The BP portrait competition

The BP Portrait Award is a prestigious portrait painting competition and represents the very best in contemporary portrait painting. With a first prize of £35,000, and a total prize fund of £74,000, the Award is aimed at encouraging artists to focus upon and develop portraiture in their work.

The BP Portrait Award 2018 exhibition will run at the National Portrait Gallery from 14 June to 23 September 2018. It is in its thirty-ninth year at the National Portrait Gallery and twenty-ninth year of sponsorship by BP and continues to be an unmissable highlight of the annual art calendar. The exhibition tours the country too and this photo is taken in Sunderland Museum.