To each his own, and there is no accounting for taste – as the saying goes. Some years I have been to the photo awards or painting awards at the National Portrait Gallery and wondered how they let some of the entries through the door.
This year the paintings for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 are very good, in my opinion of course. You can see them for yourself by clicking this link to the gallery. Click through to the Visitors’ Choice gallery to see them.
I too liked several of the visitors’ choice nominees – Useless, Part II, 2024 by Karin Neijenhuis, Diane, 2025 by Martin Jessup, Mummy needs a break, 2026 by Hannah George, and Another Day, 2026 by Sarah Quick.
It’s this last one that I really liked. From a distance it looks like rough brushwork around the edges of his arms. But get into it and the colours of the skin and the way there are blended is adorable.
I’ve linked to the image file, so if you click this image it will bring it up larger.
About The Painting
Another Day By Sarah Quick Oil on canvas, 2026
Sarah Quick’s portrait of her husband, Mark, is atypical in its composition and yet highly familiar. The artist built up the image through several layers of oil paint, while using a photograph for reference. This portrait encapsulates a period that was particularly stressful in the couple’s lives – switching between long work hours and parenting at home without additional support. ‘We don’t get to spend much time together and this was the five-minute interlude before the switch.’
Sarah Quick (b.1979) undertook a BA (Hons) degree in fine art at Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, Canada. Her work has been seen in the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Open Exhibition 2025, the Sir William Orpen Prize Shortlist 2025 and Lapis Lazuli at the Hamilton Gallery, Sligo, Ireland, 2024.
Info
The photo of the visitor looking at the paintings was shot on a Fuji X100F at an aperture of f4.0, shutter speed of 1/55th of a second and, ISO 800.
The close-up of the painting was shot on an iPhone 16.
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