
We're back this autumn with a double dose of portrait magic! While Stephen Mangan hosts a brand new series of Portrait Artist of the Year on Wednesdays from 14th October, co-presenter Joan Bakewell is live each following Sunday from 18th October with a sister series of Portrait Artist of the Week. Stephen and Joan will then be reunited in person to host a new series of Landscape Artist of the Year in early 2021.
For the seventh series of PAOTY a new batch of amateur and professional artists chosen from thousands of entrants, compete to see who has what it takes to impress our distinguished judges - Tai Shan Schierenberg, Kathleen Soriano and Kate Bryan. We welcome another 24 distinguished writers, actors, musicians and TV personalities to sit for the portraits. The series was recorded within strict safety protocols at Battersea Arts Centre.
Sitting this year are: Pam Hogg (Fashion Designer), Ray BLK (Musician), James Nesbitt (Actor), Katie Piper (Model/TV Presenter), Robert Rinder (TV Personality), Don Letts (Film Director/Musician), Fay Ripley (Actor), Ncuti Gatwa (Actor), Lady Glenconner (author); Mirren Mack (Actor), Sir Trevor McDonald, The Vivienne (TV Personality), Paul Mescal (Actor), Sian Clifford (Actor), Eddie Marsan (Actor), Deborah James (Author, Broadcaster), Eamonn Walker (Actor), Melanie Sykes (TV Presenter), David Haig (Actor), Jane Horrocks (Actor), Kwame Kwei Armah (Actor), Dame Katherine Grainger DBE(Five times Olympian Rower, Chair of UK Sport, Broadcaster), Fred Sirieix (Restaurateur and TV Presenter).
Nine artists compete in each heat, and heat winners go on to paint Booker-prize winning author Bernardine Evaristo in the semi-final. The three finalists have a few days to paint a commission, and then compete to portray the brilliant comedian and raconteur Eddie Izzard. This season's Portrait Artist of the Year winner will receive a £10,000 commission to paint world-famous ballet dancer and Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet Carlos Acosta, which will be exhibited at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
Following its huge success during lockdown, Portrait Artist of the Week (PAOTW), has been confirmed to return to @SkyTV Facebook, as well as airing on Sky Arts in the same weeks as the flagship series.
PAOTW is a unique live-streamed paint-along version of the main series, and the first event during lockdown received over 20,000 entries from all parts of the world including Pakistan to Ecuador to the UK. PAOTW features celebrity sitters in their own homes, with one of the finalists from the main series painting live via Facebook. Artists at home are invited to submit their final portrait to the judges through social media using the hashtag #MYPAOTW.
At the end of each week judges choose three of their favourite portraits to feature on the following live programme, and the judges also pick out their favourite 3 portraits painted by children. The pilot series reached more than 4.6 million people, with sitters including Noel Fielding, Will Young, Bernardine Evaristo, acclaimed dancer and choreographer Akram Khan and broadcaster and journalist Clare Balding.
The welcome return of the show comes as part of Sky Arts mission to increase access to, and drive participation in the arts in all its forms. Sky Arts is the UK's only channel dedicated to arts and culture, and is to be made free for everyone this September, at a vital time for the cultural sector. Sky Arts will embark on an ambitious programme of activity to support and champion the arts - putting artists, creatives, and public participation centre stage on a channel that everyone across the UK can watch on Freeview.
Landscape Artist of the Year is due to return in early 2021 and production is already underway. Portrait Artist of the Year, Landscape Artist of the Year and Portrait Artist of the Week are produced by Storyvault; Executive producers are Danielle Graham, Samantha Richards and Stuart Prebble. Benedetta Pinelli is commissioning editor for Sky.
For more information please contact:
calum.mcgarry@premiercomms.com / jenny.carroll@premiercomms.com
About Sky Arts
As the UK's only dedicated arts channel, Sky Arts exists to bring more art to more people across the UK. By throwing open the doors to make the channel free to air, we want to increase access to and participation in the arts. Offering something for everyone, whatever their passion, Sky Arts showcases the best of classical and popular music, theatre, opera, dance and the visual arts, as well as original drama and comedy.
About Sky
With 24 million customers across six countries, Sky is Europe's leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Our 32,000 employees help connect our customers to the very best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own local, original content.
Following the success of Sky originals like Chernobyl, we plan to double our investment in original content by 2024. We're also developing a new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in UK creative sector in the first five years alone.
Our technology allows Sky customers to watch what they want, when they want, how they want and connects millions of people to content they love. And our online streaming service, NOW TV, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.
We also believe that a company of our scale has a responsibility that goes beyond our business, and into the community. We recently announced a series of commitments to help tackle racial injustice and improve diversity and inclusion. To ensure the commitments are delivered, Sky will invest £10million per year across its markets for each of the next three years.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
28/04/2026
Triton Digital's Podcast Metrics Demos+ Data Integration Enables Comprehensi...
28/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/04/2026
TAG Video Systems, the leading IP-native Realtime Media Platform, today announced that Lens, its visual service health interface for broadcast operations, recei...
28/04/2026
Open AV-over-IP Standard Recognized in IT Networking/Infrastructure and Security Category
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) today announced that the ...
28/04/2026
VFX History: Slit Scan
Graham Quince April 28, 2026
0 Comments
How did 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation...
28/04/2026
These DaVinci Resolve Effects Will Make You a More Creative Colorist
Kasia Jarco April 28, 2026
0 Comments
Creativity in color grading is not about ha...
28/04/2026
A Simple Introduction to Cavalry: Indexed Circle
Simon Ubsdell April 28, 2026
0 Comments
In this new introductory tutorial for Cavalry we're going...
28/04/2026
Rise, the award-winning advocacy group for gender diversity in the broadcast and media technology sector, is pleased to announce a new global training programme...
28/04/2026
Clear-Com has appointed Brian Grahn as Market Outreach Manager of the Americas and Ben Turnwell as Business Development Manager for EMEA live, expanding their ...
28/04/2026
LiveU is inviting MPTS visitors to step into the companys new Q Era on Stand D32, at The Grand Hall, Olympia, London (May 13-14). The company will showcase its ...
28/04/2026
IBC today announces the launch of the IBC2026 Innovation Awards, with nominations now open for projects, programmes and initiatives that exemplify breakthrough ...
28/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/04/2026
Introducing Nx 3-Strip v2 - A Physics-Based Technicolor Reconstruction for DaVin...
28/04/2026
LinkedIn Top Companies 2026: Where Career Growth Is Happening Now Published on Apr 28, 2026 Categories: Data and insights
LinkedIn Corporate Communication...
28/04/2026
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on how developers, 3D practitioners, and enterprises can transform their workflows ...
28/04/2026
AI agent systems today juggle separate models for vision, speech and language - ...
28/04/2026
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Sean Whelan as its new London Correspondent.
Sean has held the role of Washington Correspondent for the last...
28/04/2026
Joseph O'Connor, Eileen Walsh, Louise Duffy, Mick Lynch, Gormfhlaith N Thuairisg and Dermot Bannon take a personal look at life 100yrs ago in new TV docume...
27/04/2026
CES Power, a provider of infrastructure for live events, has announced the acquisition of three Ireland-based businesses: GH Energy Rental Ltd, Event Power, and...
27/04/2026
FuboTV Inc. has announced it is developing its Multiview feature for the Fubo streaming service on select LG TVs, including 2024, 2025, and newer 4K and 8K mode...
27/04/2026
Shade, a file management platform for creative teams, has announced a $14 million funding round led by Khosla Ventures, Construct Capital, and Bling Capital, br...
27/04/2026
The Audio Engineering Society (AES) will present the Immersive Audio Academy 12th Edition - Immersive Audio in All Flavors - on April 30, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. ...
27/04/2026
DAZN has announced DAZN48, a creator program for the FIFA World Cup 2026 that will recruit 48 creators - one representing each of the 48 qualified nations - to ...
27/04/2026
FloSports has announced exclusive streaming rights to four CrossFit competitions: Legends Del Mar: CrossFit Semi-Finals, Magic City Games, NorCal Classic, and t...
27/04/2026
Telestream has announced that Pulse, its software-defined test and measurement p...
27/04/2026
Shade has announced it is a Cloud Computing and Storage winner in the 2026 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards. Winners were selected by a panel of industry exp...
27/04/2026
Leading the NBA's video-ads platform, this Penn State grad is at the forefro...
27/04/2026
DAZN has expanded its international broadcast rights for the T100 Triathlon World Tour to include Africa. All races from the T100 calendar will be available for...
27/04/2026
NAB Show has announced the recipients of its 2026 Project of the Year and Product of the Year Awards at a ceremony at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Each wi...
27/04/2026
DIRECTV has launched on Meta Quest headsets, becoming the first MVPD to offer live TV through the platform. The timing coincides with the stretch run of the MLB...
27/04/2026
TBL Team Boxing League has announced a broadcast agreement with MSG Networks to air all remaining Season 4 fights live across MSG's television and digital p...
27/04/2026
IP integration, interoperability, growth of intercommunications were key concerns for vendors and visitors alike
Attendees at the recently concluded 2026 NAB S...
27/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
27/04/2026
A pro-audio emphasis, spectrum changes, and on-field audio mark the new products and enhancements to existing offerings
Microphones remain the primary point of...
27/04/2026
The Sports Video Group team was all over the NAB Show floor out in Las Vegas las...
27/04/2026
N r Spotify grundades f r 20 r sedan dominerades musikmarknaden av illegal nedladdning. Sedan dess har streaming bidragit till att teruppr tta betalningsvilja...
27/04/2026
Time on Spotify should feel meaningful and intentional, not something that slips...
27/04/2026
New modular multi-effects plug-in revealed
The latest plug-in from Brainworx delivers a modular set of effects designed to offer a convenient alternative to...