Jackson's Art Prize, HSF Portrait Award, Landscape Competition

National Gallery Portrait Award relaunches, Landscape Artist of the Year, Almenara Art Prize...

Dec 01, 2023

Hi! It’s a 2D heavy edition this week to coincide with the launch of the Jackson’s Art Prize 2024. Always impressed with how well it’s run open and this year sees an increased prize fund with several new categories and some notable new judges including Tracey Emin CBE and Matthew Burrows MBE of @artistsupportpledge.

Open to artists of any age (and country of residence) working in painting, drawing, and original prints. Entry is only £6 per work and May judging concludes with group shows at London’s Affordable Art Fair & Bankside Gallery.

First prize takes home £5,000 (plus £2,000 of Jackson’s art materials) with a further £14k+ worth of prizes and materials for following categories: Oil, Acrylic, Watercolour, Drawing, Pastel, Relief Print, Intaglio Print, Planographic Print. (closes 1st March 2024)

More on 2023 winner Melissa Ling here. People’s Choice, Amateur Artist & Student Award Winners here. Materials & Subject Winners here.

Initiated over 40 years ago. Last held in 2000. Same prize. Different sponsor (international law firm HSF). The BP Portrait Award reemerges as the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award with a £35,000 1st prize and £66,000 prize fund.

Showcases the very best in contemporary portrait painting and is open to painters worldwide aged eighteen and over. Paintings based on a sitting or study from life - the human figure must predominate. Self-portraits and group portraits are permitted.

View the 2020 prize winners and exhibitors. If selected your work will go on display at the National Portrait Gallery, London. (16 Jan)

After last week’s Portrait Artist of the Year feature this week it’s the turn of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year. where a £10,000 prize commission awaits the winner. For UK based artists age 16 and over. Landscape painting in any material excluding photography, video, sculpture and digital media. Free entry. (3 May)

While we’re on landscapes - winning works from the Scottish Landscape Awards.

Art Competitions

Newly opened on MoMa and elsewhere…

Muir Trust Residency - £3,000 award, 20 day residency & solo show for mid-career, UK-based artists, to produce an assemblage of drawn portraits evoked by people within the museum and Buckinghamshire area. (5 Jan)

Recharge New Surrealist Prize - $7,000 award for US based painters working in the New Surrealist style (31 Jan)

ForM Sculpture Exhibition - £500 of art materials prize fund, open air exhibition in surroundings of Bangor Castle Walled Garden, Co. Down (19 Feb)

The Almenara Art Prize - €27,000 of prizes, figurative painting ‘from Hyperrealism to Impressionism’, 2023 winners, €29-€45 entry, group show in Corboda, Spain, (30 Jun)

UK Art Competitions - 21 open

Photography Competitions - 4 open

Illustration Competitions - 3 open

Children’s Art Competitions

Newly opened on MoMa and elsewhere…

International Kids' Owl Art Contest - win a framed certificate and be part of an art exhibition at the Festival of Owls in Houston, Minnesota next March.

Draw a 2D image of an owl as per this helpful image from their website :) Age categories: 0-5, 6-9, 10-14, 15-18, global (15 Jan)

Kid’s Art Competitions - 15 open

‘It was in this subtler side of the collection that Bowie's preoccupation lay’ - Sotheby’s.

Art Opportunities

New arts jobs this week in England, Scotland, Wales, NI, Ireland & UK wide.

Art opportunities worldwide from Art Deadline, Art Rabbit & ArtistOpenCalls.

Art residencies at resartis and TransArtists.

Reading List

The Reader: A Love Story - Tonya Morton on writing for that one person in Juke.

A Burning Frost: Joan Eardley in Catterline - Kenny Farquharson goes long on one of Scotland's best-loved artists in The Jaggy Thistle.

RIP John Byrne, a true original.

Entering art competitions…

See you next week,

Grant