The Cambridgeshire Plein Air Artist of The Year Judging Panel

Luke Bodalbhai is a specialist in the Fine Art department at Cheffins, based in Cambridge.

Luke has a particular interest in the development of naturalistic landscape painting, from 17th century Dutch artists to the East Anglian en plein air painters who they later inspired, notably the Norwich School, John Constable and Edward Seago.

Luke studied History at the University of Bristol where his research into the role of visual imagery in 16th century Europe first inspired him to pursue a career handling antique art. He has worked in the auction world for fifteen years and overseen various high-profile sales including two paintings by Sir Winston Churchill, another en plein air painter, for over half a million pounds.

Aside from landscape painting, he also specialises in historical portraiture, the Dutch Golden Age, Venetian art, and the Victorian painter William Powell Frith.

Lauren is Head of School for Cambridge School of Art, at Anglia Ruskin University. Lauren’s approach to education is centred around inclusivity, innovation, and interdisciplinarity.

She is an art and design historian, specialising in the relationships between material culture, gender, and performance. Lauren has taught for over 10 years in Higher Education in the UK. She gained her PhD in 2019 - a collaborative doctoral partnership based between the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art Entitled ‘A Material History of Trans Identities in UK Performance (1967-1990)’.

Her work outside of academia includes roles within museums, galleries, archives, and fashion.

Lauren continues to research, and is focused on continuing to build on the rich historical legacy of the Cambridge School of Art, working alongside industry partners and research bodies, to enhance and deliver award-winning art school education.

Louisa Riley-Smith is the founder and owner of 20th Century Art Archives. Founded in 1985 and specialising in out of print material on British and International art, 20th Century Art Archives developed a stock of ephemera and artist’s papers and has worked with both private and institutional clients on an international level, helping to build up collections of elusive and original material on 20th Century Art. She is also a specialist in the area of Artist Books.

20th Century Art Archives has become more specialised in the field of artist archives and has worked with both artists, galleries and institutions in the valuations and placing of archives.

Louisa has worked with Tate Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museums, and Chelsea School of Art. Bibliotheque Nationale , Paris, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, MOMA New York, Getty Museum, Los Angeles and many others. She has also represented several major British artists in placing their archives.

Louisa is Chair of Kettle’s Yard Friends Events Committee and sits on the main Friends Committee.

Ben MacGregor is a self-taught artist based in London. He has been recognised for his landscape painting – particularly through the Sky Arts Landscape of the Year competition. He first entered with his painting Bluebells in 2021, making it to the semi-finals. He has continued to compete, and was most recently named the winner of the 2025 series.

Born in 1979, he grew up in Surrey and worked as a TV graphic designer for five years from 1999 before travelling to Nigeria in 2007 to work in maritime security. It was a role that took him to remote locations across the country, and on to other West African countries including Sierra Leone, Ghana and Ivory Coast. Returning to London in 2015 and contemplating his next steps, he rediscovered a childhood love of painting.

Ben is interested in abstraction as a way to break the conventional rules of painting and push boundaries. Using traditional oil paint and a textural brush style for a painterly take on mark making, this is backed up with more contemporary techniques too.

Benjamin Sullivan (born in Grimsby in 1977) is an English artist best known for portraiture. He studied painting and drawing at Edinburgh College of Art and now lives and works in Suffolk..

His work has been widely exhibited, including at the Royal Academy and National Portrait Gallery. He has received a Carrol Foundation Award, the Kinross Scholarship, and a grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. In 2007 he won the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize.

He was elected a member of the New English Art Club and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2001 and 2003 respectively. In 2009, he was made a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers.

His work is to be found in numerous collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Scottish Academy, Parliament House, Edinburgh, and several Oxford and Cambridge Colleges.

In 2017, Benjamin won first prize in the BP Portrait Awards .