Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year festival comes to the RDS Main Hall on 14th July (doors at 10.00am) and offers a free day of fun arts activities for all the family. This free festival will include the Irish heat of the Sky Arts Portrait of the Year competition which will be filmed for a Sky Arts 1 HD series hosted by Frank Skinner and Joan Bakewell to be broadcast in the autumn.
The Sky Arts Portrait of the Year festival will feature a range of interactive arts activities for all the family which are all free of charge. Activities include free portraits, portrait workshops and demos, sketching classes, mask making, face painting and multi-media art classes for adults and for children. This interested in free classes can sign up by emailing [email protected].
Visitors to the Dublin festival will be able to watch the 21 Irish artists who have been selected as semi-finalists from Ireland, working throughout the day to produce a portrait of one of three popular personalities - Pauline McGlynn, David Rawle and musician and artist, Lethal Bizzle. The Dublin festival will feature in one episode in the six-part Sky Arts series which will also feature along with festivals in London, Cardiff and Glasgow. The winner of the Irish heat will have their work displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and will go forward to compete for a £10,000 commission to paint double-Booker prize winning author Hilary Mantel as Sky Arts Portrait Artist Of The Year.
