30,929 Forum Member
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Tucked away on Sky Arts1, but anyone watching? Search for the best Portrait artist, presented by Frank Skinner and Joan Bakewell. Self portrait paintings are submitted to apply, then wittled down by the judges to their favourites, with 21 artists taking part in each City/Country! Three celebrity sitters in different settings.
Absolutely loving this. Huge diversity of talent, using vast range of different mediums - oh and some big characters, many eccentric, like last night's chap who made Pauline McLynne aka "Mrs. Doyle" from Father Ted look like something Pacasso would be proud of.
Biggest frustration is they seem to have their "chosen" ones early on and so they tend to feature about half of the overall number participating.
A must see though, especially for any art lovers!
http://www.sky.com/tv/channel/skyarts/shows
Absolutely loving this. Huge diversity of talent, using vast range of different mediums - oh and some big characters, many eccentric, like last night's chap who made Pauline McLynne aka "Mrs. Doyle" from Father Ted look like something Pacasso would be proud of.
Biggest frustration is they seem to have their "chosen" ones early on and so they tend to feature about half of the overall number participating.
A must see though, especially for any art lovers!
http://www.sky.com/tv/channel/skyarts/shows
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Comments
http://www.sky.com/tv/show/portrait
Mrs. Doyle was very brave with that pose!
I thought the Lethal Bizzle portrait should have won.
And the 'artist' who stomped off at the End....was hilarious - Joan didn't look pleased.
He was a true tortured artist! He may have seemed rude, but all he wanted to do was paint - obsessively so, as one of the judges pointed out, but found the whole social, chatty part excruciating. I really like Frank Skinner in this too, he's so easy going and has a genuine love and fascination with art. Have to agree Stansfield, I love anything like this and wish there was more. Did you ever watch Watercolour Challenge years ago with Hannah Gordon? Loved that show!
Pleased to see I am not the only one watching this,
Hannah Gordon's series I remember, but I only saw a couple them.
What I do remember, and watched many episodes of, which wasn't a competition but still great fun - Paint along with Nancy. :cool:
Same here!
I remember the Hannah Gordon show! I used to like watching Bob Ross. I did quite like his paintings even if he seemed to paint the same things in every show
'Happy lil trees.'
Yes, always fir trees and snowy mountains and didn't he make it look easy! He was unbelievably laid back, he always sounded half-stoned!
For anyone who missed the portrait programme, there's a repeat of episode 3 from Dublin on Sky Arts 1 HD Thursday 21 November, 9:30pm
The female judge with the plummy voice annoys me intensely. Nothing's ever good enough, which might be fair enough as she's head of the National Portrait Gallery, but I doubt anything in there took 4 hours!
So we have two left? Can't wait!
Another great heat last night - but Gavin topless...who's idea was that.
Wish the guy who does - photo like paintings - had more time for his painting....days maybe.
But I think they picked the right one, the 'dripping' one.
And next week the 4 finalists, go to Paris, was it.:cool:
Did like the Toast Artist.
I stumbled across it by accident and I've thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
I'd love to be able to paint or draw and I find it fascinating to watch those who can at work.
Yes, it's been great hasn't it. I thought Frank Skinner's Marmite portrait was good! Next week the 4 heat winners go to Paris to paint a portrait of Sophie Dahl and then it's the grand final the following week.
And the Judge's, not there while they painted Sophie Dahl, I thought - was wrong, they should have seen the process, like in the heats...and no painting for the first 20 minutes, was a pain.
I agree, it seemed quite odd at the end for them to simply bring the paintings home with absolutely no feedback during it or immediately afterwards. I mean even Sophie - I appreciate she wouldn't want to say her favourite in front of them, but why did she need to skulk about looking at them on her own, when she could have chatted to the painters about each of them?
If forced to pick one to hang on my wall, I would choose the amazing study of the ballerina.
Of course, the final decision is based on all four portraits submitted by each artist.
edit to add: Nick is a very worthy winner
I kept changing my mind about which one deserved to win, as they each had fantastic qualities.
That last task was difficult! In each case, to be both 'formal', yet capture individuality and personality.
Hope this comes back next year!
Oh yeah....Luis's too, Lauren the Ballerina, also was a real contender - stunning.
Thought the final did take sometime to start - first 15/20 minutes was a recap, sure they could have made that shorter.
But apart from that - it's been a little gem of a series.
I was however hoping we'd see the winner's final portrait of the author! I guess it will be revealed at a later date and not as part of the programme, which is a real shame.
In the final, I absolutely loved Louis's portrait of the ballerina. It was captivating. I think he had a slight advantage because he got to work with a more unusual pose/setting/composition - the others (or at least the jockey and the soldier) required something more formal and they were really a bit more forced in to doing a more classic portrait without having the free will to mess around. Not that it mattered of course because Nick won.
I really hope they do another series, or perhaps they could do one focussing on different types of painting.
I used to LOVE Watercolour Challenge! I don't know what it is about painting/drawing/art programmes but I find them absorbing. I'm not that great at drawing and I'm not a massive art fan overall, but seeing the process is fascinating and especially pictures of people - I'm intrigued by how the artist interprets things and captures a face and character.
Loved this last year!
http://www.sky.com/tv/show/portrait?DCMP=KNC-
I had fleetingly seen a trailer for this, and have been checking tv listings all this week with puzzlement...........so it's next week!
Can't wait