Portraiture stands out in art as a genre with unique challenges. It requires an artist to be not only a keen observer and a skilled draughtsman, but also a good psychologist who can establish an emotional connection with the sitter, read the body language, sense the mood, analyse the character and create an artistic impression which goes beyond physical likeness and captures the essence of a person.In her talk portrait artist Svetlana Cameron will look into the origins of portraiture in the European art and reasons why the tradition to commission painted portraits is still very much alive and popular in the British society.