Fresh from being exhibited at London Art Fair Jonathan Yeo has been announced as the latest name set to join BBC Maestro’s online platform of world-class experts. Widely regarded as one of the leading portrait artists of his generation, Jonathan’s course, Portrait Painting, will explore the numerous processes and techniques essential to bringing a canvas to life.
With an illustrious career spanning over two decades, Jonathan’s extensive portfolio of work has captivated art enthusiasts and collectors worldwide. His portraits feature prominent figures from the world of art, politics, and entertainment. His works have been exhibited in The National Portrait Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts in London, Circle Culture Gallery in Berlin, The Museum of National History in Denmark, SMC Art Gallery in South Africa, Marina Bay Sands Centre in Singapore, Art Central and The Cat Street Gallery in Hong Kong, Lazarides in Los Angeles, 284 Bowery and Joshua Liner Gallery in New York, and The Smithsonian in Washington DC.
Across his lessons, Jonathan will delve into the skills needed to capture likeness, expression, and form. The course will offer practical advice on canvas preparation, colour theory, lighting and positioning the subject, and correcting mistakes as you paint. Drawing from his own experience as a self-taught artist, Jonathan will guide participants through the essentials of portraiture, building their confidence to experiment with new styles, materials, and compositions. Lessons will include a Q&A with current art students, discussion around who to paint and how to approach them, advice on providing a good sitter experience, and recommendations on how to continue and progress a career in the world of art.
As a portrait artist, each subject you encounter is unique and inspires you to try something new. I’ve spent decades studying people’s faces and experimenting with different ways of portraying them. Through this Maestro course I hope to help you develop the skills needed to capture the breadth and complexity of human expression. I’ll be guiding you through some of my favourite painting techniques, sharing a few tricks and taking you behind the scenes in some actual portrait sittings.
Jonathan’s course on Portrait Painting will be available next week from Wednesday 24th January via bbcmaestro.com. The BBC Maestro platform features a series of extended, in-depth lessons filmed in 4K with an eclectic mix of prestigious experts. It allows participants to explore new areas of learning from the comfort of their own home. The commercial online education platform developed and operated by Maestro Media Ltd offers individual courses which can be purchased for £79, and annual subscriptions for £120.
To keep up to date with all news on Jonathan’s course, sign up for the latest announcements via his BBC Maestro page
About the artist
Jonathan Yeo is one of the world’s leading figurative artists. He has painted and worked with iconic and celebrated figures including: Sir David Attenborough; peace activist Malala Yousafzai; actors Dennis Hopper, Nicole Kidman and Idris Elba; artists Damien Hirst and Grayson Perry; supermodel and actor Cara Delevingne; Baroness Doreen Lawrence; former Prime Minister Tony Blair; and has produced official commissions of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. His work has been exhibited widely in museums and galleries around the world and has been the subject of several major mid-career retrospectives in the UK and internationally.
Entirely self-taught, Yeo rose to prominence as a figurative painter by the age of 30 following several major official commissions, such as that of the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, at a time when painting generally – and portraiture in particular – had fallen out of fashion. His collage of George Bush in 2007, however, earned his reputation as someone known for both traditional and experimental portraiture. Along with his Collage Series, Yeo has explored more conceptual themes such as cosmetic surgery and increasingly, his portraits are addressing wider concepts and themes within the paintings’ narrative.
His first mid-career retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2013 was acclaimed by critics and the public alike, and was accompanied by a major monograph and a BBC1 Culture Show special. The exhibition then toured in 2014 to the Lowry in Salford and the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. In 2016, he collaborated with The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, where he unveiled a portrait of Kevin Spacey in his role as President Underwood, from the Netflix series House of Cards. Later that year he had his largest retrospective to date at The Museum of National History at Frederiksborg, in Denmark. In early 2016, Yeo began experimenting with 3-D printing and scanning to make self-portraits and has also been working with various tech companies to help develop ground-breaking virtual reality drawing software. In December 2017, he unveiled his first ever large-scale sculptural work, made using an innovative combination of these new processes at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. The first ever institutional solo show of Yeo’s Surgery Series opened early 2018 at the Bowes Museum in County Durham.
About BBC Maestro
BBC Maestro launched in October 2020 to phenomenal success. The first four courses attracted more than one million people to the service, with thousands signing up to learn from their favourite Maestro. Whether you are a novice or an amateur enthusiast, BBC Maestro allows you to indulge in your area of passion from the comfort of your own home and learn from the experts. Each course is beautifully filmed in 4K and offers several hours of content, broken down into 14 to 40 easily digested lessons accompanied by downloadable course notes filled with hints, tips, and a breakdown of each lesson. Jonathan is the latest Maestro, joining Alan Moore, Billy Connolly, Carol Ann Duffy, Doreen Lawrence, Edgar Wright, Gary Barlow, Jancis Robinson, Jed Mercurio, Jojo Moyes, Julia Donaldson, Ken Follett, Lee Child, Malorie Blackman, Marco Pierre White, Mark Ronson, Mo Gawdat, Paula Scher, Peter Jones, Pierre Koffmann, Rankin, Richard Bertinet, Richard Greene, Sir Tim Rice, and Vineet Bhatia.
BBC Maestro taps into the fast-growing space of e-learning – because of the way technology has revolutionised teaching and learning, lessons no longer need to be confined to the classroom. In 2020, the number of people using online learning videos rose dramatically, with an estimated 200 million users worldwide. The global ‘Mass Open Online Courses’ market size is expected to increase from $3.9 billion in 2018 to $20.8 billion by 2023.
BBC Maestro is a commercial platform developed and operated by Maestro Media Ltd under license from BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. BBC is a trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation and is used under license.
