West Wycombe House in Buckinghamshire was the site for
Episode 5 pf Season Six of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year filmed last summer and broadcast in 2021
This is a review of that episode which, as always, considers:
- the location and weather
- the artists profiles
- themes arising during the episode
- who was shortlisted and who won.
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| Artists are still being asked to stand in front of their paintings - and obscure them! |
LAOTY Episode 5 at West Wycombe House in Buckinghamshire
Location
The location this week was
West Wycombe House
- which is looked after by the National Trust
This is a RANT! I've got a major issue about where the pods were
located.
They were MUCH TOO CLOSE to the REAR of a large and complex stately home
which should have been viewed much more from a distance - and from the
front!
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How to have your nose up close to a flat facade - with columns.
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Kathleen asked at the beginning
What are these artists going to make of a traditional English
landscape?"
Well for starters this view was absolutely nothing like a traditional English landscape! In fact there was precious little "land" about it.
- This particular view
was entirely of a Palladian house inspired by Italian villas of the
Renaissance with a bit of grass and a tree!!! I think even the tree might be a
non-native species!
- Notwithstanding it's also located in the middle of a landscape designed parkland - so again not a "traditional English landscape" as in that experienced by the many and not the few!!
- Making the question posed very odd indeed.
She then went on to say that the artists needed to get to grips with
proportion / scale / perspective and monumentality - and the geometrically
challenging dimensions. Monumental was a word which kept coming up in the
programme.
"Why?" is the simple question I would ask. The commission this year is about
open landscape in Wales. It has got absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with
stately homes!
If the deal with the NT was that the house needed to be included in one of
the views in one of the heats then proportion/ scale and perspective are
just as challenging from a considerably more distant view - which would also
have allowed for it to be seen in the context of the Estate.
(For example - produced by one of the pod artists in preparation for the
heat!)
The view selected was also a classic of the "mistakes amateurs make"
variety. Much too full on and OTT - so that most of the artists had a completely
flat view - as in there was so much house, there wasn't much inspiring by
way of an alternative.
Rory Brooke captured it extremely well in his blog post.
I convinced myself they would put the pods near West Wycombe Park lake
with long views and interesting reflections. Instead we were on a sort
of amphitheatre shaped sloping lawn close up to the façade of the house.
It was like having to sit in the front row of a cinema with the action
uncomfortably close.
I was utterly gobsmacked when I saw what the artists were looking at. If it had been me, I'd have got my iPad, got up, walked a very long
way away from the house (probably all the way round to the other side) and
taken a photo, brought it back and worked from that.
That's because there was absolutely no way they were going to get excellent
landscape paintings given where the pods were located. They might
produce "so so" paintings - but that's not what a heat should be about. We
should be seeing the best artists can do given a decent subject to paint.
Interestingly I don't think the Judges have any say in where the pods were
located - based on some of the things Tai said (and I think he was equally
appalled by their location!). As in......
"I'd run a mile. I'd be looking for exit routes"
Tai Shan Schierenberg (when asked how he would deal with this view
I'm just a bit overwhelmed by how much house we're getting!
Tai Shan Schierenberg (voiced at the view of the completed paintings)
If he wanted less house the pods should have been much further away!
Weather
To top it off, the flat colonnaded facade of the house was complemented by
the completely flat light associated with a cloudy day. As in the nightmare
scenario of very little tonal pattern and no focus of interest.
There was no guarantee that the weather would change and most of the
decisions about how to proceed had to be made within the context of this
awful view on a very disappointing day for light.
It also brightened up in the afternoon - which then created the "do I / don't I change the painting because it's now got shadows?" conundrum
I really felt for the artists. I just knew this was going to be one of those
"I did my best in front of an uninspiring subject on a very dull day" sort of day.
The Artists
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The socially distanced pod artists on a break
- on the other much more interesting side of the house!!
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For more detail see below. Links to their websites are embedded in their
names (if they have one) and social media links follow plus a profile based
on available information online.
Professional Artists
Three professional artists participated in the pods for this episode.
They were:
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Clare Lord (Facebook |
Instagram) - Raised in North Yorkshire, she's now based in Staffordshire. Used to be a head mistress but she now works as a full time artist and art teacher from her studio outside
Milwich in Staffordshire. She is an artist who loves to work outdoors.
She also doesn't mind painting larger artworks and complex
structures. Below is a pencil version of the scene she painted for
her submission
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Eden Mullane
(Facebook
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Instagram) - Eden is an
Artist and Textiles Designer with a First Class Degree in Textiles:
Design & Innovation from Loughborough University who lives in Norfolk. She has a mixed cultural heritage
and her submission was about her grandmother's family home in Jamaica.
She likes exotic foliage and painting with bright tropical
colours. Her artwork becomes the inspiration for her textile
designs.
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Dawn Blatherwick (Facebook
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Instagram) - Dawn previously took part as a Wildcard Artist at Fountains Abbery
- which is when the nickname for the pod artists was born. A pod artist
was called a "God in a Pod" - and this time around Dawn had been
elevated to being one of them.
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from left to right:
Dawn Blatherwick, Claire Lord, Tilly
Commons, Gary Ite, Rory Brooke and Eden Mullane
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Amateur Artists
Three amateur artists were "Gods in the Pods" in this episode. They
were:
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Rory Brooke
(Facebook
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Instagram) Brough up in Wandsworth and graduated in Maths and Economics from
York University. Now works as a Property Economist and lives in East
London. However he is also a the founder member and first chair
of
East London Printmakers. Oddly I think I once (many moons ago) authorised a grant to
rehabilitate the building the print studios of East London Printmakers
- which is not far from where I live! I've started studying their
courses with some considerable interest! RECOMMENDED READS: He's also
written two blog post about how he prepared to silkscreen in a
pod - see
I was inspired by
Birmingham Print Workshop
and sought out fellow printmaker artists in East London with a
common interest in promoting printmaking and developing resources
for artists and the community to use.
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Gary Eite (Instagram) - Based in Kenilworth in Warwickshire. Works as a Chartered
Commercial Interior Designer and can certainly handle perspective and
brought his drawing board, set square and rulers with him. His
submission was an architectural drawing of an industrial interior done
in watercolour and marker pens
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Tilly Commons (Instagram |
Twitter |
Etsy) - Based in Evesham in Worcestershire. Tilly seems to take a
flexible approach to her second name. She prefers less considered
aspects of landscapes - and likes drawing corners and alley ways. She
draws using pen and ink and marker pens for flat colour.
The Wildcards
