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00:00Hello, and welcome to Somerset House in London, home of the Courtauld Gallery and its world-famous
00:18art collection, where tonight a gathering of distinguished guests, curators, and our
00:24very own judges are arriving for a very special event.
00:28It's the grand unveiling of a new landscape, created for this prestigious institution by
00:34Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, Ben McGregor.
00:39For our 10th anniversary series, 48 artists were chosen to paint some of Britain's most
00:45beautiful landscapes, all of them competing for the chance to win an exceptional prize,
00:51a £10,000 commission for the Courtauld Gallery in London.
00:56The winner of Landscape Artist of the Year is Ben McGregor.
01:09I just can't believe it, I'm in absolute shock.
01:14Ben's commission will take him to the south of France.
01:19The mountain has just appeared on the landscape, I mean that is pretty incredible, isn't it?
01:25To experience the breathtaking landscapes that have inspired so many great artists.
01:31We're right in the heart of an olive grove, which is sort of classic Van Gogh territory.
01:40And to create a new landscape to be unveiled in front of an audience of invited guests.
01:47Here we go.
02:09It's been three weeks since the final of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, and Ben
02:14McGregor has returned home to Surrey.
02:18Winning was...
02:19I mean I was just in like a lot of disbelief, it's like this insane mixture of emotions
02:25like relief and, you know, just euphoria.
02:30It's pretty indescribable, to be honest.
02:33I have moments when I'm on my own painting and the thought of winning comes sort of back
02:39into my psyche and it's a really nice feeling.
02:45Since the end of the competition, Ben's got back to business as usual.
02:50This is my business.
02:52The workshop makes luxury bespoke furniture.
03:00I've always been a free spirit, I guess, and a bit nomadic and a bit sort of experimental.
03:08I've never sort of found myself like anchored into one thing.
03:12So I professionally had like a really, really varied career.
03:15How does this differ from this previous?
03:20Being a full-time artist would be absolutely the ultimate career for me.
03:27So do it with the rebate there.
03:30Art was always my thing as a kid, then after that was years and years and years of just
03:38not even picking up a pencil.
03:42I was in my mid-30s, was sort of suffering from depression and I was just left in a bit
03:49of an existential crisis, really.
03:52Out of that was born this kind of desire to do something that could potentially be quite
03:58healing.
03:59It still is my absolute solace in life, really.
04:08Ben gained a place in this year's competition with a lyrical early evening view of a country
04:13lane in Wiltshire.
04:17For his heat at Hampton Court Palace, the topiary and ornamental features allowed Ben
04:22to create a surreal, playful landscape.
04:26It was a masterclass in being able to say, this is what interests me and I'll make it
04:31interesting to you too.
04:35At the semi-final, he chose to paint an unassuming corner of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
04:42It's a beautiful painting and a very well thought through composition which shows us
04:47a corner of a working port.
04:50At the final, Ben wowed the judges with his zoomed in view of Stonehenge.
04:55The wonderful thing about the painting is that it's truly ancient.
04:59You can feel the texture of those stones, even though it looks very, very modern.
05:04And a commission painting of the lakes near his home.
05:08The winner of Landscape Artist of the Year is Ben McGregor.
05:26I love painting landscapes.
05:28I was inspired to paint landscapes by the show.
05:34I just thought that I really, you know, I want to try that.
05:38I can see myself doing landscapes as a core sort of subject matter for the rest of days.
05:52Ben's prize for winning Landscape Artist of the Year is a commission to paint a landscape
05:57of the south of France for the Courtauld Gallery in London.
06:01I feel really excited to be here, but seeing the kind of grandeur of the place, it makes
06:08it all feel very, very real.
06:11Can't wait to find out more about what I'm going to be doing.
06:15The Courtauld Institute and Gallery was established in 1932 by industrialist and art collector
06:20Samuel Courtauld, who wanted to open up his unrivaled collection of Impressionist art
06:26to the public.
06:29Ben's come to discuss his commission with Courtauld curator Barnaby Wright.
06:34Ben, welcome to the Courtauld Gallery.
06:36Thank you so much for having me here.
06:39What we have at the sort of heart of the collection, the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection,
06:45are three really extraordinary landscapes, all made in the south of France.
06:51They are a landscape by Van Gogh of the region around Arles, a landscape by Cezanne of his
06:59hometown of Aix-en-Provence, and a landscape or seascape by Monet of Antibes.
07:06What we would like you to do is to go to those different sites where those three artists
07:12painted and were so inspired, and to produce your own contemporary response to those same
07:19landscapes.
07:20Wow.
07:21Barnaby, you've just given me goosebumps.
07:24I'd sort of love to know a bit more about these three paintings.
07:29I don't know sort of very much about sort of the background behind them.
07:36Cezanne had been in Paris in the 1870s.
07:39He went back to Aix-en-Provence.
07:40At that time, he was trying to combine a desire to get the immediacy of what a landscape felt
07:46like in front of him with something that was monumental.
07:50Monet, he's very much trying to find some really exciting effects of light.
07:56For Van Gogh, down in Arles, he travelled down there to really find a landscape that
08:02would be, I think, spiritually very deeply rewarding to him.
08:08What we're hoping is that the spirit of those artists and the spirit with which they approached
08:14the landscape in different ways will be inspiring to you to produce a contemporary landscape
08:19painting that comes from your own personal experience.
08:24It's stunning.
08:29I'm almost trying to imagine being there at the time it was painted, standing just behind
08:34VG's shoulder.
08:39I just don't think you can stand in front of a Van Gogh without feeling like you're
08:44in the presence of genius.
08:52I really love the colour and the subtlety of the land in the background and the sky.
08:57It's really, really beautiful.
09:00I absolutely love Monet.
09:04This is one of my favourites.
09:06I could stand and look at it for ages and ages.
09:11I just love the colour palette, the brushstrokes, just the movement in kind of a static scene.
09:20The challenge is an absolutely wonderful one and I hope I can do you proud, Barnaby.
09:27Would you like to come and see where we're thinking of hanging it?
09:30I can't wait.
09:31I'd love to.
09:32Let's go.
09:34Here, where these two Renoirs are.
09:41No way.
09:42Are you serious?
09:43You'd be able to have your work here, the Cézanne to one side, the Monet on the other
09:48side of this wall and the Van Gogh beyond.
09:52I'm absolutely lost for words, Barney.
09:57I can't believe it.
09:58It's a dream come true and such an honour.
10:01I will certainly put my heart and soul into this picture and hopefully make you proud.
10:10When Barnaby showed me the position that my painting would be hung, it was honestly one
10:17of the best moments I've ever had.
10:19It just felt amazing and, you know, my mind was officially blown at that moment.
10:32One month after winning Landscape Artist of the Year, Ben McGregor has arrived in the
10:39south of France.
10:41It's almost a bit of paradise, I would say, down here.
10:49Wow.
10:50Look at the mountains over there with the clouds.
10:56That's awesome.
10:57Artists first travelled to this region in the second half of the 19th century, drawn
11:14by the shimmering light and strong shadows.
11:19Here they discovered a tranquil idyll, which gave them the freedom to break the rules and
11:24explore new ideas.
11:28Ben has been asked by the Courtauld to visit the three locations that inspired Claude Monet,
11:33Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh.
11:38I'd quite like to see a single scene which really speaks to me and just makes me feel
11:44like I want to paint it and something I know that I can turn into a cool-looking painting.
11:55His first stop is the Côte d'Azur town of Antibes, where he's meeting up with local
11:59art historian Elodie Mair.
12:05The south of France obviously has an incredible transformative effect on many artists.
12:11I'm wondering what you think is so powerful about the landscape down here.
12:16I would say really it's the contrasts and the light, I mean, the open light and, I mean,
12:23you have the vegetation, which is very exotic.
12:28It's this old-fashioned medieval little villages inspired the painters.
12:32The open sea is there, and you have the mountain in the back, so clearly to me you have everything
12:37together.
12:38I mean, of course, it's a point of view as a person coming from my growth here, so this
12:45is my feeling.
12:48Impressionist Claude Monet travelled to the Côte d'Azur for the first time in 1883.
12:54Already a well-known modern artist in Paris, he came looking for a new challenge.
12:59Captivated by the dazzling light and rich colours, he returned five years later and
13:04stayed here in Antibes, where he painted the Courtauld's famous view across the bay.
13:11What impact did being in the south of France have on Monet?
13:14So Monet actually lived a long time of his life in Normandy, in the Havre, and he's been
13:20also learning a lot of this Impressionism in Paris.
13:24All his life he studied light and he studied also the water reflection.
13:29So coming to the south really helped him to develop his art, his work.
13:34Would you say that coming here to the south of France was quite a significant turning
13:38point in Monet's career?
13:40Yes, so really he had the light and started to be really much more bright.
13:46I mean, this is the brightness I think he was searching him.
13:50I mean, he said that the sky is so blue, look at the sky, that you can dive in it.
13:56That he's worse to his wife, to his second wife.
13:59And he started to paint with another type of palette, which is more pink.
14:04So like pink and blue and green little touches.
14:09I think that's really the turning point, I think, is really the south of France.
14:24Inspired by Monet's approach to colour and light, Ben has come to the exact spot where
14:29he painted the Courtauld's View of Antibes to make his first preparatory study.
14:35It's an epic, big, big landscape.
14:38The sky is big, the clouds big, the expanse of water is big.
14:43You've got mountains in the background, you've got rocks, you've got trees.
14:47It's just, there's everything I wanted in terms of like elements to tackle in a painting.
14:57So I'm starting off penning in a composition which involves this cluster of rocks.
15:03This cluster of rocks here in the foreground.
15:06This lovely pine tree, which sort of sweeps over the top of my view here.
15:12And the sea as the main sort of focal point.
15:16And then kind of obviously a little bit of the background, the mountains, that kind of
15:20pushed way back.
15:23I just think it works really nicely compositionally.
15:27I don't want to be too sort of literal with this scene.
15:29I'm going to make it slightly more abstract and slightly more surreal, hopefully.
15:37Well, everything's so bright and very blue.
15:40There's a lot of blue here.
15:42And also pink, actually, you know, in terms of the rock.
15:45There's so much shadow, there's so much texture and so much depth of colour.
15:51And very subtle tonal changes, which are quite hard to capture sometimes.
15:57But, you know, Monet does that brilliantly well.
16:04The sun's setting, which means I need to work really quickly to capture everything
16:11I want to on the canvas before we lose the light entirely, which is always quite challenging.
16:22Just trying to get some textures in at the moment.
16:25Bark, rock, sort of short, stabby brush strokes.
16:37I'm going to just concentrate on getting the sea, the sky and the background,
16:41using kind of aquamarine-y type blues.
16:44So trying to get them as close to the sea as possible.
16:56I just wanted to try and get this sort of golden colour,
16:59where the light is sort of hitting the face of these rocks in the sea.
17:26Leaving the Côte d'Azur behind,
17:28Ben's travelling inland to the rugged countryside around Aix-en-Provence,
17:33birthplace of one of Monet's contemporaries, Paul Cézanne.
17:38The area is dominated by the imposing limestone ridge of Montagne-Saint-Victoire.
17:47Just got to a clearing in the trees and the mountain has just appeared on the landscape
17:53and witnessing it in this context and in this kind of light is pretty incredible.
18:03Cézanne's fascination with Montagne-Saint-Victoire
18:06resulted in over 30 paintings created over the course of his lifetime.
18:11The Courtauld's landscape dates from 1887
18:14and saw Cézanne capture the texture and geometry of the rock face
18:18in his own form of post-Impressionism,
18:21using short brushstrokes and blocks of colour.
18:27So Cézanne was quite sort of an introspective and I guess at times solitary character.
18:36Perhaps he found a connection with the mountain in that kind of sense of solitude.
18:43The mountain is obviously sort of an incredibly imposing part of the landscape,
18:47but that's also what gives it its real draw.
18:50There's a lot of facets to it, there's a lot of sort of texture and colour
18:54that as a painter you'd sort of grapple with to try and get sort of the perfect depiction of it.
19:01And also the pine trees which frame this particular painting are everywhere around here.
19:07Almost to the point where everywhere we stop it looks like
19:12it could be the place where Cézanne painted this particular painting.
19:28Landscape Artist of the Year winner Ben McGregor
19:31has come to the countryside around Aix-en-Provence
19:34to explore Montagne-Saint-Victoire, muse of post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne.
19:42So fascinated was Cézanne with capturing the mountain,
19:46he became interested not only in its outward appearance,
19:49but also in how the rock itself was formed.
19:56So to follow in Cézanne's footsteps,
19:58Ben's venturing up the slope with local geologist Jérôme Segard.
20:03I love the way that you get just these boulders sticking out of the landscape.
20:12Tell me a bit about why people of this area are so kind of influenced by the mountain.
20:18People from Aix-en-Provence, they have a very intimate link with the mountain.
20:24It's almost part of their family.
20:26Cézanne obviously painted Saint-Victoire many times.
20:30What did he understand about the geology here?
20:33One of his best friends was a geologist.
20:37We found in his notebook the layers, the different name of the layers.
20:42The grey part, the upper part, this is limestone.
20:45And then you have the reddish part.
20:48And the reddish part is from the destruction of the grey part.
20:54That's the erosion.
20:56So do you think it's important for an artist to understand the geology
21:00and the scientific side of the landscape?
21:03Yes, it is important for an artist.
21:05So it's difficult to avoid the question when you see all those stones around us.
21:10Agreed.
21:15Cézanne's fascination with geology helped shape the radical innovations of his artistic practice.
21:21And in 1902 he built a studio in the foothills of Montain-Saint-Victoire.
21:27It's closed to the public, but Ben has been given permission to see it for himself.
21:38This could actually be the final commissioned painting.
21:42This view from this window.
21:44Because that would be awesome.
21:47You can't help but feel something from being here.
21:51I sort of walked in, and then I saw this, and it was almost like a perfect picture.
21:57I love that.
21:59It's just got something about it which could be the right direction for the commission.
22:12Many of the items that once filled Cézanne's studio are today kept under lock and key
22:18in a nearby archive, to which Ben has also been granted special access.
22:24Hello, Ben. I'm Stéphanie. Nice to meet you.
22:37It's the famous still-life statue.
22:40Yes, exactly.
22:42That's amazing. That's so cool.
22:46I think this features in a still-life at the Courtauld Gallery.
22:50Yes, exactly.
22:52Because this is so familiar to me, to see this in real life is pretty mind-blowing, actually.
23:03So this is the cane, I'm assuming?
23:06Yes.
23:07This is nice, because it feels much more personal.
23:10It just makes you feel that bit more connected.
23:13So this is the last object, and it's a very important one.
23:19Oh, wow. It's still got paint on it as well.
23:23This is incredible, so I'm assuming this is still Cézanne's paint on there.
23:28Yes.
23:30The colours are incredibly primary.
23:32He obviously did quite a lot of mixing as he was painting the pictures themselves.
23:39It was amazing to see these authentic Cézanne artefacts like that,
23:45just get that bit closer to Cézanne as an artist and a human being.
23:54Taking on what he's learned about the man himself,
23:57Ben has come to a nearby windmill known as Moulin Cézanne
24:01to attempt his own study of Montaigne's Sainte-Victoire.
24:06The weather's taken a bit of a turn.
24:08Being out in the rain is sort of all part and parcel of plein air painting,
24:12and you get to capture a different kind of atmosphere
24:15and a different kind of mood in the landscape.
24:21The whole scene is amazing.
24:23There's just loads of really nice trees.
24:27You've got this kind of...
24:29The pine tree, the branches sort of coming into view,
24:32which I will put in there.
24:36Cézanne wanted to sort of understand the whole process,
24:39why things are how they are, and in order to understand that,
24:42you obviously need to know a bit about the geology.
24:45I like that because there's also obviously a science to painting as well,
24:49which is so useful to understand when you're constructing a picture
24:53and using different paints on different surfaces.
25:00I want the sky to be quite sort of flat,
25:02so basically now I've put the paint onto the white layer.
25:05It's almost stained the canvas.
25:08It's just a way I like to render the sky
25:10to create the feeling that it's further back
25:14than what's going on in the foreground.
25:18Some paints are really, really transparent,
25:21and so they'll kind of glide across the surface.
25:24I always find this quite good for doing kind of rock
25:27because you can create this kind of scratchy effect.
25:33I'm so unprecise, it's not even funny.
25:37And if I feel a tree would be better to look slightly bigger
25:42or set slightly further back, then that's what I'll do,
25:46which is kind of quite a wonderful thing about being an artist
25:51is you sort of get to play with the landscape in that way.
25:57The bit I really loved on this landscape
26:01was this kind of reddy-pink ground that you see in the front,
26:05which looks really nice against the greens.
26:16To do a study of this place is great, it's a huge honour,
26:20but, you know, there's something to it.
26:24It's almost like looking at this mountain.
26:26That is the task.
26:28It's almost like getting to the top of this mountain
26:31is like the task that's in front of me.
26:34That's what it feels like now.
26:36And you sort of look at it and you think,
26:39there's just, like, how could I possibly get up there?
26:44Ben's final stop on his trip is the provincial city of Arles,
26:49where Vincent and his team will visit the famous Arles castle.
26:54The castle is one of the most famous castles in Europe.
26:57It's been a major tourist attraction for a long time.
27:01For many years, it was the center of the Arles seas,
27:05and now it's been a popular tourist attraction for many years.
27:10the Provençal city of Arles, where Vincent van Gogh arrived in 1888.
27:18Wanting to escape Paris and the pressures of the art world, van Gogh came to the south,
27:23seeking inspiration.
27:24I love these beautiful old shutters, quirky little artefacts like this.
27:39During my visit to the Courtauld and my chat with Barnaby, he explained to me that van
27:44Gogh came down to the south of France to get away from the hustle and bustle of Paris,
27:50and also because he was having a bit of a mental health crisis at the time.
27:55So he was looking for some kind of retreat and some solace to recover.
28:01I can really relate to van Gogh, I think, in that sense.
28:06I've got a couple of quotes which van Gogh wrote in his letters.
28:10Always continue walking a lot and loving nature, for that's the real way to learn to understand
28:16art better and better.
28:21Despite his mental turmoil, van Gogh's time in Arles was possibly the most productive
28:26of his life.
28:28He spent many months exploring and painting the agricultural landscape around the town,
28:33captivated by the rural scenes and intensity of the light.
28:41The landscape's absolutely stunning, really rugged, lots of trees.
28:47The light is just incredible, especially standing under the tree line where it dapples across
28:51the floor.
28:53I can see already some potential paintings emerge from the landscapes I'm looking at.
29:01Painting peach trees in blossom, painted just a year before he took his own life, van
29:06Gogh experimented with a new vivid palette of blues and yellows, capturing the glittering
29:12heat of the sun in patterns across the canvas.
29:26We're right in the heart of an olive grove, which is sort of classic van Gogh territory,
29:31so I'm going to have to do my absolute best for it not to come across as a bit of a van
29:37Gogh knockoff.
29:41It's boiling hot, it's early morning.
29:44It's an absolutely beautiful landscape to be in.
29:49It's the sort of thing I really like to paint.
29:55These are pre-framed canvases that I invented in the workshop, sprayed in that finish that
30:02I like to paint on top of, like a really smooth finish.
30:11There's kind of a few layers of landscape to look at.
30:16You've got this incredibly bright vineyard that the sun's really sort of reflecting,
30:21and then you've got the olive grove where we are, so there's quite a lot of depth to
30:25play with here.
30:31The ultra sort of smooth surface of the board allows the paint to slide across it really
30:36freely, which enables you to create really nice sort of brush marks.
30:48So I'll tend to block in the colours first.
30:50The problem is it's really, really hot.
30:54Hopefully the paints won't dry because I then like to work the paints over the surface
30:58of the canvas to create the brush marks, so I have to experiment with how that's going
31:03to work here.
31:10So I'm just creating these little, almost like waves, because you've got all this amazing
31:14tree line kind of in the middle ground before you then get to the mountain itself.
31:24There's this wonderful breeze which sort of gusts through the olive grove and sort of
31:29makes all the trees move.
31:33So I'm trying to capture that with brush strokes, which is kind of what I do anyway, but I think
31:38my style of painting sort of lends itself quite nicely to that.
31:45I mean, there was so much movement in van Gogh's paintings.
31:48A lot of that was down to his style of painting and brush marks, but I'm sure that, you know,
31:55he would have sat here in a similar location and felt very similar things.
32:03I think just experientially being in this landscape, I'll be able to take the feelings
32:08that I've got and my sort of approach to the painting in a kind of more metaphysical sense
32:15back to the studio to paint the final commission.
32:19Right now I'm feeling really good.
32:25I don't think I could be more connected to the landscape right now.
32:32It's been an absolutely incredible trip to be on, so I'm sort of full of gratitude and
32:57joy and inspiration too, but at the same time, you know, I still haven't decided on
33:05a final commission piece, so that's slightly troubling.
33:12So I probably need to just go home and sort of process it all, but I think more than anything
33:18else I just sort of feel incredibly humbled and perhaps slightly unworthy to sort of be
33:25here following in the footsteps of these kind of great masters.
33:33So I need to sort of make my peace with that and find, you know, some ideas and a direction
33:38which is kind of very personal to me and my journey here.
33:50Winner of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, Ben McGregor, has returned from his
33:55trip across the south of France and come to rural Northamptonshire to paint his winning
34:01commission.
34:03A studio at his sister's home is providing a welcome space to reflect on the trip and
34:08the task ahead.
34:09So, how's it going?
34:12It's going okay, I think, but I still spend a lot of time worrying, staring into space.
34:24I'm over the moon that he's won Landscape Artist of the Year.
34:28Ben is a incredibly complicated but interesting kind, quirky person, and that comes out in
34:38his art and I'm delighted that he's been acknowledged in that way.
34:44I mean, to have a painting hanging in such a prestigious gallery is wonderful.
34:51So I got back from France and for a few days still was unsure as to what I was going to
34:58paint.
34:59It needed to be something very personal, like a place where I got sort of a real feeling
35:05from.
35:06I've decided to do a view from Paul Cezanne's studio, but I've decided to incorporate sort
35:20of a different view from Lula and Cezanne.
35:24Tackling the mountain at one stage felt almost impossible, and I think by placing it within
35:32Cezanne's studio, which is a very human place, sort of gave me the ability to see it in my
35:41own way.
35:43So I'm just painting in the floorboards.
35:46I'm very, very nervous about the unveiling event.
36:06Tonight Ben's winning commission will be unveiled at the Courtauld Gallery.
36:11I'm obviously feeling nervous.
36:13I've put my absolute soul into this picture.
36:20It feels incredibly exposing, to be honest.
36:23It's my entire sort of creative life almost put under a microscope in one moment.
36:31I just want it to be well received and liked and in the moments before the curtain falls,
36:37I'm sure I'll just be a bag of nerves and a bit of a wreck.
36:48I'm really excited because I think Ben's one of the more unusual winners that we've chosen
36:53because he's got this sort of odd, edgy abstraction to his work.
36:58He's so idiosyncratic, and the way he puts paint on is so him.
37:04I like the idea of this fusion between this beautiful south of France, these great vistas
37:09that we know from art history, and this very weird way of painting.
37:13Is it sea?
37:14Is it mountain?
37:15Is it landscape?
37:17Is it pine trees?
37:19Is it starry night?
37:20Who knows what we're going to be looking at?
37:22I can't wait.
37:23You've really whetted my appetite.
37:24Good evening, everyone, and welcome to this very special occasion, the unveiling of the
37:31new Landscape Artist of the Year, Ben McGregor's winning commission.
37:36Yes!
37:37CHEERING
37:38We are here in the Courtauld Gallery's great room, which is usually reserved for minor
37:47artists like Cézanne, Monet and Van Gogh.
37:51No pressure, Ben.
37:52None taken.
37:53We're also here with Barnaby Wright, Courtauld curator.
37:57Barney, what are you hoping for under this red drape?
38:01What I really hope, more than anything, is that when we unveil this work, Ben will feel
38:07that what he's done, what he said he wanted to do, which was to pour his heart and soul
38:11into the picture, that you'll feel in some way you've achieved that ambition.
38:16And I hope, knowing Ben's modesty, I hope maybe the most we can hope for is that he
38:20feels a sort of quiet pride in what you've produced.
38:23That'll be a win for me.
38:27You all right?
38:28You feeling good?
38:29Yeah.
38:30I'm nervous, but excited.
38:31Yeah.
38:32Well, shall we put you out of your misery?
38:33Go for it.
38:34Right, here we go.
38:35I mean, there's a Van Gogh self-portrait with a bandaged ear.
38:39I know.
38:40It's just over there.
38:41It's how I feel.
38:42Right.
38:43It's how I feel, really.
38:44OK.
38:45I mean, they're taking two Renoirs down.
38:47Get on with it.
38:48Get on with it?
38:49All right.
38:50Here we go.
38:51Oh!
38:52Oh!
38:53Well, Barney, I'm going to put you on the spot.
38:54You've only just seen it.
38:55But what do you think?
38:56What an extraordinary picture.
38:57I mean, congratulations.
38:58Thank you very much.
38:59Absolutely fantastic.
39:00And we even have a, uh, a little bit of a, uh, a, uh, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
39:01a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
39:02a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
39:17a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
39:24a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
39:31Ladies and gentlemen, the Landscape Artist of the Year, Ben McGregor.
39:35CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
39:39Thanks.
39:50Just wonderful. You know, your palette is very English,
39:53and to adapt it in such a way that we can feel the heat coming off it
39:56and the misty Mont Saint-Victoire in the distance is fantastic.
39:59Yeah. Really beautiful.
40:01What you're so good at is texture.
40:03And in a way, you know, you sort of move that on for Zezanne
40:05with these little blocks of colour all the way.
40:07You know, you've got that richness on the tree trunks
40:09and that freneticness in the way in which you've sort of built the tree heads,
40:13a bit like Van Gogh and Starry Night.
40:15It feels like you've taken little bits of each of them.
40:17Just a bit like Van Gogh. I'm sorry!
40:19LAUGHTER
40:22I'm just bowled over, actually.
40:25It works on so many different levels,
40:27and all done in this inimitable style,
40:30which is this touch, this sensitive touch that vibrates.
40:34The whole painting sings, and it just fits in here perfectly.
40:40Well, I'm hugely impressed.
40:42I think Ben's really, really pulled out all the stops to this picture.
40:46When that curtain came down, in quite a sort of split second,
40:50I think it just felt like something quite epic that he'd produced,
40:54something that one really felt immersed in immediately,
40:58and that, perhaps, is the mark of a really great painting.
41:03Ben has stayed true to his authentic way of painting,
41:06but somehow, by osmosis, he's managed to absorb just enough,
41:10just the right amount of influence from these artists
41:14to create a work that I think will sit on these walls confidently
41:20and will sort of encourage a lot of conversation
41:23about what landscape is today.
41:26So I think he's done us proud.
41:31Wow.
41:32That's sort of a plethora of emotions and excitement.
41:37Well done. Well done. Most of it overwhelming.
41:40Cheers. Cheers.
41:41My artistic career has been the most significant thing that's happened.
41:46In terms of my life, it's up there, and it's been such a wonderful journey,
41:51so full of, like, just incredible moments
41:55that I'll remember and cherish for the rest of my life.
41:59If you'd like to find out more about applying for the next series
42:03and the work of the featured artists,
42:05visit our website, skyartsartistoftheyear.tv.
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