YORK artist Lucie Wake aims to use her appearance on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year to raise funds for our local hospice by selling portraits of Yorkshire celebrities.
Lucie is a self-taught portrait artist who first took up her brushes ten years ago while housebound with multiple sclerosis.
She will be appearing in the popular TV art competition - which started last week - after beating thousands of applicants with a colourful self-portrait where she is wearing large red-framed glasses.
Only 72 artists are taking part in the competition which airs on Sky Arts and NOW TV, with groups fighting it out in weekly heats for a spot in the final and the chance to win a £10,000 portrait commission.
Lucie said she was "terrified" to go on TV, but added: "once I arrived at Battersea Arts Centre for filming, I was looked after brilliantly by the production company. My fellow artists were lovely and so were the hosts and judges. It was tiring but an amazing day”
Lucie will appear in heat six which broadcasts on November 16.
To capitalise on her national exposure, she has painted three portraits of well-known Yorkshire figures which she will sell in aid of St Leonard's Hospice.
The works are of Shed Seven frontman Rick Witter, Emmerdale actor Mathew Bose, and the first formal portrait of the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell.
Lucie worked on the portraits in her York studio after taking photos of each subject.
She said: "I went and photographed them - I couldn't ask them to sit for me as they'd be with me for days.
"I paint from the photos I took. If you notice in my self portrait that I submitted [for the TV show] I'm wearing red glasses and I got Rick and Mathew to wear them somewhere too.
"I couldn't ask the archbishop - I was too shy! Although, I think he would have worn them! I got him dressed [in his formal wear] because he was wearing all black when I met him. I asked if he could wear the full shebang and he went off and got it all. What a lovely chap. We had a good laugh."
Lucie says the archbishop's portrait is her best work so far.
Although she studied ceramics at art school, she didn't start painting until suffering a relapse in her MS which left her unable to walk or see properly. She says she taught herself to paint to preserve her sanity. "I had three years stuck in the house and couldn't walk or see properly - a bit like having a stroke - so I decided I was going to paint."
She now has a blossoming career teaching, selling and exhibiting her work and completing many commissions.
This success led her to pluck up the courage to submit a self-portrait to the TV arts competition Portrait Artist of the Year, hosted by Stephen Mangan and Dame Joan Bakewell.
During each episode, the competitors have to paint a portrait of a well-know figure.
So who did she paint on the TV show - and did she get through to the later rounds?
"I’m sworn to secrecy," says Lucie. "You’ll just have to tune in and find out!"
Follow Lucie here:
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