BP Portrait Award 2011

After seeing the Gwangdong Acrobats' Swan Lake at the London Coliseum, I headed to the National Portrait Gallery which was across the road.

I looked at other posts regarding the exhibition, and there seemed to be many others who were a bit baffled by the judges' choices for the awards. Many considered 'George O’Dowd' by Layla Lyons, a colourful painting of singer Boy George, as their favourites. 

All painting were brilliant, both in the skill and the subject, but my favourite was:

R.H. by Isobel Peachey

 This was the first painting I saw when I entered the room and remained the first on my list.

Although it is simply a portrait of a man with a striking visage, for me, that atmospheric beauty was captured well enough to make me love the painting. Like it says on the description, although the subject is wearing simple clothes and there is no elaborate setting involved, this fascinating, almost renaissance air about him  makes him incredibly attractive (to be honest I think he looks a lot like James Morrison..) 

Oh, and I was also delighted to find out Peachey is from my college, WCA!:-)

In the Morning by Agita Keiri

This is also a beautiful painting. The delicate colours that are pastel-toned and pearly, the almost idealic atmosphere despite the subject matters being a mundane family life (the reference to paintings of mythical women seems to be a reoccuring theme for Keiri), and the use of acrylics (as an avid user of this medium, I'm always a bit intimidated by oil paintings) all blend together to make this painting my cup of tea!:-)

Distracted by Wim Heldens

 This painting won the award this year. The portrait is of a thoughtful-looking young man, a philosophy student, the artist had known since he was a boy and had painted several times. In some ways, the portrait can seem unremarkable - the subject, the setting and the pose are all simple with nothing spectacular about them (and I have to admit that I didn't find it particularly interesting).

I guess it was this 'loosened-up' feeling that won the judges' votes. I think this painting is the kind that you gradually grow to like and find peace and relief from the more you look at it - the kind that you never get sick of, no matter what your mood is.

And others that were interesting:

Father and I, Life Size by Elie Shamir

I liked how the withered look created by the rough brushstrokes go with the central theme of a father and son ageing together. Along with 'R.H.', it is one where the painting technique used and the subject matter are synchronised to create the full effect- something which I like a lot.

Epic Mirtiotissa by Paul Beel

It wasn't really the painting that interested me (I just don't like it when there are too many naked people lying about creating a feast of flesh), but the large-scale process of creating this painting that had a close resemblence of the sea itself and its ever-shifting nature.

 Peter Capaldi by Daniel Fooks

Venus As a Boy by Wen Wu

I actually did not like the subject so much with this painting: he is a beautiful man with a brilliant sense of style, but if the depiction of the artist is true to real life, he somehow looks quite vain.. Someone who is acutely aware of his own coolness, as a model would.

So with this painting I like the delicate colours in the background, which reminds me of Asian decorative folding screens.

OHH! by Cayetano de Arquer Buigas

Many shared the opinion that this concept -of the clash between two different types of art-, although quite cliched, made them smile. The woman's expression is very well expressed, and the title humourously works as the sound effect!