This is a review of
Episode 4 of Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year
– which was actually Heat 3! As I have said before the programme makers do not show the heats in the order
they were filmed.
Episode 4 of Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year
– which was actually Heat 3! As I have said before the programme makers do not show the heats in the order
they were filmed.
 |
| PAOTY Series 12: Episode 4 – the Artists with their self portraits waiting to hear who has been shortlisted |
Episode 4 of Portrait Artist of the Year brought a surprise and
something totally unique.
something totally unique.
- ALL THE SITTERS
- are female;
- they all work in “the arts” in one way or another; and
- all
are of afro caribbean heritage. - Plus we have one more bod from the current series of Celebrity Traitors!
Episode 4: The Sitters
|
|
(top right) Clara Amfo
(bottom left) Cat Burns (bottom right) Adjoa Andoh
|
I have a theory about the choice of sitters.
- First, that this was a deliberate choice.
Second it’s an outcome of comments made in the past. I think that at
some point or another, one or more of the artists in past heats might
have politely highlighted that they didn’t think they had done
themselves justice as they weren’t used to painting people who were
not (for want of a better expression) anglo saxon in appearance.
Bottom line they had never painted anybody with black skin before. The
view may have been expressed that this affected the outcome of the
heat. Plus there’s the issue of whether a competition is fair if not everybody is treated in the same way….
I can understand their point. However you can hardly complain if all the
artists in a heat are in exactly the same position – and so we have Heat 4
of Series 12.
artists in a heat are in exactly the same position – and so we have Heat 4
of Series 12.
Anybody got any other ideas. My feeling is this was not accidental and was a very deliberate decision by the programme makers.
The three sitters in the fourth episode are as follows:
Actor
Adjoa Andoh
– a British actress b.1963, best known to millions around the world for
her role as Lady Danbury in the Netflix Regency romance series
Bridgerton, since 2020. However she has also played lead roles in plays
at she has played lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the
National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre, and the Almeida Theatre. In
June 2025 (after the heat) she was awarded an MBE.
broadcaster
Clara Amfo – a British radio broadcaster b.1984. She is a television presenter,
podcast host and voice-over artist. She is known for presenting her
shows on BBC Radio 1
singer-songwriter
Cat Burns – a British singer-songwriter b. 2000. She gained prominence with
her 2020 single “Go” (on YouTube). The song’s popularity increased in 2022 through
TikTok, eventually reaching number two on the UK singles chart. She has
also been nominated three times for the
Brit Awards.
Finally, she is also a current Celebrity Traitor on BBC1!
Episode 4: The Artists
|
|
The artists sitting on the steps of Battersea Arts Centre after the painting has stopped |
All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname –
but are not differentiated between professional and amateur. The link to
their main ‘contact’ site is embedded in their name and social media sites
follow – if available.
As always I’ve dug around online, and
these profiles provide more information than the programme does.
The
mini bio provided in the programme skips over some rather important
information about some of the participating artists.
-
Chloe Barnes (Instagram) – a Gallery Production and Studio Manager who lives in
London.
She has a first class honours degree in Illustration and an MA
(Distinction) in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking from the University of
the West of England. She is a mono-printer and creates figurative monotypes that explore identity, sexuality, the
psyche, and the experiences of women. She has exhibited at the Royal
Scottish Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists Bicentennial
Exhibition, and Gurr Johns, London and has also won a number of awards - Jules Manson (Instagram) – She is a bookseller based in Penzance in Cornwall and a member of
Penzance Studios. In the past she has been a Artist/painter tattooist
and a member of Leicester Society of Artists. - Madeleine Payne – a full-time professional artist who lives between Florence and London. She has a BFA in Art History (2020). In 2024, she was a Advanced Painting student at the Florence Academy of Art. Her self portrait was painted in oils from life as a graduation piece to demonstrate her technical ability.
-
Jonathan Small (Instagram) – an art teacher from London. He is a Tutor and Creative Producer
at @artboxlondon an organisation which supports people with learning
disabilities and autism. -
Jamie Steward
(Instagram) – b.1983 in Bradford, he is now a full-time artist from Leeds.
He is also known as a graffiti artist called Cortisol Kid. He now paints
murals and enjoys his studio practice painting portraits. -
Suzanne Smith (Instagram) – a printmaker who lives and works in Brighton and has a studio in the Phoenix Art Space.
She is obviously also a very experienced user of pastels. -
Tameka Waller (Instagram) – an events coordinator living in Nottingham. She is a self
taught oil painter and completed her first portrait in January
2025 (which I suspect is her self portrait submitted as part of
her entry). - Curtis Valentine (Instagram) – a visual artist from London. Graduated with a degree in Illustration from the University of Brighton (2014-2017). He has a passion for character design, concept art and storyboarding and also works as an artist assistant. His real name is Curtis Valentine O’Malley.
- David Wayman – Loughborough based commercials director.
You can see them all in this Instagram post with their self portraits
