Landscape Artist of the Year - Season 10 Episode 2 -
Snowdon
Snowdon
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00and welcome to the village of Llanberis in North Wales where today we're at the foot
00:20of the magnificent yr Wythfa or Mount Snowdon. Yes, it's that big one over there. And soon
00:27eight artists will be preparing to scale the dizzy heights of artistic excellence. It's
00:32a brand new episode of Landscape Artist of the Year. It's heat two and we've presented
00:40eight more artists with an incredible but challenging view. This is possibly one of
00:45the most daunting landscapes in Britain. The view is breathtaking. It's the perfect subject.
00:52And as always, our artists will be working under the expert eyes of our three distinguished judges.
01:04I wonder how long it takes to notice that I've just gone off into my own little art making
01:08land. Alongside a team of 50 landscape artist wildcards. You're in a cult. Well, you could say
01:15that now you're having some sort of breakdown. At stake is a 10,000 pound prize commission to
01:23paint a landscape of the south of France, a region which has inspired some of the world's
01:28greatest artists. Our winner will follow in the footsteps of Van Gogh, Monet and Cezanne
01:37to create an artwork for London's prestigious Courtauld Gallery. But first, they just need to
01:43get through today. If it goes wrong, then I might have to scrape it off and do it again. I'm feeling
01:49a bit panicked just because there's a lot to resolve in a very short space of time. So settle
01:54in and join us as we search for the next Landscape Artist of the Year. So mountains, lake, Bob's your
02:03uncle. The best painting ever, yeah. Today's eight artists have made the journey from all
02:23corners of the United Kingdom. Professional painters Mark Harrison from Brighton and
02:30Clare Rose from Pembrokeshire. Urban designer Mike Biddulph from Cardiff and recent art school
02:36graduate Kayla Spence from the Scottish Highlands. I'm a little bit anxious for her retiring,
02:42it might be, but I'm really excited. Also joining us are business developer Anna Rowe-Tyson from
02:52Hampshire. London-based artists Charlotte May, Indian-born Marcio Fernandez and Simon Gazard,
03:00an art teacher also from London. I'm feeling great, really nervous but excited and it's
03:07really beautiful here and I'm looking forward to getting going. All artists were chosen on
03:16the strength of a submitted landscape which they've brought with them today.
03:24And as they take in their surroundings and prepare their kit, they're contemplating the
03:29epic task ahead. There could be nothing better than this today. There's a huge piece of nature
03:35in front of me and I'm ready to start the challenge. When I got here the lighting was
03:41how it was, the early morning sunlight coming through the valley, that's gone. I'll keep
03:46changing my mind about what I'm going to do but I've decided now, yeah, I'm going.
03:58Artists, it's time to get those crampons on because your challenge is about to begin.
04:02You have four hours to complete your artworks and your time starts now. Good luck.
04:16As dramatic cloud rolls in over the Snowdonia mountain range, today our artist's view is out
04:29over Linnpadarn, Glamberis' lake. Glimpses of the ruined 13th century Dolberdan castle and
04:37the rooftop of the National Slate Museum provide breaks in the lush green with Mount Snowdon
04:43peeking through the clouds high above. I'm sort of wondering whether I'm going to go for that,
04:55with that building right at the bottom. I'm not going to do that.
05:00It's so, so beautiful. I couldn't believe how lucky I was. Oh my God, shut up.
05:14I didn't bring much with me today. I bought a few pens and maybe about 20 coloured pencils.
05:32I often draw urban environments so I'm actually interested in the buildings and I love rendering
05:37trees. Mike Biddulph used his degree in urban design from Oxford Brookes University to mark
05:46out a career in town planning where he learnt how to free sketch in ink whilst working with
05:51architects. Mike's submission, which took 20 hours, depicts overlapping tree roots at Avebury
05:57Ring in Wiltshire and was drawn with fine liner pens on cartridge paper. So Mike, in your submission
06:06we loved it because of the density and the richness of it all. I love the way in which it
06:10sort of filled the entire sheet of paper and, you know, there's a lot of information here too. So
06:16does it sort of speak to you? Yes, it does. I, of course, am drawn towards things that are rendered
06:20well with a pen. So I've drawn the castle and the museum first. The castle's slightly off centre,
06:26so I might have made a mistake. If you know what you can give us in four hours, you either sort of
06:30reduce the size or you reduce the density of the ink. Yes, that's right. So I'm going to use crayon
06:35to fill in certain areas. Am I taking on too much? We'll find out.
06:46My style is quite loose. I can embellish on what I see if it ramps up the drama. I'm just trying
06:53to catch the feeling of a place really. I just want to get the sense of scale. Claire Rose studied
07:01fine art at Aberystwyth University and has been a professional artist ever since.
07:06Her submission is a snowy sunlit street in her hometown, St Dogmiles, as a storm brews above.
07:15Hello, Claire. Hi. It's a very good looking start. You've gone big. Yeah, it's a big painting,
07:21but I used big brushes. I'm thinking about your submission, of course. This is a very dramatic
07:25scene. Yes. Something's going to happen. It's kind of portentous. I was interested in that
07:30suggestion of the sun is shining, but there's trouble ahead. There's trouble ahead. Okay.
07:35And so you're going to try and imbue this picture with that same kind of loaded narrative. I think so.
07:39The way the clouds are coming through. Yeah. Can you set it to be sunny? It's always my favourite.
07:43Okay. I will. Nice view, isn't it? I mean, it's just got everything you want. We've got a bit of
07:53water. We've got a mountain. We've got a steam train every now and again. We've got a village,
07:58a church, woods, fields, sheep, castle, slate mine. What more do you want? Easy to paint?
08:06Oh, yes. Yeah, a bit of greens. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bish, bosh, bash. This kind of landscape has what
08:12the romantics call the sublime. Sublime is so beautiful, it's almost scary. Right. It's almost
08:17godly in its magnificence. So I expect the best paintings ever. Really? Yeah, easy peasy. You
08:24know, we're sitting in front of elemental stuff here. Water, ridges, weather. The majesty of
08:31nature. I don't think you can go wrong. I'm sorry. I mean, you'd have to be... You'd have to be me.
08:36To get it wrong. To muck this up. Yeah.
08:49This setting is really different from the London landscapes I usually paint.
08:54I like to have people in my pictures generally, and I try and sort of capture
08:57energy and movement in my paintings.
09:01Born and bred Londoner Simon Gazzard worked as an architect for 20 years
09:06before retraining as an art teacher. His submission in oils with trademark figures
09:12was painted quickly with fresh, bright colours to capture the atmosphere of Hampstead Heath
09:17on a summer's day. Simon, it seems to me you started quite quickly.
09:22Looking at your submission, you're describing the relationship between person and nature. Yeah.
09:28It looks like you've introduced a person. Yeah. So usually I like some sort of figure in a painting
09:33just to introduce you to the scene. So I've tried to kind of go with a nice sky,
09:36mountains, a few bits of detail, and then a kind of little story. Well, it's looking gorgeous.
09:43I think about things in terms of shapes on the page. Then I like to play with blocks of colour.
09:49I paint the world as I see it. It's quite a spontaneous process.
09:55With a degree in illustration from Camberwell College of Arts,
09:58Chesterfield-born Charlotte May works as a professional artist.
10:03Her submission in oils with trademark figures was painted quickly with fresh, bright colours
10:10Her submission in oils and acrylics is a semi-imagined landscape,
10:15inspired by her childhood home in the Peak District.
10:19Hi, Charlotte. I love the way you've started it. You've got this animated green
10:25vegetation, then now you're cutting in with detail. Is this how you always work?
10:29So I identify the parts of the composition that are popping out at me. So I'm seeing
10:35triangular shapes.
10:37OK. Let's talk about your submission. It's about depth and it's about landscape. I get
10:41the feeling that there's a strong sense of pattern in the way you create depths and shapes.
10:46So will you be finding the same thing with this landscape?
10:49I suppose it's something that my mind automatically goes to, is picking out patterns.
10:54They become sort of blocks of colour and they layer up and intersect with each other.
10:59I think we've given you the perfect landscape to work with.
11:01You have. It's gorgeous.
11:06Our eight artists aren't the only ones painting today.
11:13Marching up the trail alongside the pods, it's our 50 landscape artist wildcards.
11:20And some of them have travelled hundreds of miles to be here.
11:23So I'm from Ireland. I live in Dublin and I came over on the ferry yesterday.
11:27Every direction that you look here, there's something to paint.
11:30I'm from Portsmouth, and we had quite a journey, actually.
11:34We missed quite a few of the roads that we were supposed to turn down
11:39to get actually here in this wonderful place.
11:45I'm from Kansas City, so smack dab in the middle of the States.
11:49But currently, we live just outside of Newmarket, so in Suffolk, England.
11:53We like the city. We like the landscape.
11:55We live just outside of Newmarket, so in Suffolk, England.
11:59We like the mountains, so this was a great, great spot.
12:04Only one of these wildcards will have the chance to go forward
12:07for a coveted place in this year's semi-final.
12:12What are you painting with?
12:14I'm painting with oils.
12:16Yeah.
12:16I've also got some soil here.
12:18You've got some, just some soil from around here?
12:19Just some soil from around here, yeah, with some linseed oil in it.
12:22And how does it behave itself when you mix it?
12:23I don't know. I've never done it before.
12:25You've never done it before?
12:25I've never done it before.
12:26You like to live by the seat of your pants.
12:28Absolutely.
12:28I can see that.
12:40I've managed to fill the page, so I've got to now build the image out
12:45and make it look more convincing.
12:46But I think that I've got a long way to go.
12:49I'm starting on details probably a bit too soon.
12:51I'm not quite happy yet.
12:53It's all too similar tones.
12:58I've gone for a really ambitious composition,
13:02so everything could go wrong at this stage.
13:05Everything.
13:19As silvery light breaks over Llanberis in North Wales,
13:23eight artists are busy capturing this romantic view of Mount Snowdon.
13:31Our next artist has gone for a suitably dramatic approach.
13:35I couldn't even start a painting without having black colour on my palette.
13:39I need a black on my palette, or else I'm not painting at all.
13:43With a degree in fine art from Goa College of Art in India under his belt,
13:48Marcio Fernandez is about to start a master's in painting
13:52at City & Guilds of London Art School.
13:55His submission in acrylics uses strong black lines
13:59painted in rapid brushstrokes to create an abstract, imaginary scene.
14:03Hi, Marcio. It's a great beginning.
14:05I love the way that you've given us this kind of vignette.
14:08Yeah.
14:08I think what we love so much about your submission was this kind of density.
14:12Obviously, all the black lines that you've put in
14:14work against quite a dark contrast.
14:16Why is that?
14:17I like black a lot because it puts you into a depth.
14:20I think it suits the scene we're looking at today,
14:22which does have these quite extraordinary contrasts.
14:24Yeah, it's a nice contrast.
14:25It's a nice contrast.
14:26It's a nice contrast.
14:27It's a nice contrast.
14:28It's a nice contrast.
14:29It's a nice contrast.
14:30It's a nice contrast.
14:31It's a nice contrast.
14:31It's a nice contrast.
14:32Extraordinary contrast.
14:34A distinctive element.
14:35Yeah.
14:36Without all of that black,
14:37you're just going to have lots and lots of green.
14:39And how long did this one take?
14:40It took me around three hours.
14:42Oh!
14:43So you've got time to make this and then go for a kayak.
14:57As beautiful as the mountains are,
15:00In order to get their majesty,
15:02I'd have to work bigger than I'm working.
15:05I've decided to paint this section
15:09because it just seemed like quite a nice,
15:11interesting view to take a slice of.
15:16Anna Rowe Tyson studied illustration
15:18at the University of Westminster
15:20and works part-time for a luxury furniture company.
15:24Her landscapes zoom in on the details of a scene,
15:28focusing on colours and shapes,
15:30as in her submission of chairs outside a cafe in Belgium.
15:34Hello, Anna. I'm just thinking of your submission.
15:37You are very strange in your choices, in a good way.
15:41We've given you this vista, you know,
15:42Snowden lurking in the clouds,
15:44and you've gone for some trees and some lakes.
15:47Funny enough, it looks like a Chinese landscape
15:49in that it's very vertical.
15:50You've got no sense of where you are in it.
15:53I just like the little bits of the lake
15:55sort of glimpsing through the trees.
15:57Talking about this painting and then talking about your submission,
15:59it all makes sense.
16:01You're zoning in again, do you see?
16:02I am zoning in, but I guess it's not a traditional landscape, maybe.
16:07No.
16:08I just like the way the colours all work together nicely.
16:11Of course, arguing that a bunch of orange chairs on a patio
16:16is a landscape, it's difficult,
16:18but I love your approach to it.
16:28All my paintings are about atmosphere and mood,
16:32through colour, through perspective,
16:34but I like to invent a lot of things as well.
16:38I'm an imaginative realist.
16:40HE LAUGHS
16:43Mark Harrison has a postgraduate degree in illustration
16:46from Wimbledon School of Art,
16:48and after 30 years illustrating book covers,
16:51he now concentrates on his own work.
16:54Mark's submission, which took ten days,
16:56depicts a semi-imagined empty street in the US state of Texas.
17:03You like drama, don't you? Yeah, yeah.
17:05And mood, I can tell from your submission, Mark.
17:07What we really liked was the way in which you used
17:09that sort of rusty orange to highlight
17:11and pick up across the painting.
17:13I mean, in a way, if we had a beautiful blue sky day,
17:15you'd be complaining. Oh, I'd be hopeless.
17:17I'd just give up on that.
17:18I'd just make it a night-time scene anyway.
17:20Why have you got to make it a night-time scene?
17:23Why have you got to make it a night-time scene?
17:25Have we not given you enough?
17:27I will often take a daylight scene and just make it into night, you know.
17:30I thought, well, actually, it's getting very moody now,
17:32you know, all these clouds hugging the tops of the mountains.
17:35So I thought, well, let's go for a night scene.
17:38OK.
17:48When I approach painting landscapes,
17:50it's all about, like, taking everything in at once.
17:52I think I'm going to tackle the biggest peak there.
17:54I like capturing the things
17:56that you're probably going to remember the most.
17:58Originally from Moray in the north-east of Scotland,
18:01Kayla Spence studied painting at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen.
18:06Their submission is of roguey falls outside Inverness,
18:09painted with quick, intuitive dark marks,
18:12with added motifs representing the relationship
18:15between memory and place.
18:18Kayla, how are you feeling?
18:20Feeling pretty good.
18:22You've gone for this really kind of zoomed in,
18:24like, it's very pronounced.
18:26What we really loved about your submission is that you presented
18:28this delicious and intoxicating, fabulous waterscape,
18:31but then these little vignettes interrupted.
18:33You're not going to put any of the water in?
18:35No, I kind of was just drawn to those peaks.
18:37Like, there's so much to choose from,
18:39I think you do just kind of have to narrow it in.
18:40Exactly.
18:41And I really like the way that you've, like, really gone in.
18:43It's, like, rugged and meaty and big,
18:45and you can really kind of get stuck in.
18:47Oh, thank you.
18:52Next to the pods, our wild cards are, well, being wild cards.
18:58Sarah, OK, don't tell me, you're getting married?
19:02No.
19:03You're shy?
19:04I'm definitely not shy.
19:06You're in a cult?
19:08Well, you could say that, no.
19:10You're having some sort of breakdown?
19:12We've suffered terribly with midges.
19:14Oh, it's midges.
19:16Now you've mentioned them, I've started to feel itchy.
19:20Morning, Sophie.
19:21Morning.
19:22You've gone for these quite muted tones,
19:24kind of a grey-blue sky,
19:26a kind of olive-y green hillscape.
19:30I come from Cornwall, so it's quite nice
19:32just to not paint blue all the time
19:34and actually get the greys in and the purples in the landscape,
19:36and there's lots of different shades of green.
19:38Yeah.
19:40I haven't used charcoal for a while,
19:42but I thought it would be good for this kind of landscape,
19:45all the clouds, so much light and shade.
19:49So you run up and down the mountains and you paint?
19:52Well, not as much now, because I'm getting a bit older, you know.
19:55How old are you?
19:5650.
19:57Oh, that's not old.
19:58Yeah.
19:59It's old enough, isn't it?
20:00Are you a bit tired?
20:01How old are you?
20:02Don't ask.
20:03How old are you?
20:0450.
20:0550?
20:06Yeah.
20:07It's old enough, isn't it?
20:08Are you a bit tired?
20:09How old are you?
20:10Don't ask.
20:11He'll only start crying if he looks good.
20:12He looks good for 70, so...
20:13He does.
20:22I still haven't painted in the sky,
20:24and that could maybe throw me off a little bit,
20:26so I think I really need to work on giving more of a range,
20:29so that's what I'm going to work on for the next two hours.
20:32I think I might be a bit behind.
20:34I still don't know whether I chose the right view.
20:36I think I should have maybe worked faster to begin with.
20:43It's not as good as how I do it at home.
20:45Normally, I'd leave that for a day to dry
20:47before I painted on top of it,
20:49but in this situation, I have to go for it.
21:02In Snowdonia,
21:04our eight artists are creating their own interpretations
21:07of a landscape steeped in the sublime.
21:11Hi, Kayla. What are you working on at the moment?
21:13I have blocked in some of the sky.
21:15The colours are changing so much,
21:17I've just done a really quick wash, grey-blue.
21:19I want to just get some of the highlights done
21:21just to pull things forward, give a bit of depth.
21:23OK.
21:24I've got a few nice sort of shadows to put in.
21:27I'm hoping that, because acrylic dries so much darker,
21:30that I'm sort of trying to correct a couple of things,
21:34because I'm like, why has that gone so dark?
21:40I'm really taking with your mark-making.
21:42OK, I'm kind of working across the landscape and filling it in.
21:45There are some areas that I'm working on
21:47that I'm not quite sure I'm going to be able to do,
21:49but I'm going to try and do that.
21:51I'm working across the landscape and filling it in.
21:53There are sections of the drawing where you're not quite sure,
21:56and it looks very sketchy.
21:57You're really making me want to get in here
21:59and make my own marks on the day.
22:01Sit low. Yeah, exactly.
22:02I wonder how long it'll take them to notice
22:04that I've just gone off into my own little art-making lab.
22:10It's a beautiful spot. The sun is shining.
22:12It's actually, dare I say it, quite warm.
22:15What a joy.
22:16All the paintings have this kind of vibe of,
22:19wow, nature's done really good.
22:21Claire has gone for a big, beautiful, gorgeous-looking scene,
22:25and she's painting a big, beautiful and gorgeous painting, is she?
22:29Claire, I think, has really caught the majesty of the mountain.
22:32You've really got that strong sense of scale,
22:34and there's energy, there's beautiful colour,
22:36there's denseness of paint, and I think it's perfect now.
22:40The idea that we've got this majesty, which is horizontal,
22:44and Claire's reduced it to that valley,
22:46you really get that sense of weight from the mountain.
22:49Her mountain is almost butting the top of the frame.
22:52It's so big, she can barely contain it.
22:55Mike, is he producing good art?
22:57Mike's making me want to get in there with a little pen
23:00and do some cross-hatching, very meditative.
23:02His submission took him, I don't know, 400 years.
23:05It's just these gorgeous marks.
23:07That kind of fantastic drawing doesn't quite suit what's in front of him.
23:11It's about space and light and distance.
23:14It has become illustrative.
23:16Kayla works in a slightly more abstract way than some of the others.
23:20Is that a help when you've got four hours in which to paint?
23:23Kayla's gone really hard and fast into those mountains.
23:26I mean, just get in there, make them a bit more rugged,
23:29give them a bit more life, and we should get somewhere.
23:32I think Kayla's made a really good decision really early on.
23:36They've gone straight to what we're looking at,
23:39is this high verticality, the claustrophobia,
23:42and this sort of abstract terrain that her eye is going across.
23:45Anna made a decision to zoom in,
23:48to ignore the epic majesty of the receding mountains,
23:53to ignore the vastness of the lake,
23:56but focus in on a smaller detail nearer to us.
23:59Was that a good decision?
24:00Anna's obviously a person who plays with concepts and ideas
24:03of what makes landscape, and she's looked at this
24:06and gone and looked for pattern and repetition,
24:08which is paths and greenery and lakes.
24:11Her picture is kind of context-less,
24:13and she found that a bit interesting,
24:15and now she's made me think it's interesting.
24:17I think it's just difficult at the end of the day to judge that
24:20against majesty, sublime, monumentality,
24:23and she's doing the in-between bit.
24:25Marcio's using green, which I get the sense that he doesn't use very often.
24:30Well, green's a bit of a holiday from black.
24:32I mean, this is an artist that's just sort of obsessed by making black
24:35and is sort of quite defiant in his use of it.
24:37I love the submission because of the balance
24:39between the painted surface, which is very rough,
24:42and I find in today's work the black line has overtaken the painted.
24:47The balance is different.
24:48Charlotte's working with patterns and blocks of colour.
24:51Are you enjoying what she's doing?
24:53Seeing the submission in real life, you suddenly realise it is very flat
24:56and that each bit of pattern is very much like the next,
24:59so it feels very samey as your eye goes across the surface.
25:03I think the thing that Charlotte's going to have to contend with
25:06is monumentality.
25:07Her language has got something about it which is quite pretty,
25:10and in its flatness, it will detract from the scale that we're dealing with,
25:15and I think it's got to have a bit of oomph.
25:17Mark says he would normally leave things to dry now for a day,
25:21but he can't do that, so he's having to change his technique.
25:25I don't know why he's not embracing what we have here today,
25:28why he's having to turn it into something other.
25:30Oh, I love it, though.
25:31I mean, I'm glad he's turned it into something other.
25:33Seven other green mountains.
25:36Like, I think it's marvellous.
25:38Simon looked at Hampstead Heath
25:41and saw a green landscape with houses and people doing stuff,
25:46and he's looked at this scene and he's seen a green landscape
25:49and there are people and there's houses.
25:51There's something really refreshing about Simon's work
25:53because we talk about all these artworks capturing what today is about,
25:57but we've edited out 400 people, a train, loads of cars.
26:03And Simon's the only artist here
26:04that's painting in any kind of working landscape.
26:07Simon deals with the people quite effectively.
26:09I think he sort of suggests them, he uses them quite cleverly.
26:12He's got a lovely freshness and lightness here.
26:15It's quite annoying when there are other people around.
26:18You don't want to be looking at the majesty of an empty landscape
26:21and someone is standing next to you eating prawn cocktail crisps.
26:24Yeah.
26:25Note to the world, don't eat prawn cocktail crisps here, Stephen.
26:28Just don't come near me.
26:33MUSIC PLAYS
26:45Hello. Hey, Charlotte.
26:47What's still to do here?
26:49Well, I'm still chipping away at the composition
26:52and I do it by laying down shapes and layers and things like that,
26:56so I'm hoping to come out the other side before the end.
27:03MUSIC CONTINUES
27:08I really, really love the way that you've gone right in.
27:11I was concerned that at half-time you should stop
27:14because you don't say,
27:15well, there's a real freshness and vitality to it.
27:18I'm trying to keep the marks gestural and vigorous
27:21and not get too tight with any of it, really.
27:25OK, well, I think it's got a lot of power to it.
27:29Snowdonia, Airury in Welsh, is home to Wales' highest mountain.
27:35In the 18th century, this region became a hotspot
27:38for British holidaymakers and landscape artists.
27:44Travelling on the continent was suddenly very hard
27:47because Britain was at war with France after the French Revolution,
27:51so people were beginning to discover Wales as a tourist destination
27:56for the 1770s.
27:58Including English romantic painter J.M.W. Turner.
28:04Turner began age 17 making forays into Wales
28:09and between 1792 and 1799,
28:13he made five trips on a little pony
28:16into what were then incredibly wild, dangerous terrain.
28:21For Turner, a great sky, a great mountain, a great lake,
28:25just the sort of magic trio.
28:27And, of course, one of the things he painted was Dolberdon Castle.
28:32Built by the Prince of Gwynedd in the 13th century
28:35to defend against the invading English,
28:37the castle marked a defining moment in Turner's artistic journey.
28:43Dolberdon's an example of Turner experimenting with the sublime.
28:48This idea of a landscape so awe-inspiring
28:51that it can make one feel excitedly scared
28:54in a way that's pleasurable.
28:56It's very much associated with the Romantic movement,
28:59this very personal, heightened, emotional response to landscape.
29:03And Dolberdon is a fantastic opportunity for that
29:07because it's this great, looming, dark edifice
29:11which speaks to the imagination.
29:13For Turner, the sublime becomes something he returns to again and again
29:17and then it never leaves.
29:19It's a sort of eye-opening moment for a very young painter.
29:25MUSIC PLAYS
29:30Alongside our pod artists,
29:32the Wildcards are nearing the end of their day's painting
29:36and, for some, it's decision time.
29:39I was looking at the mountains first and they're just stunning,
29:42so I thought I'd cover that.
29:44But then I turn round and the lake's awesome also,
29:47so I thought I'd do them both
29:49and see which one I preferred at the end of the day.
29:53And the judges have been checking on their endeavours.
29:57You do capture a real sense of the majesty
29:59and the enormity of the mountains,
30:01which is quite difficult to do with pen and ink.
30:03Well done. Nice of you to say so. Thank you.
30:08Do you always use that pink? It's pretty loud.
30:11It is. It gives it a certain vibrancy, though, to work from as an anchor.
30:16Yeah.
30:18But only one Wildcard can win.
30:21It really was a fantastic day today.
30:30Might I be coming in this direction?
30:34Congratulations, you are a Wildcard winner today.
30:40And Sophie Ryder's robust, blocky panorama
30:43is the judges' overall favourite.
30:47You really managed to keep a strong sense of the place
30:50and the drama and the grandeur.
30:52It's stylised, it's different, but it's here.
30:54Well done. Thank you. I'm so happy.
31:00I'm amazed.
31:01I was just expecting to sit and paint and have a lovely day
31:04and the fact I've won this, it's just the icing on the cake.
31:07Sophie, from Hale in Cornwall, enters a pool of Wildcard winners,
31:12one of whom will be picked to paint in the semi-final.
31:18MUSIC PLAYS
31:26Hello. Hi.
31:28Hi.
31:31Oh, look at the big smile.
31:34Just going to get it done.
31:36Thank you. Love you.
31:38Love you.
31:40Bye, cake.
31:48I think that I've got the sky well on its way now.
31:53Somehow, when you get the sky right,
31:55then everything else kind of follows on from the sky.
31:58MUSIC PLAYS
32:16The lake has been either quite bright or quite dark,
32:20so choosing which version of the lake to paint
32:23has been a little bit challenging.
32:25So the changing light has been a struggle, I'm not going to lie.
32:33So I'm feeling a bit panicked just because there's a lot to resolve
32:36in a very short space of time.
32:38I'm struggling with making the water look like water at the moment.
32:41So, yeah, panicking.
32:56Eight artists are nearing the end of their Lakeside Landscape Challenge
33:01in Llanberis in North Wales.
33:05So this is a very relaxing pod to be in
33:07because some people are really panicking they're not going to finish,
33:10but you just look as calm as a cucumber.
33:12Basically, 80% is done, and I'm left with a bit of borders on the trees
33:17to show a bit of depth, and I guess that's it.
33:21Well, good. Enjoy the last few serene moments.
33:24It's a beautiful place to be, isn't it? Indeed.
33:35I didn't really have a clear idea of how this was going to turn out.
33:40I've done what I can. Fingers crossed.
33:49Just an hour more would have been perfect,
33:51but, yeah, I think I can get it done.
33:54Yeah.
34:00It's all right, yeah. It's about as good as I could do, I think, on the day.
34:08Artists, you have five minutes left. Five minutes.
34:12Oh. It's exciting.
34:18Fiddling. Fiddling around at the end.
34:21I'll probably make a mess of it, should leave it alone.
34:36Artists, your time is up.
34:38Please stop what you're doing and step away from your easels.
34:42Really ready for a cup of tea.
34:50Today's definitely been one of those days
34:52that exists kind of on its own in a small pocket,
34:55away from your normal life.
34:57Yeah, it definitely feels a bit unreal.
35:06Just one of these eight artists will win today's heat
35:09and be in the running for the coveted title
35:12of Landscape Artist of the Year
35:14and a £10,000 commission for London's Courtauld Gallery.
35:21The prize will take them to the south of France,
35:24a region that has inspired generations of artists
35:27with its dazzling light and breathtaking colours.
35:31They'll retrace the steps of some of the greats of art history,
35:34like post-Impressionist Henri Matisse,
35:37who started visiting the region in the early 1900s.
35:41Matisse was an endlessly experimental artist.
35:44He worked with faubism,
35:45which was very much about describing a landscape through colour.
35:48How do we know this beach is hot? Let's paint it red.
35:52So Matisse gets to the south of France
35:54and this is really the place where he starts to look at the natural world
35:58in its kind of most bold and vivacious form.
36:03We want an artist who really is able to be their best selves
36:06in the south of France.
36:08This is where art took huge steps forward.
36:11We need the artist to kind of walk in those footsteps
36:14to take on that challenge.
36:19For now, in North Wales,
36:21it's time for the judges to look at the eight finished works.
36:25To help decide which artist to send through to this year's semi-final,
36:29they narrow their selection to a shortlist of three.
36:34I feel like we gave our artists such an incredible view today
36:37that all of them responded really well
36:39and they all understood that it was about feeling. Yeah.
36:42So Claire, I think, really, really well.
36:45So Claire, I think, really took us right there.
36:49Wanting to get that sort of sense of awe and drama in the landscape.
36:53Yeah. What I think Claire's done very well is the format.
36:56You know, we do get a sense of this incredibly high landscape
36:59looking down into the water
37:01and being compressed by the weight of the landscape.
37:04And that adds to its scale and enormity.
37:07I'm really pleased that Mike cropped his page, actually,
37:10because the intensity that he's been able to achieve in the trees
37:13is really beautiful.
37:15What we love is his mark-making with monochrome and with the black ink.
37:19But actually, the green is really intense.
37:22Does it have a strong sense of place here in North Wales?
37:27I'm not sure.
37:31Whereas Kayla's mountains really feel like North Wales.
37:34I mean, there's sort of an intensity to them.
37:37The choice of composition was great.
37:39It feels very simple, but it really gives you a punch in the gut.
37:45I think Anna, on the other hand, was maybe overawed by nature
37:48and then chose a sort of passageway through.
37:50I think the paint is excellent.
37:53I mean, it's incredibly beautiful.
37:55It's interesting. She's gone through the space.
37:57You don't know what it is or where it is,
37:59but every element is so beautifully and delicately painted.
38:04Marzio, I love the intensity of it.
38:07I love the way in which he uses black.
38:09There's a vigorousness to everything.
38:11Marzio didn't need to paint the kayakers, I think,
38:14because it took the narrative somewhere else.
38:16He's conjured something very strange, almost prehistoric.
38:19Therefore, I find the kayaks a bit distracting.
38:24Charlotte, I mean, very interesting way of breaking up the landscape
38:28into its constituent parts.
38:30Very different way of traversing space.
38:33You can walk across these shapes
38:35and you can get through to the mountain and the sky.
38:38I think Charlotte's work is playful.
38:40I could bounce across those pieces rather than walk across them.
38:43They're sort of poofs of marshmallow, coloured green or something.
38:49Mark has taken me back to my exhibitions
38:51on 19th-century symbolist painters.
38:53Aha, yeah. It's not Wales, is it?
38:55It is more Norway. No, yeah, exactly.
38:57I love what he's done. It's very romantic.
39:00I've just got this one question in my head, which is just, why?
39:04Because it looks great!
39:06I like the fact that I can be transported
39:08to some different century in a Nordic country,
39:10and I think that shows some extraordinary sort of imagination and skill.
39:16Simon's painting is an absolute banger.
39:18I mean, it works so well.
39:20What he's done is sophisticated
39:22because there's just a genuine honesty running throughout it.
39:25There's just some absolutely to-die-for passages of paint here.
39:28Simon's choices, I think, were brilliant in part.
39:31As we come into the foreground, it becomes less abstract,
39:34less about painting, it starts more anecdotal,
39:37and then it starts getting a bit sweet and narrative.
39:48Artists, it's been a really wonderful day
39:50and we've enjoyed watching how you've captured this iconic scene.
39:54However, only three of you can go onto the shortlist.
39:58The first artist is...
40:02..Claire Rose.
40:10The second artist on the shortlist is...
40:15..Anna Rowe Tyson.
40:22And the third artist the judges have selected is...
40:28..Mark Harrison.
40:31APPLAUSE
40:40Me?!
40:42Do what?!
40:44I really didn't see that one coming.
40:50The judges now have the difficult task of picking the day's winner.
40:54Only one artist can go through to the semi-final.
40:57To help them, they also consider the selected artists' submissions.
41:03Well, what a great day.
41:05And I know we should really be concentrating on these six works of art,
41:09but, I mean, just look at it. It's so stunning.
41:11It's full of foreboding, looming, dark presence.
41:15Are you talking about the view or you three?
41:18So, Anna's submission focused on a detail of a scene.
41:22We have no idea what the rest of that scene looks like.
41:25Maybe she did the same thing.
41:27She's just a very brilliant painter,
41:29although she picks very strange non-areas to paint.
41:33She knows how to do a lot with very little,
41:36and today that pathway through these trees and past the water
41:40is so well executed.
41:42Both of them, though, have chosen quite sort of unprepossessing moments.
41:46We do know that there's a whopping great big mountain behind it.
41:49I think it was really brave of Anna to leave it out entirely.
41:53Claire has given us the view we were set up for today.
41:56I think Claire is able to evoke mood with light,
41:59and she showed it in her submission, that sort of bleak sky,
42:02and today the light was tricky,
42:04but she still found that sort of silvery light
42:06that was breaking through everywhere,
42:08and it has been able to create the same mood,
42:11but with a sense of where we are geographically.
42:14You know that the mountain range goes beyond.
42:16They're big paintings, they're very expansive,
42:19and in that expanse there's intense drama.
42:22Mark has given us a nocturnal scene painted during the daytime.
42:25Yeah. What do you make of that?
42:27I hope I don't really encounter either one of these skies.
42:30The one in the submission looks like post-apocalyptic,
42:33sort of toxic chemical,
42:35and the one on the right is sort of like the second coming or something.
42:38It's kind of interesting how artists use what is in front of them
42:42to make paintings they want to make.
42:44You know, why not?
42:46I look at these two and I think they are extraordinary,
42:48that they transport us there.
42:50You've got an interesting selection today
42:53because we've got somebody who seems to paint the unobvious.
42:57Yeah.
42:58Someone who gives us a big, meaty, good-looking, large canvases,
43:02and then someone who's bringing on the end of the world.
43:13Anna, Claire, Mark,
43:15all three of you should think of yourselves as winners today,
43:18but sadly, only one of you can go through to the semi-final.
43:23And the artist the judges have selected is...
43:31..Claire Rose.
43:38I'm absolutely beside myself.
43:42I just never thought that I would win this.
43:45I'm delighted. I'm just...
43:47I don't know what to say.
43:55I've got my granddaughter with me
43:57and I'm going to celebrate with the largest glass of wine
44:01I think I can buy.
44:04Well done!
44:08Thank you so much.
44:10We love courageous artists
44:13and today we gave our artists this enormous mountain to paint
44:18and Claire went, I can do that.
44:20She's very good at capturing the mood
44:22and when we think of the commission,
44:24that's what we want the artists to do,
44:26give us a sense, absolute sense of place.
44:28Claire's a master of light and atmosphere
44:31and she just nailed it.
44:35Thank you so much. I cannot believe it.
44:38Oh, my God!
44:41If you'd like to be a pod artist in next year's competition
44:45or want to find out more about the work of our featured artists,
44:49visit our website.
44:56Next time, we're in Bristol.
44:59Have I painted a bridge before? No, I haven't.
45:02But there's a first for everything.
45:04As eight new artists take on a gravity-defying icon
45:08of 19th-century engineering...
45:11The bridge took 30-plus years to build
45:14and we've got four hours to draw it.
45:16..so can any of them create a riveting work of art?
45:20It could be a complete disaster.
45:22Or will they find it a bridge too far?
45:26Well done, I'm having a meltdown!
45:38MUSIC PLAYS