Landscape Artist of the Year - Season 10 Episode 1 - Hampton Court Palace
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00:00Ah, this really is the only way to travel, and it's how generations of kings, queens,
00:22princes and noblemen have arrived at the Palace of Hampton Court, where today eight artists
00:28are lined up in front of its magnificent baroque east front to compete in the crown jewels
00:34of art competitions. Welcome to a brand new series of Landscape Artist of the Year.
00:422,000 applications, 48 artists, eight pods, and in our 10th anniversary series,
00:49some truly iconic views. Have I painted a bridge before? No, I haven't,
00:54but there's a price for everything. This is possibly one of the most daunting landscapes
00:59in Britain. I'm looking at all the trains, planes, automobiles and getting a little bit
01:06stressed, to be honest. This year, our artists have painted, drawn, printed and collaged like
01:14never before. Literally holding everything down. Hopefully it will stay. I just want this piece to
01:20convey the chaoticness of today. There's a lot of people, it's really hot. And if painting an
01:26artwork in four hours wasn't complicated enough, they'll be under the scrutiny of our three judges.
01:32The thing that's really winding me up is this sort of giant lollipop in the middle. What's going on?
01:38With 50 landscape artist wildcards at every heat. You're like half man, half umbrella. Yeah,
01:44this is a new invention for today because it's so hot, isn't it? It is hot, yeah. I feel like
01:48we're having an umbrella fight. The prize our artists are competing for is a £10,000 commission
01:56to paint a landscape in the south of France, a region that's inspired some of the world's
02:01greatest painters. Our winner will retrace the steps of Van Gogh, Monet and Cezanne to create
02:10an artwork for London's Courtauld Gallery. But working through one of the hottest days of the
02:17year won't be easy. It's like painting a treacle or concrete. So wish them luck in this heat.
02:25Already the backs of my knees are sweating, so I feel like it's not a good start. And join us
02:29as we search for the next landscape artist of the year. It's like a mathematical equation,
02:35The Hopeless. My heart bleeds for our artists as usual.
02:54Blessed with glorious sunshine today, our eight artists are textile designer Jill Hurst from
03:02Brighton, John Shave, an artist and art tutor from Norfolk who grew up in Australia, Ben McGregor
03:09who runs a furniture company near his home in Surrey, and professional landscape artist Barry
03:16Lowenhoff from Sudbury and Suffolk. It's such a pleasure to be here and an honour to be amongst
03:23so many other great artists. Also happy to be here today, Bach Singh, a teacher in printmaking
03:32from Birmingham, designer Hannah Day from Starbridge, illustrator Imogen Slater from York,
03:40and Leslie Banks, a professional artist from Glasgow. I was feeling quite calm but I think
03:47there's definitely adrenaline kicking in so I won't have any more coffee.
03:55All our artists were selected on the strength of a submitted landscape
03:59which they've brought with them today.
04:04Along with their very favourite bits of kit. I like to sort of buy things second hand
04:10and I bought this nice briefcase from a car boot sale which now carries my paints in.
04:17This pen roll that I made years ago which is made out of small jeans so it's a bit of an upcycle.
04:25And as the sun beats down on the pods, they're looking at how to tackle today's view.
04:32To be able to have sunshine and shadows and a building and a garden with the sunlight bouncing
04:38off bits of gold is great.
04:47Artists, I hope you're ready to barock and roll.
04:50You have four hours to complete your challenge and your time starts now.
05:08Today's artists are presented with a side-on view of Sir Christopher Wren's 17th century
05:15barock palace, with each pod given a slightly different perspective on the scene.
05:21Stretching out in front of them is the privy garden with its lush green lawns,
05:25sculpted topiary and abundance of colourful plants and flowers bathed in strong sunlight.
05:39The topiary is quite overwhelming and the way that it's so geometric and the windows,
05:46I'm not really sure yet how I'm going to tackle that,
05:49but I'm definitely going to go and have a look at some different angles.
05:55I'll be struggling with the windows and all those panes of glass
05:59but there is some lovely colour in that garden so I'll be all right.
06:09A lot of the times I like to go for a walk first and then reflect that walk through the drawing.
06:16I also use collage so I've brought some materials about the palace.
06:20I think it gives new life to old bits of paper I suppose.
06:26Bach Singh gained a degree in art and design at the University of Leeds
06:30and now works at the University of Gloucestershire as technical demonstrator of printmaking.
06:35Bach's submission of a scene near his home in Hansworth took two weeks
06:39and uses watercolour, oils and collage to create a work reflecting the culture and intensity of the area.
06:49Morning Bach. Morning.
06:50What did you find out on your walk this morning?
06:52The story today is that we're at a very ornate place with a lot of history.
06:56Presumably when you're looking for stories you're looking for something a bit sort of grittier like you had in your submission.
07:02It felt like you'd grabbed bits of the scene and collaged it together in a more creative way to add tension.
07:08Are you going to be doing that today?
07:09I'm planning on doing something similar to that but I do want to interpret the people
07:13and include them as part of the landscape.
07:16Who knows? Could be a mess. I'll try my best.
07:19I didn't mean for that to rhyme.
07:21When I paint a landscape I'm aiming for a sense of the place.
07:25I either start with orange, red, yellow, something to get a feel of what I'm looking at.
07:32Professional painter Lesley Banks studied fine art at Glasgow School of Art.
07:37Her submission in oils is a nocturne painted on a recent journey to Italy's Cinque Terre.
07:44Her submission in oils is a nocturne painted on a recent journey to Italy's Cinque Terre.
07:50And uses heightened colour to illuminate the village of Vernazza at night.
07:56Lesley you started with this kind of quite fierce orange colour that's really dictating
08:01the warmth level of the picture but is it a colour you normally work with?
08:04Yeah I rarely start with a white canvas so it would either be an orangey colour, red, maybe yellow.
08:11And I mean the colour in your submission, the nocturnal blue sky is absolutely gorgeous
08:16with the lightness of touch which is quite different to the rest of the picture, it's more abstracted.
08:20Are you going to have that quality here today where you have like the
08:23more described things and then the looser?
08:25Hopefully. I've been trying to loosen up and focus on
08:29areas of the painting that can be quite tight. That's the plan.
08:34That's a lot of windows. I mean that's a lot of windows.
08:38I don't think we've been in a landscape which has so much repetition in it.
08:41So yes, a lot of windows, a lot of rectangular windows, a lot of round windows.
08:45Yeah, it's like a play school.
08:47A lot of conical topiary, a lot of repetition in the garden.
08:51So it's a lot of stuff?
08:53Yes.
08:55And my heart bleeds for our artists as usual.
08:59Also, as the pods get closer to the building, the building looms larger in their vision.
09:03So the artists at the far end are predominantly garden with a building at the end.
09:09At this end, it's building, building, building.
09:13I hadn't even thought of that yet.
09:15That's why I'm here.
09:17It's like a mathematical equation, the whole place.
09:19So we're hoping to get a bit of that reflected in the paintings
09:21but we'd also like to see the artists be creative and work their way through it.
09:26And produce something interesting.
09:28So yes, all to play for.
09:30It's exciting.
09:38I would say I'm a figurative, traditional painter.
09:42But I like to Frankenstein things together from memory or from life.
09:46Today is quite tricky because it's all about the angles.
09:50And I like to make the composition exactly how I want it.
09:56Illustrator Imogen Slater studied art history at Cambridge
10:00and has a Masters in Fine Art from the New York Academy of Art.
10:04Imogen's submission, a painting within a painting of two figures
10:08caught between natural and virtual worlds,
10:12captures her interest in illusion and took several days to complete.
10:17Morning, Imogen. Morning.
10:19I see you've just been for a walk.
10:21Yeah, I want to make sure I've got as many different perspectives
10:25to check that I've got the right composition.
10:27OK.
10:29Down by the stairs, there are some really amazing angles.
10:31Yeah.
10:33Especially that hedge there that meets it.
10:35OK.
10:37And I'm looking at this lovely sketch here
10:39and it reminds me of your wonderful submission.
10:41You've got that lovely sense of perspective and depth in that as well.
10:44And, of course, I can't forget the strange figures lying on the ground.
10:48It's so full of story.
10:50Does your work always tend to have that level of drama?
10:52I would like there to be a level of drama,
10:54even if it's just in the perspective.
10:56OK.
10:58Yeah. I don't know. We'll see.
11:06My style, I guess, is impressionistic.
11:08I like to use kind of painterly brush effects
11:10and not pay attention to perspective
11:12or stuff having to look exactly as it appears in front of me.
11:18During the day, Ben McGregor runs a luxury furniture company
11:20and in the evenings and weekends,
11:22he turns to his love of painting.
11:24Ben's submission is of a road
11:26in the Wiltshire countryside
11:28as the late afternoon sun coloured the landscape
11:30and is rendered in his semi-abstract,
11:32slightly sketchy style.
11:34It's a bit like a painting.
11:36It's a bit like a painting.
11:39It's a bit like a painting.
11:41It's a semi-abstract, slightly psychedelic style.
11:43Ben, hello.
11:45Hi, Jay.
11:47On this sweltering day in Hampton Court.
11:49Hello.
11:51I was just looking at how you set up your painting today.
11:53You're avoiding any built up area, really.
11:55Well, I have decided to tackle the palace, partially.
11:57Because I...
11:59Yeah.
12:01I don't want to just ignore it.
12:03I think it's important that I show that I can
12:05do something that isn't organic.
12:07very weird and I must say the way you put paint down is very idiosyncratic but
12:12it's intriguing yeah you're almost putting down paint to confuse us a bit
12:16a little bit yeah I like to abstract the landscape enough I mean I like to just
12:20go for it
12:26our eight artists aren't the only ones painting today at Hampton Court setting
12:34up around the fountain across from the pods are our 50 landscape artist
12:38wildcards and they've come prepared so I brought with me a 30 year old diesel
12:44that I bought in Edinburgh when I was a student in the 90s but it has been in
12:48my garage for a while so it's very happy to be in the open air my oil paint will
12:56start melting sooner but I've got an umbrella for that so I hope it's not
13:01gonna be too rainy I've no lucky charms with me but I've got loads of snacks to
13:07keep me going and my lunch meal deal
13:15fascinated to see what you're working with this is like packaging from your
13:19house you've bought no it's a couple books from the skips at Hampton Court
13:23Palace so everyone else comes to Hampton Court Palace for a very kind of genteel
13:26touristy day out and you kind of went straight away bin diving I got someone
13:29else to bin dive very good very Marcel Duchamp just one of these wild cards
13:36will be in the running for a coveted place in this year's semi-final and
13:40flattery will get them everywhere you have a really good name what do you mean
13:46your name and my husband's called Steven what's the surname mangled you're
13:50kidding your partner's called Steven mangled yeah yeah that's hilarious
14:00I'm not doing very fast work at the minute I should be a little bit further
14:12along by now but I think the heat isn't helping
14:19it looks like I haven't done that much now but hopefully when I've collaged in
14:24some elements that will take up a lot of space
14:31I'm going to try not to do too much detail on the palace there will be some
14:36areas I'll just leave quite loose thought I'd be further on so we'll see
14:41how it goes
14:55at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey things are heating up for our eight artists
15:00it's hard-working conditions and our next competitor is trying her best to
15:07keep her cool I think the building is a little bit daunting because there's a
15:12lot of order I think I want to put a lot of emphasis on the gardens because I
15:15thought that's the main feature of the space to me after completing a master's
15:21after completing a master's at Oxford School of Architecture
15:25Hannah Day now designs and develops adventure leisure spaces in her
15:30submission a street scene of lower Manhattan in New York City she
15:34exaggerates vibrant tones to give the piece energy welcome to heatwave Hampton
15:42Court Palace thank you very much loved your underpainting this very fierce
15:46orange coral color I think it really helps to contrast with the green mm-hmm
15:51I think what we loved about your submission was the brightness and the
15:53flatness of that blue sky it takes us slightly into a different space it was
15:57more creative more imaginative and I can already see that treatment coming into
16:01play here with this brilliant composition where you've shoved the
16:04building right over there yeah I'm very much on purpose I think the gardens is
16:09what sings I feel like it should be celebrated in this I really hope you can
16:13pull this off Hannah I really like working with charcoal pencils and a few
16:25pastels you can have a great set of dynamic going on with the really dark
16:30shades and a little bit of color I might grow out of black and white eventually
16:33but who knows Barry Lowenhoff studied graphic design at Canterbury College of
16:39Art and enjoyed a 45 year career as a graphic designer his submission in
16:45watercolor charcoal and pastel of a small waterfall in Connemara Western
16:50Ireland uses both bold and light marks to create a sense of movement in the
16:55landscape Barry you put in this rather lovely loose is it watercolor it's
17:02actually watercolor and liquid charcoal it does have a nice it looks very
17:06paintedly and lovely um let's talk about your submission you've got the
17:09water and then they've got the texture of the pine trees mmm you wish you were
17:13there we loved it for those choices you made you're working with a graphic
17:19material yes and I got this feeling with you the trees and the water you really
17:23like getting your teeth into those is there something here that you can get
17:25your teeth into I think so but I won't have the same sense of movement as that
17:31has got but you know hopefully with a few random marks I can give it a bit of
17:36life well I'm looking forward to your solution to a kind of interesting
17:40problem I just love mixing colors really I am attracted to oranges and the and
17:53those complementaries with the blues and purples and I just love putting things
17:59next to each other even if they're not really there Jill Hurst has a master's
18:05in fashion and textiles from Brighton Polytechnic and went on to a career in
18:10textile design her submission in acrylics is of a flower garden in
18:15Brighton's Stanmer Park and captures variation in color and form using the
18:20pinks and textures of the surrounding buildings
18:24Jill it's quite a view isn't it it is it's amazing it's got so much in it we
18:30know you love color of course we could see that in your submission I thought
18:32what was so gorgeous about this it was very descriptive I guess you got the
18:35chance to do it again today particularly because there is lovely
18:39patches of color in the lawns you know the greens there's some acid greens
18:43there's some very subtle purples and bright purples and pinks yeah so it's
18:50going to be a build-up of yeah yeah and then eventually I'll try and get some
18:54detail I really hope you able to pull that off because there's quite an
18:58amazing story to tell isn't there yeah there is I'm painting in oils I've got
19:08so used to using them over the years that I can play around change colors all
19:11the time if I need to I want it to get a feeling of mystery to it after four
19:17decades working as an artist and art tutor John Shave is now enjoying
19:21painting through his retirement his submission captured from the upstairs
19:26window of a house on Romney Marsh in Kent is an enigmatic scene of a snowy
19:31field bathed in vivid yellow orange winter Sun good morning John you've
19:38raced ahead haven't you I'd like to just fill up the canvas with color for a
19:41start and it's just a matter of readjusting so I mean one of the things
19:44we really loved about your submission is there's a lot of freshness to it that
19:48feels quite cool you know quite temperate will you be looking to capture
19:52the heat today as well okay I feel that what I'm looking at is
19:55very very heavy it's very oppressive I might just add a little bit more of the
20:00dark colors into here a little bit more colorful just to make that dark area
20:05come alive a bit more down from the pods the wild cards are also coming up with
20:14standout ways of tackling the view I mean I'm looking at this and it's really
20:19bouncing and singing I really enjoy seeing where color can go and I think
20:25the neon always brings out something different yeah my eyeballs are popping
20:29thank you you're welcome
20:33are you having a nice day Steven anyone asked for me tell them you haven't seen
20:38me okay do you'd like to paint I can't paint don't tell anybody do you know I
20:44host a painting show I've seen you yeah
20:55it's gonna be a bit of a challenge compressing the landscape and trying to
20:58get it wide and broad get as much of the garden in as possible I'm not making as
21:07much progress as I would like I really want to finish off all of the layouts
21:13and then start putting in the tone with more three-dimensional feels and looks
21:17so I need to get a move on basically I've been trying to sort out this garden
21:27which is immaculate but mine looks a bit swirly I just hope I can bring it
21:32together so it doesn't just look like lots of marks on a page
21:48at Hampton Court eight artists are halfway through painting the palace's
21:54east front and privy garden hello hello Hannah to the oven how you getting on
22:03I'm trying to show the fullness of the garden without having to put every leaf
22:08and flower in right it's just now to get the detail and also not overworking it
22:12the classic classic conundrum yeah
22:27I started off this morning with these background buildings over there behind
22:32that gateway and I've left them dark so that my light in the focal point is
22:36going to stand out even more
22:43my paints are not very well and all my brushes they've just turned into like
22:50treacle really so it's like painting the treacle or concrete so I'm having to use
22:57a lot of paint but it'll be alright
23:02what a setting but for an artist at majestic or a right royal pain there's
23:07so much symmetry so many different perspectives we've also put them in a
23:12difficult position because they're having to deal with the formality of the
23:15garden as it's meant to be but with the reality of the angle that they've got
23:19looking at it it's interesting to see who's gone for that feeling of heat you
23:23can definitely feel in Leslie's can you yeah I think Leslie's orange ground has
23:27a real sense of heat which is only going to build as the afternoon goes on I just
23:31hope that she can keep it loose I think with the elaborateness of what she's
23:35looking at she could quite easily get bogged down in all the detail
23:38particularly of the topiary Barry's behind yeah I think it'd be quite
23:42interesting if you could carefully work his way around the page just giving us
23:46enough detail to offset that painterly washes put down I mean that's what his
23:50submission worked up I haven't given up on him completely yet I mean he wants to
23:54use charcoal he could get some beautiful flourishes with that he can do an awful
23:57lot with not very many marks but there's no denying the fact he's just gone far
24:02too slowly Jill's struggling with the paint the heat she says it's drying very
24:06quickly it's impossible the paints dry before they've even thought to get out
24:10of the tube the thing with Jill is that in her submission it's pretty much the
24:13scene that we've got today you know lovely grounds flowers and then in the
24:18distance a red brick building I like Jill's sense of color there's something
24:23about being in the heat where things are vibrating and the way Jill uses color
24:28you've sensed the shimmering heat these are big gardens it's a big building but
24:33John has made it seem even more vast and even more epic well John's given us
24:37this very dark foreboding scene but it still feels like Hampton Court Palace
24:41it's just a fresher looser version of it it's very strange standing out there in
24:46the white shimmering heat and John's brought the tonality right down the
24:49colors are much darker which I don't feel is batch cooking I think what's
24:55interesting with batches that he's done his research and he's found all these
24:58books on Hampton Court itself and the royal palaces and he's using them in the
25:02collage it's forethought I'm surprised that batch hasn't maybe put down more of
25:07a wash or something to get us into a painterly mindset just to sort of take
25:12us away from this very stark emptiness Hannah seems to have shrunk the house
25:17and enlarged the garden you happy with that I love the way that she's created
25:21these interesting sight lines across the garden she's really understood what's
25:24fascinating about the space the way she puts paint down it's delicious I mean
25:29really goes on nicely Ben's giving us 50 shades of green I mean I think Ben is
25:34essentially an abstract artist this is if he's building a tapestry with
25:37different stitches in each little organic shape that he's created I mean
25:41it's fabulously bonkers really it's like he sat there sort of digested the scene
25:46and it's come out organically I don't feel that it has the order or structure
25:50or geometry of this but it is a sense of the space in terms of how the eye moves
25:55across the landscape Imogen's submission showed architectural clean lines with a
26:01bit of greenery as well she's found that hasn't she again I salute Imogen for
26:06finding a scene that was interesting to her you know this lovely sort of doorway
26:09leading to somewhere else or something out of a fairy tale and the steps
26:12leading down I just think she's incredibly behind yeah Imogen was sort
26:17of very nervous I think just took a long time to work her way around what we'd
26:22given her and then eventually found it somewhere completely different I think
26:26what she's got is intriguing but we need a bit more
26:36I got the quill out and I just started putting the marks down and I've started
26:40using collage to put in the palace and match some of the tones that I'm seeing
26:45I just want this piece to sort of convey the chaoticness of today which is like
26:49there's a lot of people it's really hot
27:00Oh Barry look at that you were so behind earlier now look at it it's quite a
27:06limited palette apart from the sky yeah yeah what's the thinking there it's like
27:10looking at a black-and-white film or seeing a black-and-white photograph they
27:13can be really fantastic aren't they and I love the idea of trying to tease
27:17things out and making things look really rich and beautiful
27:27I've given the palace a slightly more pinky hue rather than going that deep
27:32orange because I don't want it to feel too heavy at the top of the painting I
27:36like the way it's coming together and it's painterly and abstract and quite
27:40true to my style
27:47Best known as one of Henry VIII's favourite residences and for its own
27:51impressive art collection Hampton Court Palace owes much of its appearance today
27:56to two later monarchs Mary the second and her husband William the third who
28:02reigned together from 1689 until Mary's death in 1694
28:07a big problem for William was that he had asthma and couldn't live in central
28:14London they came and visited Hampton Court and William loved it the aging
28:21palace needed renovation unable to afford a complete rebuild the royal
28:26couple hired superstar architect Sir Christopher Wren to design an extension
28:31in the dramatic new baroque style Wren was really involved in building st.
28:37Paul's Cathedral but he was also incredibly keen to have a hand at trying
28:43to build a royal palace as well as well as a grand new facade William and Mary
28:48commissioned his and hers apartments each reached by a grand staircase Mary
28:54had luxurious tastes and William liked all of the traditional trappings of a
29:00king he even had rooms for his closest friends his favorites by updating the
29:06dilapidated palace William and Mary not only created a contemporary home but
29:11also ensured the building's future I think if William and Mary hadn't come
29:16in and built this incredible extension Hampton Court may have just fallen into
29:20further ruin and this palace may not be here today
29:29in front of the baroque palace the wild cards are also styling it out with their
29:35artworks I'm doing mixed-media so I had to bring basically half my house with me
29:42it's not as practical as in my study but all good fun and as the end of their
29:50challenge approaches the judges are checking on their efforts you're looking
29:54very cool calm and collected at this point is that because you finished yeah
29:58it's as done as it can be I overheated today little made the decision making a
30:04little bit harder you know I'm talking to other artists if they look at those
30:10windows I think oh my god I could put all the windows in you don't have to do
30:13that not with the watercolor I've just been watching you put that blue into the
30:16shadows and it's just so yummy the way it sits on the paper but only one wild
30:22card will win
30:25that's the big one I've been admiring one day very good chance
30:32there's this one
30:35which isn't bad at all I rather like this one and Sue Smith's romantic
30:51atmospheric depiction is the judges favorite today's all about excess it's
30:56all about too much and actually there you just reduce it's really nice and
30:59quiet and sort of full of mood so well done I just can't believe it I'm so
31:09overwhelmed and so excited I think that's because of the heat I wasn't
31:14making the right decisions and so I never thought in a million years that
31:18I'd win sue from East Sussex enters a pool of wildcard winners from all the
31:24heats one of whom will be picked to paint in the semi-final
31:35back in the pods the artists are soldiering on with a bit of support from
31:40the family wave guys I've just added the purple for the lavender I think actually
31:51the palace has turned out quite well with the stripy flower pots and that was
31:55a bit of a risk hopefully that's paid off
32:01it was always the intention to leave the orange ground shining through I'm trying
32:06to establish the the gardens and the many many pointy hedges same of the
32:13windows just trying to suggest the windows as opposed to do too much
32:24what I've got left to do is the thing that I've been avoiding which is the
32:28actual palace do not feel like I'm on track at all I feel like I am for the
32:34chop at this rate
32:43you
32:52eight artists are nearing the end of their four-hour challenge at Hampton
32:57Court Palace in Surrey so we're getting to the sharp end of this day the axe is
33:04about to fall sorry amberlin how to the wire are you
33:09probably all the way I just realized you are using acrylics which also tried in
33:20about three seconds I think I probably used about 200 pounds worth of paint
33:24just from drying out it's almost done and I don't want to go too far because I
33:35might overwork it and it'll get into a white old pickle then you're gonna
33:43finish on time I think this is more or less got to be it or I'm gonna start
33:47footering it's gonna start war it's got his word for messing about
33:51footering footering I might be in danger of overworking so I'm not gonna make any
34:01more rash decisions artists you have five minutes five minutes tell him to go
34:10away will you
34:15just a little bit of tidying up I think before I yeah press stop it's not where
34:23I would like to be I don't think I will finish
34:31artists your time is up please stop what you're doing and step away from your
34:36artworks
35:01just one of today's eight artists will win this heat and be one step closer to
35:06the coveted title of landscape artist of the year and a £10,000 prize
35:11Commission for London's Courtauld gallery our winner will travel to the
35:18south of France an area that has inspired generations of artists with its
35:23brilliant light and rich colors
35:27they'll retrace the steps of some of the greats of art history like impressionist
35:32Bert Morisot who began work on the Porte of Nice in 1881
35:38Bert Morisot very very important female artist many people think about Monet
35:45and Pissarro but she was there right at the start and in this painting itself we
35:50see her trying to capture the movement and the light on the water so everything
35:54is very tentative and that's that fleeting moment that the impressionists
36:00were so keen to capture Morisot was quite unusual and being a woman that
36:04continued to paint after she got married and take her place in amongst important
36:08senior men and we're looking for an artist who is equally unafraid to take
36:13their place at the table with those great artists that painted all those
36:17scenes down there
36:25for now in Surrey it's time for the judges to look at the eight finished
36:30works to help decide which artists to send through to this year's semi-final
36:34their selection is narrowed to a shortlist of three it's like a day of
36:40dealing with the kind of rigid conformity and the formal quality of
36:45those gardens in that building and then the kind of artistic desire and
36:48imagination and will of the artist to bend it somehow
36:51Leslie chose this fantastic vibrant orange that really helps lift this picture
36:56I loved when artists play with the underpainting using a loud color to work
37:00against here it infuses the whole building and makes it slightly unreal
37:07it's interesting seeing how Barry worked this one out I think the house today
37:13just got on top of him but I do like the mood of this monochrome yeah I love the
37:18mood I think ultimately what we're seeing is something half finished with
37:21more time he could have taken it where he wanted it to go
37:25Jill's just I mean it's a riotous celebration of color and topiary and
37:31these wonderful purples and the yellows way way more colorful than what we had
37:35in front of us today yeah I think Jill's got the heat the shimmering of the
37:40colors as they bounce against each other it's fantastic
37:44where John I mean where are we where has he taken us I find it quite fearful and
37:51foreboding and for someone who depicts nature in truthfulness he's completely
37:56created an imaginary place it's got a very full-on quality to it with this
38:00luscious paint and quite pretty color treatment particularly in the sky with
38:04that gorgeous lilac I think Batch's work is charming I think it's helped by these
38:11painterly qualities but I'm not getting a strong landscape breathing on this
38:15it's very difficult to compare it to other things I like this journalistic
38:20multimedia approach to what is happening today it's about place but it's about
38:24the people within the place and I find it amusing and entertaining
38:31there are so many funny moments in Hannah's painting aren't there I mean
38:34those chimneys that pop up behind the hedge there it's sort of quirky it's a
38:38really charming work I think it's charming it's amusingly done in the
38:41beginning the orange underpainting it looked more contemporary it was it was
38:44going in a different direction and with the painting out of that orange it's
38:48become more traditional more more conservative
38:53whereas you look at Ben and it really is quite obviously quirky I mean he sort of
38:57found this higgledy-piggledy land some of the topiary look like lollipops
39:01they've got a kind of Willy Wonka quality it feels weird and organic and
39:05psychedelic but it's very well thought through and structured
39:11Imogen's found this really great view and this picture has so much promise
39:14because you can almost sense the weird light that it would have had by the time
39:18she finished it yeah with Imogen it's quite interesting she's come up with a
39:21really clever way of showing us the weirdness of the garden and the
39:26geometry of the house it's remarkable how little she's done and how much she's
39:31saying
39:39artists congratulations on a fantastic day it's been an absolute pleasure
39:43watching you work the judges have decided on a short list of three the
39:50first artist is Jill Hurst
40:02the second artist on the shortlist is
40:08Hannah Day
40:17the third artist is Ben McGregor
40:37I didn't expect that at all so I'm really pleased it's a nice validation to
40:40know that you've done good work
40:50the judges now have the unenviable task of picking today's winner only one
40:56artist can go through to the semi-final to help them they also consider the
41:00selected artists submissions well it's interesting that the three shortlisted
41:08artists none of them really made the building the main event of their
41:11paintings so the best way to deal with the building was to slightly ignore it
41:14there's three fantastic pictures of the garden which also include the building I
41:18find with Jill's painting the initial reaction is how beautiful I want to be
41:22in that garden but the more I look at them the more kind of overwhelming they
41:25become because there's so much color there's so many plants there's so much
41:28going on it's just an abundance isn't it there's a joy in color and that joy
41:33spills out of the work really yeah there are these lovely passages of yellow in
41:37the paintings today you know I definitely saw the purple of the
41:40lavender spotted here and there but she's made up these little bits that
41:44allow us to take these serpentine movements through the foliage
41:47Hannah gave us that obviously interested in color as well yeah that architectural
41:54New York scene and now an architectural garden the strangeness of them comes
41:59maybe through the saturation of the color and through the language of the
42:03painting so there's something definitely mildly quirky about Hannah we can't
42:08entirely put our finger on but we find very enticing as we're standing here I
42:12realized how many similarities there are in terms of repetition vertical
42:15disruptions a sense of space I think the quirkiness is you know the amount of
42:20windows she's painted in both these paintings extraordinary Ben's work is
42:24really imaginative and interesting I mean his submission those figures with
42:28that that child is hugging the man with his mouth open on the top right what do
42:34you see that this figure here looks like someone burying their head in someone's
42:39shoulder about that and the person behind is but so I see things when I
42:46look at Ben's work what do you make it of his there you go I mean he has a real
42:52particular vision doesn't he and he's seen it through he wrestled with the
42:56building and he was like right you can go in but you're only getting two inches
42:59at the top it is very believable actually in creating a sense of distance
43:03in a landscape which otherwise has very few reference points it's like we've
43:06stepped off the table with the Mad Hatter's tea party and we've gone into
43:10this crazy garden and the Queen's gonna come out and shout off with his head it
43:14is mad it is like a tapestry but it's foam filled so every little distinct
43:18section it is like a little cushion
43:29Jill Hannah Ben you should be incredibly proud to have got this far the judges
43:35have had a very difficult decision to make today but the artist going through
43:40to the semi-final is
43:48Ben McGregor
43:51I'm unbelievably happy to have gone through so so happy such an honor Ben
44:13made such a great decision early on he was fascinated by this garden and he
44:17really showed it to us in this exaggerated way through these shapes
44:20and forms and really it was a master class in being able to say this is what
44:24interests me and I'll make it interesting to you too I think Ben's got
44:28a very exciting language and we want to send someone down to the south of France
44:31who knows who they are as an artist who is confident who could really grow and
44:35blossom I can't even tell you how much of a confidence boost this is as an
44:45artist I struggle with confidence in my own work so yeah it's absolutely huge
44:51for me if you'd like to be a pod artist in next year's competition or want to
44:57find out more about the work of our featured artists visit our website
45:02SkyArtsArtistOfTheYear.tv
45:07next time we're in Llanberis in North Wales with eight new artists ready to
45:14take the plunge I'm going using sketchy techniques and bold moves I need a black
45:23on my palette or else I'm not painting at all who will be deep in trouble so
45:29I'm feeling a bit panicked just because there's a lot to resolve in a very short
45:32space of time and who will be ending on a high even just an hour it would have
45:37been perfect but I think I can get it done