BP Portrait Award To Accept Digital Entries For 2015 Competition

London’s BP Portrait Award will be accepting digital entries for the 2015 event, at The National Portrait Gallery. As one of the world’s most prestigious art competitions, making it quicker and easier for artists from across the globe to submit their work has become a priority. They follow in the footsteps of the Royal Academy Summer Show the worlds largest open competition.
 
To enter, artists will be asked to upload a photograph of their finished painting to the BP Portrait Award website, which will be considered by the judges in the first round of the competition. The entrants who are successful in this round will then be invited to hand-deliver or courier their work to a judging venue in London for the final selection.
 
The BP Portrait Award, now in its 35th year at the National Portrait Gallery and 25th year of sponsorship by BP, is a highly successful annual event aimed at encouraging artists over the age of eighteen to focus upon, and develop, the theme of portraiture in their work. The increasingly popular competition has a huge international reach, with the BP Portrait Award 2014 receiving 2,377 entries from 71 different countries. The new, simplified, entry process will be a quicker and more cost-effective way for artists to submit their work to the competition. Detailed information on how to enter will be available when the Call for Entries for the BP Portrait Award 2015 opens in November 2014.
 
Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery, London, says:
‘The National Portrait Gallery is grateful for the commitment that past entrants have shown towards the BP Portrait Award, but we are aware that the process of delivering artwork can be lengthy and sometimes very expensive. This is an exciting time for the BP Portrait Award and we hope that the initial sift will ease the entry process for everyone.’
 
The BP Portrait Award, one of the most important platforms for portrait painters, has a First Prize of £30,000, making it one of the largest for any global arts competition. The winner also receives, at the Gallery’s discretion, a commission worth £5,000 (agreed between the National Portrait Gallery and the artist). The Second Prize winner receives £10,000 and a Third Prize of £8,000 is also awarded. The BP Young Artist Award, with a prize of £7,000, goes to one selected artist aged between eighteen and thirty.
 
The current BP Portrait Award 2014 exhibition is open at the National Portrait Gallery until 21 September 2014. In June, the first prize was awarded to German artist Thomas Ganter for his striking portrait of a homeless car-windscreen cleaner. The second prize was awarded to Richard Twose for his portrait of model and TV star Jean Woods, and third prize to David Jon Kassan for his portrait of his mother.
 
Recent National Portrait Gallery commissions by BP Portrait Award first-prize-winning artists include Julia Donaldson by Peter Monkman (BP Portrait Award 2009 winner), Dame Kelly Holmes by Craig Wylie (BP Portrait Award 2008 winner), novelist V S Naipaul by Paul Emsley (BP Portrait Award 2007 winner) Ken Livingstone by Andrew Tift (BP Portrait Award 2006 winner), and Kids Company founder Dame Camila Batmanghelidjh by Dean Marsh (BP Portrait Award 2005winner). Many artists who have had their work exhibited have gained commissions as a result of the considerable interest in the BP Portrait Award and the resulting exhibition.
 

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