June 13, 2013 9.35 am This story is over 129 months old

Lincoln artist’s portrait on display at National Portrait Gallery

BP Portrait Award: Lincoln based artist Greg Kapka has been selected to exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London this summer.
Heterochrome, a portrait of Fraser Scarfe by Greg Kapka. Zoom image

Lincoln based artist Greg Kapka has been selected to exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the BP Portrait Award exhibition.

Running from June 20 to September 15, the exhibition showcases 55 of the most outstanding and innovative new portraits from around the world.

This year’s show includes the Grimsby-born artist’s painting Heterochrome, which is a portrait of another Lincolnshire based artist, Fraser Scarfe.

Greg Kapka painted the portrait after the two held the The Shire Seen exhibition at Lincoln Cathedral last summer.

The painting has been selected from over 2,000 entries and it will also be used to promote the exhibition on the front of the National Portrait Gallery itself and on the cover of this year’s exhibition catalogue.

Greg said: “I’m overwhelmed to have a portrait of mine exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery, especially as part of this competition which any serious portrait painter in the world knows about and aspires to.

“And whilst I didn’t receive either of the two prizes – just getting exhibited is prize enough – the fact that they used my painting for the book cover and promotion feels like winning anyway!”

Greg explained Heterochrome was “painted with oils on panel using the traditional realism techniques of the old masters, along with a little “trompe l’oeil” style painting [which means: “to fool the eye”] for the bits of paper and train ticket in the upper left corner of the picture which almost makes you want to reach out to them and pick them up.”

From September, the exhibition goes on tour for a year throughout the British Isles.