The Semi-Finals, Mary Berry | Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2025

For the semi-finals, the heat winners and I walked into the main hall of the Battersea Arts Centre; what was once a segmented stage was now a beautiful set that reflected English heritage, a love of baking and grand floral arrangements. When we were speculating on who our sitter would be, our guesses were pretty unanimous, and from my many years of watching Bake Off, I was excited to have Mary Berry walk on the platform and sit down in front of me. Like my blog post about the heats, I've divided this blog post into three sections: The Preparation, The Semi-Finals, and The Final Portrait, along with Afterthoughts. It's a hefty one... so get your tea ready.

Me, Dame Mary Berry and my portrait

The Preparation

Following the heats, my mind was in overdrive with the things I could do in the semis, and I was consistently waking up with my mind racing at 5 am. At this point, I felt like I had a lot to prove in the competition. I was sitting between painting and print; I couldn't print a monotype, and the painting I made in my heat was not your standard oil painting. I knew my approach was risky, perhaps even controversial, so I wanted to give everything I had if I wanted to continue making progress.

The one thing I wanted to do for the semis was increase the scale of my next portrait. Although I had a spare 60 x 80 cm box panel, I ordered a 70 x 100 cm plein air aluminium panel from Artist Surfaces. Why this size? Well... this is the biggest plate I have and regularly use to make monotypes, so while I'd be pushing myself in the four hours, I wasn't completely out of my comfort zone!

Ink swatched on aluminium

Although I had a good idea of what inks looked aesthetically pleasing in a painting on aluminium, I decided to swatch all the colours I had. You can see that some looked more vibrant, others (like the yellow ochre and white on the bottom left) are more opaque and chalky.

Knowing that there would be a more elaborate stage design in the semis, I planned to incorporate background elements into my next portrait. In my last blog post, I mentioned that I can 'paint' with solvent. Depending on the quantities I use, I can create washes of ink, remove thin layers to bring it back to metal, and when making a monotype, the solvent can form a barrier between the ink and paper, preventing it from printing entirely. I spent a lot of my evenings in my studio, re-testing these same techniques to practice and feel confident in how they hold up as a painting. I also played with viscosity printmaking and glazing techniques, but felt the next round was not the time to incorporate techniques less familiar to me.

The Semi-Finals

Mixing inks

Walking back into the Battersea Arts Centre, it was really lovely to meet the other semi-finalists; we all shared our surreal stories from the heats and who we painted. Despite it being a competition, I was continuously warmed by the support and love of all the contestants. I think everyone was shocked and just happy to be on this wild journey!

Watching previous series and reading Making a Mark's blog about PAOTY, I knew that artists would be stationed further away from the sitter than the heats. I was concerned about how well I'd be able to see, especially as I prefer to work from life (to start with anyway) and need my glasses to focus on objects further away. That said, on the day, I was pleasantly surprised by the diagonal stage, which positioned our sitter closer to the artists. When it was revealed that Mary Berry (and her dog Freddie) would be our sitter, I was excited and in awe. I love baking and watched Bake Off quite religiously growing up, so I felt like I had a good idea of the emotion and feeling I wanted to portray of her. That said, Freddie was a plot twist to the semis. At this point, I had only ever painted one other dog from life. I knew I wanted to paint Freddie, but since dogs are unpredictable bundles of energy, I decided that he would only be a point of focus after I was happy with Mary.

Compositionally, I made several rough thumbnail sketches of Mary before starting my painting - a practice I was accustomed to during my Illustration degree. There were two compositions I was fond of; one was similar to the one Lauren went with, where Mary Berry sat on the right, with the flowers positioned in the top left. This is a solid composition, but something didn't feel right with Freddie, who felt a bit cut off in the frame. Instead, I shifted Mary to the left side. With the angle of Freddie's body, I could create the compositional spiral, allowing the eye to flow from Mary's face, hand, across Freddie's back to his face, up Mary's other arm to the flowers and vase in the background. I also loved how it looked like Mary was engaging with someone off-screen, whilst lovingly stroking her dog.

Thinking of colour, although Mary was wearing a pink blazer, the set was a teal colour that felt very English heritage, which I leaned towards. In my palette, I decided to mix Prussian blue with Veridian green. Alone, the blue felt too cold, and the green lacked that same level of tonal depth, so mixing the two provided the perfect base for my painting.

Back to Freddie, he did make it a little tricky when trying to paint Mary. If I had a dog on my lap, it would be almost impossible for me not to stroke them... I wouldn't be able to resist! Consequently and understandably, this meant Mary was moving a fair bit, more so than Clara Amfo during my heats. When I was nearing the two-hour mark, I was still battling with Mary's likeness. At this point, I decided to use the reference photo I took at the beginning of the day. I took dozens, but the one I went for wasn't stiff or staged... it was candid, felt authentic and warm, reminiscent of how I remembered seeing her on TV, and reminded me of my late nana. Instead of working off my phone, I asked the assistant producer if he could print two copies of the photo, one in colour and one in black and white. I typically use black and white references to see tonal values much more clearly, and I purposely made sure not to zoom in too close to Mary's face to prevent me from stiffening up and getting too absorbed in the details. For the last two hours, I worked from both life and my photo reference. It helped me nail likeness.

Working on a larger scale wasn't actually a significant issue for me; it allowed me to be a bit more expressive with my mark-making. The complexity of my image, compared to Clara's portrait, did push me more, and I felt the pressure this round. The biggest difference I made to the semi-final portrait was adding a light tone to the background, using a diluted wash of ink. I wiped most of the ink away, but it was enough to stain the aluminium a very light teal. Then, using solvent to paint, I added "highlights" in the background, alluding to the vases and floral arrangement, without detracting from the focus of Mary or Freddie.

The Final Painting and Afterthoughts

I came to the semis wanting to push myself and show the judges more of what I had to offer as an artist and draughtswoman. Throughout painting, I had some lovely moments with Mary. I remember her winking at me and watching me work away with curiosity. Despite the short time frame, I felt that I was able to really connect with her, helping me to shape and form my portrait to reflect that.

Overall, I was really happy with my final painting. I think I would have liked to add very subtle bits of shading to the flowers to give them a little bit more depth, and maybe neaten up some of the mark-making on the blazer. When the light hit the aluminium just right, I felt that my painting of Mary glowed. I felt proud of what I was able to achieve and how pushing myself further paid off. I am still shocked and over the moon that Mary Berry selected my piece to take home. Every artist made a beautiful representation of her. I would have put money down that she would have chosen Paulina's painting, especially after someone told me that Mary typically prefers traditional painting styles. So, on the off chance she reads, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And finally... well... I got through to the finals! Even though Mary chose my piece to take home, I didn't want to presume that I had a certain ticket to the next round, especially as every artist there is talented and skilled. So thank you again to Tai, Kathleen and Kate for seeing something in my work, and Stephen for providing tension-breaking laughs throughout the day. And most of all, a massive congratulations to all the artists, including Katie and Lauren, who will be joining me in the finals. As they say, rest is for the wicked, and on top of the final portrait, the finalists have to produce an additional commission portrait of a loved one. So I had to continue pushing myself and see what I could bring to the finals.

I will be writing two posts for the finals, one of my comission piece, and the other on the day itself.

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