THE CBPP
TOP RIGHT Hero
Johnson, Margaret
Hyde, oil on
canvas, 70x80cm
ABOVE Jane French,
Fan Girl, oil on
canvas, 40x50cm
incredibly wide, featuring recent graduates alongside
painters with already long and distinguished careers.
Members James Hague and Peter Monkman won
first prize at the BP Portrait Award in 1996 and 2009
respectively, while two other members, Ania Hobson
and Emma Hopkins, were the recipients of the same
competition’s Young Artist Award, in 2018 and 2019
respectively. By contrast Jemisha Maadhavji, one of the
youngest painters in the collective, only graduated from
university 18 months ago. Her vibrant, playful and
decorative portraits promise very exciting things to come.
There’s a great diversity of subject matter within the
group, too. Take Tim Benson, whose portraiture passionsHERO JOHNSON
What was your big break in portraiture terms?
“Winning the Changing Faces Portrait Commission
Prize at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ annual
exhibition in 2015 was a watershed moment for me
psychologically.
“To have my work singled out for an award amidst
many of the country’s best portrait painters helped
my self-confidence levels. I used to suffer paralysing
self-doubt when working – and still do to a lesser
extent – but this gave me something to hold on to.”
http://www.herojohnson.com