Portraits

I was struck by the illustration of the winning portrait of this year's BP Portrait Award in yesterday's Guardian: a portrait of her mother by the Barcelona born artist, Miriam Escofet. A lady who was born just about the time I was setting off for university.

Not only struck, but pleased. There is still room for painterly skill in the world of paint; there is more to it than suspending stuffed animals in a tank full formaldehyde. Or collecting up rubbish from the park and arranging it on a picnic blanket.

So off to her website where there is a lot more of the same, somehow not as likeable there, perhaps a little too much of the same sort of thing, perhaps a little too sharp and polished; the newsprint version was softer. But the website allows download, and the picture in question is included, somewhat degraded, left.

I was also struck by the portrait of a rather younger lady, described as the winner of the Burke's Peerage Award for 2015 for classically inspired portraiture. Where by classical they presumably mean the eighteenth century, not ancient Greece or Rome. Struck, but still not the sort of thing I would care to have on my wall at home. I think I would find it a bit unsettling.

But clearly the sort of thing I ought to take a look at when I am next in next door Seven Dials for cheese, with the NPG exhibition opening in a couple of days time. Have the newspaper and internet reproductions done them justice?

PS: perhaps the deal is that one loses copyright if one's picture wins a prize. And then, at the discretion of the prize giver, it might well become public domain.

Reference 1: http://miriamescofet.com/.

Reference 2: https://www.npg.org.uk/.

Reference 3: http://therp.co.uk/portfolio/the-burkes-peerage-foundation-award/. A rather slow website. Perhaps the Royal Portrait Painters can't afford a proper website provider.