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I agree with Andrea that the UK and the US have very different ways of integrating/not integrating the portrait world with the rest of the art world. I, too, find the Royal Society of Portrait Painters to be a very exciting organization. As I've mentioned to Ilaria on my recent WIP thread in this forum, the awards given at the RCPP have creative and thoughtful themes. I have an artist friend who often sends me links to check out on the RSPP website and I invariably end up browsing through the site and finding all sorts of exciting work. She and I talk about someday taking a trip to England just to enter, because you have to be there in person to deliver and pick up your work.
It's encouraging that portraiture is taking off here in the US, and that new, more stylistically inclusive competitions like the Outwin-Boochever are being created. I think this trend might gradually bring portraiture into the mainstream. But I think there is still a big split here and It puzzles me because I do landscapes, too, and I still don't understand why I have to work doubly hard to promote two different careers when they both belong to one artist!
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