British figurative oil painter Mary Jane Ansell works in a tradition rooted in classical portraiture, bringing to it a distinctly contemporary sensibility informed by narrative, costume, and the psychological complexity of her sitters.
She has been a finalist four times in the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, which subsequently commissioned her to paint Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, a work now held in the permanent collection. Her paintings are also held at Brighton and Hove Museums, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and the Bennett and Joe Lewis collections. She has exhibited extensively with Arcadia Contemporary in New York and Los Angeles, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at Mall Galleries, and the Corey Helford Gallery. In 2025 she curated The Distinctive Eye at Panter and Hall, Pall Mall. She is based in the Welsh borders.
