Portrait Artist of the Year sees up-and-coming talented artists get their time in the spotlight as they make a bid to grab the title – with famous faces along the way.

In a celebration of talent and art, selected artists are welcomed to the art studio to go head-to-head and showcase their unique style, technique and vision.

With each heat episode, nine contestants are challenged to create a portrait of one of three famous stars, who makes a surprise appearance to sit for them in the art studio.

Previous sitters have included Sir Ian McKellan, Alan Cumming, Mary Berry, astronaut Tim Peake and Succession actor Brian Cox.

Once completed, the artists will turn their easels to reveal their work to their subject, before a panel of esteemed judges critique their work and select who makes it through to the semi-finals.

The winner will receive a £10,000 commission to produce an artwork that will go on public display at a National Institution, which changes every year, as well as £500 of art supplies from Cass Art.

The series has run for 12 series to date.

Portrait Artist of the Year first launched in 2013 and has been running annually ever since.

Its sister show, Landscape Artist of the Year, launched in 2015.

You can find out more information on Landscape Artist of the Year here.

Portrait Artist of the Year is currently hosted by Stephen Mangan. Mangan is an actor and TV presenter best known for his roles as Guy Secretan in Green Wing, Nathan Stern in BBC’s The Split, and the voice of the eponymous machine in the Sky Kids art show, The Makery.

He has been leading both Portrait and Landscape Artist of the Year series since 2018.

Mangan was previously joined by broadcaster, playwright and author Baroness Joan Bakewell as his co-host. Her final series was in 2023, when she became one of the surprise sitters the artists were tasked with painting.

Frank Skinner was the original host of the competition, hosting series one to five.

For the first time in the show’s history, Portrait Artist of the Year 2026 will see a brand new panel of judges critiquing contestants’ work.

Eva Langret has been Artistic Director of Frieze London since 2019 and is Vice Chair of Camden Art Centre. She previously worked at Tiwani Contemporary in London, where she focused on artists from Africa and its diaspora and has curated widely across institutions and independent spaces. She also joins Landscape Artist of the Year as a judge.

Jonathan Yeo is a contemporary portrait artist best known for giving traditional portrait styles an experimental twist, as well as his mid-career retrospectives work. Among those who have sat for him at Sir David Attenborough, Nicole Kidman and Malala Yousafzai. He painted the first portrait of King Charles III after his ascension to the throne, which was unveiled in 2024. His work currently has permanent placement within the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London, The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, and The Museum of National History in Denmark among others, and he has been a trustee at the National Portrait Gallery since 2018.

Katy Hessel is a British art historian and broadcaster. Her career has seen her present BBC art shows Artemisia Gentileschi in 2020, and Art on the BBC: Monet in 2022. Her work has largely focused on female artists, with her first book, The Story of Art Without Men published in 2022 and reflects on 500 years of art created by women. Her second book, How to Live an Artful Life, was released in 2025.

The series was previously judged by JuTai Shan Schierenberg, Kathleen Soriano, and Kate Bryan.

Kate Bryan is a British art historian, broadcaster and curator, and former director of art dealership at the Fine Art Society. She has previously curated exhibitions and pieces of Soho House and The Ned.

Kathleen Soriano is an arts curator, broadcaster, and chair of Arts UK. She was the director of exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts from 2008 to 2014.

JuTai Shan Schierenberg is a British portrait artist, TV presenter, and founder of the Painting department at Art Academy London. Several of his works are currently held in the National Portrait Gallery, including his portraits of Lord Carrington, Lord Sainsbury and Seamus Heaney.

Yes! But you’ll need to be quick, as the submission deadline for this year’s competition is February 20th, 2026.

You can enter with a self-portrait created within the last five years, with the finalists being selected on merit by an expert panel of judges.

More information on how to apply can be found here.

Filming for the series will commence in April at London’s Battersea Arts Centre.

Portrait Artist of the Year 2026 has not been given an air date at the time of writing (January 2025), with filming due to start in April.

Typically, the series airs around mid-October, running weekly through to December.

Portrait Artist of the Year is available to watch exclusively on Sky Arts.

You can also catch up with previous series and episodes on Sky Go and NOW.

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