Maidenhead artist makes it to semi-final of Portrait Artist of the Year 2020

A Maidenhead artist has earned herself a semi-final place in Portrait Artist of the Year 2020 with her painting of Tinie Tempah.

Figurative oil painter, Inge du Plessis, was one of nine artists in her heat of the Sky Arts competition where artists are put into groups of three and each tasked with painting a famous sitter.

In the semi-final Inge and seven other artists will be whittled down to three finalists when they collectively paint another famous face.

The finalists will then compete for the chance to portray musician Nile Rogers – the piece will be hung in the Royal Albert Hall.

Inge, 51, who has a fine art honours degree ‘absolutely loves painting people’ and has been a full-time artist since 1999.

Before that she was a cabinet maker and ran her own design and manufacturing business.

In her work she tries to capture ‘a fleeting moment when something has just happened or is about to happen’.

She said: “I was absolutely surprised [to win my heat], I didn’t expect it, there was some amazing competition as well, I was delighted but I was so surprised.”

It is not the first time Inge has taken part in the competition; she was also a contender in the 2017 series of the programme.

“Doing it a second time almost seemed a bit fool-hardy but maybe I cared less whether I went through, so maybe I was a bit more bold with the painting.

“I relaxed a lot more than I did the first time round and just had great fun with it.”

A lot of the artists in the competition chose to take a photograph of their sitter but Inge had fallen in love with painting people from life after her time on the show in 2017.

“I wanted to paint him [Tinie Tempah] from life and he was the most fidgety person I’ve ever painted, he just moves around a lot so it was really hard,” she said.

“The thrill of having a live sitter was not something I was going to miss out on so I fought and struggled through.”

Inge’s heat aired on Sky Arts on February 4, viewable through Now TV Month passes, and the semi-final will be out on Tuesday, March 17.

Inge teaches the Colourwheel art class once a week at Norden Farm and also teaches private art classes.

To find out more about Inge and her work go www.ingeduplessis.com or Facebook: inge du plessis Painting and follow her on Instagram @ingeartist