Portrait show makes watching paint dry enjoyable!

TV Watch with Bernie Ni Fhlatharta

The combination of a skill or talent (read baking, cooking or painting) with ordinary people competing for a title appears to be a sure winner when it comes to attracting television viewers.

Now, it appears that Sky Arts are also jumping on the bandwagon with their Portrait Artist of the Year series.

I tuned in to Sky Arts 1 on Tuesday at 8pm thinking it was going to be something like the US programme, which is a bit like an arty version of Masterchef.

But the Portrait programme, presented by comedian Frank Skinner, and Joan Bakewell (with a name like that she should be on a cookery programme) was a different kettle of fish.

It featured a number of artists in a posh tent set up in Trafalgar Square in London, doing portraits of three actors: Robert Lindsay (My Family), Juliet Stephenson (The Politicians Wife) and Alison Steadman (Gavin and Stacy).

The actors had to sit for three hours while the artists did their thing, and boy were the styles very different.

Even if you had no interest in art, it was interesting to see the way the individuals approached the project, saw them work under the watchful eye of three judges (none of whom I ever heard of) and members of the public who were able to stroll in, though I suspect this was done in an orderly fashion.

To some it might be like watching paint dry and yes, it was literally watching the paintings take shape but it was fascinating, honestly. I stuck with it because I wanted to see the finished results and I wanted to see which three would get through. And I guessed two of them right.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.