Landscape Artist of the Year UK Season 1 Episode 4

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Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the beautiful Lyme Park in Cheshire.

00:16Set in 1,300 acres of Deer Park, it today hosts the latest heat

00:20in our search to find a talented new landscape artist.

00:24Eight competitors, a mix of amateur and professional,

00:27will attempt to capture one of Lyme Park's most outstanding views in just four hours.

00:33But to claim a place in the semi-final, I have to impress our three esteemed judges

00:38and cope with one of the wettest climates in the country.

00:42This is Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year.

00:46In our search to find a new landscape artist,

00:50we're setting up home in some of the National Trust's most inspiring estates.

00:54Over 1,000 applied, but only the most impressive have been invited to the heats.

01:00I'm really pleased with the view. It's got everything I like in an image.

01:05At stake is a £10,000 commission to paint one of the National Trust's most historic views,

01:11Flatford in Suffolk, made famous by Constable.

01:14The winner's painting will become part of its permanent collection.

01:17You can just sort of get high by looking at the landscape and being like,

01:20wow, look at that colour, it's amazing.

01:22Today at Lyme Park, eight more artists are out to impress.

01:26I'd like to see much, much more.

01:28I'm sure my fellow judges would like to see much, much more as well.

01:31Yes.

01:32But it's not just the judges eyeing up their work.

01:35Kate Atkinson has dedicated 33 years to Lyme Park,

01:38so as a thank you, she'll be rewarded with her favourite landscape.

01:42I wouldn't have believed that there were so many techniques.

01:47And 50 more artists of all ages, abilities and mediums

01:50are descending on Lyme Park to compete as a wild card.

01:54So I'd say a few spoons.

01:56I was about to ask about the spoon, right?

01:57OK. I thought maybe you had a cup of tea on the go.

02:00But with just four hours and a temperamental environment...

02:05No way!

02:07Who will judges Kathleen Soriano, Teichan Scherenberg,

02:12and Kate Bryan...

02:14I'm at the panic stage.

02:15..send through to the semi-final.

02:18Debbie, are you actually wearing an official artist smock?

02:23No, I'm wearing official Guernsey Seamans smock.

02:26Oh, OK.

02:26OK.

02:27MUSIC PLAYS

02:29Hoping to captivate the judges are professional artists...

02:33..Mike Kirby, Kyle Noble, James Green, Georgia Murray,

02:40Yin Ji Sun, and Debbie Grice.

02:56The location is absolutely amazing.

02:59It's a beautiful place to come and visit,

03:01and I'm really excited about painting it.

03:03And today's amateur artists are Francis Worrell-Campbell

03:08and Cathy Thomas,

03:10who also competed in Portrait Artist of the Year.

03:13Last year, I was shortlisted.

03:15I managed to make the final three, which was fantastic.

03:17So I'm hoping to be able to do that again today,

03:20and possibly even better.

03:22Fingers crossed.

03:25MUSIC PLAYS

03:26The style and talent of each of the artists

03:30was recognised by the judges

03:31when they evaluated a digital copy

03:34of their submission landscapes.

03:36So these are the paintings submitted in the flesh.

03:40We begin with high drama.

03:42Yeah, I mean, it does sort of deliver the eye

03:44into the distance, at least.

03:46Fantastic sets of the mood.

03:47They should be very happy today.

03:49The weather's changing constantly.

03:51It does make me think that this is an artist

03:52who has got their own mind.

03:56I felt like I wanted to say,

03:59and now we head to the Far East.

04:02I like an artist who's not afraid

04:03to bring in outside influences

04:05and to create something which is totally unique.

04:08I'm looking forward to seeing

04:09Lyme Park a la Japanese.

04:11Yes.

04:11Exactly, this applied to Cheshire.

04:16This looks familiar, doesn't it?

04:18Yeah, this extraordinary paper.

04:19Yeah, this is Cathy, who was in the Portrait Series.

04:22And made her own paper, didn't she?

04:23Yes.

04:24I quite like the filmic nature of it.

04:26It's almost like looking at a little story

04:28in sections, and you sort of travel along it.

04:30I think it's rather clever.

04:31And we definitely recognised her and spotted her,

04:34even from the digital image.

04:36And I think it jumped out really strongly.

04:39I find it remarkable the way he understands design.

04:43You know, he's made it so your eye follows it through

04:45to the open space in the background.

04:47I love this aerial perspective.

04:49I feel like I'm flying over the rooftops.

04:51It's just really vibrant and joyous.

04:53Look at those lampers.

04:55They're great, aren't they?

04:55At the bottom, they are just incredible.

04:57Oh, I remember this on the image.

05:02This was gorgeous.

05:03This had a fantastic sort of tragicness to it.

05:07And also the artist has edited their view,

05:09so it's actually a very well-balanced piece of abstraction as well,

05:12rather than putting something in the centre

05:14into making the main subject.

05:16I hope that they take a very, very good little snapshot

05:19and deliver a really interesting little corner

05:21or make a feature out of something which isn't really a feature.

05:24Yeah.

05:25What I like about the wall generally is it asks a lot of questions

05:28and then they're all going to get answered in the next four hours,

05:31which is great.

05:38Today, the artists have been asked to turn their backs

05:41on the 16th-century building of Lime Hall

05:43to face the stunning view towards the reflecting lake.

05:48Surrounded by luxurious, herbaceous borders

05:51with several mature trees,

05:53this man-made water feature includes an island

05:56covered in flowering plants and a small waterfall.

06:02I'm really pleased with the view.

06:03It's got everything I like in an image.

06:06It's got lots of pathways, lots of really nice structures in it.

06:09It's not, perhaps, what I'd normally do.

06:14I'd normally have buildings and stuff in the landscapes that I do,

06:17but, you know, again, it's a good challenge.

06:22Artists, I hope you're all settled

06:24cos the judges are ready to be impressed.

06:27You have four hours to complete your work,

06:31so good luck,

06:32and your time starts now.

06:43An ornate garden isn't every landscape artist's idea of a perfect view.

06:48Most of the time I do a lot of urban landscapes,

06:52and this is a bit sort of pretty picture,

06:55sort of chocolate boxy,

06:56and not my normal subject, to be honest.

06:58Mike Kirby is from Liverpool

07:01and studied at the Wigan School of Art and Design

07:04before he became a storyboard artist for an advertising agency.

07:09His submission is of Stanley Dock on the River Mersey,

07:12where his father, a merchant seaman,

07:14was gate man during the 60s.

07:19I like the steps bit that you've already identified.

07:23Yeah, it's a nice feature, I think.

07:24Well, it's man-made, so that's going to make you feel at home.

07:27And also, it's got some great light on it as well.

07:30Yeah.

07:31Have you painted before?

07:32No.

07:33You're quite good, though.

07:33No, and I just listen.

07:36Right.

07:36And watch.

07:37Yeah.

07:38No, it is.

07:39That's a nice focal point.

07:43I've got my inks here,

07:44which I'll be using for the printing,

07:46and my little rollers here for rolling the ink on,

07:50and this is my printing press,

07:55otherwise known as a spoon.

07:57James Green has been a full-time lino-cut artist for 10 years

08:01and captured this view from near where he lives in Sheffield.

08:06In Portrait Artist of the Year 2013,

08:10he was shortlisted with his print of Simon Weston.

08:14Back for more.

08:15I pray so, yeah.

08:16So you're probably feeling very relaxed or calm.

08:19This is twice as big as the lino-cut I did in the Portrait series.

08:24And it's still quite a small work, isn't it?

08:27Yeah, it doesn't feel that to me.

08:28It feels quite big to me.

08:29Oh.

08:30And will you print in two colours?

08:32I'm not sure yet.

08:32It depends how much time I've got.

08:34So when do you work that out?

08:34Is that really a time factor?

08:36Yeah.

08:37See how I get on for the next hour,

08:38and then I might add another colour element.

08:40I'm really not sure yet, though.

08:43Well, you've got everything stuck down.

08:45Yes.

08:45So I don't want to see your lino-cut flying into the lake.

08:49No.

08:49Otherwise we'll have a Mr Darcy moment of Ty retrieving it for you.

08:53Yes.

08:53Yeah, that'll be fun.

08:59I don't tend to do lots of landscape painting.

09:02This is quite a new venture for me.

09:04I've probably had a practice on about two or three paintings so far.

09:09Amateur artist and former police officer Cathy Thomas

09:13primarily produces portraits.

09:16She paints acrylic on handmade paper,

09:19and her submission of Macclesfield Forest

09:20was only the second landscape she'd made.

09:24I'm doing something very different.

09:27You're doing the U Walk.

09:28Is that down there somewhere?

09:29Yes, and it's absolutely beautiful.

09:31Yeah, it is fantastic.

09:31Yes, it is.

09:32It's very, very nice.

09:33I love all the textures.

09:34Yeah, but we gave you this fantastic view with reflections.

09:37It's very pretty for me, though.

09:38It's very pretty, and I prefer something a little more rugged.

09:42Yeah, I mean, your submission was kind of...

09:44What was the word?

09:45You would say it was a fairy tale,

09:47sort of scary, gloomy...

09:50Yes. For me, this is just very...

09:52It just seems on one level, really, one depth.

09:56It's very landscapy.

09:57It is, yes.

10:03Original plan was a landscape for the whole lake here.

10:07Actually, I just accidentally took some photo with the portrait,

10:11and then when I see the photos,

10:12I feel that, oh, yeah, portrait is definitely going to be better.

10:15Born in rural China, professional oil painter Yin Jisun

10:23teaches adult art classes at his Whitechapel studio.

10:28Reimagined from memory,

10:30his submission captures Sanquin Mountain in China

10:33and a peach tree reminiscent of his childhood.

10:36We're not very far into the competition,

10:42and yet you've made a fantastic impact already.

10:45Thank you for your commentary.

10:46Are you racing somebody?

10:48No, because, like, once I decide what I'm going to paint,

10:52actually, the image is already in my mind.

10:54And once you've decided...

10:56Just go for it.

10:57Go for it.

10:58As well as our eight heat artists,

11:0450 more have travelled to Lyme Park to give it a go as wild cards.

11:09Laden with paints, brushes and easels,

11:11they're here to capture the many views on offer

11:13in a bid to impress the judges.

11:16I wanted to concentrate on the plants,

11:19but I'd go for an organic type of painting.

11:21I might go portrait and do the building or landscape

11:24and put the trees with the lake in.

11:28I'm just deciding.

11:30But painting en plein air,

11:32they're exposed to the elements.

11:34I'm normally in shorts and a T-shirt,

11:37you know, which, on worse days than this,

11:39inhale and what have you.

11:40So this is quite a novelty for me to be sat in my clothes.

11:46I love this.

11:47Ooh, better stop then.

11:49Do you always start with purple?

11:51What I do is I start with all the darks,

11:53and then as the day goes on,

11:54I'll get lighter and lighter and lighter,

11:55and I start very thin,

11:56and then I'll get thicker and thicker and thicker.

11:58I see no purples in that.

12:00Do you see purples in it?

12:01I'm choosing to...

12:03I'm not a fan of green paintings very much.

12:05I don't do lots of tree greeny things,

12:07so this is a challenge.

12:08That is a slight dilemma, isn't it,

12:10with this particular shot?

12:11It's a bit more enjoyable for me.

12:12I'll maybe sort of transfer colours a bit

12:14and see colours that aren't there.

12:14Yeah, why not?

12:16This is very unusual.

12:18It's a very dark scene you've conjured up.

12:20Mm-hmm.

12:21Basically, I couldn't loosen up my work,

12:23so I decided to use spoons.

12:24I was about to ask about the spoon, right?

12:26Yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:26OK.

12:27I thought maybe you had a cup of tea on the go.

12:28No, you're painting with it.

12:30No, no, no.

12:37The heat artists are one hour in

12:39to their four-hour challenge.

12:41The clouds, these are a new addition, are they?

12:45Yeah, because when I took the photo originally,

12:47it was just a sort of white blanket of a cloud,

12:51and there wasn't really any break in it,

12:52so I'd much rather use a, you know, a contrasted sky.

12:56So I'm drawing the clouds from real life

12:58and sort of working as I go along.

13:00I love a stylised cloud.

13:01This isn't my typical kind of scene.

13:14I'm used to something a lot more bleak

13:15and perhaps more barren,

13:16but I've sat here and I've got my head around

13:19how I'm going to deal with it.

13:24The vastly changing sky is a challenge.

13:27The danger is concentrating on one particular area.

13:34I can't do that.

13:35I can't afford to do that.

13:36I need to think of the whole thing.

13:37Lime Park in Cheshire

14:00is home to our latest heat

14:02of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year.

14:04Our artists have three hours left

14:07to capture the view they've been presented with.

14:11Debbie, are you actually wearing an official artist smock?

14:16No, I'm wearing official Gernsey Seamans smock.

14:18Oh, OK.

14:19It's from Gernsey, yeah, but I've had it ages,

14:22and this is an official...

14:24If you want to have a photograph as an artist,

14:26it's the one to wear.

14:27Yeah.

14:28Professional artist Debbie Grice

14:30studied at Glasgow School of Art

14:32and prefers to capture landscapes whilst painting outdoors.

14:36Her submission is of Howarth Moor in West Yorkshire.

14:39She wanted to capture its bleakness, weather and drama.

14:42So when you paint something like this,

14:45I mean, those flowers,

14:47you don't take them piece by piece, do you?

14:49No.

14:50At all?

14:50No.

14:51I'm looking for some sort of musical symphony.

14:54OK.

14:55So...

14:55Almost like you can hear this scene,

14:57if you know what I mean.

14:58That's just how it is.

14:59Yeah.

15:00Oh, now I'm going to diagnose me.

15:01No?

15:02No, I think it's fascinating.

15:04The sort of big drive of the music, really,

15:06is these heavy marks here.

15:08These would be the percussion.

15:09And I can see how those flowers bring sort of that light treble...

15:13Yeah, absolutely.

15:14...to the whole piece.

15:15Yeah.

15:20You seem to have got quite far ahead in such a short time.

15:23Are you happy with the pacing?

15:24Yeah.

15:25I work quite quickly, naturally, in my studio.

15:28And being here, right in front of the landscape,

15:31is just really inspirational.

15:32Georgia Murray studied at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee

15:36before doing an MA at Edinburgh College of Art.

15:39Created whilst living in Taiwan,

15:41her submission represents the connection between her and her brother

15:45whilst living on separate continents.

15:48Today, Georgia has a connection with another artist

15:50who, by pure coincidence, was also chosen by the judges

15:54to attend this heat.

15:56So, this is Kyle in the pod next to me,

15:59and he's my boyfriend.

16:01And we met at art school, so we've stuck together ever since.

16:05It suits us to be beside each other.

16:08We're very supportive of each other's careers.

16:10For me, it's very natural to be working beside my partner

16:14like this as an artist.

16:15I just want to have a nice chat with Georgia,

16:18and I hear that you're both seem to be united by a love for colour.

16:21Yes.

16:22There's only maybe, like, four or five colours in my piece,

16:24whereas Georgia's it'll be...

16:26Yeah.

16:28Like Georgia, Kyle Noble also studied at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee

16:32before taking an MA at Edinburgh College of Art.

16:36His landscape is inspired by a combination of places he has travelled to,

16:40including the Waterfall and Forest in Dess in Aberdeenshire.

16:44So, what I'm looking at here is a smattering of colourful lines appearing.

16:49What's your process?

16:50The process is chaotic, but it's almost like, you know,

16:56playing guitar solo or something like that,

16:58like the actual process of line and moving that around,

17:01and that's why I think there's quite a strong element of drawing in my work

17:04because it feels like I'm sort of able to flow through time

17:07using the line or something like that.

17:09But you say flow through time.

17:10There is a time limit today.

17:12How are you feeling about that?

17:14Squashed.

17:18Despite the time limit, another artist won't be rushed.

17:23At the moment, I'm just making a very detailed drawing

17:26of the pattern in the grass in the sun,

17:29and then also use the graphite powder to fill in some tone in the background

17:32to give it more of a composition instead of just being a very small drawing.

17:37At 19, Frances Worrell-Campbell is the youngest artist in the competition

17:42and has just completed an art foundation course at Central Saint Martins in London.

17:47Her submission landscape of Kingsway Tunnel ventilation shaft in Liverpool

17:52is an acid etching which she completed for her GCSE.

17:56So will you give us that, or will you give us a sort of a brutalist,

18:03straight-lined, metallic, robot, 21st-century version of it?

18:08Um, I think somewhere between the two.

18:12Oh, OK.

18:13You don't seem to have that much stuff with you.

18:15No, everyone's got, like, a tree of holes.

18:17Yeah, everyone's got barrel loads of paints and things,

18:20and you turn up with a pencil case.

18:22Yeah.

18:22I'm glad you've kept that GCSE spirit going.

18:29Over at the Wild Cards,

18:31the artists are having to deal with some rather erratic conditions.

18:36And the wind.

18:38It's been quite windy.

18:40It's quite difficult to keep the cameras on the easel.

18:43I did have the umbrella, but he went for a little walk,

18:47a little flight, that's what I say.

18:48Oh, that looks nice and warm.

18:50I will.

18:50Wish I was there.

18:51That is beautiful, if you don't mind me saying.

18:56Thank you very much.

18:57Are you a full-time artist?

18:58No, no, no, no, I'm a Taekwondo instructor.

19:01You have your sensitive side,

19:03and then you can kill someone if you need to.

19:06Er, yes, I could.

19:07I did my best not to.

19:09No, I'm obviously...

19:10Don't get on the wrong side.

19:11Obviously not.

19:12No, that's why I've come over and said what a wonderful pint it is.

19:18Well, you're catching the spirit of the weather.

19:20I know.

19:21It's happening a lot.

19:22Somebody's just lost an easel over the other side.

19:25Well, it's a blowy day, and it's a blowy picture, isn't it?

19:28Yeah.

19:28And love the feel.

19:29So you decided not to bother with the trees and the water and all that natural stuff?

19:39I thought we had to do the building.

19:40Oh, did you?

19:41Yeah.

19:42Did it not stream suspicious to you that some people were painting in the opposite direction?

19:46Yeah!

19:46It's nearly midway through the competition.

20:00I'm looking at trying to get the right green, you know, the different greens.

20:07You've got bluey greens, you've got yellowy greens.

20:11It's kind of all sorts of green.

20:12That's good, isn't it?

20:12Isn't that good?

20:13It's a nightmare.

20:14Green is a nightmare, isn't it?

20:18I think you've got to embrace the greens.

20:20Yeah, yeah.

20:21We'll see how we go anyway.

20:26No way.

20:27How much of a problem is the wind today?

20:30Very much so.

20:31It's blowing everywhere.

20:33And I'm very sorry to the owners of Lion Park because they may be finding bits of paper for quite a few weeks to come.

20:40They may, but you know what?

20:41Yes.

20:42It's beautiful paper.

20:43Thank you very much.

20:53I'm just rubbing to press the ink onto the paper.

20:58It takes a while to do this bit.

21:01Yeah, it's dried out a bit, you see.

21:03You can get the idea, anyway.

21:05Oh, yes.

21:06What's unsatisfactory about that?

21:08Well, it's all blotchy.

21:09But you're pleased about the design?

21:11I think so, yeah.

21:18The collage is all done now, so it's just a case of applying paint.

21:22I would like to have been finished a little bit sooner, but I could be in a worse position than this.

21:30It does make you look at trees in a way that you rarely do.

21:37We've had the what's, what and who's who of trees out in the living room.

21:41We seriously have.

21:43Yeah.

21:43I think it's going a bit behind schedule.

21:53She'll just try and keep going with her and see where I get to.

21:57Here at Lyme Park in Cheshire, our eight artists are using a range of mediums,

22:24from paint to pencil, collage to lino cut, to try and impress.

22:33Well, we're about halfway through.

22:36How do you think people are doing, Kate?

22:38I'm a bit worried.

22:39There's a couple of people here who are not working very well to time.

22:43I'm thinking of Frances.

22:45I mean, she's literally drawing blades of grass at the moment, and it's about the size of a postage stamp.

22:51But they're very beautiful blades of grass.

22:53My guess is she's slightly overwhelmed, and her way of coping with this incredible landscape is actually to focus on the detail.

23:00Well, not about James, because James has been on one of these competitions before.

23:03The lino that he's cut is just very beautiful.

23:06He's so calm, and he knows exactly what he's facing today.

23:09He's planned it all out.

23:11Just looking at the composition, though, I find it a bit boring.

23:13Sorry, but I'm hoping it comes alive.

23:16Well, Carl's submission was very sort of jewelled and layered.

23:19How is this in comparison to what we're just doing now?

23:21Slow.

23:21I just spoke to him, and he admitted to himself it was rather penny, meaning he'd drawn with pen, and he'd not really got much going.

23:29But I think he had a little break, and he came back and started working an area darker.

23:33And with that sort of contrast, he's brought a bit of life into it.

23:36It's the pen drawing that we really loved.

23:38Yeah.

23:38It may be that we end up deciding that that might be just enough.

23:42Now, Mike isn't very satisfied.

23:44I don't think Mike is ever satisfied, which is good.

23:47You know, it's just the struggle, and he's always struggling and fighting.

23:51And he's done a very interesting composition, a bit like his submission, where he's sort of abstracted it and just taken a corner,

23:56which has made it incredibly difficult for him, because it's all green.

23:58Yeah.

23:59And he's not worked with the sky at all as a contrast.

24:01So he's made a rod for his own back, and he's moaning about it.

24:04Yeah.

24:04Now, in your submitted piece, there's peaches, and we're looking down on the landscape.

24:19I notice you have peaches at your side.

24:21Is that a deliberate motif that you take with you?

24:25This is just lunch.

24:26I just randomly, randomly, I have no more lunch than my breakfast.

24:29I thought I'd found a really important theme in your work there.

24:32It was lunch.

24:40I'm going to add another colour, so I'm going to do a blue.

24:42Oh, this is the second colour?

24:43Yeah, I'm going to do blue clouds.

24:45So the colour will be the clouds and this grass line?

24:48Yeah.

24:49I'll hopefully get kind of three-colour effect.

24:51Oh, because of the blending?

24:52Yeah, yeah, but I'm not sure if it's going to work, so I'm going to try it.

24:55I think hopefully people will be able to see the image emerging now from the blackness.

25:12I'm just trying to bring it all together.

25:13It needs a bit of structure strengthening in some areas and a bit of bringing some more highlights in, give it a bit more depth.

25:25Everyone likes to create an impression.

25:27So when the Lee family built Lime Hall, they created an integrated landscape design that combined the house, the gardens, and the surrounding moorland.

25:38Once a medieval hunting lodge, Lime Hall was transformed in the 16th century into the house that now sits at the heart of the estate.

25:48But it was only the beginning of the Lee family's grand design for this beautiful landscape.

25:53They started adding features in the landscape, so visitors would be amazed as they came in along the original drive, and gradually all these outlying buildings would come into view.

26:10So the cage, first of all, paddock cottage, the lantern, and then they reached the house.

26:17They then started putting in vista lines to the various outlying buildings.

26:27Visitors to the house could go and stand just outside this window and see up the vista lines to all these magnificent buildings.

26:37To the north stands the cage with Lime Avenue to the south and the lantern to the east, mirrored by paddock cottage to the west.

26:46This web of views in the landscape design of Lime Park becomes even more elaborate.

26:52Other vistas were created from focal point to focal point.

26:58So you've got a vista from paddock cottage to the cage.

27:03You've got another one from the cage to the lantern.

27:06So you've got crisscrossing lines going between the vista lines as well.

27:12Kate has worked and volunteered at Lime Park for over 30 years.

27:18I've often experienced life on those vista lines, walking in the morning before I start work.

27:26It's a joy, it's a privilege as well.

27:29And you feel as if you're in another world.

27:33It really is a magical place to come.

27:36So, Kate, what does it mean to you, this place?

27:42Do you think you could sum that up?

27:44It means peace, tranquillity, beauty, joy.

27:50That's a lovely summing up.

27:51I'm surprised you didn't include rain, wind, sub-zero temperatures.

27:56It gets into your bloodstream, everything.

28:00And if you're not careful, it can take you over.

28:03What happens then?

28:05Your family disown you.

28:07Oh, no, I thought it was going to say you turn into a deer at midnight.

28:12Later on, Kate, you're going to be choosing a landscape of Lime Park.

28:16Wonderful. It will be cherished.

28:18OK, well, I look forward to your choice.

28:20With 50 artists trying their hand as wild cards,

28:27there's many different mediums and techniques on display.

28:31But with a chance to gain a place in the semi-final,

28:34the judges need to agree whether any of the wild cards has impressed them enough.

28:40I really like the guy who's painting that small painting up high.

28:43Yeah, I like him.

28:44He's obviously practised.

28:45He knows what he's doing.

28:46What about the woman that started in purple?

28:48I love her.

28:49I like the way she put the paint on it.

28:50It was kind of moody and dark and interesting.

28:52I like that one.

28:53There's a woman who's doing a watercolour.

28:55She's done the orangery beautifully.

28:56No, the sky is fantastic.

28:57The sky is amazing.

28:58The sky is really good.

28:59The big grey foreboding clouds.

29:01And I think she's told the story of today beautifully.

29:08Hello.

29:09You're sitting there with your tea.

29:12And I'm delighted to tell you that you're today's wild card winner.

29:15Well done.

29:19Sandy will now join a pool of other successful wild cards, from which one will claim a place

29:28in the semi-final.

29:29Not only do our artists have to create a piece of work for our judges in just four hours,

29:38but they have to do it in front of a steady stream of spectators.

29:43Hello, everybody.

29:44It's nice having a bit of attention from the general public.

29:50I've had a nice few conversations with people.

29:53A few people have asked me how much time I've got left, like there's some impending doom coming.

29:58So it's pushed me on a little bit.

30:00And some of the onlookers are far from impartial.

30:03So, Anne, you're the mum of Francis, and Evelyn and Grace, you are not only the sisters of Francis, but you're the...

30:11Triplets, yeah.

30:12What about you two?

30:13What do you do?

30:14Do art as well, yeah.

30:16Pretty amazing, isn't it?

30:17It is.

30:18Yes, it is.

30:19So what do you think of Francis' chances?

30:21Have you looked at the...

30:22I haven't looked at anyone else's.

30:24That's what you've got to do, is check out the rivals.

30:26I think you should haunt as a pair, see if you can unnerve them.

30:34I'm married to Debbie, and I've just followed her hair to bring her bags and her equipment.

30:38Now, you're a professional artist too, aren't you?

30:40Yes, I am, yes.

30:41So what do you paint?

30:42Well, I like to paint animals and people, things that are in front of me.

30:45Debbie's more about landscapes, and she's quite good at seeing things.

30:49I can't see what she's seeing.

30:51She's picking up on the music and the spirituality of this landscape.

30:55I find that really difficult.

30:56I find it difficult to enter it.

30:58So the walls of your home are covered in paintings?

31:01Oh, yeah, yeah.

31:02Yeah, very much so.

31:04But mine aren't allowed on the walls.

31:07In the main part of the house.

31:08I'm getting quite an insight into your domestic life.

31:12Thanks very much.

31:16What are the big issues for you at the minute?

31:18The main thing is the oil's still wet underneath,

31:21and when you put oil on top of oil,

31:23you're mixing in the colour underneath, which makes it muddy.

31:26I see.

31:26So I'm going to leave over layering until the last 20 minutes.

31:29It's almost as if we're looking at a small brook running through into a valley.

31:34I quite like that sort of licence that you've taken with it.

31:36Yeah.

31:37There are 30 minutes of the competition remaining.

31:47I've got to wait for the ink to dry on the first blue layer,

31:51and then I've got to print the second layer with the green on top and see if that works.

31:55You're going to be able to seduce us in the way that you did with your entry.

32:15Well, that's a big statement, but thanks.

32:18I don't know.

32:19We'll see.

32:20It might end up being in areas intense.

32:23OK. Well, I really don't want to hold you back because I'd like to see much, much more.

32:28I'm sure my fellow judges would like to see much, much more as well.

32:31Yes, thanks.

32:32Our artists are entering the final 10 minutes of this heat of landscape artist of the year.

32:56Have you actually had the chance to do that thing that artists do,

33:02and you just stand back and think about it for a bit?

33:05No, I'm afraid not.

33:07The paint isn't drying fast enough, but this has got to be finished whatever.

33:23This is fabulously intricate.

33:25Thank you very much.

33:26You're worried about time?

33:27Yes.

33:27I'm going to speed up a bit more and just throw a bit more paint on.

33:37I'm at the panic stage.

33:38Artists, your time is up.

33:52Please put down your materials and step back from your work.

33:57I'm so tired.

34:15Before the landscapes are judged, Kate Atkinson chooses her favourite painting to keep,

34:21in recognition of her dedication to the estate.

34:23Artists, will you turn your easels round, please?

34:33Kate has had a long association with Lyme Park,

34:37having worked and then volunteered here for over 30 years.

34:41When I started work here in 81, that was buried completely.

34:47It's lovely to think that we've brought back something in the landscape.

34:51I wouldn't have believed that there were so many techniques.

34:56And yet they're all part of the landscape you know.

34:58Exactly.

35:03I know which one I'm going to go for.

35:05Oh, OK.

35:07And it's over there.

35:09APPLAUSE

35:10There you are.

35:15Before selecting an artist for the semi-final, the judges first have to decide on their shortlist.

35:32The use of the two colours.

35:33We didn't know which two colours he was going to use.

35:35And he's done that very nicely in the ripples.

35:37They're sort of strange colours to put together because this is a very natural, earthy green

35:41and this is something which is much more sort of minty and cool.

35:44But I really like that combination.

35:45I think it's successful.

35:48The judges might think it's too simple,

35:50but that's just the way that you have to work with lino cut.

35:53You can't really be too detailed.

35:55I really enjoyed watching her actually make the trees today.

36:01And in the right light, you do get that fantastic sort of gloaming

36:04as the path goes beyond the yew trees.

36:06Good sense of mood.

36:07She's taken a really small space and made it monumental and grand.

36:10I don't think she needs this 3D application.

36:12I think she's got a great sense of light and depth and recession without it.

36:16If I had more time, I would have liked to have used more collage within my work.

36:21But I was quite happy with the end result.

36:23So I can't moan.

36:25Mike moaned about the greens, but I think he's done a very nice job.

36:30They're very beautiful, they're harmonious.

36:32You look at it now and you think to yourself,

36:34oh, blimey, it's a bit too green and this is a bit muddy.

36:36And then I look at this and I go, well, that's exactly what it is.

36:39I think he would have had a better day

36:40if he'd have chosen something which allowed the sky to come in.

36:43I think it's missing that.

36:45But there's still great bits of it.

36:47I did intend to put some sky in.

36:49I was too busy with the greens and the foreground and the trees,

36:54trying to get the balance right.

36:58Frances said she might do this before she came.

37:01And I must say, I really enjoyed her concentration on this tiny bit of turf grass.

37:10It today maybe wasn't the right time to do it.

37:13There are some bits which work very well,

37:18but the majority is of this sort of doodling

37:20and I don't think it's got enough power.

37:21It's not really holding it together enough to draw me into some different space.

37:25It reminds me of when I was 18 and I wanted to be a cartographer.

37:28So I was constantly drawing these sort of contours to make little mountains.

37:32But you're right about the passages.

37:33If you look at the pencil drawing of the clouds,

37:37I think that's really, really beautiful.

37:39In a way, that's what we wanted to see more of.

37:43I really like Debbie, full of energy, completely in the landscape.

37:48Isn't this bit glorious with the light streaming through,

37:51this brilliant grey sky which we had at times today?

37:54Her enthusiasm, you can see it in the way she's applied the paint.

37:57It's got a really nice, wristy, lively quality to it.

37:59And you're right, the light is absolutely stunning.

38:01There are things that I would critique myself.

38:06There are areas that have got overworked.

38:08There are areas that I think have become a little bit decorative.

38:11But as it is, I think it's an OK painting.

38:18It's between those three?

38:19Yeah.

38:20It's going to be a good three, yeah.

38:26But there can only be a short list of three.

38:29And the third artist to be shortlisted is Mike Kirby.

39:05Commiserations to the rest of you.

39:07Thank you for coming.

39:08Thank you for your work.

39:09And sorry you didn't make the shortlist.

39:11I could understand why I wasn't shortlisted, but I am surprised that you didn't make it

39:20into the shortlist because your picture is quite kind of large and ambitious and quite

39:24well completed, I thought.

39:25And mine is quite fiddly and small.

39:28Oh, but pretty.

39:29Congratulations to the three who have been shortlisted.

39:34The work is absolutely fantastic.

39:35So well done to the three of them.

39:39To help decide which artist should claim a place in the semi-final, the judges quizzed Debbie,

39:45Mike and James about today's work and their submitted landscape.

39:48On your submission here, you've got this fantastic sort of smoky sfumato sort of here in the foreground

39:56or the middle ground.

39:57Yeah.

39:58Would we have seen you start to do that more here?

40:00Yes, that would have been more dramatic and something, you know, probably away from reality.

40:06I found this area here.

40:08I disliked that area and that maybe would have come into something a little bit more sort

40:12of meaty and, you know, agitated at the front.

40:18You complained a lot about the greens today.

40:22Did you realise that in doing that sort of cropping of a corner, you were going to lose

40:25that contrast of the sky?

40:26I didn't tend to put some blue aspects of the sky in there.

40:32You ran out of time.

40:33You forgot?

40:33I forgot.

40:38James, I'm so pleased you found the time to do the second colour because it really lifted

40:42it.

40:43I like the colour that you've chosen, actually.

40:45I thought you might go for something bright, but you've chosen something within the same

40:48sort of green-blue pool.

40:50Did you consider any other colour or did you always know you were going to do that?

40:53I wanted to go for something related to it, something that would fit behind the green

40:59in the water area and also work well in the clouds too.

41:03And luckily it worked, but I literally only had about three minutes before the end to realise

41:08that.

41:09Well done.

41:10You know, where we are now demonstrates the difficulty of the day because there's a storm

41:21cloud over there, very dark.

41:23Over there, bright blue skies and white cloud.

41:26Now, how difficult is that?

41:28I think it's incredibly difficult because there was a camp which decided to stick with this

41:31morning's weather and they've decided to go with the grey sky.

41:34And then there's another school that seemed to be playing catch-up with the weather the whole

41:37time and then fall behind.

41:38It is really about seizing the chance when there's a, you know, there's a beautiful cloud

41:43and you've got to decide to put it in or wait till a better one comes along.

41:47This is landscape artists of the year after all.

41:50And what we really want is we want some artists who get out there into the landscape and are

41:54used to sitting in the landscape and depicting it no matter what.

41:57And I think we found those people.

41:59The artists who've really enjoyed that struggle with their painting, they've actually reveled in

42:05those changes as well.

42:06I was over at the wild card and there was a woman painting and the ground was brightly

42:11lit with a dark sky above it and it looked wrong.

42:15And then I looked at it and it was brightly lit with a dark sky above it.

42:19We've been here and it's been an experience and I think we want our artists to convey that

42:24a bit as well.

42:25Well, each one had a completely unique vision, didn't they?

42:28Yeah.

42:28Not at all one like another.

42:30No, not at all.

42:31Totally differentiated.

42:32Which makes it really hard to judge.

42:33James, Mike, Debbie, congratulations to each one of you for making it to the shortlist.

42:45The judges very much admire your work.

42:47However, only one of you can make it through to the semi-final.

42:53The judges felt the artists they have chosen to go through to the semi-final stayed true

42:57to themselves whilst capturing a sense of place.

43:01James, Mike, Debbie, congratulations to each other.

43:31I've made up to get to this stage.

43:32I was quite pleased with myself.

43:34And would I do it again?

43:35Possibly.

43:37Possibly.

43:38Oh, bad luck, Debbie.

43:39It was so lovely to meet you.

43:40Very nice.

43:40I'm really happy for James.

43:43It's quite refreshing to see actually somebody doing work like that in the field.

43:47I had my eye on him.

43:48So, yeah, the best man won.

43:52I thought about maybe jumping in the lake.

43:55I might not do that.

43:56I might go home, have a glass of wine, celebrate in that way instead.

44:01I might go home.

44:31You

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