Portrait artist of the year

[Crispynoodle]

So I love watching portrait artist of the year as an amateur. This year's winner (2024) could be said to be controversial as the painting style was more contemporary and less realistic. You could say that there were others who may have deserved to win more. They 'won' a 10k commission to paint Lorraine Kelly which was actually much better than the finished paintings in the heats. Then on the last program we find out that the artist is trans (there were clues) which makes me wonder if it was necessary to tell us. I automatically think oh no they won because the program wants to join the zeitgeist. What do you think? Why do we, the audience, need to know?

Probably to explain why the final painting made Lorraine Kelly look like a man in drag? As a piece of art I'm sure it was fine and her coat was painted very well but as a portrait which I feel should look like the sitter in my opinion failed as a lot of people seemed to think.

I think PAOTY was trying so hard to be 'right on' and diverse that they needed to announce the artist was trans to explain why they disregarded a number of much more talented portrait artists.

It clarified to me why they won, as they (imo) were definitely not the best artist. But gave POATY a chance to be seen to be supporting the trans community.