Meaford-based artist Doris Rose has been selected for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery in London, UK.
Formerly known as the BP Portrait Award, the exhibition is one of the world’s leading showcases for contemporary portrait painting, attracting thousands of international submissions annually, with only a small number selected for exhibition in London before touring the UK.
“I’m incredibly honoured to have been selected and to become part of the history of this exhibition,” said Rose. “I’ve been collecting the exhibition catalogues since I was a child, and it’s been a long-term career goal of mine to be recognized alongside such exceptional painters.”
Rose’s selected work, Stripes, is a self-portrait oil painting on copper panel exploring perceptual distortion informed by lived experience with invisible illness. Using layered oil painting techniques, the work creates a shifting triple-exposure effect intended to translate altered sensory perception into visual form.
“Much of my recent work explores the instability of perception and the surprising link between chronic migraine and ADHD and how they alter my sensory experience of the world,” said Rose. “I wanted the painting to sit somewhere between realism and distortion, where the image feels simultaneously present and difficult to fully grasp.”
Raised in Toronto with a current studio practice in Meaford, Rose has built an international audience through her painting practice and behind-the-scenes educational art content online, where her posts have reached more than 150 million viewers and an audience of over 250,000 followers.
In April, she led a painting workshop in Meaford in partnership with Roberts Studios, an art supply and bookstore in downtown Meaford, reflecting her interest in fostering local creative community and accessible oil painting education.
Rose said working in Meaford has shaped both her artistic process and subject matter.
“There’s something incredibly grounding about building a practice in a small town and being connected to nature and community while also sharing my work on an global stage,” she said. “It’s exciting that artists today can create internationally visible work without needing to be based in a major city.”
The HSF Kramer Portrait Award 2026 runs from June 25 to October 7, 2026, at the National Portrait Gallery in London, adjacent to Trafalgar Square, with free public admission. It’s expected to attract 120,000 visitors to the exhibition space in London before touring the UK.
No Comment! Be the first one.