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 and landscape artist every year.^[1]

Artist of the Year
Also known as	Portrait Artist of the Year Landscape Artist of the Year
Presented by	Joan Bakewell (2013-2023) Frank Skinner (2013-2018) Stephen Mangan (2018-present)
Judges	Kate Bryan Kathleen Soriano Tai-Shan Schierenberg
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	15
No. of episodes	141
Production
Production locations	Various (auditions) National Portrait Gallery (finals)
Running time	60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company	Storyvault Films
Original release
Network	Sky Arts
Release	5 November 2013 (2013-11-05) – present

Overview

Through several rounds of regional competitions in different parts of the UK professional and amateur artists are challenged to produce a landscape; whilst the portrait competition takes place in London where the contestants produce a picture of one of three famous sitters. The winning artist of each round, selected by three judges, advances to the semi-final and then to the final. The landscape competition is filmed on location; whilst the portrait competition is held at Battersea Arts Centre.^[2] The winner of both series receives a £10,000 commission to paint either a famous landmark or a famous personality and the picture becomes part of a national collection.

The show is produced by London and Glasgow-based independent production company Storyvault Films. It is presented by 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.^{[citation needed]}

Joan Bakewell presented her final series of the show on Portrait Artist 2023 (Series 18 of the competition), in which she also appeared as a sitter in one of the episodes.^[3]

Series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes	Title	Winner	Commission
1	5 Nov 2013	10 Dec 2013	6	Portrait	Nick Lord[4]	Hilary Mantel
2	4 Nov 2014	23 Dec 2014	8	Portrait	Christian Hook[5]	Alan Cumming[5]
3	6 Oct 2015	1 Dec 2015	9	Landscape	Nerine McIntyre[6]	Flatford Mill[6]
4	11 Oct 2016	6 Dec 2016	9	Landscape	Richard Allen[7]	Petworth Park[7]
5	24 Jan 2017	21 Mar 2017	9	Portrait	Gareth Reid[8]	Graham Norton[8]
6	18 Oct 2017	10 Dec 2017	9	Landscape	Tom Voyce[9]	Firefly, Noël Coward's Jamaican residence[9]
7	16 Jan 2018	27 Mar 2018	11	Portrait	Samira Addo[10]	Kim Cattrall[10]
8	16 Oct 2018	11 Dec 2018	9	Landscape	Jen Gash[11]	Commission for the Imperial War Museum[11]
9	12 Feb 2019	23 Apr 2019	11	Portrait	Duncan Shoosmith[12]	Tom Jones[12]
10	15 Oct 2019	10 Dec 2019	9	Landscape	Fujiko Rose	Venice
11	21 Jan 2020	24 Mar 2020	11	Portrait	Christabel Blackburn[13]	Nile Rogers[13]
12	14 Oct 2020	16 Dec 2020	11	Portrait	Curtis Holder[14]	Carlos Acosta[14]
13	13 Jan 2021	10 Mar 2021	9	Landscape	Ophelia Redpath[15]	Snowdonia National Park[15]
14	13 Oct 2021	15 Dec 2021	12	Portrait	Calum Stevenson[16]	Nicola Benedetti[17]
15	12 Jan 2022	9 Mar 2022	10	Landscape	Elisha Enfield[18]	Rochdale Canal
16	5 Oct 2022	14 Dec 2022	12	Portrait	Morag Caister	Lenny Henry
17	11 Jan 2023	8 Mar 2023	10	Landscape	Finn Campbell-Notman	Celebrating the Van de Veldes
18	4 Oct 2023	6 Dec 2023	10	Portrait	Wendy Barratt	Jane Goodall[19]
19	10 Jan 2024	28 Feb 2024	9	Landscape	Monica Popham	Science Museum
20	9 Oct 2024	11 Dec 2024	10	Portrait	Brogan Bertie	Lorraine Kelly[20]

International adaptations

Landscape Artist of the Year Canada, a Canadian version of the show, premiered in 2020 on Makeful.^[21]

Portrettmesterskapet,^[22] a Norwegian portrait version of the show, premiered on 14 September 2023 on NRK.

Danmarks bedste portrætmaler^[23] is a Danish portrait version of the show, premiered on 1 March 2018 on DR (broadcaster).