Lenny Henry on Portrait Artist of the Year: ‘I hope I’m not meant to be naked’

In a fortnight’s time, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sky Arts’ hit series Portrait Artist of the Year, Lenny Henry is going to sit for a world record attempt. It is a “mass painting event”, with Henry posing for his portrait at Lindley Hall in London. Two hundred free spaces will be available for amateur and professional artists to join the celebration in person. The event will also be livestreamed for fans across the world to join the record attempt online and create their own portrait of the actor, writer and comedian.

That’s a lot of people waggling brushes and pencils. “I hope I’m not meant to be naked,” says Henry, suddenly becoming worried. Sitting for your portrait, disrobed or otherwise, is always revealing. Henry has been chosen for the show’s big beano after he sat for Morag Caister, the winner of 2022’s competition. (Caister’s portrait is currently on display in the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery.)

“Morag seemed genuinely interested in capturing something that hadn’t been seen before,” says Henry. “In that portrait my face was completely relaxed. I think when I’m on telly or in a film my face adopts this thing that it does – ‘fun Lenny that’s on the telly cracking jokes’. I have to admit I do like the serious portraits more – that’s more the person that I am.”

But before the mass painting event, the 10th series of Portrait Artist begins with a special feature-length episode, in which previous series winners return to compete for the title of Portrait Artist of the Decade. It’s been quite the decade for the show itself, going from a niche talent competition on a niche channel to being arguably the biggest arts show on television. These days episodes regularly reach over a million viewers.

For Portrait Artist of the Decade, competitors will be tasked with capturing none other than Judi Dench. The episode has already been filmed and Curtis Holder, winner of the 2020 competition, was among the artists who sat down before this queen of the stage and screen.

“It was weird because she [Dench] is the most down-to-earth, lovely woman,” he says. “However, there’s an electrical buzz around her. She was quite simply unfazed by all of the fuss we made over her. She was approachable, she gave us some great stories and she has this strange, mischievous glint in her eye. It was like she had the spirit of a child.”

Since winning Portrait Artist of the Year, Holder has gone from strength to strength: he is currently the National Theatre’s first ever Artist in Residence.

He says that although there is a snootiness in the art world towards Portrait Artist of the Year, “What I feel towards the show is gratitude and admiration. Because what it allows people to do is be an artist, and it allows you to enter that world. You know, I’m a black, gay bloke who was brought up on a council estate in Leicester. Without that show, I doubt I would have had those doors opened to me.”

Ten years of watching art in the making has taught presenter Stephen Mangan that he can never predict what the judges will deem to be the “best” portrait.

“What I’ve learned is that your own taste is very personal and no less valid for that. I think art can have a feeling of a private club that you need to have an art education to get into. But the old saying, ‘I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like…’ is such a valid position, because different things push different people’s buttons. It’s given me confidence to not second-guess my own preferences.”

This year, each heat winner will go on to paint pop icon Emma Bunton in the semi-final and then three finalists will battle it out for the title, painting broadcasting legend and Portrait Artist of the Year royalty Joan Bakewell. (Bakewell, who has hosted the show since 2013, already revealed a bit too much of herself earlier this year when she tweeted that she had been “dropped” by the show. A day later she tweeted that in fact she hadn’t.)

Mangan, her co-presenter since 2019, says that celebrities clamour to be on the show – this season Emma Freud and Richard Curtis asked him directly. “I’m often asked by people I bump into, saying, ‘Please, can you get me on the show?’”

Well, now, they can – if only by joining the other hundreds of amateur artists staring down Lenny Henry on September 30. And no, he won’t be naked.

The new series of Portrait Artist of the Year starts on Oct 4 on Sky Arts. The mass paint-along with Lenny Henry is at Lindley Hall, London, on Sept 30