BP Portrait Award Shortlist

Three out of four in the 2019 BP Portrait Award shortlist!

Emma Hopkins is a Member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

Sophie and Carla by Emma Hopkins on the BP Shortlist

Emma Hopkins ‘Sophie and Carla

Hopkins wants to understand as much as she can about what it means to be human. She explains “We are not just the clothed person we present to the world. We are the mind and body that we inhabit.” Her portrait ‘Sophie and Carla’ depicts the photographer Sophie Mayanne and her dog Carla. Mayanne is best known for ‘Behind the Scars’, a photography project about people’s scars and the stories behind them. This is an interest which Hopkins shares. Interestingly, Emma originally trained in prosthetics and is fascinated by skin, she usually paints her subjects nude.

See Emma Hopkins’ four portraits in our Annual Exhibition

Visit Mall Galleries blog to read their interview with Emma, in which she discusses her path from prosthetics school to portrait painting and her fascination with the human anatomy and mind: https://bit.ly/2Xfq9NR

Carl-Martin Sandvold and Charlie Schaffer successfully exhibited in our annual exhibition via the open section.

Norwegian artist, Carl-Martin Sandvold exhibited in our 2018 exhibition. Here, his self-portrait The Crown reflects his interest in “the challenges of life, the strangeness of being alive and other existential issues … the crown symbolises the peak of power, achievement and material abundance. In this portrait, it suggests none of these things really solve anything”.

Charlie Schaffer showed in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Schaffer set out to paint only Imara’s face, but then added the coat after being inspired by Titian’s Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro in the National Gallery, London, with its subject’s similarly spotted fur coat.

The fourth artist is Massimiliano Pironti

‘Quo Vadis’ (which could be translated ‘Where are you marching?’) is a portrait of Pironti’s grandmother who, he says, “is an example of strength, dignity and authority. Every wrinkle tells her story and I wanted to capture her image to freeze time. This portrait is truly important to me. It touches emotional chords.”