Landscape Artist of the Year - Season 10 Episode 8
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00:00Hello and welcome to Bristol, home of world famous street artist Banksy.
00:20Today's eight artists will be looking across the harbour to the brightly coloured houses
00:24of the city's Hotwells district.
00:26So will one of our pod artists actually be Banksy?
00:30Keep an eye out for Telltale Spraycans.
00:33It's a brand new episode of Landscape Artist of the Year.
00:37It's heat six.
00:38Literally holding everything down.
00:40Hopefully it will stay.
00:42And time for eight new artists to weather the ups and downs of the British summer.
00:46Are we allowed to finish early today?
00:51As always our three judges are on hand to support them.
00:55What you up to?
00:56I've drawn some lines with the ruler.
00:58I think Mike we might need more.
01:00No.
01:01Yes.
01:02With 50 wildcards along for the ride.
01:04Do you paint on the train?
01:06No.
01:07Or just chat?
01:08Well we weren't sitting together the second train we were in.
01:09Is that because you don't get on?
01:10No, because I was in first and she wasn't.
01:15The artists are all competing for this year's prestigious £10,000 commission, a chance
01:21to follow in the footsteps of Van Gogh, Monet and Cézanne in the sun-kissed landscapes
01:27of southern France, creating an artwork for the Courtauld Gallery in London.
01:34But first they must battle it out in some very British weather.
01:40I think we may have a few fraught artists who may need to set up a helpline.
01:44From the pub?
01:45Yes, from the pub.
01:51Joining us on Bristol Harbourside today are eight artists.
02:16London-based painter Raoul Orzebal.
02:20Welsh artist and sculptor Mike Bennion, also from London.
02:24Beth Blakeman-Sheed, a luxury retail manager from West Sussex.
02:29And Hash Akib, a professional artist from Westcliff-on-Sea.
02:33I've watched the programme for quite a few years and it was on my bucket list so it's
02:37very exciting.
02:38This is the worst point, just waiting to paint.
02:41This is what I'm not good at.
02:44Alongside them are Cardiff-based digital product manager and artist Bill Bone.
02:51Bernie Miller, a teacher from Northern Ireland.
02:55From Norwich, carpenter Colin Revel.
02:58And Gloucester-based printmaker and podcaster Molly Lemon.
03:03I think I'm about as prepared as I can be.
03:05I didn't think I'd get into the programme so I'm not thinking about winning at the moment,
03:09I'm just trying to get through the day.
03:13The artists must now set themselves up in their pods.
03:16We're going to need a bigger table.
03:20Alongside the artworks that secured them a place in today's heat.
03:25Once they've battened down the artistic hatches.
03:39Artists, your challenge is about to begin.
03:42You have four hours to complete your masterpieces.
03:46Your time starts now.
04:03Today's artists are lined up at the western end of Bristol's long man-made harbour, running
04:09parallel to the River Avon.
04:11Alright, I'm on the move.
04:13I'm going to take photos.
04:16In front of them lies a wide vista.
04:19Stretching from the historic harbour buildings, across to the brightly coloured houses of
04:23Hotwells and Cliftonwood.
04:25Despite it being mid-summer, the forecast is predicting a wet and windy day.
04:31The weather forecast doesn't bother me.
04:33I think because there's so much colour in the scene, I actually think the silvery light
04:38will help knock everything else back.
04:46I have mixed feelings about the view.
04:48I think it's very, very pretty.
04:50As an artist, it's going to be a bit challenging because there's a lot going on.
04:54I definitely want to get the houses in.
04:56I definitely want to get some water in.
04:59My focus for today's painting is the building that I see over there.
05:05It's quite important to the area because it actually helps the silt, so that the harbour
05:11can continue working, and I think that's quite important to show.
05:16Bernie Miller is a teacher from Northern Ireland.
05:19Her romantic depictions of the harbour and the harbour itself are a source of inspiration
05:24Bernie Miller is a teacher from Northern Ireland.
05:27Her romantic depiction of the Morn Mountains, close to where she grew up in County Down,
05:32took six hours to produce.
05:35Bernie, we gave you this absolutely chaotic landscape, and you thought,
05:40I'm going to do that.
05:42Yeah, because although that's very beautiful, that has history.
05:48Your submission, beautifully rural, not a building in sight,
05:52but I presume your natural habitat when you're a plein air painter is no buildings.
05:57Under the hedgerows.
05:59Now, here we're under no hedgerows.
06:02We're above water.
06:04Very manufactured, but working with nature, which is why that's important.
06:09OK. Well, I'm glad we're in a city with a lot of narrative.
06:12Yeah. I will crack on.
06:14When do we have a break, though?
06:16Well, we've just had a break talking.
06:19A wee cup of tea would be great.
06:33I'm a printmaker and I specialise in wood engraving,
06:36which is when you engrave onto hardwood and then create prints.
06:40I love how when you pull the paper back, it's always a surprise.
06:45Molly Lemon is a printmaker and podcaster based in Gloucestershire.
06:49Her tiny wood engraving took four hours
06:52and depicts the Mouthach estuary in north Wales.
06:57Hi, Molly. Oh, hello.
06:59This is so radical. Yeah.
07:01I don't think I've ever sat this direction before. I know.
07:04I had started facing that way,
07:06and now I'm engraving backwards, looking at the mirror.
07:10If I just engraved the view looking out,
07:12the print would be backwards from what it is in real life.
07:15Yeah, it's slightly disorientating.
07:17No, it's good. I like it. It keeps the public on their toes,
07:20wondering what on earth you're doing.
07:22I think what we loved about your submission was
07:24that it really felt like you understood the distance in the hills
07:27and the way that the light fell on the water,
07:29but in, like, 2.5 inches squared.
07:31Would it be easier if you were working bigger?
07:33I think it's a challenge working small cos you want it to have impact.
07:36So, yeah, I've got to make it punchy.
07:43So, nice place to live, good place to visit.
07:46Nightmare to paint, surely.
07:48Do you know what one of the artists said to me? What?
07:51He looked forlornly across at this view and he said,
07:54Ty must have had a reason to put us here.
07:56Oh, no! Don't say that! He did.
07:58I'm not saying which one. Oh, my God!
08:00So, what's your reason?
08:02Well, there's a lot to pick from.
08:04It's just too much, isn't it?
08:06Yes. You've got to make decisions early on
08:08before you get embroiled in this.
08:10As I'm looking, there is foliage and greenery
08:13that could be used in a very good way to counterpoint certain things.
08:17It's going to be a difficult job.
08:19Added to that, of course, it's the dullest day,
08:22so it's about using colours, using shapes.
08:25It suddenly becomes an intellectual puzzle to solve.
08:29But if they pull it off, it's going to be amazing.
08:33It will be. I mean, I think we may have a few fraught artists, though.
08:37Yes. Before we get to that point.
08:39We may need to set up a helpline.
08:41From the pub? Yes, from the pub.
08:51I'm kind of a contemporary painter,
08:53but more influenced by the effects of digital work
08:56and what you can do on computers,
08:58and I'm trying to imitate that onto oil on canvas.
09:01It's probably similar to building a car.
09:04It's probably similar to building a collage.
09:08Raoul Orzabal is a full-time artist based in London.
09:12His submission took three months to create
09:15and is a composite view of several Scottish landscapes.
09:21Morning, Raoul. I hesitate to interrupt you.
09:23It's feverish activity here. Yes.
09:26When I look at your submission, it is full of detail.
09:28It's extremely rich. Absolutely.
09:30I like kind of glitch-based effects,
09:33so basically I'm going to paint some of the bits and bobs of the houses
09:37and the branches kind of caught in action in air,
09:40just like how with the submission,
09:42you've got the top bits of the mountains only partially painted.
09:45So you call that glitching? Yes.
09:47Like a computer glitch? Yes, exactly.
09:54I'm a watercolor artist.
09:56I'd say contemporary abstract, very loose style.
10:00When I paint landscapes, I like to tell a visual story of the day.
10:04I'm more suited to cityscapes and stuff like that.
10:07That's my thing, you know.
10:09I don't really paint war so much.
10:11A bit of challenge, which is good.
10:14Colin Revell works as a carpenter in Norwich
10:17and paints watercolours in his spare time.
10:20His submission was inspired by a photograph taken in Paris,
10:24depicting a giant statue of artist Yayoi Kusama.
10:28It took three days to create.
10:31Hi, Colin. Hiya.
10:33Oh, this is a nice good-looking bit,
10:35the big watercolour brushes out, the paint's going on.
10:38Sorry, this is the exciting bit.
10:40Watercolour, you have to really think about what you do
10:43before you put it on.
10:45Any mistakes, I can't cover up very well.
10:47We loved your submission. It was very unusual.
10:49I mean, today you did have an opportunity
10:51to put in dashes of colour in a very similar way.
10:53For me, that's a bit of a trap. So what's the priority then?
10:56Just the atmosphere, really.
10:58I guess there won't be too many hard lines.
11:00I don't like hard edges and things. I like quite soft lines.
11:07Further down the harbour, another group of eager artists are arriving,
11:11all set to tackle the complicated view and the ominous weather.
11:15It's our 50 hardy wildcards.
11:20I've seen the weather forecast, yes,
11:22and it's going to be mighty wet.
11:25Summer or winter, it doesn't really matter.
11:27I'm used to the rain.
11:29I hope it doesn't rain.
11:31There's watercolour.
11:34There's enough water in here without the rain.
11:38One wildcard will be chosen as today's winner,
11:40with a chance to take part in this year's semi-final.
11:45At this precise moment in time, I'm panicking completely
11:47because I can't find a single pencil.
11:50I think I've left the entire pencil case at home.
11:56I've started off by drawing up the composition to get the angles.
12:01It's a way of knowing when I come to put the detail in,
12:05where everything is in relation to each other.
12:11I'm enjoying today, but it is quite tense
12:14because I'm not used to doing an urban scene,
12:17and also I'm not used to being in a place like this.
12:20I'm enjoying today, but it is quite tense
12:22because I'm not used to doing an urban scene,
12:25and also just loads of distractions.
12:27Normally it's just me and my dog.
12:32I did originally try and go for all the colourful houses individually,
12:36count all of them and try and get them in,
12:38but that was going to take too much time,
12:40so I've kind of just ad-libbed it a bit.
12:51MUSIC FADES
13:05Lined up along Bristol's historic harbourside
13:08are today's eight artists.
13:11Faced with a flat grey sky,
13:13one artist has chosen to look on the bright side.
13:16I guess the thing that makes my work stand out
13:19is definitely marks and colours.
13:23I used to be very realistic,
13:25but I've definitely loosened up a lot more,
13:27so more freewheeling brushstrokes.
13:31Hasha Kibb is a professional artist based in Westcliffe-on-Sea.
13:35His vibrant submission of Southwold in Suffolk
13:38depicts a somewhat familiar scene.
13:40Houses, painted in bright colours, lined up along the harbour.
13:47Morning, Hasha.
13:48I mean, there's a lot of sort of blocking that's going on.
13:51Yeah. And they're very large brushes.
13:53Presumably you go in with the detail later.
13:55I'll do a lot of damage with this one... Yeah.
13:57..just to cover the thing.
13:59And then later on... I don't go down too small.
14:02I actually like the clumsiness of a big brush doing a fine line.
14:06So you must feel very comfortable because you produced something
14:09not a million miles away from what we're looking at today.
14:12One of the things we really liked is that level of busyness and density,
14:15but then there are also these lovely moments of pause,
14:17like having to go up the green to get to all the houses.
14:20I always like some areas where I almost just leave them minimalist.
14:35I am painting two views in one
14:38to create a very panoramic landscape today.
14:41So I'm painting part of the harbour
14:43and part of the colourful buildings is the plan.
14:47Beth Blakeman-Sheed is a senior manager in luxury retail
14:51and paints in her spare time.
14:53Beth's submission in oils took five hours
14:56and depicts a hot, dusty evening in Marrakesh,
14:59a far cry from today.
15:02You've chosen a very complex and wide view.
15:07Yes. Yes, I may regret that.
15:09But I'm trying to just sort of get things broadly in the right place
15:12but I'm obviously cutting out large chunks of what we can see.
15:15I mean, I look at this view and I think it's impossible to get your head round,
15:19but actually you've done that by just picking the pieces you want to paint.
15:24Yes. I think just trying to get a sense of this panorama
15:28that sits in front of us without it looking too straight-lining.
15:34Yeah. Let's talk about your submission.
15:36It's quite the opposite of today.
15:39It's completely the opposite of today.
15:41It's full of heat, it's full of colour.
15:43Are you able to work in a different mode?
15:45I'll find the colour and I'll find some contrast in there.
15:48Yeah.
16:02My work's slightly different from the others
16:04just because I paint little moments.
16:07Today I've taken photos of the little details I can see.
16:10I'll try and paint a few that I like
16:12and then I'll take those small paintings, chop them up
16:16and then move them around until they feel as though they're going to sit happily together.
16:22Mike Bennion is an artist and sculptor.
16:25His landscape collage was inspired by a family trip to a small Italian town
16:30and is made up of four painted vignettes mounted on an old newspaper.
16:38Hello, Mike.
16:39Hello, Kate.
16:40What are you up to?
16:41I've drawn some lines with the ruler.
16:43I think, Mike, we might need more.
16:45No.
16:46Yes. What was really interesting about your submission?
16:48You sort of told us something about a place without being overly literal.
16:52Almost the top of a mountain was this tiny little town.
16:55Its population had effectively died off.
16:58I could feel there was a massive sense of history
17:00and I tried to put that over in the art.
17:03So what's the story today?
17:04This is a photo I took a little earlier of reflections in water.
17:09This was the actual harbourside.
17:11There's a little tyre, a bit of a boat
17:13and finally a little detail on the ground I found just round the corner.
17:18Okay.
17:19Well, I think you've set yourself a really interesting challenge.
17:22If it works.
17:23If it works.
17:24Yes.
17:26I've painted a pointillist style
17:28and that's basically because I've never really gotten on with big brushes.
17:32I am hoping that you can look at the finished piece
17:35and if you know the area, you'll recognise it.
17:38But I'm not going too much for realism.
17:42I'm just going more for a good painting, a nice painting.
17:46Bill Bone works as a digital product manager
17:49for a company called The Art Gallery.
17:52Bill Bone works as a digital product manager in Cardiff
17:56and uses thousands of colourful dots to create his paintings.
18:00His submission of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square
18:03took 15 hours to create.
18:07Bill, your technique of breaking things down to these marks
18:11takes the viewer time to translate but because you're doing it,
18:15you can see what the effect is before you get there in a sense.
18:18So I guess what you're saying is you're calling me Neo from The Matrix.
18:21I can just, I see everything in dots.
18:23Yes, exactly. And in a complimentary way.
18:25No, absolutely.
18:26Good, good.
18:27So Nelson's Column is so iconic and one could suggest touristy.
18:33Yes.
18:34But was that part of the challenge?
18:36Yeah, absolutely. I just love all the history behind it.
18:39Does the narrative of this place, has it played a role?
18:43It's just shapes and form, yeah?
18:45Yeah, shapes and colours.
18:47OK.
18:52Further down the waterside,
18:54our wildcards are also coming up with imaginative ways
18:57of tackling today's complex view.
19:02Tell me about the square format.
19:04I always end up going square and thinking album covers
19:08and things like this.
19:09Oh, is that what it is? That's so interesting.
19:11Because often with portraiture, we see a lot of rectangular formats,
19:15which I think is to do with the camera phone.
19:17Mm-hm.
19:18But I'd never thought about the album cover edition in landscape.
19:29You haven't left much room for sky,
19:31which I think is no bad thing today.
19:33Deliberate decision today.
19:34Distinctly unimpressive sky.
19:36Not a lot to go on.
19:37No.
19:38It might develop, but no, it's just...
19:40I think if it develops, it's going to develop into rain.
19:44Dorothy, where are you from?
19:46I'm from Annick in Northumberland.
19:48You're a long way from home. Do you paint on the train?
19:51No. Or just chat?
19:52Well, we weren't sitting together on the second train, were we?
19:54We weren't. Is that cos you don't get on?
19:56No, cos I was in first and she wasn't.
20:00Are you sort of putting a roped-off section around yourself here?
20:03No, no, if there had been any rope,
20:05I would have definitely slung it around, yeah.
20:08LAUGHTER
20:14Along the water from our very important wildcards...
20:18Oh! Oh, no.
20:20..our eight pod artists are nearing the end of their second hour.
20:25I've gone beyond lines and I've moved into freehand drawing.
20:28I've applied some paint, as it is a painting competition, largely.
20:32It's going all right, but slower than I expected.
20:36Currently, I'm trying to pace it
20:38so I don't jump into doing the details straight away.
20:42At the moment, I think I'm on schedule,
20:44so I think the plan is working out.
20:48I am putting in contrast at the moment.
20:51I'm happy now I've got a brush in my hand and I've put the pencil down.
20:55So, yeah, it's all good.
21:06In Bristol, our eight artists are working hard
21:10on their interpretations of the harbourside
21:13with its famous coloured houses.
21:25How's it going, Bernie?
21:27I'm at the part where I need to actually be able to draw
21:31I'm at the part where I need to actually be able to get the reflections in
21:37and then build on the atmosphere.
21:39What's going on round your neck?
21:42This is my... Don't tell me that's to keep you cool.
21:45It is. How cool do you need to be?
21:47I was expecting it to be warm.
21:49Look, you've got to try this.
21:51OK. It's not going to blow my toupee off, is it?
21:53Mine too.
21:55I'm not sure my hair's insured for this kind of thing.
22:01Molly, tell me what you're up to at the moment
22:03because I can see little bits of colour starting to emerge.
22:06What's happened there?
22:08So I've printed three layers so far.
22:10This is the print as it is now.
22:12What made you feel that you wanted to go more with the pinks today?
22:15I think it's the fact that I'm in, like, a man-made landscape here
22:18so it felt fitting to add in those, like, stronger colours.
22:21I always love the blocks.
22:23Maybe I'll just take it now.
22:32It's summer, but not as we know it.
22:35It's really, really cold.
22:37But, you know, there's a lot of artists here today who don't mind at all.
22:40This location could be very twee, you know,
22:42the boats and the coloured terrace houses.
22:44If you added in a big blue sky...
22:46Yeah, maybe it would have been too twee.
22:48Yeah. So, luckily, it's really horrible and grey. Yeah. Excellent.
22:52Molly's working so small. It's obviously a woodcut.
22:55It's very... I mean, can you tell how she's getting on at this point?
22:58You can't.
23:00But I think printmakers...
23:02It's the last pull of the day where all the information is there.
23:05That's when we can judge it, yeah.
23:07I'm a bit worried that she could overcrowd
23:09that 2.5-inch by 3-inch block.
23:12I mean, it is absolutely minuscule.
23:14Mike's been saying all morning, I think almost since we started,
23:17I'm behind, I'm behind.
23:19I get the sense with Mike, though, once he's decided on the images,
23:22the paint applies fairly quickly.
23:24I think it's quite sort of haphazard and quite rough.
23:27Of course, the skill in Mike's work
23:29is how it all comes together at the end.
23:31I think he's got to make sure that there's a sort of feeling
23:34that all the pictures belong together and they have the same texture.
23:37For him, I'm just worried about time.
23:39A gust of wind blew half of Bernie's gear into the dock earlier on.
23:42Oh, no! So, how's she getting on?
23:44It's got a kind of German Expressionist sort of crudeness and rhythm to it.
23:48The problem is she's painting very slowly
23:50and you're thinking, come on, get on with it,
23:52and she's wandering around and having chats with friends.
23:55Look what she's got down. It's kind of like a mouthful of wonky teeth.
23:58Everything is in each other's space,
24:00so maybe she's right to be wandering around
24:02because you don't want to overwork that.
24:04Bill, are you getting the point or is he driving you dotty?
24:07Ha! I think one of the things that he's doing really effectively
24:10is using the style that he's got to create these layers
24:13that kind of conceal and reveal the image in interesting ways.
24:17At the moment, I'm looking at those dots and they make no sense whatsoever.
24:20But that's pointless, isn't it? Yeah, it's kind of interesting.
24:23Hash's painting is already a riot of colour.
24:26It's practically his submission mark too.
24:29We spoke before about the view and I think,
24:31oh, to get through this, you're going to have to get a plan
24:33and you're going to have to draw it.
24:35It looks like he's going in sort of rather, um...
24:37Rogue.
24:39He's just reacting actually quite instinctively
24:42to what he's got in front of him.
24:44Colin, how's he doing?
24:46He wants to make a very atmospheric painting.
24:48At the moment, the atmosphere is slightly frenzied,
24:51but watercolour can do very, very effective things very quickly
24:54and the next layer is going to be crucial.
24:56Yeah, Colin told me that he really doesn't like painting water at all
25:00and he's given... It's the main part of the page.
25:04Beth has taken on a lot of detail, hasn't she?
25:07I'm really pleased, though, that somebody has said,
25:09OK, good, you're going to give me all this information?
25:12I'll do it.
25:14I just really hope she has enough time that she can pull this off.
25:17She's taken interesting elements in terms of rhythm
25:19and she's sort of collaged them together into this long strip.
25:22It's looking good, but there's a lot to do.
25:25Raoul's work seems to be just a series of shapes floating in midair.
25:30I think Raoul's a surrealist.
25:32I mean, if you look at his submission,
25:34you have people walking in this landscape
25:36and in the distance the landscapes start disintegrating.
25:39It's out there.
25:40But there's a sort of feverishness to it,
25:42which I think unless he gets that density of paint on,
25:45it's not going to make sense.
25:47Yeah, interesting.
25:48I think as long as it doesn't rain, I think we're going to be all right.
25:52I'm just... Yes, it's just starting, isn't it?
25:56Let's hope that the south of France brings us sunlight,
26:00warmth, heat, colour.
26:03Don't stop.
26:05Don't stop.
26:08Cue montage of Landscape Artist of the Year, rainy edition.
26:12Are we allowed to finish early today?
26:17MUSIC PLAYS
26:33Beth, it's a beautiful day in Bristol.
26:37I mean, I don't think we're going to get the intoxicating yellows
26:41of your submission today.
26:43No, but there are lots of lovely brick reds
26:46and lots of lovely pink tones.
26:48Yeah. And what about all the kind of extreme colour?
26:51I'm making some choices.
26:53That's such an elegant response, I'm making some choices.
26:56I'll try and get some drama into the sort of clouds
26:59and just to try and get that sort of feeling
27:02of how sort of damp and heavy it feels today.
27:09Do you paint outside a lot?
27:11I do like it when the weather's nice.
27:13Weather's not nice, though, is it, Bill? Not today.
27:15I mean, my hands are cold.
27:17You'll be able to tell the exact spot I got cold in the painting
27:20when suddenly you can see it. There's just a tick. Yeah.
27:27I'm doing the kind of like the flying, eroding bits now,
27:31where I've kind of erased bits and bobs of it.
27:34It fills up the kind of like the black sky a bit as well.
27:42Today, we're at the western end
27:45of Bristol's historic man-made harbourside.
27:49Completed in 1809, the waterway was designed
27:53to improve access to the city via the River Avon.
27:59The problem with the River Avon
28:01is you've got the second highest tidal range in the world,
28:04which means when it goes out, you've got a lot of mud.
28:07So what they decided to do
28:09was build something called the Floating Harbour,
28:11which basically means you put a lock at each end
28:13and you keep the water in the harbour
28:15so it's always the same level.
28:18Across the water from our pods
28:20are the distinctive districts of Cliftonwood and Hot Wells.
28:26Named literally for the hot wells
28:28that once bubbled up through the riverbed,
28:30the area was a popular spa resort in the 1700s
28:34when taking the waters became fashionable.
28:38Hot Wells spa water had a kind of milky appearance.
28:42The bottled water was sold all over the country.
28:44In fact, it even went abroad.
28:48By the end of the 18th century,
28:50fashions had once again changed and the spa bubble burst.
28:56From the 1970s onwards,
28:58Cliftonwood took on the kaleidoscopic appearance
29:01which makes it so recognisable today.
29:05There's a certain ex-mayor of Bristol
29:07who claims that he was the first person
29:09to paint a house bright colour.
29:11I think it was terracotta red.
29:13He claimed that his mate painted his house blue and so on.
29:16And, of course, this is what creates
29:18this wonderful postcard view of Bristol that we have today.
29:21I even painted my own house bright yellow as well, so...
29:25Unlike our pod artists, who have some protection from the weather,
29:29our hardy wildcards are battling the elements, wildcard style.
29:34I've brought my wife with me today.
29:36She's got the umbrella ready.
29:38I'm trying to get as much done as I can under the umbrella
29:41before I can put the watercolour on.
29:44You've got rain on your painting. Yeah.
29:46I'm hoping it's not going to damage it.
29:49It looks very impressionistic.
29:52Mark making is my thing and colour.
29:55Mark making and colour? Yeah.
29:57Well, this is perfect for colour. Yes.
29:59I'm going to paint it.
30:01I'm going to paint it.
30:03I'm going to paint it.
30:05I'm going to paint it.
30:07I'm going to paint it.
30:09I'm going to paint it.
30:11Oh, come on.
30:13It's time for our three judges
30:15to choose just one of the artworks as today's winner.
30:20It's you! You're our wildcard winner!
30:22CHEERING
30:25Oh, thank you.
30:27And you've won this umbrella.
30:31And it's Simon White from Warwickshire's brightly coloured,
30:34energetic depiction of the Bristol hillside
30:37that's the judges' favourite.
30:40So full of energy, and we just love the way
30:42that you were able to pack so much in without overworking it
30:45and just it to be so vibrant.
30:47Congratulations. My pleasure. Well done.
30:51Thank you. Thank you.
30:55I'm shocked.
30:57I've just come here for the day and...
31:03..overwhelmed.
31:05Simon will enter a pool of wildcard winners,
31:08one of whom will be chosen to take part in this year's semi-final.
31:23Right now I'm working on the water part of the picture
31:26and it's always a tricky bit for me
31:28because it could all go horribly wrong.
31:31Ooh, ooh, hold on.
31:33Could have a take-off.
31:35I'm feeling a bit pushed for time.
31:38I'm kind of at the final part where I'm putting in the details.
31:42Could we have another three more hours, maybe?
31:49What are you going to do with the rest of your time?
31:51Because it looks so full and complete.
31:53I always imagine my paintings in someone's dark, dull living room,
31:57so it probably will be heightened more with colour and tone and light
32:01rather than tonnes more detail.
32:05I feel a little bit stressed because there's still quite a lot to do,
32:09so I'm thinking I need to get my head down.
32:26On the banks of Bristol Harbour, the tension is mounting
32:30as our eight artists near the end of their four-hour challenge.
32:36What's happening here?
32:38I'm finally going to stick them down onto a piece of board.
32:41I just did a quick switcheroo with them.
32:43And this works? I think so.
32:45If I can find a way of getting a touch of pink in that,
32:48then that will be job done. Hang on a minute.
32:50You're suggesting once this is down, you're going to go back?
32:53Yeah, I'll tweak it. How long have I got?
32:5511 minutes. Oh, well, that's all right.
32:57I can do it in 11 minutes.
32:59Oh, ****!
33:02I guess I was panicking a bit, but then things have kind of improved
33:06when I added in the water effect.
33:08Just kind of playing around with my head, saying,
33:10OK, this needs to be done, that's next on the list.
33:13A lot could go wrong at this point.
33:15If I slip now and I cut the words, that's it, I can't stick it back on,
33:19so I've got to keep steady hands and focus.
33:22Beth, we're running out of time. Yes, we are.
33:25I see quite a lot of unfilled space. It will get there.
33:29I'm just going to throw some clouds and some sky and some water.
33:33Right. You know, half the painting.
33:36I just need to just do that.
33:48Artists, you have five minutes left.
33:58I'm trying to, like, kind of just slow down now
34:00and not kind of get too panicky.
34:02I'll be doing a dot until I blow the whistle.
34:12I splashed the paint because it gives it a bit of life.
34:15I don't know why it works, but it works.
34:23Artists, your time is up.
34:25Please stop what you're doing and step away from your easels.
34:39I feel like it's taken years off my mind.
34:49With their four-hour challenge behind them,
34:52the contestants now wait to see who will be one step closer
34:55to winning this year's prize,
34:57a £10,000 commission for the Courtauld Gallery.
35:01The winner will be travelling to the south of France
35:04to create a landscape inspired by Impressionists
35:07such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
35:11The thing about Renoir is that he's doing something quite radical.
35:15There's a wonderful framing of the scene with the trees,
35:18that lovely featheriness of the brush,
35:21and of course what Renoir was really looking for,
35:23like all those Impressionists, was a sense of feeling,
35:27a sense of that fleeting moment.
35:30There's a richness of natural formations and landscapes
35:33that we're going to be giving these artists,
35:35so what we need is an artist who really manages to convey that sense of place.
35:39To protect the paintings from another possible downpour,
35:42the judges seek shelter in a nearby boat shed
35:45to take a look at the finished artworks.
35:48Quite a grey, cold day in Bristol.
35:51Yeah, but a lot of colour.
35:53They've all had to find different strategies
35:56to try to deal with that sort of chaos of information.
36:01I think Mike's individual landscapes are very beautiful
36:05and he can really think about the way that the image
36:07has been collapsed and compressed,
36:09so actually they look like vintage photographs.
36:11I don't understand this flourish at the end
36:14and the harshness of the white paper that it's gone on.
36:17The white is taking me too far away from the real thing.
36:20Yeah, I think he should have a little bit more faith in himself
36:23as a landscape artist to just give us those three pictures.
36:27I'm interested to see how Molly conjures sky and water.
36:30I think it's beautiful.
36:32For something so small, it's telling a lot about the mood
36:35and the feeling of today.
36:37Because it was overwhelming, wasn't it, in a sense?
36:39It was a difficult landscape.
36:41So it's interesting that that overwhelmingness is present in that space.
36:43It's something so small.
36:45Colin, I mean, that sort of use of the water.
36:48But I think he's done it really well.
36:50It's as if that red of the brick is like blood leeching into the work
36:56and you've got it counterpointed in that bottom left-hand corner.
36:59Well, he wanted atmosphere and it's a painting of atmosphere, isn't it?
37:02And it feels like today.
37:04I know that that person is cold.
37:08Bernie took this fantastic drawing
37:11and he had a kind of sparseness and a sort of strength to it
37:14but as he started adding the colours,
37:16because he didn't have enough time to layer it,
37:18it's caught in this between bit, between painting and drawing,
37:21and hasn't quite got there.
37:22Yeah, I still wanted to see it more complete.
37:24It's funny because I feel like this is the painting that you see
37:27instead of seeing the overworked one.
37:31When you look at Raoul, I look at the way the greenery seems to be rolling away
37:35and there's something weird and wonderful about it
37:38and slightly naive.
37:40And in a funny way, as one looked out in the scene
37:43and you started concentrating on things, things did start falling apart.
37:46I wonder whether he's just painting the experience of painting in a funny way.
37:52Pasch was kind of a pleasure to watch.
37:54He really enjoyed these big marks full of colour.
37:57I think it's almost for me a painting in two halves.
38:00I really like the top half with this kind of deconstructed foliage
38:03and the houses nestled in there.
38:05And then the bottom half, it just sort of lacks the same tension.
38:09That's going to work really well then because I would like the bottom half.
38:12OK, well, great.
38:13I find that top half, it's almost like it's a postcard,
38:16whereas the bottom for me feels more painterly.
38:21Bill's is curious.
38:24I end up seeing the dots rather than seeing the overall scene.
38:28I get sucked into that.
38:30It's like the suspension of disbelief.
38:32Your eye won't understand the language he's using.
38:34It does look like a Lego block where he's put six dots in to make the house.
38:38So where it works best, I think, is in the water,
38:40so there is an organicness, but the rest of it is very difficult to read.
38:44Beth, I think, really has given us the kind of grit of today,
38:48the kind of grim weather.
38:50They're truly rain clouds.
38:52I love this slice and the ambition of wanting to take on the full harbourside
38:57to really take it in its complexity.
38:59And it's incredibly well structured.
39:01As your eye works its way along that very narrow sliver.
39:04I must say I prefer the left side.
39:06I think there's more variation in the shapes.
39:09It's really hard to pick out three today, I'd say.
39:12I've got two definites.
39:20Artists, thank you for all your hard work and creativity today.
39:23It's really been a great day.
39:25The judges have now selected which three of you will go on to the shortlist.
39:31The first artist is...
39:36..Molly Lemon.
39:38CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
39:47The second artist on the shortlist is...
39:52..Colin Revel.
39:54CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
40:02The third artist the judges have selected is...
40:06..Beth Blakeman-Sheet.
40:08CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
40:10CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
40:31So we're looking ultimately for someone to go to the south of France.
40:35I think I'd like to go with them right now.
40:37Shall we just pick someone now and go?
40:39Exactly.
40:40You gave them such a tough challenge.
40:42It was so busy, that view.
40:45These three that we've selected, we feel, are the artists
40:48who really found a very successful way into today.
40:51You know, good storytelling.
40:53When I saw today's view and I saw what Colin had done in his submission,
40:56I thought, oh, those bursts of bright colour.
40:59There they are on the houses.
41:01But that's not what he gave us at all.
41:03No, he went for mood, emptiness, soulfulness
41:07Beautiful, reddy-brown.
41:09He allowed it to carry all the way through.
41:11He's very good at mood.
41:13You look at his submission, you know that summer light
41:15going down a Parisian street.
41:17And today, the total lack of light.
41:19He's made that murky water barely shimmering.
41:22It really takes you there.
41:24Molly, I mean, we're talking about artworks
41:27that are quite hard to see from here.
41:29Yeah, I mean, the submission is all about, like,
41:32expanse, distance, scale, monumentality of nature.
41:35And then today, it's like a really tightly knitted jumper or something.
41:38They're quite demanding of the viewer
41:40because they're kind of, like, grabbing you by the shirt collar
41:42and pulling you in.
41:44They're demanding if your eyesight's not very good.
41:46Thinking forward to the south of France,
41:49you know, the size and the medium.
41:52Well, it's obviously easy to get on the plate.
41:54Yeah.
41:55But is it a positive or a negative?
41:57I think so.
41:58You see in the left-hand side of the submission,
42:00it's all about light.
42:01That's exactly what the Impressionists were about.
42:04In fact, all of these three think about light
42:06in a really interesting way.
42:07I can't help notice that Beth has similarities
42:10in some ways to Colin in the submissions,
42:13both played with a dramatic perspective.
42:15And today, they abandoned that somewhat
42:18and gave us a more sort of flat-on view.
42:21What you do see, though, is her adherence
42:24to one particular set of colours.
42:26She sort of allows a colour palette or a range
42:29to be the hero in a particular painting.
42:31She's clearly someone who reduces the palette
42:33and then plays with those volumes, I think.
42:36I mean, it's crazy how hot that place is
42:39and how cold that place is.
42:41It's windy.
42:42The clouds are moving across the picture.
42:44Yeah, and that heavy one that sits above the chimney.
42:47I mean, I love that one. That's great.
42:56Colin, Molly, Beth, congratulations
42:59on making the shortlist.
43:01That is no mean feat
43:02and you should be really proud of yourselves.
43:04However, only one artist can win today's heat
43:08and that artist is...
43:17..Molly Lemon.
43:24It feels amazing to have won.
43:26I didn't expect that.
43:28I thought, as I was doing a print as well,
43:31it was a bit rogue.
43:33I'm in shock.
43:35It's been a fantastic day
43:37and to get that far was absolutely brilliant.
43:39Molly is amazing.
43:41Her work was absolutely exquisite,
43:43so I'm so, so excited that she got through.
43:47I think the thing that's so distinctive about Molly
43:49is that she really is able to capture the energy,
43:52the character, the distance,
43:54the perspective of a place this big.
43:57She's really deeply connected to the landscape
43:59that she's working in
44:00and that's just the kind of artist
44:01that you want to think about sending to the south of France,
44:03a place full of light, a place full of stories.
44:06You want a really inquisitive artist
44:08to go down there and make it their own.
44:10It's given me a boost of confidence
44:12and, yeah, I'm just thinking,
44:14oh, my God, I've got to plan for the next one now.
44:19If you'd like to take part in next year's competition
44:22or find out more about the work of the artists,
44:24visit skyartsartistoftheyear.tv.
44:31Join us next time at Portsmouth's historic dockyard
44:35as seven artists battle it out in the semi-final.
44:41They'll have to negotiate a monumental view...
44:44It's an amazing ship. A lot of history in it.
44:46Lots of things to think about.
44:48..and a rising tide.
44:50Does anyone have a phone number for King Canute?
44:53LAUGHTER
44:54Please hurry up.
44:55..but which three artists will make it through to the final?
45:01This is a horrible thing to have to do.
45:04I hope nobody that knows things about ships ever looks at this.
45:30MUSIC