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.

Sally Clark is the Founder of The Hockney Gallery Ltd (MODO), an independent gallery with spaces in Cambridge and London, dedicated to the work of David Hockney, and the Founder of Art and Culture Education CIC (ACE CIC), an organisation focused on repositioning art as a core form of human intelligence within education.

Through MODO, she has developed a distinctive public-facing gallery model that combines commercial practice with cultural programming, creating space for deeper engagement with perception, looking, and the role of art in shaping how we understand the world. Her perspective is closely aligned with the traditions of plein air painting, where observation, time, and direct engagement with the landscape shape the work.

She is also the convenor of The Cambridge Lectures on Art & Intelligence, a public lecture series examining how human perception and imagination continue to drive innovation and economic progress as AI evolves.

As a judge, Sally brings a perspective that bridges artistic practice, education, and cultural strategy, with a particular focus on how artists observe, interpret, and construct meaning through direct engagement with the world.

Frances Gandy was Fellow Librarian and Curator for Girton College, University of Cambridge, for almost 30 years, responsible for the College’s libraries, archives and extensive art collections. She is a Chartered Librarian ) and a graduate of Cambridge University. She also taught for the University faculty and for several Cambridge colleges and was Tutor for Graduates at Girton for over 20 years. She was active in the foundation and development of the College’s Artist in Residence scheme and mentored many of the artists who came through it.

Frances was one of the instigators who brought the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ (RP’s) millennial exhibition, People’s Portraits, to Girton College in 2002. Since then, the exhibition has more than doubled in size and now comprises over 60 non-commissioned portraits of ordinary people from all walks of life, and all painted by members of the RP. The paintings are hung along Girton’s extensive corridors and the exhibition is open to the public.

Frances is a Life Fellow of Girton College and continues to work closely in partnership with the RP to ensure the development, accessibility and success of this unique collection of People’s Portraits.

Martin Salisbury is Professor of Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. He designed their internationally renowned MA Children’s Book Illustration programme.

Martin studied illustration at Maidstone College of Art in the 1970s before working as an illustrator and painter. He is the author of a number of books on the practical and theoretical aspects of illustration which have been published in many languages around the world, including the recently published Illustrators’ Sketchbooks and Drawing for Illustration (Thames & Hudson). In 2017 his book, The Illustrated Dust Jacket: 1920-1970 became a Thames & Hudson best seller.

He has a particular interest in bringing understanding and appreciation of the art of illustration and picturebook-making to a wider audience, contributing occasional columns to publications such as the Literary Review and The Guardian newspaper. He has acted as chair of many boards including the international jury at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

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 .

Ben is the Head Judge of the Cambridgeshire Plein Air Award Judging Panel for 2026.