Artist of the Year

Artist of the Year is a television competition shown on the Sky Arts channel (formerly known as Artsworld and Sky Arts 1) which aims to find the best portrait/landscape painter every year.[1]

Through several rounds of regional competitions in different parts of the UK professional and amateur artists are challenged to produce a portrait/landscape of one of three famous sitters. The winning artist of each round, selected by three judges, advances to the semifinal and then to the final, which are filmed at the National Portrait Gallery. The winner receives a £10,000 commission to paint a famous personality and the picture becomes part of a national gallery. The show is produced by London and Glasgow-based independent production company Storyvault Films. It is presented by the UK TV personalities Joan Bakewell and Stephen Mangan. Series 1 to 5 were presented by Frank Skinner.

The judges are the British art historian, curator and arts broadcaster Kate Bryan, head of contemporary art at the Fine Art Society, Kathleen Soriano, director of exhibitions at the Royal Academy, and portrait/landscape painter Tai-Shan Schierenberg.

In April 2020, a weekly live streamed spinoff series, Portrait Artist of the Week, launched on the Sky TV Facebook page. Over four weeks, the format featured celebrity sitters posing live in their own homes, with audiences invited to paint along at home. [2]