The BP Portrait Award – Oil on Canvas

If BP is a company withering away on its deathbed, then there is something eerily symbolic about the winning entry of this year’s BP Portrait Award. The receiver of the £25,000 cheque is Daphne Todd for her “devotional study”, 'Last Portrait of Mother'. The artist’s mother, Annie Mary Todd, who lived a ripe one-hundred years, gave permission for her daughter to paint her following her death. The haunting result is painted over two wooden panels (life and afterlife) that intersect each other at right angles. Everything about the painting suggests ‘decay’, and perhaps the most disturbing aspect of it is the distinct lack of daughterly emotion. The portrait is cold, surgical (the body has begun to turn yellow), and it does not evoke any of the senses of human warmth or grief that Daphne Todd must have felt following the death of her mother. It is hardly surprising that the National Portrait Gallery does not include it amongst its range of shop postcards.

Some of the most successful portraits in the exhibition are of familiar faces. Helen Masacz, for example, brings the awkward humour of Boris Johnson to life on a canvas that hangs mere metres from Todd’s still-life of her mother. The two entries could not be more contrasting. Another notable ‘celebrity’ portrait is Raoul Martinez’s 'Alan Rickman', which charmingly captures the actor in a relaxed pose.

The exhibition is a collage of different painting styles, from strikingly realistic portraits to more experimental and progressive approaches. In the latter category the most thought-provoking entry is Giampaolo Russo’s Portrait of Giuseppe, a depiction of his poet friend. The work took four months to create, with layers of paint creating levels and contours on the canvas. The result is a portrait that comes to life as you walk past it, changing shape as you view it from different angles. As Russo said: “I tried to dig deeper into him by doing the opposite of digging”.

Ultimately, however, the works that stand out most are those that bring the smallest subtleties of personality to life. Michael Ozibko’s 'iDeath', and Michael Gaskell’s 'Harry' are the most notable in this regard. The first depicts a girl, from a lofted angle, wearing earphones. The artist aimed to convey how young people are closed off to the world, and there is certainly a disconnected single-mindedness in the girl’s stare. Gaskell’s painting is the worthy winner of the second prize in this year’s BP Portrait Awards, and the depiction of Harry from a slightly side-on view shows a mixed complexion of sadness and courage. The artist spotted Harry whilst out shopping with his wife and asked him to sit for him. Gaskell has captured what he must have seen in the boy’s face that day, for the portrait exposes layers of endured hardship, and a strong-willed desire to succeed. It is a remarkably unique representation, capturing the essence of something strangely intangible.

This year’s BP Portrait Award exhibition is again on show at the National Portrait Gallery, and runs until 19th September.