I was recommended to look at the work of Helen Musselwhite by a friend, she creates pieces with layers of cut paper. Her finished results are beautiful and multilayered like this owl piece.
Nicholas Harding is another artist whose work was in the National Portrait Prize, I really like the realism and the highly textural nature of his work.
Whilst in Sydney I went to the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and was really impressed by the work of Robin Eley. He seemed to capture the vulnerability of his nude sitter so well. The top painting is entitled 'The shadows of his former self' due to the sitter becoming retired. The other image is a much more confidence laced self portrait.
Just found the website Happy Place, it's a bit like a more specific version of Passive Aggressive Notes there is a lot of humour inducing imagery to be found.