A talented teenage artist from Hadleigh has been chosen from hundreds to compete on national TV.
Boris Takam, 19, was selected to do battle against eight other artists in the second heat of this year’s Portrait Artist of the Year series, to be shown on Sky Arts at 8pm on Tuesday, February 19.
The series, which is the station’s most popular show ever, is produced by Storyvault Films and presented by Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell.
Boris can’t reveal how he got on in the heat, but said: “It was really good experience.”
On the show, he and the other contestants will be seen painting three celebrity sitters - model David Gandy, actress Anne Reid and actor and rapper Ashley Walters.
“They were all really nice. Ashley was really friendly and I was talking to him afterwards,” he said.
Boris added: “I have been into art since I was four or five, and started painting when I was 10 or 11.
“I have done everything from cartoons to paintings of buildings and seascapes, but then I decided to concentrate on portraits.”
He is currently a student at Manchester University, but, despite his talents as a painter, is studying mechatronic engineering rather than art!
Following the heat, the winner will join the seven other heat winners to paint British jazz legend Courtney Pine in the semi-final. Then the top three will go through to the final, painting Hollywood actress and singer Laura Linney at the National Portrait Gallery.
The overall winner will be commissioned to paint a portrait of Sir Tom Jones, which will hang in the permanent collection at The National Museum of Wales.
The returning judges are award-winning artist Tai Shan Schierenberg, independent curator Kathleen Soriano and art historian Kate Bryan.
Another top-rating Sky Arts show, Landscape Artist of the Year, visited Felixstowe last summer, where the show’s semi-finalists painted on the beach, looking towards the container port.
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