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00:00.
00:14Hello, and welcome to the Bulkham Estate in Sussex,
00:17where eight artists are looking out
00:19towards the magnificent Ouse Valley Viaduct.
00:23Today's big question, who's going to win?
00:25It's the semifinal of Landscape Artist of the Year.
00:30Across a sun-drenched summer,
00:3248 talented landscape artists
00:34took on some of Britain's most breathtaking views.
00:38Armed only with brushes, pencils and a sense of humour.
00:46Is it all right?
00:47Now, only eight remain.
00:50Everything could go wrong.
00:53For one standout artist, an incredible prize awaits.
00:57A £10,000 commission that will see them travel to Ireland
01:00to capture a view of Crowpatrick,
01:03the nation's sacred mountain for the National Gallery of Ireland.
01:08But first, they must win over three powerhouses of the art world.
01:13Our judges.
01:15Artists, Tyshan Schierenberg.
01:18Curator, Kathleen Soriano.
01:21And director of Freeze London, Eva Longre.
01:24I'm excited to see how you resolve some of the parts that still need working on.
01:29Yeah.
01:30You're not going to tell me what they are, are you?
01:32Uh, no, that's...
01:33Well, I think you already know, really.
01:36Just three of today's artists will make it through to the final.
01:39So, as the pressure mounts, who will stay on track?
01:43And who will go off the rails?
01:46Must have taken a while.
01:48I hope they have more than one bricklayer.
01:50Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
02:10Arriving at the Ouse Valley today are our six heat winners.
02:14I came in by train from there and saw the pods out the window.
02:17I got very excited.
02:20Illustrator and artist Libby Walker, who's travelled here from Glasgow.
02:25Artist and psychotherapist Nigel Glaze from North Wales.
02:29And Kim Day, a film scene illustrator living in Dorset.
02:34To be taking part in the semi-final is just fantastic.
02:38I wasn't expecting it, so it's just, everything feels like a bonus.
02:41I just feel quite lucky.
02:42And I get a whole day of painting once more.
02:45Joining them at today's semi-final are...
02:48Dan West from Teddington, who works in marketing.
02:52Painter Lelia Geraghty from Kent.
02:55And North London-based artist and teacher Prasad Bevan.
03:00Being at the semi-final means I'm a step closer to winning the competition.
03:04And it does apply a bit more pressure because there's more to lose.
03:06You're into the final eight.
03:08So, yeah, there is a little bit more pressure, but it's all part of the enjoyment.
03:12This year, the judges also chose to put through the strongest runner-up from the heats.
03:17Tom Winter, who took part in the heat at HMS Wellington.
03:21Tom was just too good to let go.
03:24We're very happy that he's here again.
03:25I feel that there's a lot here for him to play with, and I'm really excited to see what he
03:30comes up with today.
03:31To find out I was coming back to the semi-final, I was very happy.
03:36I couldn't really turn that down because it was an overwhelmingly positive experience in the first place,
03:41despite the franticness of trying to get the work done.
03:44And our final competitor today is the overall winner of the wildcard competition, Deborah Frank.
03:51I think you've won the wildcard today.
03:53Oh, my God.
03:54She caught the attention of the judges when she painted Dover Ferryport.
03:59We were really excited to come across Deborah's work.
04:02It was a very strong, structured piece of work.
04:05So it was very clear, comparing them all, really, that she stood out.
04:09To be a semi-finalist is a big surprise, and I'm really grateful to be out here with everyone.
04:13I've never had a pod before, so it's quite nice to have your own bubble, your own space to work
04:17in.
04:20With all eight artists now settled into their pods, it's time for them to take a good look at their
04:25semi-final view.
04:28I am looking forward to a day in this location.
04:31It's quite a daunting scene to sort of get my teeth into today.
04:35The view is really very spectacular, and I do like the trains going over the top.
04:41That's really, really nice.
04:43The only problem for me is there aren't any clouds.
04:46I might add a cloud.
04:48I don't know what the judges will think about that, but it's got to be there.
05:10Artists, you have several million bricks and just four hours to cement your place in this year's final.
05:16And your time starts now.
05:36Looming nearly 100 feet above the farmland of the Bulcombe estate, the Ouse Valley Viaduct has carried passengers from London
05:43to Brighton since 1841.
05:47And although the day promises to be hot and sunny, its 37 arches and around 11 million bricks are for
05:54now partly hidden by the morning shadows.
05:59The semi-final, we had to give them something big, dramatic.
06:03You can't get more dramatic than this wonderful viaduct.
06:06I was hoping we'd get some really dramatic skies today, but I think we're going to end up with a
06:11glorious blue sky, which I think in itself could be a bit of a problem.
06:14I also think there's the issue of the trains. You know, is the train going to feature? Is it not
06:18going to feature? In a way, that's what tells the story of the viaduct.
06:21I think we've got a fantastic bunch of artists, but this is the toughest round. They've really got to do
06:25the best they can possibly do to get through to that final.
06:42I'd say my main driving force in painting is colour. I just love colour combinations.
06:46I think I have to get everything down first before I can start to sort of journey out through the
06:52colour.
06:53Kim Day is a film scene illustrator who won her heat with a vibrant painting of Derwent Water, rendered in
07:00charcoal, pastel, pen and acrylics.
07:06Kim, welcome to the semi-final. It's kind of interesting because I see you as a colourist. Can you see
07:12colour here?
07:13I mean, yeah, today it's such a hot day and it's just like this sort of glowing, creamy, sort of
07:21mustardy, you know, it's like everywhere.
07:23So that's the feeling I get from everything that you get with Simon.
07:26She's an old hippie. I know, sorry.
07:28No, that's interesting. I'm always interested in the way you set up your pictures. You've got the very high horizon.
07:35I get a sense that you set up a kind of area in which you can play with colour, so
07:39you...
07:39Is this initial phase of blocking it in very important to get the bones underneath?
07:44Yeah, I'm just trying to work out where the shapes are going to be.
07:47I'm trying to decide on the palette and whether I want to keep it relatively conventional or not.
07:53Well, look, I love this already, so I can't wait for the colours to appear.
08:11I'm a realist painter, but I also try to think about the psychological themes behind the painting.
08:18I like to really sort of dwell on things and I encourage other people to do that process of connecting
08:24with the landscape around them.
08:27Professional artist and psychotherapist Nigel Glaze joined us at St James' Park, where he produced a painting of Buckingham Palace
08:35that was steeped in narrative and intensity.
08:40Nigel, we've done it again. We've given you something on the slant. I mean, does that feel like a comfortable
08:44position for you?
08:45I suppose a more diagonal sort of composition has a drama, but I'm thinking about the psychological feelings that are
08:54here.
08:54You can see influences of the Victorian era and I'm thinking about some of the painters from many years ago
09:01who might have also thought about these types of structures.
09:04So how do you put that into the painting?
09:08I suppose I think about these things as I'm, I suppose, trying to paint.
09:13There's something about the process of really noticing something.
09:16Yeah.
09:16And I think there's a combination of both what's there and what's in your mind.
09:35So Eva, we're both melting in the heat here. The sun does strange things to that structure and I think
09:40the artists are picking up on it. I mean, how do you think they've started?
09:43It's a bit of a shock I think for artists to decide which way to go on this view. There's
09:49immensity to it and some artists are tackling this and I've started really quickly with that.
09:54Yeah.
09:54And then, you know, there are artists who are maybe going to have to wait and see what the light
09:59does before they can decide where they can take their work.
10:02So it's been really interesting to see that those different strategies at play.
10:05As it's a semi-final, I do get a sense that they are all very confident. I love the way
10:10we haven't given them much choice.
10:12They've given this one monolith and they're all interpreting it in very different ways.
10:15Completely.
10:34When I create a landscape, I'm normally trying to catch the feelings of being outside and amongst the trees. So
10:41today it will be a challenge not to paint every single brick, but to really abstract it into shape.
10:46Color and form.
10:47Artist and illustrator Libby Walker paints scenes from the natural world on plein air whenever she can. Her heat painting
10:55captured the relationship between the River Thames and London's towering skyscrapers.
11:02Well, Libby, another piece of architecture.
11:05Yes.
11:06Maybe not your natural environment for painting.
11:10Yeah.
11:10So, you know, tell me what are your thoughts on this in terms of the balance between architecture and landscape.
11:16I'll be painting the scene with lots of green. I like how people and nature come together. People have built
11:22this through nature. This is so striking. And I've actually focused right into the pylons and some lovely tree shapes
11:30that I found in amongst some of the arches. So I'm hoping to blend the two bits together.
11:45I do ink marbling. The process that I work with is very accidental and very hard to control. You can
11:51control a little bit. So when you're dealing with structures like this, I needed to find a way to do
11:57that.
11:59Prasad Bevan impressed the judges with his painting of Dover Ferryport created using ink marbling where Chinese inks are floated
12:08on water. Today, he's using the same technique, but adding paper stencils to define the architecture.
12:19Hi, Prasad. Hello.
12:21What's going on here?
12:23Is it like that when you're doing your exams at school and you're like, I don't want anyone else to
12:28see my...
12:29What happened in Dover was it was so windy, I was completely unprepared that when I put the ink on
12:33the water, because it's so delicate, it was just moving everywhere.
12:36Right.
12:37Is the sun going to cause issues with the ink?
12:39Oh, no. No, no. Sun isn't a problem at all.
12:41No.
12:42Incorporating man-made structures is more of a challenge. So what I've done is cut out any shape that I
12:47wish to feature in the marbling, in this case, especially the viaduct.
12:50And then I stick it onto a piece of paper and begin the marbling process.
12:55I see. I suppose you just don't know how it's going to turn out, do you?
12:58There's always the accidental, but I embrace that. If I can, I'll try to prevent the marbling from going too
13:03high up so that I can form trees.
13:06Go with the flow. Yeah.
13:07Literally.
13:10While Prasad gets into his stride, some of his fellow artists are feeling the pressure as the first hour draws
13:16to a close.
13:18At this stage, I'm struggling with just making sure the perspective in drawing is just perfect, so that I can
13:24then have the freedom to add the colour and play a little bit after that point.
13:29I'm behind. I'd like to be further ahead with what's called blocking section of things.
13:39I think after this first hour, I've decided on the composition. I'm just going to stick with it. I don't
13:44know if it's the best choice, but yeah, I feel okay.
14:04Here in Sussex, as eight artists valiantly get to grips with a quarter of a mile of Victorian architecture, our
14:12next semi-finalist is trying to lighten the mood.
14:16When I'm painting landscape, I like to sort of take a sort of, you know, what would seemingly be a
14:20murky scene and, you know, shoot it through with bright bits of colour and that's a lot of my motivation
14:25for painting it.
14:28Artist and art tutor Tom Winter took part in our podless heat on HMS Wellington, where his bold palette and
14:37layers of translucent paint left a lasting impression on the judges.
14:43Tom, what I really loved about your heat painting is that the colours are really lively, so you're going to
14:50that same colour palette, aren't you?
14:51I think the thing I really love, this sort of window of green at the top, right on the slope,
14:58just by the side, is something I really wanted to have in it.
15:01Are you going to tone it down so we've got something that's closer to what we're looking at today?
15:05Oh, absolutely. In terms of the earthy colours, they'll be definitely in the foreground and brighter colours in the background,
15:09this sort of very acidy green between the shadows of the trees.
15:12Which should work really, really well. Well done.
15:35As a painter, I'm quite impressionistic and I like working really fast and working big.
15:41When I work fast, I feel like it's more intuitive. I'm not overthinking it and I'm just putting down the
15:46marks that come naturally.
15:48Deborah Frank is currently studying for a degree in Contemporary Portraiture.
15:53Her winning wildcard painting was a gestural, cropped composition of Dover Ferryport, rendered in oils.
16:02Hi, Deborah. Hi.
16:03We're very happy to see you here in the semi-finals.
16:06We were really impressed by the work that you made in the Doverport.
16:10It was just a really strong point of view, you know, photographic zoom in.
16:15And then today, this is very much not the approach.
16:18It feels like you've really decided to take in as much as you can.
16:22When I actually saw the site, I was like, it needs the width and it needs the expanse.
16:25And then, of course, you've got this great expanse of high summer yellow fields there at the front of the
16:31painting.
16:32I've painted a bit of fields before. I feel like you can't try and put every blade in, so I
16:37kind of want to leave the brush marks as they are.
16:39Yeah. There's a great sense of movement, actually, across the entire painting.
16:50You know, usually we give them a view and there's a choice.
16:53Yeah.
16:54There's not much choice here, is there, really?
16:55It would be perverse if they turned to the right and painted a tree.
16:58Yeah. So it's interesting how it is very adaptable. It's very large here and very narrow there.
17:04So already you've got this dynamic cutting across the picture plane.
17:07And suddenly I'm realising we're standing in this sort of safari-like setting.
17:11The grass is this fantastic pale colour. And then we've got all sort of views through the arches.
17:15So there's a great sense of this main event, but, you know, there are ways of making it, you know,
17:21make your eye lead through the arches to the distance.
17:23Is it beautiful? I think it is, isn't it, in its own way? Yeah. Sort of ugly beautiful.
17:29There's a lot of bricks. I mean, must have taken a while. I hope they had more than one bricklayer.
17:52I've chosen to do the long view of the bar duck because I like the way it sort of disappears.
17:57And I think the lines of the perspective are really interesting. So the way it sort of dips in the
18:04valley here.
18:05Artist Lelia Geraghty joined us at Dover Castle, where she produced a light-filled oil painting featuring curved lines and
18:13perspectives.
18:15Tell me what you think about the view today. How has that inspired you?
18:19I really like the long view and the way it sort of in my head fades away a bit.
18:25It seems that you're picking up sort of rounded shapes.
18:29I do like everything curved. Don't like rigid straight lines. So I like things to sort of flow a bit
18:37and just got a nicer feel if it flows.
18:41Great. I think it looks really good. And, you know, excited to see how you resolve some of the parts
18:46that still need working on.
18:47Yeah. You're not going to tell me what they are, are you?
18:50Uh, no. That's... Well, I think you already know, really. I think you already know.
19:14I'm working with graphite pencils today. I'm very much focused on shadow. I think the biggest thing I'm going to
19:20struggle with is the light.
19:22I've got a feeling it's going to change quite a lot. I'm going to have to wait until the afternoon,
19:25I think.
19:26Dan West made his mark in the heats with an intense small-scale pencil drawing of Skidder Mountain and the
19:33Cumbrian town of Keswick.
19:36Are you waiting for the light? I am waiting for the light. I've been waiting for the light for about
19:39two hours.
19:41Have you got an idea of what it would look like?
19:43I'm assuming it's going to shine on the front and might leave some sort of interesting shadow in the middle
19:49of it.
19:50Now, this field in the front is very light. Yep.
19:54How does one go around making something light?
19:56I think it needs to darken it to kind of offset it and make it stand out. The dark is
20:00going to be the bridge.
20:00There's a lot of waiting for the bridge to play its role here.
20:04Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully it will eventually.
20:06Well, look, it's believable. I can see what's happening. So, I think your whole narrative is working very well.
20:12Thank you. Let's hope the sun does what it promises.
20:13Yeah, let's hope so. Let's hope so.
20:18But with nearly two hours gone and much of the viaduct still in shadow, today's view continues to throw up
20:26new challenges.
20:27Right now, I feel like I'm struggling a bit with the far distance. It's very blue, but I don't know
20:33how to chuck it in with putting detail in at the same time.
20:35Or whether I want to put detail in.
20:39There's a lot of things coming out of my painting which wouldn't necessarily have been the things I thought of.
20:43The importance of the division of the space around the viaduct as well has become more important than the structure
20:50itself.
20:54So, I've been wondering what to do with the shadows all day, but now I've decided that I'm going to
21:00paint it as it is now with the sun hitting it from this side.
21:04So, there's a few contrasts going on.
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21:23In Sussex, eight artists are two hours into the semi-final,
21:27and for wildcard Debra, it's turning into a numbers game.
21:32I've been counting the arches.
21:35One, two, three, four.
21:36I'm trying to get everything in line, in a way,
21:39because one arch is not the same as one to the right of it,
21:41and the one to the right of that is certainly not the same as the first one.
21:44I feel quite, actually, quite challenged by the brickwork,
21:47but I'm going to keep on trying.
21:51So I've only just got a sense of the blocking,
21:54and so the next step is nailing the forms as I want them,
21:59and so this is where all the mood and the feelings and everything else,
22:02so this is, like, the important stage.
22:07So, Dan, we finally, finally got the insides of the elliptical arches.
22:13Yes. The sun's coming to the right place,
22:15so I thought, now's the time to put it in.
22:17And now you've got shading.
22:19Yeah.
22:19What have you got left to do?
22:20Because it completely changes the dynamic of the rest of the work, doesn't it?
22:23Well, I mean, the front layer, I think,
22:24is probably the most important out of everything.
22:26If that doesn't stand out, it doesn't really make too much sense.
22:31It's time-dependent. It's time-dependent.
22:36Scorching hot day, and we've put those pods facing south,
22:40so the sun is beating down on our artists.
22:42It can't help, can it?
22:43It's so bright today that it's actually hard to see,
22:46and I think many of the artists have really had to reckon with this.
22:50But, you know, they've all quite liked the idea of this burnt savannah behind us,
22:54so it gives them another sort of tone to work with,
22:58and I think they've responded quite well.
22:59So, Deborah, our wildcard winner,
23:01is giving us a scale and a size we don't normally see in this competition.
23:06Yeah, she's a sort of bravura there, you know.
23:08I'm looking at it thinking,
23:09yeah, it's really, really, it's good, it's good,
23:11but where's the extra?
23:13What makes it special?
23:14That's what I want to know about Deborah's work.
23:16I think she's pulling it off,
23:18pulling off quite a conventional composition.
23:20I think it is just how she puts paint down.
23:24So you look at her framing, her composition,
23:26and your initial reaction is,
23:27oh, where's the angle, where's the artistic input here?
23:30Well, usually I would like some invention
23:33or some reinterpretation or some reading of what is there,
23:37and she's saying, I've got this, I'm going to paint it.
23:40Kim, working quickly with those crayons and those markers,
23:43how do you think she's getting on?
23:44I think it looks very beautiful, I think it looks very lyrical.
23:47The problem is in the arches,
23:49she's used a shorthand,
23:51which you wouldn't know what it is.
23:53I do worry that she might overwork it slightly at some point,
23:57but there are already such gorgeous, gorgeous moments within this work.
24:01It's hot here today anyway,
24:02Nigel making it look even hotter.
24:04It makes it feel Victorian, I think.
24:07But I hadn't appreciated the amount of narrative that he looks for
24:10and he wants to find and the psychology in the building.
24:13And you feel that slightly in the tension.
24:15He's got it quite high up and there's hardly any sky,
24:19so you feel a bit uncomfortable.
24:21I get the feeling the heat today
24:23has sort of transformed this viaduct into various narratives.
24:27I'm picking up something from a bygone age.
24:30From a bygone age, but in constant use today and very important.
24:34I mean, there goes another one.
24:36Lelia has been waiting for the sun to come round.
24:39She's slightly hedging her bets at the moment.
24:41Do you think she needs to get on with it
24:42and make a decision about what she's going to do?
24:43I think Lelia's giving us an image that feels like it's a 1950s railway poster.
24:49What she also does really well is that she gives us space.
24:52So we have those lovely blocks of colour
24:54where there's the white of the canvas still poking through
24:57that will give it that sense of breath and light.
24:59Prasad's painting flat,
25:01so you have to get right up there and have a look over his shoulder.
25:03And you never know what you're going to see.
25:04Yeah, and I mean, it's completely unpredictable, I guess.
25:08Today feels like a location that really brings together
25:12architectural elements with nature
25:14in a way that we haven't really experienced before.
25:17And it feels like something there happening
25:20with the way nature is almost reclaiming the bridge in the marbling.
25:24I love the effect that we have on our artists.
25:28When Prasad entered the competition,
25:30it was with internal landscapes,
25:32and this marbling worked very well.
25:34And then I think he realised that he had to sort of adapt
25:36to the real environment with a stencil.
25:38And it's worked very well.
25:39And there's an element missing, and I don't know what it is.
25:42I'm hoping he finds it, because these bones are just beautiful.
25:45Tom was our extra bit of painterly joy.
25:49He's bringing his game, his yellow game,
25:52his acid game, his vibrant game.
25:54Is it working in this very green and brown landscape?
25:59I think it's working.
26:00I mean, hello, colours.
26:01It looks incredible.
26:03There's an energy, and there's a power,
26:05and there's somebody who knows how to paint.
26:07It's a joy to behold.
26:09I have a slight reservation.
26:11We have a slightly different colour set up here.
26:13I would like a slight nod towards that at some point.
26:17Libby's got a train in her painting, an actual train.
26:20Is that a thing to applaud,
26:22or is that the death knell for her in this competition?
26:26It's a suggestion of a train, isn't it?
26:28It's not a sort of...
26:29It hasn't got the windows and people waving out the window at us at the minute.
26:32Not yet, anyway.
26:33I think she hasn't started yet.
26:35You know, I think what she's done so far feels really figurative and really delicate,
26:41but what was strong in the previous work was, you know,
26:45the way in which figuration and abstraction come together.
26:48None of that is happening here yet, but I'm hoping that she will explore this.
26:52Now, we're used to these very dense drawings from Dan,
26:55but there's quite a lot of white space at the moment in his drawing.
26:58I think he's really happy that the sky's got more interesting
27:01and it isn't just this big expanse of blue
27:03and that he can bring in that moodiness.
27:06As we see that density pile upon density over the course of the afternoon,
27:10I think it will start to come together,
27:11this little powerful punch right in the middle of the white page.
27:21The foreground, the grass, for me, is looking a bit flat
27:24and I think I need to resolve that a bit.
27:26I definitely want to scratch some grass shapes into the foreground
27:30with my palette knife, trying to create the feel, the direction of it, the grass.
27:39Now, tell me about the train.
27:40So, I loved including the train because it's about today
27:44and yesterday I came in on the train and looked down and saw the pods.
27:48Oh, yeah.
27:48So, it's kind of part of my experience and connection to this place.
27:51So, this is not only a painting, but it's a diary of the experience today as well.
27:55Yeah.
27:57At the moment, it's kind of getting to that stage of trying to add all the nuance, I think,
28:01and just separate the colours out a bit.
28:04I've started adding the upright elements into the drawing.
28:08Part of me is a bit like, oh, I don't know if I like it.
28:11It's too much information.
28:12So, I might try and knock it back again.
28:19Hyprosad, how's the day been so far?
28:21Good, hot.
28:22I think the sun eventually kind of gets to you.
28:25Has that affected you at all in how you've worked so far?
28:29Maybe a little bit, yeah, because watercolour, it just dries so fast.
28:33I have to work my washes in quite quickly.
28:35I was trying to resolve the sky, actually.
28:37It's a difficult balance not to overwork and make it look opaque.
28:41So, I want to resolve that, really.
28:44I am actually finding it hard to keep sort of fresh because the colours are quite heavy.
28:51So, I have actually scraped some off, well, various things that are bothering me and I've got to work out
28:57how to get them right.
28:59Bit of a challenge.
29:06Rising high above the Balcombe estate, the Ouse Valley Viaduct has been a vital part of England's railway network for
29:13almost two centuries.
29:16Construction began in response to growing demand for a route between London and the seaside town of Brighton.
29:23The 1830s was boom time for passenger rail.
29:27People were becoming really interested in it.
29:29There was a big attraction for Victorians taking their holidays.
29:33The viaduct was opened in 1841 and was widely praised at the time for its innovative design.
29:40It's made up of 37 jack arches.
29:42Now, jack arches is a semicircle arch which makes the structure very, very strong but reduces the number of bricks
29:49that are required.
29:49But one early rail passenger in particular wasn't convinced.
29:55Queen Victoria was a big advocate for the railway.
29:58However, there was a rumour that she was scared of heights and she did not like crossing this viaduct on
30:04a train herself.
30:05So, she would stop and get off and take a carriage to the other side at ground level and then
30:09board the train again.
30:11Luckily, the viaduct proved more popular with most other passengers on the Brighton Line
30:16and has provided a vital link between London and the South Coast ever since.
30:22It's a fundamental route for the railway.
30:2552,000 passengers every day use this route.
30:2917 million passenger journeys a year.
30:38With the end of the third hour approaching and things heating up in the pods,
30:42a bit of moral support from the family may be just the ticket.
30:49Any quick pointers?
30:50Quick, quick, quick.
30:51Tell me what to do.
30:53Don't fuss.
30:54Oh!
30:55It looks fab.
30:56The greens are great.
30:58Well, not you again.
31:00You haven't got the train on it.
31:03Thomas the tank.
31:04Thomas the tank engine.
31:06Just go away.
31:07Just go away.
31:17It's really difficult today.
31:19It's so warm and all my crayons are bendy.
31:23They're kind of melting.
31:24So, I'll have to be really gentle because it's getting a bit gloopy.
31:31Because I'm working quite loosely, every small thing makes a difference.
31:38I'm just running out of time, really.
31:43There's plenty that could go wrong, I'm sure, at this stage,
31:45but keep your head on me and I should be okay.
31:47I don't know.
32:02Eight landscape artist semi-finalists are approaching the end of their four-hour challenge.
32:09To be honest, when I know there's not a lot of time to go, it gets more fun.
32:13Because I can kind of get moving a bit faster and just start responding to the painting itself.
32:18Everything could go wrong.
32:22I'm finished with my painting now.
32:24I'm sort of stopping because I will ruin all the nice big marks I make
32:28and it will kind of fracture the painting.
32:29And I won't really recognise what I started with.
32:32And you can just keep on pushing it and there's no end.
32:35So, it's the end.
32:41Are you going to finish in time?
32:42Because we're not long to go.
32:43There's always more that you could do.
32:45What is happening in here?
32:46What are they?
32:47I don't know.
32:48I mean, what even are they?
32:48I don't know what they are.
32:49I'm not sure.
32:49I suppose they're a stopping station, maybe.
32:51Maybe you could buy ice cream in them.
32:53That's what I'd like.
32:55Yes.
32:57If I add too much detail, that could be a problem.
33:00It is hard knowing when to stop.
33:02Yeah, this is the point when you want to continue with the time you have,
33:05but, you know, it's important not to get it carried away.
33:10Artists, you have five minutes left.
33:11Five minutes.
33:14Time for just another brick in the wall.
33:35Artists, your time is up.
33:37Stop what you're doing and step away from your artwork.
33:45Well done.
33:46Yeah.
33:47How are you doing?
33:49Yeah, well done.
33:58After a long day, it's finally time for the artists to relax.
34:03The semi-final today was fantastic.
34:06It was really, it's an amazing group of people.
34:08You couldn't ask for more, really.
34:10To be classed in the same group as all these other great artists is brilliant.
34:13There's tons of positives to take from today.
34:16I feel very validated.
34:18But only three of today's artists can go through to this year's final.
34:23And be one step closer to winning a prestigious commission for the National Gallery of Ireland.
34:28Our winning artist will travel across the Irish Sea to the west coast of County Mayo
34:33to paint Ireland's holy mountain, Crowpatrick.
34:38In order to capture the beauty and essence of the mountain,
34:41they'll spend time studying the landscape with its ever-changing mood and light
34:45to create an artwork worthy of hanging in the country's National Gallery.
34:52For now, in Sussex, it's time for the judges to select which three artists will go through to the final.
35:00So, late afternoon.
35:01Finally, the sun has started to lose its power.
35:04But we're getting to the interesting bit.
35:05Before we started, Ty, you were worried that possibly,
35:09big viaduct, we were going to get eight very similar paintings.
35:11That's not been the case, is it?
35:13I'm so wrong.
35:14I mean, it's just every iteration is very different.
35:17We've got eight very strong artists who knew what they wanted right from the start.
35:20Deborah, a very large-scale painting.
35:23Lots of energy in those brushstrokes.
35:25That energy was palpable right from the very early brush marks.
35:29What I feel has happened a little bit is that she's slightly worried away at it.
35:33When I go up close, I get too distracted by all the brush marks.
35:38She's the artist who has really tackled scale.
35:41I think there was an originality in her point of view
35:46with the work that she produced in Dover that I don't see here.
35:50And I wonder if maybe we've lost something in sort of scaling up.
35:57Kim has given us a much cleaner painting.
36:00Does she do it for you today?
36:02The drawing is very complete.
36:03I get the sense of the light coming through the trees
36:06and the beautiful luminosity.
36:08And her interesting mark-making is starting.
36:10But this seems very straight to me.
36:12And I wonder whether, in forcing her to draw this,
36:15she's had to sort of rein in her natural lyricism.
36:18But I guess it's possible that what Kim is trying to show us
36:20is that she can give us precision.
36:22Mm-hmm, yeah.
36:23So it's hard to know whether this is about range
36:26or whether it's about a development of style.
36:31So Nigel and his psychological journey.
36:34Yeah, it feels historical.
36:36It feels heavy.
36:38I always find the thing with Nigel, it's very subtle.
36:40It's a very small step.
36:42And I'm not reading it today.
36:45It doesn't give me that edge that I know he can produce.
36:47But I also think that small slither of a triangle of sky
36:51in the top right-hand corner is just spot on.
36:54It's just a beautiful piece of sky.
36:58Lelia went all in on those arches.
37:01They're big, there's lots of them.
37:02Were you impressed with what she did today?
37:04I think Lelia's got a lovely lightness of touch.
37:07That breathlessness with the white that she leaves on the canvas
37:10is always really effective.
37:12She loves the curve,
37:13and she bends reality to find them wherever she can.
37:15I do worry slightly that maybe her willingness
37:19to find the curves everywhere
37:21might maybe slightly temper her ability to, I guess,
37:27extract the real essence of the landscape.
37:32Prasad, his mixture of the very precise viaduct
37:36and then the more fluid, marbled foliage,
37:40did that work for you?
37:40Yeah, I've got a bit of a problem with Prasad.
37:43He's evolving very quickly, and it's working very well.
37:47I do find the fantastical landscape
37:49always the same fantastical landscape.
37:51I think the evolution between the submission,
37:55the piece in Dover,
37:56and the piece that we're looking at today
37:58is really quite extraordinary.
38:00But I think throughout all three works,
38:02what stays the same
38:04is this idea of an immersive landscape,
38:07you know, and that sort of tension
38:08between the human and the natural.
38:10There's only one winner, isn't it?
38:11Nature will win, I think, in Prasad's eyes.
38:13Well, exactly, and I think that's what he keeps telling us
38:15over and over again.
38:18What's happening in Tom's viaduct?
38:20I mean, is it a light show, a rave,
38:22a shopping centre, cosmic energy?
38:25There's something going on, and I like it.
38:27Tom knows what he's doing,
38:28and as always, it's this beautiful combination
38:31of drawing, precision, and this organic sort of nature.
38:34And there's energy in every single brushstroke.
38:37There's energy in the colours.
38:39There's energy in everything.
38:41It's literally like it's alive, like it's vibrating.
38:45Halfway through the day, there was concern
38:47that Libby was painting a side-on,
38:51hard viaduct that wasn't leading you anywhere.
38:55It was just there.
38:56How do you feel about it now?
38:58I think Libby is such a keen observer.
39:02She's the only person here who's sort of captured
39:04the sort of imperfections of today's architecture.
39:08I've got a feeling that Libby hasn't quite been able
39:11to deliver what she had in her mind's eye.
39:13I'm not sure that she's been able to raise the volume
39:15to the level she wanted.
39:17Dan, working away all day with his pencils,
39:21did it capture the scene?
39:22I think Van pulled it off.
39:24I didn't think he would.
39:25I thought he was waiting for the sun
39:27to do what he needed to do,
39:28but it came round,
39:30and he had something to get his teeth into,
39:32and I think he's done incredibly well.
39:33He's caught the monumentality of the thing,
39:35and it's quite extraordinary.
39:36It's funny, isn't it, with Dan,
39:37because I've definitely seen more polished pencil studies
39:41than that in the past,
39:43but what he's managed to achieve in the four hours,
39:45as he's finding his way towards his style,
39:48I think it's really impressive.
39:49You know, if you're looking for an artist
39:51who's got a lot of promise,
39:52I definitely think Dan is that.
39:55You've viewed hundreds and hundreds
39:56and hundreds of submissions.
39:58We've had six heats.
39:59We've had several hundred wild cards,
40:01but it comes down to this.
40:02There's eight here.
40:03One of these eight will be
40:05the Landscape Artist of the Year.
40:06Your job today is to narrow it down to three.
40:19Artists, congratulations to all of you
40:20for getting through to the semi-final.
40:22You've all done some amazing work today,
40:24but only three of you can go on to this year's final.
40:29The first artist the judges have selected
40:32to compete in the final is...
40:38Kim Day.
40:53The second artist is...
40:57Tom Winter.
40:59Tom Winter.
41:09And the third artist joining us
41:11at the final is...
41:16Libby Walker.
41:29To those of you who didn't make it through,
41:31you should still be very proud of your achievement,
41:33and we'd like to thank you all
41:35for taking part in this year's competition.
41:37Give yourselves a round of applause.
41:44It's hard to describe how I'm feeling, I think.
41:46It's just a bit overwhelmed.
41:48I think it's, yeah, it's fantastic.
41:50I feel great.
41:52I'm absolutely amazed.
41:53I'm feeling very tired,
41:56but very excited about getting into the final.
41:59I feel like I'm going to cry
42:02thinking about getting into the final.
42:03I'm delighted.
42:04The idea of being able to, like,
42:06win a commission like that,
42:08the idea that you could make money
42:09doing something that you love,
42:12and the future that could bring me
42:13is life-changing and brilliant.
42:20I'm really happy with where we've landed.
42:22It's been a challenging process
42:26full of surprises,
42:27but I'm really happy with the result.
42:29We've got three artists who think about
42:31how they build a painting
42:32in very, very different ways,
42:33and in a way, that's what we need
42:35for the commission that's coming up.
42:36Tom has got this sort of power and colour
42:40and sort of virtuoso mark-making.
42:43He's going to be interesting going forward.
42:46I think with Kim,
42:47when we were in the Lake District,
42:49that was very much Kim's ideal landscape.
42:51And then today really wasn't the case for her,
42:53so maybe she felt less free to be herself,
42:56but I'm hopeful that this will come back
42:59the next time that we see her.
43:01And with Libby,
43:02we love getting lost in that forest
43:04of intertwining objects,
43:06and I think that sort of magical, fantastical,
43:09that somehow is rooted in the real,
43:11she does very, very well.
43:13I'm very excited.
43:14I want to see what these three do
43:15under their own steam now.
43:17Yeah, and the National Gallery of Ireland.
43:19I mean, that's going to be
43:19a fantastic collection to get into.
43:23If you'd like to find out more
43:24about taking part in the programme
43:26or the work of the featured artists,
43:28visit our website,
43:31skyartsartistoftheyear.tv.
43:40Next time, it's the final,
43:42and we're heading north.
43:44It's not raining in Scotland.
43:47As Tom, Libby and Kim
43:50take on a unique engineering marvel,
43:53the Falkirk Wheel.
43:55Here's it, it's moving.
43:57Sorry, I'm just distracted by that.
44:00So who will raise their art
44:02to an even higher level?
44:04It's the last one.
44:05I'm just going to do whatever I like.
44:07And take this year's title.
44:10The winner of Landscape Artist of the Year is...
44:13The winninghmen
44:16is...
44:17The winner of Legenda
44:18The winning, the winning matches
44:19is over $8.
44:23The winner of���omea
44:25Yes, sir.
44:32The winner of Digenda
44:47Transcription by CastingWords
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