What To Expect From Portrait Artist Of The Year 2024, According To Stephen Mangham

Portrait Artist of the Year returns for series 11 tomorrow night, with judges Tai Shan Schierenberg, Kathleen Soriano and Kate Bryan all back in Battersea Arts Centre on the hunt for Britain’s next great painter – and flying solo since the departure of Dame Joan Bakewell from the series back in December 2023 is presenter Stephen Mangham.

Earlier this year, we went behind the scenes at Battersea Arts Centre to get a sneak preview of this year’s action – and we sat down with Stephen to hear all of his thoughts on the series.

Tai-Shan Schierenberg & Kathleen Soriano & Kate Bryan & Stephen Mangan. (Sky)

Interview: Stephen Mangham On Portrait Artist Of The Year 2024

How is filming going today?

Filming is going great. We have a fantastic sitter, Joely Richardson, who looks incredible, and has brought a huge portrait of her grandmother, Rachel Kempson, which is beside her, and talked really movingly about what family means to her. So they almost have a sort of sneaky double portrait to paint.

Do you have a favourite piece so far today that’s shaping up?

I do have a favourite piece, actually, today, and I often have a favourite piece of art. But I never reveal that, because my job is not to have favourites – but you can’t help it! You just can’t help it. You just respond to certain paintings over others. But that will change over the course of the day. That’s what’s so exciting about it – that paintings start out with great promise, and sometimes it just goes the wrong way. That’s the drama of the show. And other paintings, you think, ‘Oh, that looks like someone’s dropped a bucket of paint on a piece of board’, suddenly will come together at the end. So, at the moment, I do, I have one that I really love, but we’ll see what happens.

What has filming this season been like so far?

It’s been fantastic this season. We’ve had a real array of sitters, as we always do, but there’s been a phenomenally young lot of talent, too. I think more than half of the painters in the semi final are in their 20s, which is not always the case. We always have artists of all ages, from teenagers up to people in their 80s. Sometimes, painters take a while to get into their stride – to really master their medium, and know what they want to do, and develop their style. But we seem to have a lot of precocious talent in this series. So that’s exciting.

How are you finding it presenting on your own now?

Oh, I miss Joan. I really miss Joan. It’s not the same. The three judges have their little group. Joan and I were always in a gang together, so it’s just me now, but there we go. That’s life, and, you know, I get on with it. She’s totally irreplaceable.

How would you explain Portrait Artist of the Year to someone who’s never watched it before?

We watch paintings come to life. We watch them from the very beginning, from the blank canvas to a finished portrait. It’s the only art form you can watch materialise in front of your eyes. You can’t watch someone write a book or a symphony or a ballet, but you can watch someone paint a portrait. 

What you see at home is what we see here. You don’t lose anything. So it’s perfect for television. It’s a very relaxing show, because it’s talented people being talented, showing how good they are. And there’s a bit of celebrity intrigue: we have all sorts of sitters from the world of arts, science, sports people, journalism, you name it. So you get to chat a little bit to some celebrities and see them in settings they’re not normally seen in. 

But most of all, you get to watch works of art come together. And it’s really dramatic! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The results can be astonishing, or they can be frustrating. The audience has grown and grown and grown every year, I think as more people discover it. I love being a part of it. 

Yes, I’ve noticed it’s a very loyal and engaged audience, too. Do people kind of stop you ever in the street to talk to you about it?

Yeah, they talk to me and they say, you know, ‘we agree with the judges’ or ‘we don’t agree with the judges’. And I think that’s part of the fun of watching it at home. You put 20 people in front of the same painting, and it’s like putting 20 people in the theatre watching a play or in a movie theatre – everyone’s going to have a different opinion. So I think part of the fun of watching it at home is agreeing or disagreeing with what choices are made. But yeah, people are passionate about it. We’re now getting celebrities and actor friends of mine who are asking to come on the show because they just love it so much, they want to have their portrait painted, and they want to see what the experience is like, sitting for one.

Would you ever want to sit for it yourself?

Yeah, I suppose I should, but it would feel very weird now to be the one sat in the chair. I don’t know how good I’d be at that… Interviewing myself…

What do you hope that people take from the show when they watch it?

I hope people watch it and think that art is for everyone. You don’t need to be an expert. You don’t need to know the entire history of art. You don’t need to know the latest trends in art. But everyone’s entitled to an opinion. There are artists for everybody. I hope people discover new artists, because even if artists don’t go on to win, you can Google them, you can look up their websites, you can buy their stuff. I had an old English teacher of mine who was in the other day, who said he just fell in love with one of the artists we had, went to the website, bought one of her paintings and got it for his birthday. It’s wonderful to be able to help artists get an audience, because it’s very difficult to get your name out there as an artist.

I think it’s a very relaxing hour of television. It’s intriguing, and you’re watching talented people being talented. We try to be as encouraging as possible. We’re not a show that wants to make anyone look daft or trip people up, or get wacky, crazy people in and push them to the edge. We just want to watch talent in action.

If you had to choose between Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year, which would you choose?

Oh, that’s so difficult, because the joy of landscape artists is we go around and we see all these beautiful places in Britain and Ireland. But I think there is something intriguing – maybe because I’m an actor – about faces and personalities and trying to depict them on a two dimensional canvas. That’s fascinating. And the interplay of the two… You can’t show a landscape its painting and get a reaction. But you can show a person their portrait and watch them be flattered, moved, upset, intrigued. It’s a lovely thing.

Stephen Mangham Recommends…

I’m currently reading… The Hawthorne series by Anthony Horowitz

The last thing I watched (and loved) was… The Steve Martin documentary. I really enjoyed that. He’s just a very interesting character.

What I’m most looking forward to seeing… The Gentlemen, which Joely Richardson is in.

Favourite artwork of all time… A small painting of an owl that my son Harry did when he was seven. It’s genius.

Favourite gallery or museum… The National Portrait Gallery is hard to beat.

Top arty holiday destination… New York because they’ve got a couple of absolute cracking museums. And it’s New York.

WATCH

Series 11 of Portrait Artist of the Year kicks off at 8pm on Wednesday 9 October on Sky Arts. Episodes air weekly at the same time.

Catch up with the first 10 series of Portrait Artist of the Year (and all 10 series of Landscape Artist of the Year) at nowtv.com