Review: Episode 5 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12) – after the accidental deletion!

• Emily Atack b.1989 – an English actress, comedian and television personality.
• Melvin Odoom b.1980 – a British radio DJ and television presenter.
• Max Beesley b.1971 an English actor and musician with many film credits

The sitters in Episode 5

Episode 5: The Artists

The Artists in Episode 5

As always I’ve dug around online, and these profiles
provide more information than the programme does.

The mini bio
provided in the programme does not include all the relevant and rather important information about
some of the participating artists.

• Daniel Badger
  (Instagram) – a gardener from London who specialises in biro based drawings. He sketches in his spare time.
• Hannah Barker (Instagram) – an artist and a volunteer coordinator at a social enterprise from
  Leeds who draws people using pastel pencils, slowly building each
  portrait through layering, smudging, and erasing.
• Mario Cervantes
  (Instagram) – a fine art graduate who grew up in England and studied Fine Art
  at the Complutense University in Madrid (2009-13) and now lives in
  Glasgow. He paints entirely from life. One of his portraits was selected
  for the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
  in 2021. He also paints still life, landscapes and sport.
• Fiona Daly
  (Instagram) – a psychotherapist from Wicklow in Ireland She features twice in her self portrait at different ages. She studied studied Sculpture in the 1980s and went on to work her way up in the Irish Film Industry over about 25 years, to become a Production Designer. She then qualified as a Psychotherapist in 2012. She came to painting later in life and her portraiture took off during the PAOTY Online Sessions during the pandemic.
• Han Han
  (Instagram) – Originally from Shanghai, she has an MA in Fashion from the
  University of the Arts London. Han spent a decade in design before turning
  to painting in 2020. She is now a professional artist working primarily in
  portraiture and figurative painting and lives in London with her family. Her work has
  been shown with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal
  Institute of Oil Painters, and at the Royal Academy Summer
  Exhibition. 
• David Maddock (Instagram) – a figurative painter from Leicester. He has degrees in Fine Art from Bristol and
  Goldsmith’s College. While teaching, he completed a part-time History of
  Art masters degree at Leeds Metropolitan University and a part-time
  doctoral degree at Leicester University. His self portrait took him two
  weeks and he wanted to demonstrate his expressive painting style. He
  currently divides his time between painting, research, and teaching.

• Ruby Mitcham (Instagram) – a 17 year old sixth form student from Edinburgh who already paints
  professionally – painting on commission in her spare time. She is self
  taught. Her work has recently been selected for the Florence Biennale, has hung  in the Royal Scottish Academy and toured in the Scottish Portrait
  Awards. She is the youngest artist to have exhibited at the
  prestigious Society of Scottish Artists annual exhibition. She also has an
  interesting story – as told on her page dedicated to the competition on
  her website.

I had actually decided not to enter the competition this year. I didn’t
want to rush into it and the task is quite daunting. My art is
developing so quickly that even a few months seems to make a big
difference. Then, one of the producers from Storyvault (the production
company) emailed me inviting me to apply. I quickly put together a
self-portrait while I was on a school exchange in Canada, figured out
how to bring it home with me on the plane and sent in my application. It
couldn’t have been much longer than a couple of weeks before I heard
back from them telling me I’d been selected! Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year  on Ruby’s website

• Lauren Ross
  (Instagram) – an art tutor and painter from Edinburgh. who first appeared in Series 2 of PAOTY. She also works as work as an
  English & maths tutor and as a High school mentor. She completed a foundation diploma in art & design at Edinburgh College
  and came back to art during the pandemic. She has also exhibited portraits with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the Society of Women Artists
• Verity Ure-Jones (Instagram) – a portrait and figurative painter based in London who works
  primarily in oil paint and pastels on panel and paper. She won 2nd prize
  for the Windsor & Newton Young Artist Prize, was one of the final 115
  (out of 13K) on the shortlist for the Jackson’s Art prize and has been
  longlisted for The Cass Art Prize 2025