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00:07Hello and welcome to Dover where eight artists are lined up in front of its 12th century castle
00:13ready to do battle in the name of art. So will they create a contemporary masterpiece or do
00:19something that's positively mediesal? It's a brand new episode of Landscape Artist of the Year.
00:26On the Kent Clifftops, eight new artists are taking on a monument to the Middle Ages.
00:32I don't usually paint buildings so this is going to be interesting for me.
00:38And the imposing structure isn't all they have to contend with.
00:44Okay, I'll get some help. Yeah.
00:46The artists must impress our three judges. Curator Kathleen Soriano, artist Taishan Sheerenberg,
00:53and new addition to the team, director of Freeze London, Eva Longre.
01:00You've already done a lot here. You've made lots of decisions already.
01:03I don't know what time it is.
01:04Also painting today are 50 wildcards and they've come ready for the fight.
01:10It looks a bit like medieval chainmail.
01:13Medieval, yeah.
01:14I mean if you went running towards the castle, I think they'd start preparing the boiling oil
01:17because you look like you mean business.
01:21For the artist who wins this year's competition, an incredible prize awaits.
01:27A £10,000 commission for the National Gallery of Ireland
01:31to capture a landscape of magnificent Crowpatrick in County Mayo, the country's holy mountain.
01:39So as we embark on our mystical journey.
01:42Now I'm at the quite frightened stage where it looks a bit psychedelic.
01:48What lengths will our artists go to to prevail?
01:52What is this?
01:53Oh no, what is this?
01:54Well I mean, are you contacting the dead?
01:57What's happening?
02:15Today our artists are preparing to lay siege to Dover Castle.
02:19Stunning location.
02:21It's absolutely wonderful, isn't it?
02:24They are Kumar Saraf, a painter and fire service manager from Wales.
02:29Receptionist Ruth Baker from Somerset.
02:33Warwickshire Chartered Surveyor Stu Gregory.
02:36And from Kent, oil painter Lelia Garrity.
02:41Oh, I love painting outside and it's just already beautiful.
02:44So it's just really exciting.
02:47So where are you guys from?
02:49Um, Cornwall, I've come all the way from now.
02:51Oh, okay.
02:52Also taking part, Elaine Vickers, a student support worker from Liverpool.
02:59Derbyshire architect, Paul Rotherer.
03:03Sarah Graham, a fine arts student from West Sussex.
03:07And Cornish mixed media artist, Ashley Ann.
03:12I thought I just wouldn't sleep a wink and it would be like, you know,
03:15a kid at Christmas waiting for Santa.
03:17But actually, I slept well, so I'm feeling ready for it.
03:23Our pod artists aren't staging their invasion of the Kent countryside alone.
03:28A 50-strong detachment of wildcards is setting up just in front of them.
03:35I made these viewfinders myself.
03:38I thought I'd paint them red, make them stand out, like my hat.
03:41Get noticed.
03:44Our pod artists got themselves noticed on the strength of their submission landscapes,
03:49displayed ready for the judges to look at later.
03:53Oh.
03:54For now, though, the competition countdown is on.
03:59My main concern today is the time element.
04:02I'm feeling a little nervous, pressured.
04:07I think the hardest bit about today is the weather's far too good.
04:10Clouds are always very good for bringing in a bit of drama.
04:14So, yeah, lots of challenges there.
04:18I'm really nervous, but having the wildcards there, it's actually, it's quite reassuring.
04:24Hopefully, the nerves will subside.
04:36Artists, I hope you're feeling good.
04:37You have four hours to complete your challenge and your time starts now.
04:49Today, our artists are positioned across a wooded valley from Dover's historic castle,
04:54which has stood guard here for over 800 years.
05:00The
05:01illuminated by the morning sunshine and dominating the structure is the central stone keep,
05:06rising high above the castle's turreted inner and outer ramparts.
05:11While to the side, the waters of the English Channel can just be made out through the sea mist.
05:21This view is awesome, but it's almost overwhelming really, the amount of information.
05:27I think the challenges are capturing its vastness and its beauty, I guess, but it's exactly what I would want
05:36to paint.
05:42I really enjoy using colour, so I think my main thing is going to be just getting the basic shapes
05:48down
05:48in bright inks so that the end just gives it a little glow.
05:54Mixed media artist Ashley Ann creates expressive works by adding layers of pastel,
05:59charcoal and acrylics to a vivid underpainting.
06:04Her submission is a view of Cardenham Woods near Bodmin in Cornwall.
06:10Ashley, I'm quite surprised about the colours that you've got underneath.
06:13When I look at what you submitted, that looked so sort of soft and gentle.
06:17This is quite bold, a bit like you.
06:20Yeah, I know.
06:22Is this how they all start?
06:24Pretty much.
06:25So, like, this one actually has really bright colours underneath.
06:28I can see a bit of orange peeping through.
06:30Exactly.
06:30Yeah, so I basically start really bold, but then the layers push it back.
06:35So it looks wacky, but hopefully it'll sort it.
06:37No, it looks lovely.
06:38I like the sort of the brief touches of information that help you understand about the hill and where the
06:43trees are
06:43and everything else.
06:44I think it works really well.
06:56I think when people look at my work, they'd probably see the moodier tones of it.
07:01I try to capture a sense of atmosphere through the colours.
07:05So I think that's what would be noticed.
07:08Sarah Graham is currently studying for a fine art BA.
07:13Her submission in oils, a panorama of the Brecon beacons that took eight hours to complete,
07:18was captured in her signature muted palette.
07:25Sarah, tell me a bit about the colour choices so far.
07:29You've gone for earthy browns.
07:31Yeah, I don't like bright colours, and so I prefer to kind of go with a duller, quieter tone
07:37to get the more subtlety, I think.
07:39Well, this landscape today is perfect for you, right?
07:41You've got lots of browns and sort of dark greens.
07:44Yeah.
07:45I mean, the submission felt really moody as a landscape.
07:48Are we planning something similar here?
07:51Absolutely.
07:52There's an amazing atmosphere today that I really want to capture within the painting.
08:05There's plenty of it.
08:06It's big.
08:08It's wide.
08:09It's quite monstrous, isn't it?
08:11And it's an odd one.
08:12I mean, that looks like it's cut out.
08:15Yes.
08:15So it's a very difficult thing to create depth.
08:19You know, there's a little bit of distance in the hills there and there's a sea there,
08:23but actually our view is blocked by this monolith.
08:27So it's kind of, it's a real test.
08:29I don't know.
08:30Tough one.
08:30And also there's a kind of,
08:33the weight of the units of the castle all feel pretty much the same.
08:38Right.
08:39So there's no natural rhythm.
08:41I'm just trying to imagine Henry II standing here in 1190 and looking at it and going,
08:48yeah, it's good, but it's got no rhythm.
08:50It does what it says on the tin though, doesn't it?
08:53Yeah.
08:53It depends England.
08:54And actually what I would like them to do is use the elements and make an interesting painting.
08:59Yeah.
08:59I don't want to, this is like a postcard, isn't it?
09:01If somebody sent you a postcard at Dover Castle, it would be exactly this view.
09:04Yeah.
09:04So you don't want architectural accuracy.
09:06No.
09:07You want something that gives you a flavour of this, it's like a door lump of a castle.
09:13Yes, I want something picturesque out of a door lump.
09:16Yeah.
09:17Story of my life.
09:24When it comes to writing her own happy ending today, our next challenger is playing with fire.
09:31I'm a pyrography artist, which is basically using a hot wire tool to scorch the surface of the wood to
09:40create the image.
09:41You could create a lot of depth, a lot of texture, and I'm hoping to show a lot of that
09:49today.
09:51Pyrography Ruth Baker hails from Somerset.
09:55Working onto a birch wood panel, first in pencil and then painstakingly with a heated tool,
10:01her imagined landscape of an ancient woodland took an entire week to complete.
10:08Ruth, it's so strange because when I look at your submission, this wonderful wooded landscape,
10:13I didn't anticipate that you actually start with drawing.
10:16Yeah, it's very drawing based.
10:19OK. And why can you not go straight in with the bernie tool thing?
10:23It's permanent. Once I've touched the tool to the wood, that's it. No going back.
10:28OK. Well, it's great to have someone working with different materials.
10:32I mean, a pyrographer on the show is brilliant, exciting.
10:37While Ruth cracks on with her bernie tool thing, that's pyrography pen to you and me,
10:42it's the wildcards who've sparked the interest of our next artist.
10:47Composition-wise today, there's a lot of people here, so I will include some figures at the bottom
10:53in order to introduce perhaps a bit of life to the picture.
10:58Chartered surveyor Stu Gregory's passion for landscapes has its foundation in an art class he took a decade ago.
11:06Since then, he's honed his style, working mostly on plein air.
11:10His summer's day scene in the Cotswolds was painted over a single four-hour sitting.
11:18Hello, Stu. Hello.
11:20Let's talk about your submission. In that long vista that you've chosen, the figures in the landscape,
11:25as a compositional device, they helped, didn't they?
11:27Yes. There's a lot of people milling about. So, for me, everything sort of came together.
11:34Because you enliven your landscapes with figures, don't you?
11:37Yeah, I've left the space at the bottom because I do like to include figures in the scene.
11:42And as beautiful as the view is, I was slightly worried it might just look a bit lost on my
11:48canvas.
11:49Yeah, no, we like to test you.
11:51I noticed.
11:54Playing muse to stew today with their easels set up directly in front of the pods are our 50 excitable
12:01wildcards.
12:04The view is amazing. I've been to a lot of Scottish castles, so this is my first English castle to
12:09see,
12:09so this is really exciting to get started and paint this.
12:17I'm not used to painting castles, so I'm out of my comfort zone.
12:22But I'll give it a go. And I've got my packed lunch, so I'm happy.
12:27Should any of their work have our judges smacking their lips?
12:30A place at the semi-final table is up for grabs.
12:36Have you seen this show before?
12:38I've been watching it since the first one, I think.
12:41Yeah. So have we inspired you or have you thought, I'll show them my skills?
12:46See, I am here to represent the young ones today.
12:48How old are you?
12:49Nineteen.
12:50Nineteen?
12:50So.
12:51Unless you've been watching it from the beginning.
12:52Oh, yeah.
12:53Wow.
12:58Our pod artists are now an hour into their task, and things aren't going to plan.
13:05I am way behind. Just seems an awful lot to cover in such a short time.
13:14I'm panicking at the moment.
13:19I wouldn't say everything's going to plan, far from it, if I'm honest.
13:24I'm hoping it won't look a mess at the end, but we'll see.
13:30I feel happy that I've just kind of covered the canvas and got stuck in, but there's always
13:36doubts. There's always doubts. Yeah, we'll see. Hopefully it'll all come together.
13:50High on the cliffs above the English Channel, eight artists are taking on Dover Castle,
13:55a great pile of stone that has stood here resolutely for over eight centuries.
14:02Something that poses a challenge for our next artist.
14:06I do love a sense of movement and that it draws your eye into certain places, so
14:13yeah, it's feeling my way through, really, in a quite random manner.
14:20Liverpudley and Elaine Vickers works as a student support officer and paints in her spare time.
14:27Her submission, accomplished using washes of watered-down oil paints,
14:31shows her sister on Landudno Pier at dusk.
14:37Hi, Elaine. Hello. How's it going?
14:39It's, yeah, it's going, it's going okay. I mean, the castle, I mean, it's such an imposing building,
14:45but hopefully you get a sense of the stability, but with a bit of movement as well.
14:50Yeah. It's interesting, this notion of movement, actually. I think you can really feel that.
14:54I mean, it's a static scene, but somehow I feel when I'm looking at what you're doing, I feel speed.
14:58Yeah, well, yeah. I feel speed. I feel movement. I feel, it's almost like you're looking at the landscape
15:03while turning your head. Exactly.
15:04And tell me about your submission. I can see the sort of connection there.
15:09It feels like it's almost about something ungraspable about the landscape, you know,
15:14something that you're seeing, but you can't quite touch.
15:17Yeah, well, it's my sister. She lives overseas, so, like, fleeting memories.
15:22Fleeting memories, yeah.
15:30I'm hoping to capture some sort of the lightness and brightness of this time of year and make it
15:37sort of uplifting. Nothing too heavy, just...
15:45just... the painting.
15:48Is it OK? Yeah, it's fine.
15:51Despite the occasional rogue gust of wind, over recent years, Lelia Geraghty has embraced
15:57painting outdoors. Her portrayal in oils of a helter-skelter on a deserted dorset
16:04quayside was completed over three days.
16:08Lelia, um, amazing palettes with an extraordinary array of colours you mix,
16:15but at the moment, there's still a lot of white.
16:17I like that.
16:18You like that?
16:18I do.
16:19So there's, there won't be a kind of sense of closing the surface of the painting.
16:23No, I just like leaving space around things.
16:26No, absolutely, no, no, it feels much more joyful and, um, reffy.
16:31Yes.
16:32So your submission feels very spooky, is not the right word, but it's very atmospheric,
16:36and it's a very different sort of way.
16:38Yes. I think it's the shapes and the incongruous helter-skelter.
16:43Yes.
16:43And the stillness, because there wasn't anyone around.
16:46Yeah. No, no, it works very well. It's very beautiful.
16:48So I'm looking for the sink here, please.
16:54On the grass nearby, our wildcards are doing what they can to avoid making a dog's dinner
16:59of their paintings today.
17:03You've given it a lovely sort of sense of movement.
17:06You've gone off to the side a little bit.
17:08What sort of made you decide to sort of potter over there?
17:10Just composition, really.
17:11I just didn't want lots of lines.
17:14Love it.
17:14Thank you very much.
17:20Emma, it's coming into its own, isn't it?
17:22So I like to start with the structure, especially with the indigo.
17:26So you dribbled this indigo on and drew in the composition, and then what?
17:31You just sort of wander across the painting?
17:34Aimlessly.
17:35Yeah.
17:39Look at the state of you.
17:41Look at this here.
17:42What about that?
17:43Yeah, that's it.
17:43So this is obviously your painting gear.
17:45Painting gear, yeah.
17:45It looks a bit like medieval chainmail.
17:49Medieval, yeah.
17:49I mean, if you went running towards the castle, I think they'd start preparing the boiling oil,
17:53because you look like...
17:55You look like you mean business.
18:09In terms of the castle, for me, it's a massive man-made object.
18:13And so I want to try and get the scale of the building.
18:18Whether we'll get there, we'll see.
18:19But, you know, that's the idea.
18:22Paul Rotherer has spent his professional life working as an architect.
18:26His carefully constructed submission in acrylics depicts the view from his childhood bedroom window.
18:34So, Paul, you're an architect by training, right?
18:37I am, yeah.
18:38And we've given you a great piece of medieval architecture.
18:41Oh, absolutely.
18:42Beautiful, yeah.
18:43I think I see it almost like a portrait of the building, I think, the way you've tackled this
18:47and really centred on the architecture itself.
18:50I guess it feels in tune with your background.
18:52Well, it is, because, you know, I just felt it was quite important to home in on one bit
18:56that's actually something that I'm familiar with.
19:00What I really liked about your submission was this sense of interior world, exterior world,
19:06you know, being inside, looking out.
19:08Yeah, and that's what I was hoping to capture today,
19:10that you've got a sort of a man-made object, you've got a natural environment that it's in,
19:15but it's that interplay.
19:23So, watercolour's really nice, because you can obviously get it nice and watery,
19:28but you can also do quite strong lines as well.
19:31There's some big shapes there, so I just blot them in.
19:34That then gives me something to work with, because the blankness of the paper can be overwhelming.
19:43Watercolourist Kumar Saraf lives in Wales, where he divides his time between painting
19:48and working for the fire service.
19:51His brooding winter scene shows an evening view across the valley from his home in Powys.
19:58Hi, Kumar. Hello.
20:01How's this huge castle coming on on your...
20:04Yeah.
20:05How are you tackling it?
20:06You know, I'm being quite loose and soft with the marks at the moment,
20:09and it'll definitely evolve.
20:11I've got some nice big brushes here that'll...
20:13Yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:13...that'll come out.
20:14It's interesting using watercolour. Let's talk about your submission.
20:17Yeah.
20:18Which is a very moody sunset, sunrise.
20:22Sunset-ish.
20:23Sunset-ish.
20:24One of those winter nights where it's quite special, and it becomes a glowing disc,
20:31and amongst all this sort of murk of landscape.
20:35But the murk has...
20:37Oh, there's colours there.
20:38Yes.
20:38You've definitely found very beautiful colours there.
20:40Anyway, thanks, Kumar.
20:48I'm trying to get the next sort of layer of paint on. Just getting a little bit, you know,
20:55wound up a little bit. I don't like losing the original painting, but I know I can't keep it,
21:01so it's quite frustrating, really.
21:06I mean, this castle is enormous, so there's still lots of potential for things to go awry,
21:13but you've just got to keep painting and stop worrying.
21:20It's nice to have it down and then just be starting to refine it, to get that sense of
21:28movement and start to relax, finally.
21:45At Dover Castle on England's south coast, eight valiant artists are on a quest for artistic glory.
21:54And as the sun continues its journey across the Kent sky, our competitors are struggling to adapt.
22:01Hi, Ashley.
22:02Hi.
22:03How's it going?
22:04Yeah, it's going okay.
22:06I feel like we're looking already at such a completely different landscape than when you
22:09started on this journey. You know, everything is changing before our eyes.
22:12I know, it is changing a lot and I think the light on the castle is changing and that's what
22:17I'm not
22:17sure how to attack. So I'm just working over the top of the ink with these soft pastels,
22:23but I'm kind of just feeling my way a bit.
22:28It's a lot sunnier now. I'd say it's not as moody as I'd probably usually go for.
22:34I am feeling a little bit nervous about that, but I'll see how it goes.
22:39And it's not just the sun taking the wind out of our artists' sails.
22:46Okay, we get some help.
22:48Yeah.
22:49It's a slow process at the moment.
22:53The wind's taking the heat out of the tip, which is not getting the effect that I want.
23:01So we have a bit of a challenge there.
23:04Yeah. We are fighting with it a little bit.
23:13Well, I mean, this castle has seen its fair share of battle over the years,
23:17but none as cruelly fought as this one.
23:21This morning, you could barely see the sea. Now you can see the sea.
23:24You know, the sun is out and the sky is really turned colour and the castle now feels really dark,
23:30actually. And so this is, I think, a real challenge for someone to adapt to.
23:34So Lelia, looking to paint quite a romantic Dover castle. Are you in for a bit of romance today,
23:41Ty?
23:43If you're asking, Steve. You normally run away when I bring this up.
23:48Lelia's here because of her submission, which is very tight and the surface is all closed.
23:52And her Dover castle today is like a Raul Dufy. There's lots of white coming through.
23:57I love the fact that she's got these sort of blobs. They're not even blocks of colour here and there.
24:02So part of me is thinking, oh, I hope she keeps that openness, that air in it.
24:06Stu has left some space in the bottom right hand corner. We may see some wild cards, apparently.
24:12I feel like this is the kind of scene that he's done in the past, where he also had to
24:16deal with a
24:17combination of building landscape people. So he knows very well how to play with this.
24:22Yeah, it's quite a traditional painting that Stu's given us. And I think that's often a challenge when
24:28you have a sort of very traditional view and a very traditional style of painting. Where do you
24:33find the edge? Sarah is quite a moody painting. She really is all about atmosphere, but she's very
24:42successful, I think, at doing this. So very interested to see, I guess, you know, what else she's going to
24:48do with the next few hours. She's not looking for the picturesque like we're used to. She's,
24:53she's reducing everything. I want it to be reduced even more. In a sense, you want the most extreme
24:59version of what an artist can do. I get slight motion sickness looking at Elaine's. I feel like
25:06I'm in one of those fairground rides where you spun around and around. Actually, I think it comes
25:11down also to the way she applies the paint. You know, she works with those really diluted paints,
25:16and it creates this almost ethereal landscape, you know, something that you can't quite grasp.
25:23It's tricky, isn't it? Because, you know, we've got the traditional view. We want something that's
25:27more contemporary, but then when you have it, you just think, is it contemporary for the sake of
25:31being contemporary? It's too conscious, too self-conscious. Kumar seems to be all about
25:35finding the drama. I mean, Kumar was looking for the drama right from the start, but now he's trying
25:40to make what is essentially a very light scene, apart from the heavy castle, into something dark
25:45and moody. But with watercolor, you do get beautiful accidents happening, and this layering gives him the
25:50darkness and the depth. I'm kind of intrigued where it goes. So how's Paul getting on? I think it's maybe
25:56challenging for Paul to get away from the architectural eye, and, you know, it's a very frontal and
26:02straightforward way of depicting it, and so it lacks a certain finesse or artistry or quirk,
26:08but it's also early stages, so we'll see, no? Yeah, yeah. But he has made some really intelligent
26:12choices that I really like. The crop's fantastic, but he's also elevated the castle, so it's really high
26:17up. So there are some good strong elements there. It's whether he can make it feel richer.
26:22Now, Ruth. And finally, what Ava was talking about, Paul being sort of bound by the architectural
26:28thing in front of him, I think Ruth has a similar problem. The organic bit at the bottom is lovely,
26:34but it's just not... It's really lovely. She really needs to get on with it.
26:38Pyrography is, you know, a labor of time, really, and so tackling such a wide and ambitious landscape
26:45of the way only in a few hours. It's always going to be a great challenge. And finally, joyful Ashley,
26:51started with those very bright neon colors. It feels really joyous, I think, where the work is going,
26:56and there's tons of energy in that painting. I do worry about the colors. You're sort of worried the gamble
27:02might not come off. Exactly that. Yeah. I think there's lovely, loose mark-making, but there's a structure there,
27:09and I want a bit of that. I mean, you cannot win. I mean, you spend half the time complaining
27:14that half
27:14of them are too tied to the structure of the building, and the rest of them don't have any of
27:20it. No.
27:20No. There's a sweet spot. That's what we're looking for.
27:37Stu, the moment of truth. I've been told that wild cards might appear. Are you going to stick with
27:43just the one person? Actually, in two minds at the moment. I think I probably won't be able to resist
27:49the urge to put some more figures in, but we'll... I shouldn't really sway you because,
27:53you know, knowing Ava and Ty, they'll come along and say,
27:56oh, why is there only one figure? But I love it like that.
28:03You seem very relaxed. Are you a very relaxed kind of person?
28:05I hide it. Do you? Well. Yeah.
28:08I'm a paddler. Right. So you pretend everything's fine,
28:11but you're seeding underneath. And underneath is a bubbling mass of...
28:15Okay. ...anxiety. Okay.
28:19Oh, well. Anything I can do to help? Oh, it's so fine.
28:22Okay. Just breathing the toes.
28:24Yeah. It's quite turpsy round here, isn't it? Might sit here for a bit.
28:31Known as the key to England due to its strategic position,
28:35Dover Castle has been defending the country's southern coastline for over 800 years.
28:41But it was a series of events in the mid-12th century that transformed it into the landmark that endures
28:47today.
28:49Prior to the existing keep, there would have been a much less sophisticated castle.
28:56The present structure dates to the time of King Henry II,
29:00who infamously ordered the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170.
29:06Over the following years, as pilgrims flocked to nearby Canterbury to worship at Becket's Shrine,
29:12Dover Castle took on a new role, which had less to do with defence and more to do with international
29:17PR.
29:20Louis VII of France was one of the very important first pilgrims.
29:25Henry brought him back here to this site and was quite ashamed of the accommodation that was available that time
29:32because it was so rudimentary.
29:34Following the French king's visit, Henry embarked on one of medieval Britain's most ambitious building projects.
29:43He ordered a renowned engineer, Morris the engineer, as he was called, to construct this magnificent great tower and the
29:53inner and some of the outer bailey walls.
29:56No expense was spared in this endeavour.
29:59He was showing off. I suppose it was the 12th century version of Bling.
30:04The main keep, in essence, is Henry II's tower.
30:14Back across the valley, it's almost time to pull up the drawbridge on today's wildcard competition.
30:21Me and the lovely gentleman behind me have realised that we're painting in exactly the same colour palette,
30:26so we're going to sort out our exhibitions soon and go from there. It's going to be a beautiful partnership.
30:39I have found it a challenge, but the weather has been glorious. It's not raining, otherwise I'd be miserable.
30:47So I've done a dip pen and Indian ink drawing of the castle. It's amazing, exciting. I've loved every minute.
30:54We've met loads of lovely people and it's just a brilliant atmosphere to be able to just draw all day.
31:03So who will be our wildcard winner today?
31:12That's not a bad bit of painting. Congratulations!
31:18The judge's pick is Karen Adams for her richly rendered oil depiction of today's view.
31:27What a great tonality. You've got a really nice range of colours.
31:30You've brought it to life. This huge, slabby monster.
31:33This ugly.
31:34Yeah.
31:34So congratulations.
31:36Thank you so much.
31:37And thanks for joining us today.
31:40I saw Ty walking over and I thought,
31:44he's coming my way.
31:47Obviously, I'm happy to do this all over again, if I'm lucky enough to be chosen.
31:52And I guess in a pod.
31:59Karen from Norfolk will join the wildcard winners from all the heats
32:03to be in with the chance of a place in the semi-final.
32:13The wildcards may be done for the day, but back at the pods, as the artists enter their final hour,
32:18there's just time for a few words of encouragement.
32:23I mean, if I designed that castle, I saw your painting, I'd be very pleased.
32:27You're making it look...
32:28Well, it looks more pristine than it really is.
32:31That's what I mean.
32:32I'd be like, yeah, that's what I want.
32:37We're cracking away now.
32:38I've gone in a bit more with watercolour and it's just allowed me to cover more surface.
32:48Still trying to figure out these shadows.
32:50It's at the stage where it'll all come together or it'll all go completely wrong.
32:56Too many rush decisions, too much paint, time's running out.
33:02And I'm very hot.
33:17I'm very hot.
33:17On the Kent clifftops, our eight artists are adding the final touches to their artworks.
33:26In trying to deal with a chocolate box image in the castle, you've done something with it
33:31geometrically. It's sort of not upright. It's sort of going out. Was that on purpose?
33:35Yes. Yes. No, it's not my eyesight.
33:37No, but why would you even think about doing that to start with?
33:40Well, I just sort of enjoy not putting the lines exactly where perhaps they should be.
33:44Yeah. Yeah.
33:47Does that come with me? Yeah.
33:52There are areas of the painting that feel really painterly. There are some other areas that feel
33:56more like drawing. Yeah, I love mixed media for that reason. You've kind of got lots going on and
34:01lots to look at, but I'd love some more time. Can you give me more time?
34:05No. Sadly not.
34:15Artists, you have five minutes left.
34:21I painted a few more wild cards in. I'm not 100% happy, but I think I've just got enough
34:26in just to
34:27give that sort of impression that there's a few people milling about.
34:32I'd like to have spent a bit more time with the castle, but it's just a matter of seeing how
34:38much I can get done.
34:41Trying to make the decision to do the final brushstroke and leave it be because I don't want to overwork
34:46it.
34:49I'm reasonably happy. I've got to where I wanted to, I think, but it's gone so quickly.
34:58Faffing. Probably everyone says they wish they had another 10 weeks or something, but yeah, I'm okay.
35:12Artists, your four hours are up. Please stop what you're doing and step away from your easels.
35:25That'll take a bit of time to sink in, I think. It's all a bit of a blur at the
35:29moment. It seems like
35:29just moments ago that we started and now it's the end of the day.
35:36Just one of these eight artists will go through to the semi-final and be in the running for a
35:41£10,000 prize commission for the National Gallery of Ireland. Our winner will visit the wild west coast
35:47of County Mayo to paint Ireland's sacred mountain Crowpatrick for the National Gallery of Ireland.
35:53Since the time of St. Patrick, who's said to have fasted and prayed for 40 days and nights on the
35:59mountain, countless pilgrims have made their own journey to the summit. Our artists will follow
36:04in their footsteps to take inspiration from the spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean below.
36:13For now, at Dover Castle, the judges must decide who'll make it through to the semi-final.
36:19Keeping the artworks in the pods to protect them from the wind,
36:22they must first narrow down their selection to a shortlist of three.
36:28It's been a glorious day, but that has been very difficult, hasn't it?
36:33It has. You can feel it in the way they've each wrestled with it.
36:37And it's changed so much throughout the day, and I think this is also really reflected in the range
36:41of interpretations. I think with Lilia's, I really like the spaces that she's left between the objects.
36:48We haven't got the tightness there. It feels much more gestural.
36:51Yeah, I think that was very important to find a bit of breathing space.
36:55And I like the... I'm a painter. I love the way the paint is put down.
37:01I do love the heavy-handed, unshowy way Sarah paints. This place has been deserted for many
37:08centuries, and I do like that feeling that I'm getting.
37:11She looked at the castle. She knew exactly how she was going to tackle it.
37:15The painting is really resolved. It feels really confident. It feels really settled.
37:20I can't fault it, really.
37:24Stu, I have problems with people, generally.
37:28And I have problems with people in landscapes. And what is interesting,
37:32he's very cleverly put them to the left, so it leads you through the landscape.
37:35So very beautifully constructed.
37:37I mean, I thought the person, when it was singular, worked really, really well.
37:41But now that he's introduced all these other characters down by the fence,
37:45I find that a little bit distracting.
37:48I think Elaine has given us that sense of movement in the painting.
37:52But I feel like this way of approaching the subject, I only have one question, and it's why.
37:58Why would it be rendered this way? It doesn't quite connect with me.
38:02Yeah, but I think one would have to agree the style is very attractive.
38:05There's some mark making and sort of drips and edges of paint pooling.
38:10It's very beautiful. And you think, ah, here's a person who has a singular vision.
38:15But it's very good painting.
38:17Paul, I love the idea of cropping it.
38:21And I like the clarity of his image making.
38:26It becomes problematic when every shadow is the same width of brush mark.
38:31For me, it makes it very illustrative.
38:33I find myself drawn more to the density of the foliage and the trees in the bottom section.
38:39They're really sort of luscious.
38:40It's far more painterly than I expected from earlier on in the day.
38:45I think Kuba understands how to layer.
38:48So it gives great depths.
38:49If you look, there's sort of edges where there's shimmering color.
38:52It's really beautifully done.
38:53I feel that this sort of ghostly representation of the castle is actually quite fitting with the
38:59history of this building. What I'm disturbed by is the second half of the work where he's
39:06bringing a sort of more textured way of painting, which to me doesn't quite belong.
39:11I think there's an extraordinary amount of detail in Ruth's work.
39:16But I somehow feel that maybe the work is too bound, actually, to the technique.
39:22And it feels a little bit constrained by that.
39:26I think the thing with Ruth and the pyrography pen is she's in charge of that tool, actually.
39:29She does manage it really, really carefully.
39:32It's got a lovely timeless quality to it as well, doesn't it?
39:36Because of the coloration.
39:39I think Ashley's found a way of drawing, painting, and giving the whole thing vitality.
39:45And the paint near the castle is a bit annoying, but the pink in the sky, I think, works.
39:49I think it's a good bit of painting.
39:51It feels very loose. It feels very joyous.
39:54There's a lot going on with the choice of colors.
39:58And then there's the oil stick and the line.
40:00And I think maybe a bit more restrained could maybe be helpful.
40:16Oh, thank you.
40:17Artists, thank you so much for all your incredible work.
40:19It's been a fantastic day.
40:20The judges have now selected a shortlist of three artists.
40:25The first artist is...
40:31Lelia Geraghty.
40:36Oh, thank you.
40:40The second artist on the shortlist is...
40:44Sarah Graham.
40:52And the third artist is...
40:55Kumar Sarraf.
41:05The judges must now agree on today's winner.
41:08To help them with their decision, they take another look at the artist's submissions.
41:15Well, not a cloud in the sky. It's been a colorful, vibrant day.
41:19You wouldn't know it necessarily from some of the paintings, would you?
41:22No, dark and moody. And I think that's what Kumar has found. All that layering somehow.
41:28That building shimmers and vibrates with real menace. And when I see it alongside the submission,
41:34what I realize, he's just interested in mood, isn't he?
41:37The other thing that really comes through Kumar's work is the play between light and darkness.
41:42And you get that with the gorgeous orange sun, which is sort of illuminating the submission.
41:48So Sarah's given us another painting in that very reduced palette.
41:52There's an absolute stillness to both places. Uninhabited, ancient.
41:57And they're going to be like that for millennia more.
42:00I think it's very interesting, strange, minimal language to push out anything that might be an
42:05accent or excitement and reduce it.
42:08What really strikes me about Sarah's work is every single brushstroke does something
42:15and it doesn't do anything else. And it's there for a specific reason and it's successful.
42:19So she's a very precise and very confident painter.
42:23And then Lelia, much more joy or color. And I don't know whether it's because
42:28now I see the two paintings side by side with the helter-skelter on the left.
42:32Has she made today's castle into a bouncy castle?
42:35Oh, wow. She is playful. You can see it across the two.
42:39There is a sort of surreal element to the submission.
42:43And in the painting today, she's left a lot of air in it.
42:46So I really like the sinuousness of the space that is around the trees and the foliage because it
42:53it sort of has you falling over each of them as you move across the painting.
42:57I mean, ultimately, it's about finding someone who has a singular vision.
43:02So, you know, a way of turning a reality that feels really straight into something that's maybe
43:08moving, changing, you know, rounded, I think is quite a gorgeous, gorgeous approach.
43:14So much.
43:20Kumar, Sarah, Lelia, it's a great achievement to reach the shortlist.
43:24But only one of you can win today's heat and take a place in the semi-final.
43:29And that artist is...
43:37Lelia Geraghty.
43:44Absolutely blown away. I'm delighted, actually.
43:52It's an amazing thing for the judges to choose my pictures. Just, yeah, it's so nice.
44:00Well done, well done. See you soon.
44:03What we saw in Lelia's work was a sort of a freshness of approach, something that felt more
44:11unusual, more surprising. But when you see the submission, you can see, gosh, you can paint,
44:16you know, figurative work. It's not just about impressionistic feeling or quirk.
44:20So that's quite exciting.
44:24So tonight I'm going to celebrate, well actually now I'm going to celebrate, apparently there's
44:27some Pimms waiting. And I can't wait.
44:33If you'd like to take part in next year's competition or want to discover more about
44:37the work of our artists, visit skyartsartistoftheyear.tv
44:46Next time, it's the semi-final. Everything Cougar Rock.
44:50And we're at the magnificent Ouse Valley Viaduct in Sussex.
44:55But as temperatures soar... It's really difficult today. It's so warm.
45:00And all my crowns are kind of melting.
45:03Who will cement their place in the competition?
45:06And who will burn their bridges?
45:10It must have taken a while. I hope they had more than one bricklayer.
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