The

BP Portrait Award

, now in its thirty-nineth year at the

National Portrait Gallery

and twenty-nineth year of sponsorship by

BP

, is the most prestigious portrait painting competition in the world. With a first prize of

35,000 GBP

(

approx. 47,000 USD

), and a total prize fund of

74,000 GBP

(

approx. 99,500 USD

), the Award is aimed at encouraging artists to focus upon and develop portraiture in their work.

The work entered must be predominantly painted in

oil

,

tempera

or

acrylic

on canvas or board. No watercolours, pastels or works on paper will be considered.

To enter the

BP Portrait Award 2018

, artists should upload a digital image of their work via the website for the first round of judging. All images will be viewed by a panel of judges and the entrants who are successful in this round will be invited to deliver their work to a venue in

London

for the second round of judging and final exhibition selection.

You are required to upload one photograph of your entire portrait. You also have the option to submit an extra photograph of a detail of the work. This may be a good opportunity to show the level of detail, the texture of the paint or a particular area of interest in the composition.

If your work is not entirely complete

at the time of registration you can still enter the competition. The first round of judging will be based on the image that you upload.

Entry is limited to

one entry per artist

. The work must be no smaller than 25 x 20cm (

10 x 8”

) unframed and no larger than 244 x 244cm (

96 x 96”

) framed. Multi-part works (

up to three parts

) will be accepted and regarded as one work. However, the combined parts of the part must not exceed the maximum size allowed. The work must have been completed after

1 January 2017

.

Entry fee is 40 GBP (

approx. 49 USD

).