SAMIRA ADDO ’s work electrified judges on Sky Portrait Artist of the Year. SALLY HALES met up with her to find out what the future holds
An inspiration board hangs on the wall of the artist’s London studio. Pinned to it are paintings by Ryan Hewett and Jerome Lagarrigue. Next to them, she has scrawled notes on their techniques and provocations for her process. This desire to learn has taken Samira Addo from full-time quantity surveyor with an art A Level to reigning Sky Portrait Artist of the Year – the youngest person and only amateur to take the title – in just a few years. Judge and award-winning portrait painter Tai Shan Schierenberg called her treatment of paint “magical”. Sat in her small studio, the self-effacing painter reflects on her success, a sunny nature belying her determination to follow her dream.
Samira looked composed throughout her time on the show as she coolly navigated painting celebrities from life in four-hour timeslots, the camera relentlessly trained on her. “The first time I tried to apply paint or sketch, my hand was shaking,” she says of the filming process. But she quickly overcame any nerves. “Afterwards, I realised it was because I used to dance and perform. What I’d learned then helped me. You have to do your own thing and not pay attention to the audience’s reaction.” She was able to focus on the challenge in front of her, even with the added pressure of capturing a likeness of a well-known face, painting musician Emil Sandé, actor Robert Bathurst, fashion icon Zandra Rhodes and actress Kim Cattrall in her expressive, gestural style. “I didn’t distanced myself from my perception of the person – but I looked at them as just shapes,” she says. “I tried to not let anything else influence me.”
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Denne historien er fra Summer 2018-utgaven av Artists & Illustrators.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Still life IN 3 HOURS
Former BP Portrait Award runner-up FELICIA FORTE guides you through a simple, structured approach to painting alla prima that tackles dark, average and light colours in turn
Movement in composition
Through an analysis of three masterworks, landscape painter and noted author MITCHELL ALBALA shows how you can animate landscape composition with movement
Shane Berkery
The Irish-Japanese artist talks to REBECCA BRADBURY about the innovative concepts and original colour combinations he brings to his figurative oil paintings from his Dublin garden studio
The Working Artist
Something old, something new... Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL has expert advice for balancing fresh ideas with completing half-finished work
Washes AND GLAZES
Art Academy’s ROB PEPPER introduces an in-depth guide to incorporating various techniques into your next masterpiece. Artwork by STAN MILLER, CHRIS ROBINSON and MICHELE ILLING
Hands
LAURA SMITH continues her new four-part series, which encourages you to draw elements of old master paintings, and this month’s focus is on capturing hands
Vincent van Gogh
To celebrate The Courtauld’s forthcoming landmark display of the troubled Dutch master’s self-portraits, STEVE PILL looks at the stories behind 10 of the most dramatic works on display
BRING THE drama
Join international watercolour maestro ALVARO CASTAGNET in London’s West End to paint a dramatic street scene
Serena Rowe
The Scottish painter tells STEVE PILL why time is precious, why emotional responses to colour are useful, and how she finds focus every day with the help of her studio wall
Bill Jacklin
Chatting over Zoom as he recovers from appendicitis, the Royal Academician tells STEVE PILL about classic scrapes in New York and his recent experiments with illustration