Artist Karen Turner’s breath-taking painting of Downs Syndrome advocate Millie Anna is featured in the new BBC One series of Extraordinary Portraits, presented by Bill Bailey. Here, Karen describes what it was like filming with both in and around Eye, Suffolk
Can you remind readers who you are and what you do?
Absolutely! I’m Karen Turner and I’m a figurative artist based in Eye in Suffolk. My oil paintings are about the ways in which society conditions us (women especially) to stay small – physically, socially and emotionally. I’m known for my paintings of larger bodies, which are intended to celebrate and uplift, and to make a statement about how society attempts to contain and diminish women’s presence.
We last featured you three years ago – what have you been up to since then?
So much! I was only just really starting out three years ago, and since then I’ve exhibited a few times with The Other Art Fair in London, I’ve had a duo show with Rosie Phillips at Fairhurst Gallery in Norwich, and a solo show in London with Red Eight Gallery. I’ve been a finalist in the Dubel Emerging Artist of the Year Prize and the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize, and in 2022 I won the VAA Professional Artist Award. 2024 was definitely my biggest year so far, as not only did I finally leave my full-time office job, I also launched a brand new business called Go Large, where I help other artists increase their visibility to attract opportunities and create sustainable careers. And if that wasn’t enough, I spent four months over the summer filming Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey for the BBC!
So, the secret is out – how did you become involved with Extraordinary Portraits?
It was as simple as an email dropping into my inbox one day, from the production company Chatterbox. They were choosing six artists to appear in the series and asked me if I’d be one of them. I’d seen the programme before, but the artists featured are big names like Roxana Halls, Stuart Pearson Wright, and Adebanje Alade, President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters – so it had never crossed my mind that I would ever be included in that kind of a line-up. I called them about 2 minutes after receiving the email (playing it cool…) with a big fat yes!
What was it like to work with both Bill Bailey and Millie Anna on this?
They were both just glorious to work with. Millie is the most joyous person to be around, and her energy and enthusiasm really rubbed off on the rest of us, making every day of filming enormous fun. And having Bill Bailey over to your house isn’t something that you forget in a hurry. I met Bill for the first time on camera on the day he introduced me to Millie, but my husband Phil met him for the first time when he wandered into our kitchen one sunny morning. It was one of many surreal moments that ended up being part and parcel of the whole experience!
What can you say about your episode next month?
I can’t give away too much about the episode just yet, but I can say that Millie was the perfect match for me. My paintings are all about questioning why society gets to decide who takes up space and how, but with a focus on larger bodies. For this project I was able to expand on that, to look at other ways in which society tends to limit expectations and ambitions. And we spent a lot of time filming around Eye where I live, so for anyone who knows the town it’s worth a watch for that alone! With Millie and Bill, we visited Caféye and The Fabric Shop, and did a photo shoot at Eye Castle. It was a gloriously sunny day, so it’s going to be lovely to see the town looking its best on telly!
How can people find out more about the series?
The best way to find out more is to watch it! The first episode airs on Friday 7th February at 7:30pm on BBC One, and it’ll also be available on iPlayer. There are six episodes in total, and mine is the last, airing on Friday 14th March. We’re also exhibiting the six portraits from the series in an exhibition in Bradford, as part of Bradford City of Culture. So, if anyone wants to see them in the flesh, they’ll be on display there from Thursday March 13th until Sunday 6th April. (bradford2025.co.uk/event/extraordinary-portraits/)
Any other big reveals for 2025?!
Well, I’m exhibiting at The Other Art Fair in London again this March, so I’m really looking forward to getting back out from behind an easel to meet more art lovers in the flesh. The Fair’s on between Thursday 6th and Sunday 9th March at The Truman Brewery in Shoreditch. Tickets are available now and you can get 20% off with the discount code Turner20. (theotherartfair.com/london/) Other than that, I’m about to launch a series of mini canvases inspired by my experience of filming for TV, and later in the year I’m planning a much bigger collection drawing on the themes covered in my episode of Extraordinary Portraits. And a big focus will be my business Go Large (go-large.com), because I want to help as many artists as possible have the kind of breakthroughs that I’ve had. It’s another way that I can help people stop being small and start taking up space!
The first episode of Extraordinary Portraits airs on Friday 7th February, 2025 at 7:30pm on BBC One. Karen’s episode is the last one in the series, airing on Friday 14th March, 2025. Visit bbc.co.uk.
Featured image (left to right) Millie Anna, Bill Bailey and Karen Turner (© BBC/Chatterbox
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