Biography

Samira Addo is a self-taught artist; she taught herself how to paint in oil using You Tube videos. She was the winner (from over 3000 entrants) of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018. It was in the heats for this competition that she first painted a sitter from life. Her portrait of singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé, painted in the final of the competition, was purchased for the National Galleries of Scotland collection in 2019. Her prize for winning the competition was a commission to paint a portrait of the Liverpool-born actor Kim Cattrall for the Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool. In the artist’s own words: ‘portraits can engage attention, evoke emotions, and hold a level of relatability unlike any other genre.’