When Robert Wellington, associate professor of art history at the Australian National University, was first contacted about being a judge on the ABC’s Portrait Artist of the Year, he thought it was a scam.

“Strangely, they found me on LinkedIn of all places,” he says. “I thought the whole thing was a hoax. I thought it was a big ad and I was about to get charged for LinkedIn Premium or something, but no, it turned out to be legit.”

His fellow judge, award-winning multidisciplinary artist Abdul Abdullah, couldn’t believe it either.

“I was always a massive fan of the British program,” he says of Sky Arts’ Artist of the Year, which began in 2013. “When I was contacted to be a part of the show I was really, really, really excited and just wanted to be involved in whatever capacity. To be a judge, it is such a joy. It’s the dream job I didn’t know was possible.”

With their judging colleague, director of the National Portrait Gallery Bree Pickering, the three return for Portrait Artist of the Year’s second year, hosted again by actor Miranda Tapsell and comedian Luke McGregor.

The judges must find a winner from 54 entrants, a mix of emerging, amateur and professional artists of all ages and backgrounds who, each have four hours to create a portrait of a well-known person who arrives minutes before the clock starts.

Some of the artists use oils, charcoal or soft pastels; other sear into their canvas with a blowtorch or brush gouache across a camping swag or sprinkle salt crystals into their paint to trigger star-like explosions in the background. All are fairly gobsmacked to be selected from the hundreds who apply to compete for a portrait commission that will hang in the National Portrait Gallery.

“What is beautiful about the show is it shows you an artist at work,” Pickering says. “We have to remember that behind every art work is a person pouring their skill and their inner worlds out into the public, and for the public to judge and hopefully enjoy.”

In 2026, the portrait-sitters range from country music star Troy Cassar-Daley to singer and TV personality Dannii Minogue, broadcaster Carrie Bickmore, food writer and presenter Matt Preston, filmmaker, author and radio presenter John Safran, radio, TV and podcast presenter Kate Langbroek and 2026 Australian of the Year and space engineer and astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg, among others.

Besides the pressure on each artist, it is common for the show’s sitters to express great emotions once they view their finished portrait.

“It’s a really intense experience,” Wellington says. “The sitter’s on the little stage for four hours, the judges are scrutinising the works, the artists are scrutinising the sitters. There’s cameras everywhere and they’re being asked personal questions.

“They’ve brought a special object with them and often the object carries a really powerful story about their lives, maybe about a relative that’s passed, or it evokes something very powerful to their own origin story.

“It’s like a therapy session. An attachment grows between the sitter and artist. So, when the portrait is turned and shown it’s like a crescendo and all of those emotions of the day come out. It’s a perfect storm for creating that kind of emotional response.”

Like any TV awards show, winning comes with a caveat: victory does not ensure future success. But that’s not the point.

“Not many people can make such a commercial success of their practice that they can live off it,” Wellington says. “That’s a really exceptional thing, particularly in Australia, but probably anywhere in the world.

“But choosing to have a life of arts practice or to have art practice in your life is something we can all do. The show reveals how broad our artistic community in Australia is, how many people are spending a lot of time practising and honing their skills who may not have other avenues to show people what they’re doing. This show does give them another avenue, which is really, really precious.”

Wellington, Pickering and Abdullah are also extremely conscious of the responsibilities that come with being a judge.

“In all areas of our work we are constantly tussling with each other over what we like,” Pickering says. “A new art movement comes forward, and we’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a bit challenging’, ‘That’s a bit new. We don’t like that’.

“That’s been the history of art. We all love talking about how modernism changed everything and people hated it when it first came out. It’s part of the beauty of the creative process over time and the show celebrates that.”

Abdullah agrees.

“The judging part is really difficult,” Abdullah says. “But one of the most valuable things is how the show brings art and the joy of art-making to a new audience.

“I have had so many conversations with people who aren’t otherwise gallery-goers or art connoisseurs and they’re rapt with the program and going on this journey with this artist. The more people that like art or are exposed to art, the better.”

Wellington, known for his work specialising in the art of France in the 17th and 18th centuries and for wearing fabulous Vivienne Westwood outfits, recalls his first introduction to art.

“I don’t come from a particularly arty or privileged background and my access point to art and culture was through TV shows like [by] my beloved Sister Wendy Beckett,” he says of the late British nun and presenter of popular BBC art documentaries in the 1990s.

“Seeing her on television, a great eccentric and wonderful access to art was amazing.

“If we can’t be out there being passionate and talking about works of art, there’s going to be a whole generation of kids who don’t get to see it, who don’t get that little light turned on and think, ‘Oh, hang on a minute, there’s something else out there for me’.

“This is showing people we’re passionate and that this is a world for them. It’s not exclusive. Art is for anyone who wants to join.”

Portrait Artist of the Year airs at 7.30pm on Sundays on the ABC and is streaming on ABC iview.

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