Books have universally been used to represent knowledge and learning, so here we explore artists in the exhibition who have chosen to depict subjects reading.

I'm delighted to have been awarded The William Lock Portrait Prize at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2021

Part four of the Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2021 Prizes & Awards

Part two of the Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2021 Prizes & Awards

Painting portraits of vagrants has a long history; whether the artists saw themselves reflected in the friendless and destitute, those shunned by society, or wanted to offer an alternative view of humanity than the one depicted in endless portraits of the stiff-upper-lipped members of the aristocracy that line the walls of official buildings, it is a tradition that is represented by some deeply moving contemporary paintings in the RBA 2021.