Brogan Bertie – Sky Portrait Artist of the year
Project Boulle — Making my SIP reality
“Celebrated for his dynamic painting style, Brogan works directly from life, bringing energy and vitality to his portraits. His art captures the nuances of human connection with honesty and tenderness, crafting vivid representations that go beyond surface appearances. As the 2024 winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year,Brogan is widely regarded as one of the most exciting emerging talents in contemporary portraiture.”
Brogan Bertie studied IVM Illustration and Visual media at LCC and undertook a year on Diploma in Professional Studies which encouraged him to not fear competitive situations. Brogan recently was featured on Sky TV for weeks battling through the heats and then went on to win the 2024 Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year competition. Brogan is based in Margate in Kent where he is now overwhelmed with commissions. After graduating from DPS at London College of Communication in 2019 with a BA (Hons) in Illustration and Visual Media, Brogan worked in illustration and animation before training as a leatherworker. Bertie now specialises in portraiture, preferring to paint from life. His portraits offer an energetic and intimate insight into his sitters. Using the physicality of oil paint, he moves it tantalisingly across the canvas to create rich, textural works that capture an authentic yet delicate portrayal of human connection and complexity.
Brogan: “Whilst a visual likeness is important to you, it’s clear it’s secondary to a more visceral likeness, a likeness of personality and character. On the programme, we see some of your sitters become emotional when they see your depiction of them, you manage to capture the ‘real’ person, and they feel truly seen. How do you achieve this?”
It’s more emotional than technical. I think you share something with your sitter when you make a piece of art together. I’m not trying to create a carbon copy of them on the canvas - I’m trying to translate a moment we’ve shared together into something tangible. An attempt that is very human - trying to hold something that slips away so easily. It’s very human to miss a technical likeness and capture something that feels a little off and a little real. And I’m interested in that human thing.
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