Rick Janson Art Studio

Why is it the public in the UK likes to watch television shows about its artists, unlike, say… Canada? Last night I stumbled across yet another UK art series streaming in Canada. Extraordinary Portraits has been around since 2021 and continues to issue new episodes. In each episode a noteworthy individual is matched up with an artist to have their portrait done. Simple. Some of the artists are well-established, others are emerging.

The premier episode is about Georgia and Melissa Laurie — twins — who survived a crocodile attack in Mexico. The one bravely jumped in to free her twin from the jaws of the croc when the sister failed to get out of the water in time. Mauled by the gator, the sister spent 12 days in a Mexican hospital before she could be returned to the UK. Portrait artist Roxana Halls is known for painting women using humour, so seeing her approach the subject was fascinating, skirting the line between tribute and kitsch. The twins wanted to see a croc in the painting. In the end, the twins were moved to (happy) tears after they saw the finished work. Art can be transforming.

Why is it in the UK there are many such shows, in Canada, none?

Ironically, I found the show after seeing the first episode of Rachel Griffith’s Australian series on the Archibald Prize, which honours the top portrait painting of the year in that country. It seems to be in perpetual rerun on TVO. In Canada we too have the Kingston (Portrait) prize, but it is only biennial, meaning there won’t be one in 2026. Plus unlike the Archibald, very few people here even know about it despite the prize being substantial– the winner takes home $25,000 and the top 30 entries tour the country (probably even more important). I don’t think we’re going to see a multi-part television series about it from Mike Myers. In Canada we don’t like to talk about art much, at least not during the hockey season.

For years I have been watching both Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year, both very successful UK competitions that give viewers an up-close look at the process of art making. There is some unreality about it — the artists only have four hours to complete their work while under the scrutiny of the judges and spectators — but it does provide a showcase, including reviewing their often more polished submissions before the start of each competition. Canada did briefly try the same format as the UK, including the music, graphics and format, although they got cheap when it came to judges (two instead of the UK’s three) and the number of heats and artists in each heat. Unlike the UK competitions, which end with the winner taking on a prestigious commission for a public institution (and helping advance that artists’ career), Canada’s just ended by proclaiming a winner, giving them $10K (about half the winner’s take from the UK competition by the time you do the currency conversion) and showing their painting (for a limited time) at the McMichael in Kleinburg. While the Landscape artist competition does move around the UK, including Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the Canadian competition never gets out of Ontario. Boo. Cheapskates. No wonder it never saw a second season. What’s cheaper than Sky Arts? The CBC.

One thing I did notice over 10 years of the UK show is that the competition got better series by series. Perhaps once regarded as a gimmick, I think it started developing real credibility. The galleries that received the winning submissions say that it is hard to take these paintings off exhibition — patrons show up looking for them. The quality of the competitors was weak in that first season in Canada too, but we’re left wondering if it would have gone the same way as the UK had it been given proper resources, promotion and time. Likely what killed the Canadian version was COVID. The series came out in 2020. And nobody thought to bring it back.

Another playful and goofy UK art series was Drawer’s Off, which pits five amateur competitors against each other in a week-long life drawing competition. Each of the artists has to take a turn as the model and then score each other’s drawing at the end of each episode. While it is a life drawing competition, the artist/models are allowed to strategically cover up their private bits with props and fabric. It lasted two seasons — 2021-22 — which means it got a longer run than Landscape Artist of the Year in Canada. Canada never attempted a version of Portrait Artist.

I think in Canada we would rather poo poo these kinds of shows than actually stop and think about what they do in the culture. It gets people talking about contemporary art and gives exposure to artists.

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What does the US, UK and Australia all have that Canada doesn’t? A National Portrait Gallery. When we were in Edinburgh we saw the National Gallery of Scotland’s Portrait Gallery. which includes three commissions from the Portrait Artist of the Year competitions. One of the portraits we really liked was Gerard M. Burns painting of mystery writer Denise Mina (above). It wasn’t from the TV series, but the TV series got us to the gallery to see it in the first place. Think about that. Canada once considered establishing a portrait gallery opposite the Peace Tower in the former American embassy. I guess they are still considering…