News - Portrait Artist of the Year

Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell return in 2020 to Sky Arts with a brand-new series of Portrait Artist of the Year on Tuesday 21st January at 8pm...

For the sixth year running, the series will see aspiring artists compete to see who has what it takes to be crowned Portrait Artist of the Year 2020. Throughout the series we will see celebrity sitters from the worlds of stage, screen, sport and music become the subject for our painters.

Sitting for the artists this year (in order of episode transmission) are:

Anjili Mohindra, Asa Butterfield, Mickey Flanagan; 

Trevor Nelson, Noel Clarke, Ashley Roberts; 

Tinie Tempah, Len Goodman, Dame Harriet Walter; 

Asim Choudhry, Russell Tovey, Doreen Mantle; 

Fearne Cotton, John Cooper Clarke, Haydn Gwynne; 

Zawe Ashton, Adrian Dunbar, Ricky Wilson; 

Lydia Leonard, Ken Stott, Mike Leigh; 

Omid Djalili, Deborah Findlay, Wunmi Mosaku.

The eight winners from each heat, all filmed at Battersea Arts Centre, will then go on to paint celebrated singer and actress Elaine Paige OBE in the semi-final, followed by Lemn Sissay, author of Sunday Times Best Seller ‘My Name Is Why’, who will sit for our finalists at London’s prestigious National Portrait Gallery where our winner will be crowned. The 2020 Portrait Artist of the Year will receive a £10,000 prize pot from Sky Arts, a wide selection of art materials from Cass Arts and will have their winning portrait hung at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Portrait Artist of the Year was commissioned by Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content, Sky UK and Ireland and Phil Edgar-Jones, Director of Entertainment. The series was produced by Storyvault and the commissioning editor for Sky is Bill Hobbins. The executive producers for Storyvault are Danielle Graham, Stuart Prebble and Samantha Richards.

Image & info - Sky Arts