Review: Episode 5 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2019

• Rubertine Allen - video - an ex fashion model who works as a billing analyst for a company in Northampton. 
• Laxmi Hussein (Facebook |  Instagram) - video - BA (Hons) Architecture from London Metropolitan University. Freelance Artist/Illustrator. Mother of two small sons. Not coming across as an amateur to me - but maybe says she is because of full time her day job. Likes working with W&M Blue Drawing Ink - a lot!

Laxmi’s distinctive style has attracted commissions for illustrations and artwork from a variety of commercial clients and individuals

• Amelia Webster (Facebook | Instagram) - video - a Devon based artist, practicing in painting and portraiture. Graduated in Drawing, Painting and Printmaking at Plymouth College of Art in 2017 and has completed a foundation course in art therapy.  Currently an artist in residence with . disability charity - Hannahs at Seale Hayne in Devon. 
• Henry Whaley - video - taught himself to paint last year while doing Art History at school.
• Eve Pettitt (Instagram) - video - a yoga teacher from West London who paints as a silent and solitary experience. She trained at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and The Royal Drawing School. Predominantly a figurative painter, working directly from life, she exhibited at the 2017 annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and has a solid exhibition record.

Increasingly concerned with colours and their relationships, Eve explores what happens when two colours meet, how they dance side by side and what occurs at the borderline.

Four professional artists

• Anastasia Shimshilashvili (Instagram | YouTube Channel) - video - Born in Moscow. MA in Fine Art, Surikov Academic Institute of Art, Moscow (2011). BA Monumental Art V.Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute (2009). Focuses a substantial amount of her time on teaching fine art, running a YouTube Art Channel, and recently publishing a 'self-teach' art book based on my teaching methods in Russia.
• Graham Duddridge  - video - Studied Fine Art and Art History at Kent Institute of Art and Design, Aberystwyth School of Art and the The Art Academy London.
• John Gledhill (Facebook | Twitter) - video - 1977-1980: Royal Academy Schools, London. (Awarded First Prize for Life Painting, 1978) Fine Artist at Kindred Studios
  Works at University of York. Regular exhibitor at the RA Summer Exhibition.
• Catherine McDiarmid  (Facebook | Facebook (for her Art Classes)) - video - the only professional to announce herself as a Portrait Artist in the title of her site.  Winner of various awards. Previously appeared in Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2014 and 2017 painting Ashley Jenson and Ross Kemp both of whom chose her Portrait of them to keep. This is her blog post about My experience on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2019. She has two works in the RI Exhibition 3 – 18 April 2019

The Sitters

• Mark Gatiss an English actor, comedian, screenwriter and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock and is a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen
• Georgina Campbell - an actress who won the 2015 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Murdered by My Boyfriend (2014)
• Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson - Paralympian - who broke 30 world records - Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords, Motivational Speaker and Broadcaster 

Discussions and Observations