‘Portrait Artist Of The Year is a brilliant format that constantly refreshes and entertains’
Storyvault Films for Sky Arts
Sitters including David Tennant, Noel Fielding and Emeli Sandé helped sprinkle a layer of stardust onto the format as it returned for a fourth outing.
The series followed a group of amateur and professional artists, selected form 1,500 applicants, as they competed for the chance to win a £10,000 commission to paint a portrait of actress Kim Cattrall, to hang in Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery.
Hosted by Joan Bakewell and Frank Skinner, the show has grown to become Sky Arts’ most-popular programme, alongside sister series Landscape Artist Of The Year.
The 11-parter pulled in cumulative audiences of more than 700,000, bolstered by outings on Sky 1, to become the channel’s best-performing show since 2012’s A Young Doctor’s Notebook.
Storyvault was praised by the judges for continuing to produce the show to the high quality its competitors’ efforts deserve.
The creation of each painting was time-lapsed and filmed with six cameras, a Steadicam and a jib, while producers were faced with the challenge of daylight pouring in through the windows of the central London gallery that hosted the show.
One judge dubbed it “gripping and classy”, while another highlighted Storyvault’s ability to evolve the show: “Brilliant format, it constantly refreshes and entertains.”
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