Landscape Artist of the Year - Season 10 Episode 4 - St Pancras Basin
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00:00Hello and welcome to St Pancras Basin on London's Regents Canal, once an industrial transport
00:15hub and gasworks, today there's plenty to whet the appetite of our eight eager landscape
00:21artists.
00:22Can they do it?
00:23Yes, they can now.
00:24It's a brand new episode of Landscape Artist of the Year.
00:30It's heat 4 and a fresh batch of eight artists are facing a daunting and frenetic cityscape.
00:37I'm looking at all these trains, planes, automobiles and getting a little bit stressed to be honest.
00:43And they'll have to pull out all the stops to blow us away.
00:47The only time I ever use a hairdryer.
00:51As always, they'll be working under the watchful gaze of our three judges.
00:55I love talking to painters.
00:57We see stuff in a different way.
01:00Who will also be keeping an eye on our 50 wildcards.
01:04Sorry, make that 51 wildcards.
01:07Are you both left handed?
01:09No, just me.
01:11Just you.
01:12Okay.
01:13Yeah.
01:14This year's prize is a £10,000 commission to paint a landscape in the south of France,
01:18a region which has inspired some of the world's greatest artists.
01:24Our winner will follow in the footsteps of Van Gogh, Monet and Cezanne to create an artwork
01:31for London's prestigious Courtauld Gallery.
01:34So join us as we continue the search for the next Landscape Artist of the Year.
01:39As a painter, would you touch this view with a barge pole?
01:41Very good.
01:42I'll jump on a boat and get out of here.
01:48Competing in today's heat are full-time artist Ruth Bateman, who's travelled here from Devon,
02:08digital sculptor Phil Hosking from Whitstable, Nottinghamshire-based artist Susan Isaac and
02:15Bassam Andari, an editorial consultant living in Harrow.
02:20Painting has been my dream all my life.
02:22I did a different job for a long time, but painting was always on the side and I think
02:28the time has come.
02:31Also being put through their paces today are Frome-based printmaker Tim Slatter, part-time
02:37artist and carer Tina Trimmer from Berkshire, Andrea Stables, an artist living in Liverpool
02:45and fine art graduate Vlada Popescu, who lives in London.
02:50I think I'm quite competitive.
02:52I grew up with a twin and we were competing with each other quite a lot.
02:57So yeah, I'm really ready to start.
03:00Let's go.
03:02The artists were all chosen by the judges on the strength of a submission landscape,
03:07which they've brought along today to display in their pods.
03:15It's a good start.
03:19Artists, I hope you're feeling prepared for today's challenge.
03:22Your four hours starts now.
03:25The landscape facing today's artists could be one of our busiest and most complex yet.
03:41Our pods are lined up along the towpath of London's Regents Canal, looking out towards
03:47the main railway line into Kings Cross St Pancras, with imposing gas holders, a Victorian
03:54water tower and a nature reserve.
04:09I'm a printmaker, an etcher.
04:11I'm not doing that today because we've only got four hours.
04:13So I'm going to try and make the same look, but with pen and ink and watercolour wash.
04:19Tim Slatter is a printmaker who specialises in etching.
04:24His submission, depicting a glacial valley in the Lake District, was created in two weeks
04:29and is a single plate etching on steel.
04:35Tim, you've taken off like a rocket.
04:37I mean, it's incredible.
04:38This looks amazing, but it isn't printmaking, is it?
04:41It's not printmaking.
04:42I thought, what can I do to get the same sort of look in four hours?
04:46My process today is to try and replicate the feel of my style using acrylic washes to lay
04:52base colours down and then draw in over the top with pen and ink to get that detail.
04:58I'm getting sort of medium overload here.
05:00This is insane.
05:01Now, Tim, your submission is startlingly beautiful and feels geological, prehistoric, devoid
05:08of human activity.
05:11And I think we've got quite the opposite here.
05:13You've certainly given us quite the view, haven't you?
05:16I mean, this is quite challenging.
05:18So not only have I had to do a new style, but I've had to come into urban landscaping
05:22and go, how do I do that?
05:34The water and the reflections in that are drawing my eye in, so I'll be focusing on
05:37that, I think, but trying to kind of loosely capture the entire scene as well.
05:43Digital sculptor Phil Hosking creates action figures for the toy industry when he's not
05:49busy painting.
05:52His submission of the River Stour is in acrylics and took two days to complete.
06:00Phil, I love this.
06:01I think you should stop, go home now.
06:03As far as I'm concerned, you've won.
06:05And you've gone really high up on the canvas.
06:07I think cos I want to focus on the water.
06:09OK.
06:10I'm seeing the reflections and I'm thinking I can make a lot out of what's going on down there.
06:14There's some nice big blocky shapes to get my teeth into.
06:17Well, of course you wouldn't avoid it, yeah, because your wonderful reflections in your
06:21submission there, you feel at home with that.
06:24Yeah, absolutely.
06:25Well, don't mess it up because it's a really good start.
06:35I know urban canals are not what you'd call classically beautiful,
06:39but I love them.
06:41I think there's so much going on.
06:43Yeah.
06:44Especially here.
06:45I remember when this was just a wasteland.
06:47I've been in it, though.
06:49And now we're surrounded by high-rise apartment blocks and high-speed trains going to Europe.
06:56And it's overwhelming, I would say.
06:59And I think the view is overwhelming as a result of that.
07:02All these delicious ingredients to choose from, are there pitfalls they could fall into?
07:07Interestingly, we're standing here with all these different elements.
07:11I think where the danger lies is when you put the elements in your painting
07:15and the space doesn't make sense.
07:17It's trying to make it logical and readable.
07:19That's the one they've got to get.
07:22Having all the history here is a really lovely boon.
07:26I'm really trying hard to get the gasholder edge in.
07:30So if I can work with that and bring in a little bit of reflection in the water,
07:36then that will be ideal.
07:39Susan Isaac worked as a surveyor of industrial and historical sites
07:43before becoming a full-time artist.
07:46Her submission, Painted in Oils, features her preferred impasto style
07:51and depicts the view between two colleges at Cambridge University.
07:56It's a bit of a mystery, isn't it?
07:58It's a bit of a mystery.
08:00It's a bit of a mystery.
08:02It's a bit of a mystery.
08:04It's a bit of a mystery.
08:07I love the fact that you've turned sideways
08:10and you're giving us this fantastic slice
08:12so we're really getting to see in the gas works.
08:14From what you've done, with the lack of information at this stage,
08:17particularly in this colour palette, it feels like it would kind of be a whistsler's view.
08:20Yeah, well I'm trying to convey the industrial aspect of the site.
08:24So, yeah.
08:25Dark and moody, you know?
08:26Dark and moody.
08:27Yeah.
08:28I mean there was something very moody about your submission that we were really taken with.
08:30You know, there were obviously contemporary signs within it
08:33feeling was something that transported us to a different era. I suppose we might
08:37anticipate a bit of the same thing then today if you're interested in the
08:40historic elements. Yeah, yeah hopefully. So I'm hoping to add a bit of texture and
08:46a bit of drama. So what about the sky? You've left a big space for it. Yeah, no,
08:50it's all to play for with the sky. I don't know what it's gonna do. Okay, still
08:55some decisions to make. Yeah, still plenty of decisions. Yeah.
09:04I'm trying to get the layout of the water and the canal in relation to the
09:11paths and the buildings in the right place at the moment. I really enjoy doing
09:16very big distance. The longer the river is on the painting, the more real it
09:22looks. Seasoned plein air painter Tina Trimmer visited the maze at South Hill
09:29Park over 20 times to complete her carefully composed submission of a place
09:34where her children spent many happy summer days.
09:40Tina, let's talk about your very beautiful submission which takes place
09:45in a very quiet, romantic, secluded, sort of maze-like garden. Is that your
09:50natural habitat? It's still busy, so not as loud as here. Okay. But once you start
09:58painting, you sort of get in the zone anyway. Have you been able to pick out
10:02something that you want to paint? I love nature, so everything's got trees in it
10:09and I'm concentrating on the water as well. Okay. I might try and put a little
10:14bit of the curve in with the trees here. The curve of the modern building in the
10:19back there as well? At the back as well, yeah. Okay, so that's interesting. Yeah. Because I
10:22thought, you know, that you might find that you wanted to block all those
10:27things out, that you would go only for the old. That isn't... No, no. No, not
10:30necessarily. I look forward to seeing that appear. Yeah, it will, hopefully.
10:38Just behind our pods, another gang of artists are now arriving. It's our 50
10:44wondrous wildcards who are setting up in the mirrored circle of Gasholder Park.
10:51I tend to paint more rural than urban spaces, so it's a bit of a change, but I
10:57think it's a fun one. Having watched the programme for quite a long time, I thought,
11:02am I good enough to enter this? But, hey, what have I got to lose? Just one of
11:08these wildcards will have a chance to go forward for a coveted place in this
11:12year's semi-final. How's it going? It's the bones of it at the moment. Right, so what
11:20are you doing? You're embracing the buildings? Yeah. Someone put the pods in
11:23the way of what I wanted. It's annoying, isn't it? Yeah, it is.
11:31How are you feeling about this location? It's my first time painting outside. Oh, your
11:36first plan-air experience? Yeah, absolutely. OK, like thrust into King's Cross. I love it.
11:50I had to push really hard in that first hour to get here, so I can start to enjoy it a bit more now.
12:02I'm feeling really quite comfortable at the moment. I probably shouldn't be, but I've got
12:09my structure in, so what will be will be now. The die is cast. The water's not particularly
12:16calming today because there's a lot of movement in there and there's a lot of boats going by,
12:19that are creating a lot for me to work with, and quite a big challenge, to be honest.
12:39Stationed in the heart of London are today's eight artists, and presented with such an
12:45animated cityscape, one artist is very much in their comfort zone.
12:52Today's view is a gift for me, really. I love urban sketching and I'm a regular urban sketcher.
12:57I tend to use a square brush. It's my favourite type of mark-making. I just like being able
13:03to put down a bold brush stroke and you get texture in it as well.
13:10Andrea Stables had just finished a session with the Liverpool Urban Sketchers when she
13:14stumbled across her submission location. She was taken by the reflections in the cobbles
13:19and returned to her studio to commit the scene to canvas.
13:25So your submission, we really liked it because it sort of caught that inconsequential backstreet
13:29sort of view. Talk to me a little bit about the pixelation that you used in the sky. Is
13:33that a stylistic thing that you introduce in all your paintings?
13:37Yeah, I try not to over-blend, so I like that tactile nature of leaving a brush mark where
13:43it is. So, yeah, I mean, obviously my submission, it was in the cloud, which I love doing clouds
13:49stylistically. In this, I'm not going to have any sky. So I'm hoping to capture the similar
13:54effects but with the foliage.
14:06I don't really have a particular style. I think I'm quite intuitive, so I tend to work
14:12with the sense of place and I think I'm probably a colourist more than anything.
14:18Ruth Bateman is a semi-abstract artist from Devon. She painted her submission after a
14:23holiday in the Irish countryside and wanted to capture the vulnerability of the wild landscape
14:29in the face of growing urbanisation.
14:32Ruth, you've started with loads of colour. We loved your submission for your use of colour.
14:37You know, you just put enough description in through the colour that we felt like we
14:40could walk through that landscape. It just sits on the right side of abstraction for
14:44us. Are you going to still stick to that today?
14:47I think I've got to stay true to me and actually use my natural instinct of colour and then
14:54incorporate things that interest me so that it will be expressive and obviously very loose.
15:01So you're an artist that's going to navigate this, not through a kind of literal, realistic
15:05journey through, but very much through feeling, expression, like what's interesting to you?
15:10Definitely.
15:11Well, listen, I think it's off to a very beautiful start. I think you're going to give us a very
15:14Ruth version of today and that's exciting.
15:15You're going to definitely get a Ruth version.
15:17Good.
15:21This lovely orange building in front of us stands out. There's a lot of grey colours
15:27around it. That will be my focus and I'll see what I can build around it.
15:35Bassam Andari is a realist artist who favours moody landscapes with strong contrasts in
15:41light and shade. His oil painting of a street scene in Harrow took 20 hours to complete.
15:51So Bassam, we've given you everything.
15:56Almost everything.
15:57Tell me what you've decided to paint.
15:59I decided that this lovely orange building is probably the brightest in the whole scene,
16:06so it can be the focus of the painting and possibly the light reflection on it will give
16:13it some interest.
16:14Let's talk about your submission. We loved the light in there. It's this very strange
16:19light. Is it winter light or is it...?
16:22It's end of summer, but the sun was very low and there was a lot of colour in the sky and
16:29that actually was very inspiring.
16:30Well, you talk a good painting.
16:33I hope I paint that as I talk.
16:41I feel like if I don't get the composition right and all the measurements, it might get
16:48my process a bit harder and more challenging. But painting on bigger canvases, I think it
16:56will allow me more freedom with my brush strokes and I'll be more loose.
17:02Vlada Popescu recently moved to London and finds the city a constant source of inspiration.
17:09In her submission, she aimed to highlight the beauty of everyday objects, such as a
17:13rusty bicycle she spotted on a street corner.
17:18Vlada, what we loved about your submission was it was this very sort of unprepossessing
17:24little scene that you chose with the bike against the railing. Your submission is much
17:27smaller than the work you've made today. Why have you gone bigger?
17:32I think, you know, even with the smallest pieces, I spent so much time on the details
17:38whilst on bigger canvases, I'm more free and more loose with my brush strokes.
17:45You've gone bigger to put less detail in. Are you so far resisting the urge to make
17:49this over-detailed?
17:50I started doing a lot of details on the boat and I'm like, OK, you need to focus on the
17:55water a bit more, because there's a lot going on in the picture, so I need to kind of spread
18:00out my attention and energy.
18:08Over in Gasholder Park, our wildcards are definitely finding their groove.
18:14I like watercolour because it's sort of like jazz music for me. You improvise and you never
18:22know what result you're going to achieve.
18:32Hello H. Lee, how's it going?
18:33Hello. It's going OK.
18:35You're shedding.
18:36I'm shedding lino cut shavings.
18:38And look at all the Japanese markings on this.
18:41This beast has cut me several times in the park. She's a beast. I call her a monster.
18:45Oh, right. Why? Because she's so big?
18:47She's given me lots of scars.
18:48Really?
18:49Yeah. If I slip, you know. Like today, because when it's warm, the lino gets a bit crumbly,
18:53so you might catch me bleeding on television.
18:56Who knew lino cut was so dangerous?
18:58Exactly.
19:03Do you know, the thing about printmaking is that sometimes I find the actual thing that
19:06I'm making the print on as interesting. I mean, what would you do with that afterwards?
19:10Just wipe it clean?
19:11Yeah. It's kind of sad to get rid of it all.
19:13It's so sad. It's so gorgeous though.
19:16I've taken too long doing one specific part of my painting,
19:20so I'm going to just try and widen my scope now
19:24and get the whole thing covered as quickly as I can.
19:27I've taken too long doing one specific part of my painting, so I'm going to just try and
19:39widen my scope now and get the whole thing covered as quickly as I can.
19:46You always feel like you're behind because you never know how it's going to go, so it'd
19:51be nicer to be further on, but we'll see. Anything can happen.
19:56So that middle bit's going to stay empty. I could over-fuss it, and I don't want to
20:00do that. You could just absolutely ruin it in one fell swoop.
20:05I look forward to completing it without collapsing.
20:08In London, eight artists are two hours into today's competition, and it's time to make
20:27some key decisions.
20:29I can't believe it's now halfway through the time. I thought I'd be a little bit further
20:35on, so the next bit is more about colour choices, getting those really accurate colours
20:39so when I'm working with the reflections, those colours have got to be matched really
20:42well.
20:43How are you getting on?
20:49I'm all right. Much better than when I started, but I don't know if it's good enough.
20:55What's the issue? What are you worried about?
20:57I haven't done all the details I want to do and the colour variations.
21:07I quite like when I work on the sky to be very loose and, you know, a lot of movement
21:12going on, and I really want to give off a few more ripples in the water.
21:20But for Tina, the complex view isn't all she has to contend with.
21:25I'm going to start with this, because you're running out of time.
21:28No, I know. Just leave me alone.
21:34So King's Cross or King's Happy?
21:37It's glorious. The architecture's fantastic. The noise, everything's going on. The people,
21:43it's brilliant.
21:44Tina has just been told by her daughter to hurry up.
21:46I mean, Tina has been so laid back. She's got this lovely composition that she's put
21:51together and I think it'll only come together at the very last minute.
21:55I like Tina's perspective. We're kind of floating above the canal and I like the narrative
22:00that produces.
22:01The problem with lifting the landscape up like that, of course, on the right she hasn't
22:04worked out what she's going to do with the rest of it, so the space isn't connecting
22:08at the moment.
22:09Tim's having fun with perspective. He says he's having a great time. Do you share the
22:13joy?
22:14Well, I was really surprised when I went in and looked at Tim's work, because I thought
22:16he was making a print, because the marks that he's made are so strident and deep and it's
22:20interesting to take that print language and put it into a painting.
22:23At the moment, I like the space, but it feels very Mediterranean to me somehow. You know,
22:29we're missing out on a bit of dirt or grit. It's so well organised.
22:32The big question with Tim, he's finished. He's done. He's going to stop.
22:37Well, me and Ty think he should spend the afternoon messing it up a bit. So he's got
22:40some work to do for me and Ty.
22:41Oh, OK.
22:42Andrea is worried that her composition is a little flat. It lacks a bit of depth. Would
22:48you agree with that?
22:49I love Andrea's work. What's really exciting is when you see an artist who's confronted
22:53with loads and loads and loads and loads of stuff, and they pick the weirdest bit that
22:59I would definitely edit out. I just really hope that she doesn't overwork it.
23:03Susan's busy with her palette knife. I know that is not your favourite tool.
23:09I like Susan's take. There's a real grittiness and inner city feel to it, and I just love
23:15that. But you can't do anything with the sky without messing it up.
23:18Yeah, I completely agree. I think she's created a real rod for her own back, because I can't
23:22see what language sits next to that.
23:25Vlada, unusually, has given us a painting today that's way bigger than her submission.
23:31But it's counterintuitive, because you think that a bigger picture takes longer, but for
23:34her, she gets so caught up in detail. She doesn't want to do that today.
23:39I feel like she's going so slowly. I want to see where it's going to get to, because
23:42she has positioned everything, but they're so ghostly at the moment.
23:47Phil's submission was a study in reflections, and today he's found reflections again.
23:52I think what Phil's done is really great. It's very, very strong. I love the way in
23:57which he positioned the horizon very high up in the sky.
24:00It's still in that phase where it's nice. I need a bit more than nice.
24:06Bassam's submission was a study in light. Today, does he have the grip on the light?
24:12His submission really lived off it being this great sunset picture, and this kind of strange
24:17yellow colour. He's not going to be able to achieve that today, and I don't know that
24:21he has found his thing in the landscape. Ruth says she's at the stage of painting
24:27where she doesn't like it. How do you feel about it?
24:29What I liked about Ruth's reaction to the scene in front of her in the chaos was to
24:33just put patches of colour down, and early on, it made sense to me.
24:37Well, she's also doing that scratchy, scratchy thing that people do as well, which...
24:41Scratchy, scratchy thing? Well, going in and scratching with the end
24:43of the paintbrush to sort of delineate form. Well, I know that she's appearing on Scratchy,
24:48Scratchy Artist of the Year in a few months, so I look forward to seeing her there.
25:07I've worked my way across the canvas. I'm putting in some more darks, and I'm working
25:11on the boat at the moment to try and get the tones right on there. It's quite tricky
25:16because the boat I'm painting is quite old, and the paintwork's very faded on it, so getting
25:21that right is quite tricky, really, but I'll give it a go.
25:28My painting's looking a bit like a carnival, and I quite like that. I think the colours
25:34represent the kind of almost chaotic, vibrant, buzzy energy here. Even though I don't know
25:40what to do next, I'm pretty happy with the way it's evolved.
25:47When I saw it before, you had the yellow background, and you were working with that harmony of
25:52yellow and black. Yes. So the sky was the last major thing I've put into it, and I wanted
25:57to have a sense of the heat of the day, keep the sense of the sort of industrial drama,
26:04if you like. Although it's a different colour, it's the same mood, isn't it? Yeah, I've kept
26:08it pretty dark. Yeah, sorry.
26:16Over the last 150 years, the area around King's Cross and St Pancras has changed dramatically.
26:25Initially shaped by the Midland Railway Company, the district has more recently become a byword
26:30for sustainable redevelopment.
26:34The basin was built in the early 1870s by the railway company so that it could offload
26:41coal from Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire into barges and then onwards for distribution
26:48around London. The Midland Railway wanted to make a real statement in the architecture
26:54alongside the railway so that their first-class passengers could see that they were in good
27:01hands. But the basin's heyday was short-lived. The invention of the combustion engine made
27:08it easier and cheaper for goods to be transported by road. It's really at the end of the 19th
27:16century you begin to see a terminal decline. At one time, this entire area was derelict,
27:23but now you see the transformation over time.
27:27Regeneration started in the 1980s with the transformation of an old coal yard into Camley
27:33Street Nature Park after a grassroots campaign. More recently, the Coal Drops Yard and Gasholder
27:41Park redevelopment has provided a vibrant new retail and residential complex.
27:48For me, in terms of how the regeneration here has been achieved, I think it's the very best
27:53in terms of restoration of buildings which are worth keeping but without being slavish
27:59about it. I think it's an amazing achievement.
28:10Over in Gasholder Park, our wildcard challenge is nearing an end.
28:18Oh, that's really lovely as well. That's beautiful.
28:23Hello. Hello. I want to be there. Funny enough, I am there, but this looks much more enticing.
28:30Are you a romantic at heart? A little bit, but I also think I hate this architecture.
28:35I think it's more of that. So you're just pretending it's not here? Yeah, basically just ignoring it.
28:42And with a place in the semi-final up for grabs, one of our wildcards is pulling some
28:47strings to get noticed by the judges. This is good. I'm OK at pencil work, but I've never
28:55been able to paint, so I decided I needed a partner who could paint. I see. I can paint.
29:01You can't. Right, OK. I've splashed the colour on them. Colour everywhere.
29:07Very good, yeah. It's quite loose with the three strokes. Flowers, yeah.
29:12And do you two argue much about the painting? I'm trying to concentrate. Sorry. Excuse me.
29:17You can go now. OK.
29:22But only one wildcard, or puppet, can win today's challenge.
29:36I think I might be coming your way, young man. You've won the wildcards. Oh, my God, thank you. Congratulations.
29:47And the winner is Lex Robertson, with his atmospheric depiction of the canal.
29:55Love the bravura, love the tones and the colours. It's got a great sense of place.
29:59Thank you so much. Well done, well done. Thank you. Thank you.
30:07To win wildcards, it's a massive surprise. It was the moment she turned,
30:11just a couple of painters before me, I was like, is it me? It can't be.
30:16I just, I couldn't believe it at all. It's so nice to be surrounded by so many other artists.
30:20It's been a really lovely day.
30:23Lex will now go into a pool of wildcard winners, one of whom will secure a pod in the semi-final.
30:37Hello, Tim. Hello. Are you finished?
30:40That's the last paintbrush, with the last bit of white on it.
30:48Yeah. And that's it? Are you good at knowing when to stop? No.
30:52Oh, so how come today you suddenly worked it out?
30:54I finally worked it out, with all of these lovely people around me.
30:58Oh, you've been listening to the judges?
31:00That's a slippery slope, Tim, when you start doing that.
31:06While Tim and I can sit back and relax, the pressure is still on in the other seven pods.
31:14I've still got to add a couple of trees in, I've got to put some shadows in, windows.
31:20Fingers crossed it's going to look OK by the time the hour's up.
31:27It's hotting up now. I've got to finalise it so it's a finished piece rather than a study.
31:31I've seen what everyone else is producing and I'm starting to feel like I've got to properly kick this over the line.
31:37I'm feeling very pressured. End of the third hour, yeah, I probably could do with another three, to be fair.
31:43There is a danger of overworking it and that's kind of what I'm mindful of.
32:11But I don't want to ruin the spontaneity and the energy of the painting.
32:19Hi Phil, how's it going?
32:20Yeah, it's going OK. I need to get some work in here in the background that I think will really help it,
32:25because that looks a little bit unfinished but I'm quite happy to leave the rest of it quite loose.
32:29So are you going to finish on time?
32:31I hope to finish on time but I'll have what I've got when the bell goes.
32:35When the fat lady sings.
32:36When the fat lady sings.
32:37When the curly haired presenter shouts.
32:39Yeah.
32:42I think I'll be the happiest if I get the reflections right.
32:47I'm still stressed about, you know, not finishing it on time.
32:55Artists, you have five minutes left. Five minutes.
32:59Five minutes.
33:09At this stage in the game I'm trying to figure out whether I should finish things off or leave them rough.
33:16I think I need to just keep going until the last second.
33:21Artists, your time is up.
33:23Please stop what you're doing and step away from your artworks.
33:36I found today really exciting. It's a long day.
33:39It really put me on my game and I'm looking forward to a glass of wine.
33:44With the challenge complete, the artists must now wait to discover who will go through to the semi-final
33:49and be one step closer to a £10,000 commission for the Courtauld Gallery.
33:56This year's winner will follow in the footsteps of the winner of the semi-final.
34:00The winner of the semi-final will receive a £10,000 commission for the Courtauld Gallery.
34:05The winner of the semi-final will receive a £10,000 commission for the Courtauld Gallery.
34:10This year's winner will follow in the footsteps of some of the most famous Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters in history,
34:18travelling to the south of France in search of its breathtaking landscapes.
34:24Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh moved to the city of Arles in 1888
34:29and the surrounding countryside was to inspire some of his greatest works,
34:33such as his 1889 masterpiece, Peach Trees in Blossom.
34:41We talk a lot about how artists went to the south of France and kind of became a different version of themselves
34:46and I think probably van Gogh exemplifies this best.
34:49You see him really using colour differently and being much more expressive in his art.
34:53I think what's so fabulous about this painting for me is he stops just shy of it being a pattern.
34:57He's interested in flattening the picture plane, reducing information down, but he doesn't reduce the feeling.
35:03We're looking for an artist who's prepared to go to the south of France, like van Gogh, like Matisse, like Monet, like those artists,
35:08and make it their own, take their painting to the next level, challenge themselves.
35:19It's now down to the judges to decide which of the three paintings to shortlist.
35:32My goodness, you'd never know that we're in the middle of one of the most modern parts of London.
35:36I feel like I've stepped back into the Victorian period with these paintings.
35:40Tina, there are some really lovely loose passages in here.
35:44She's got this beautiful sweep in the curve.
35:46She really likes those long perspectives that you can get.
35:50I love the underlying narrative of the new and the old, but I do get a sense that once you've gone round that curve,
35:55what's beyond, you don't understand what happens, but I think in terms of the feeling of today and the light, I love it.
36:02Yeah.
36:07I've got problems with Tim's work.
36:09Oh, really?
36:10I know you like it a lot.
36:11I do.
36:12There's an emptiness and there's a stylisation of which I find alien.
36:16I love the abstraction of it, I suppose, that lovely sweep of the water.
36:21You can sort of skim a stone across, and I think it's lovely and fresh.
36:27So Andre's an artist who knows how to create a narrative, and I think it's so cleverly devised.
36:33I just wonder if it's a little bit too quiet, but she did exactly what she wanted to do.
36:39I mean, I just get the sense when I look at this painting, Andre could see this this morning, and then she just painted it.
36:44Yeah.
36:51I'm so worried about what Susan was going to do with that bit of sky.
36:54You know, it's got so much energy in it, and the energy comes not just from the volume of paint,
37:00but also the way in which the paint is put on and the way it moves around.
37:04It's almost like it's got its own life on the surface of the canvas.
37:08But isn't it interesting that Susan has left the edges slightly undone?
37:13And for me, that works really, really well.
37:15And then you look at Vlada's, and that doesn't work so well for me.
37:18It's partly to do with the fact that it's the white of the canvas.
37:21I love Vlada's composition. I think it's very powerful.
37:23But I think if you look back to her submission, there was less.
37:27So the paint played a larger role, the mark-making.
37:30And here, having blown the whole thing up, there's not enough stuff on there to make the beautiful brush marks.
37:35But the bones of it are spectacular.
37:41Phil, I love the position of everything being so high up, and the fact that he gave himself lots of water.
37:46But it feels very safe.
37:48I think the problem is you and I fell in love with the underpainting.
37:50Yes, that's true.
37:51So we've lost a lover.
37:53It was an unrequited love.
37:55But I think that there's enough here that's really playful.
38:01Vasam was quite focused, and I think the sky is the best bit of the picture.
38:06And he really caught this crisp, clear summer sky today.
38:10Where it struggles for me is in the foreground.
38:12Yeah, he hasn't worked out the pictorial space.
38:14I think he's reacted in a sort of realistic way.
38:17But having said that, St Pancras at the back, I mean, it really has that softness.
38:20So he knows the rules of painting.
38:23Whereas Ruth, I really didn't think I was going to like this painting.
38:26Because I was like, it's too fanciful.
38:28It's not about the place.
38:30It's just lots of pretty colours put together.
38:32But when I looked really hard at it, all the elements are there.
38:35Well, when you think about an artist like Ruth, you think about someone who's got a kind of raw talent
38:39and is very sort of deeply expressionistic.
38:41And it's all very much about putting herself in the picture.
38:44And then, you know, we're ultimately looking for someone to go to the south of France.
38:47All the great artists who worked in the south of France, they find more of themselves
38:50and put that into the art. And that's how they pushed art forward.
38:53Yes, of course, it's a sort of madly hallucinogenic canal water that she's given us
38:58with all the various colours.
39:00But that just makes it all the more interesting.
39:03MUSIC
39:16Artists, it's been a great day. We've really enjoyed watching you all work.
39:21The judges have now selected which three artists will go onto their shortlist.
39:27The first artist is...
39:29MUSIC
39:32..Andrea Stavels.
39:34APPLAUSE
39:47The second artist on the shortlist is...
39:52..Susan Isaac.
39:54APPLAUSE
40:00MUSIC
40:05The third artist is...
40:09..Phil Hosking.
40:11APPLAUSE
40:22I just can't believe it. I'm so shocked.
40:25I mean, being shortlisted, even amongst such amazing artists,
40:29like, the other work was just spectacular.
40:31It was such a strong heat, I think.
40:33Yeah, just absolutely blown away by it, really.
40:38The judges now have the difficult task of picking today's winner.
40:42To help them with their decision,
40:44they also examine the shortlisted artists' submission pieces.
40:50Now, Kate... Ah.
40:52We spoke at half-time. Mm.
40:54You said there was nothing Susan could do to make that painting work.
40:58And, look, lo and behold, here she is in the shortlist of three.
41:01Were you outvoted, or did she pull it out of the bag?
41:04Something remarkable happened. I made a mistake.
41:07What?! Yeah, I was wrong. I can say it.
41:10And she came in with this sort of brooding, expressive sky,
41:14and the colour range is gorgeous.
41:16I mean, I've really fallen in love with this painting.
41:19Her skies are spectacular in both, aren't they?
41:21They are spectacular in both, and I hadn't realised how similar they were.
41:25It's almost like she saves it. It becomes the focus.
41:28I like Susan's reduced palette.
41:30It's got a strange sort of dark historical heft to it,
41:34and I think it comes from that reduction
41:36down to the power of the black line and the drawing and the painting.
41:39And what makes it, I think, more contemporary
41:42is the paint application with the palette knife is ugly.
41:45Yeah. Susan's not making things look nice.
41:47You were very impressed with Phil at the halfway point,
41:50and he's obviously still impressing you.
41:52Today we're looking at something that's less done than he might normally do.
41:56Yeah. I actually prefer it like this.
41:58He is someone who has a feeling for a place,
42:01and he wants to communicate that.
42:03I mean, I'm falling in love with his submission more and more
42:05the more I look at it, because they're both very comforting.
42:08They are inconsequential spaces, but they're full of meaning.
42:12So I know it looks trad, and I know it feels trad,
42:15but I think it's a little bit more sophisticated than that.
42:19Andrea, again, at halftime we were worried that zoomed in too close.
42:24Yeah. Yeah.
42:25Could be flat, but obviously impresses you.
42:27Yeah, I was really worried about Andrea over-stylising
42:30the trees and the foliage,
42:32because I thought it would just be really heavy-handed.
42:34I think it's just on the right side of stylisation.
42:36She sort of held it back, and I think it works really well.
42:39It's interesting seeing Andrea's two paintings side by side,
42:41because she's always playing with similar elements
42:43to build this very tightly constructed landscape,
42:46and she does it very well.
42:48I must say, the clarity of her submission, I find,
42:51almost pushes it into something too graphic.
42:54I like the paintedness more of today's work.
42:56Yeah, I like the language better in today's picture.
42:59It's just completely charming in sort of how boring it is,
43:02because it is technically a boring subject,
43:06like the back end of a barge with a bit of tarpaulin.
43:09Well, thank you for that.
43:10I've also got now the title for my autobiography,
43:12Charming But Boring.
43:14LAUGHTER
43:24Susan, Phil, Andrea,
43:26all three of you have done an amazing job today,
43:29but only one of you can go through to the semi-final,
43:32and the judges have made their decision.
43:37The winner of today's heat is...
43:43..Susan Isaac.
43:55I'm totally shocked and overwhelmed and astonished.
44:04Today's work was... I was quite happy with it.
44:08I felt it was as good as I could do
44:10in the situation I gave it my best.
44:13See you in the semi-final.
44:15Oh, really? Yes. You'll have to do it all again.
44:18What a brilliant discovery Susan is.
44:20This place is full of history,
44:23and Susan was able to capture that
44:25without getting caught in detail.
44:28Here's a painter going,
44:29you know what, I'm going to paint what I feel.
44:31You're going to recognise it,
44:33but you're going to be aware that it's paint.
44:35Going forward, that's the kind of artist you want in the south of France.
44:38That's exactly what the artists were doing there.
44:44Being the winner today is a huge validation.
44:48I know the competition is very stiff,
44:51so I'm really thrilled to have been chosen.
44:54If you want to find out more about the competition
44:57and the work of the artists featured,
44:59visit our website.
45:08Next time, we're in the mountains of North Wales.
45:11I'm on track, unless the wind comes along
45:14and blows it into some sheep poo.
45:17As eight new artists come face-to-face
45:20with what was once one of the world's largest slate quarries.
45:24Another five hours, it might be OK.
45:27So who will find a rich seam of inspiration?
45:31I'm actually going for the gash and being brave.
45:35And who will have to dig deep?
45:38So is painting for you a relaxing experience?
45:42Not really. No?
46:05Subtitling by SUBS Hamburg