Five weeks into its 13th series, Portrait Artist of the Year has already done something the programme has never done before: crowned two winners in a single heat. With a completely new judging panel, a fresh crop of young painters and a celebrity line-up that runs from Louis Theroux to Anthony Scaramucci, the Sky Arts competition is having one of its more unpredictable years.
Here is where things stand after episode five, which aired on Wednesday, November 4.
The new judges
For the first time since the show began, all three judges have changed. Kate Bryan, Kathleen Soriano and Tai Shan Schierenberg, who sat on the panel for more than a decade, have handed over to the portrait painter Jonathan Yeo, whose sitters include King Charles III and Sir David Attenborough; Eva Langret, director of Frieze London; and the art historian and broadcaster Katy Hessel, founder of The Great Women Artists. Sky announced the line-up earlier this year. Stephen Mangan continues as host.
The format is unchanged. Nine artists, chosen on the strength of a self-portrait, get four hours at Battersea Arts Centre to paint one of three surprise celebrity sitters. The judges pick one heat winner for the semi-final, three semi-finalists go through to the final, and the overall winner receives a £10,000 commission for the National Portrait Gallery. This year the commission sitter is the actor Damian Lewis.
Heat winners so far
Episode 1 (Lennie James, Sheridan Smith, Vanessa Williams): A 21-year-old figurative painter won with her portrait of Lennie James, who also chose it to take home. Her full-length self-portrait, the only one in the heat, made an early impression on the judges.
Episode 2 (Louis Theroux, Anthony Scaramucci, Joanna Scanlan): The judges could not separate Makenzy Beard, 19, from Swansea, and Andrea Broug, 18, who painted Theroux and Scanlan respectively. Both went through, a first for the programme.
Episode 3 (Matt Weston, Dexter Fletcher, Nikita Gill): Paul Majek won with a red-toned portrait of the poet Nikita Gill, who picked it herself. An Oxford fine art graduate who went on to the Royal Drawing School, he was praised for his distinctive visual language, though viewers argued online about the likeness.
Episode 4 (Danny Beard, Yalda Hakim, Arti Shah): Manny Woodard, a sculptor who only began making portraits in 2023, won with a charcoal drawing of Arti Shah that moved the sitter to tears.
Episode 5 (Rylan Clark, Alison Balsom, Jamie Lloyd): Rafaela De Ascanio, a Courtauld-trained art historian and curator, won with her portrait of Rylan Clark, ahead of Jacob Skinnard and Ruth Fitton. The sitters went their own way when it came to taking portraits home: Lloyd chose Sara Netherway’s, Balsom chose Fitton’s, and Clark picked a drawing by Leo Bignell.
Who is still to sit
Nine celebrities remain for the last three heats: Grace Campbell, Jung Chang, Munya Chawawa, Grace Dent, Jeremy King, Deborah Meaden, Danielle de Niese, Kojey Radical and Michelle de Swarte. The actors Daniel Francis and Ruth Gemmell sit for the semi-final, and the chef Heston Blumenthal for the final.
What to watch for
Two things have stood out this year. The first is how young the field is: three of the six heat winners so far are 21 or under. The second is that the new panel seems willing to reward ideas over strict likeness, as Majek’s win showed. Long-time viewers have also noticed that the show now spends less time reviewing all nine finished portraits before the shortlist, which used to be one of its pleasures.
The commission may still tilt things toward painters. The National Portrait Gallery shows mostly oils, and with Damian Lewis waiting at the end, the final could come down to who can produce a museum-ready likeness under pressure.
Portrait Artist of the Year airs on Wednesdays at 8pm on Sky Arts, which is also available on Freeview, and streams on NOW.