MAKING A MARK: Review: The Big Painting Challenge FINAL 2017

I was metaphorically on the edge of my seat last night watching the Final of The Big Painting Challenge on BBC1 - willing my prediction to do well.

Which was a bit silly when it dawned on me that this was filmed last summer and no amount of positive thoughts from me would have made any difference to the result!

However to my mind 'attitude' made a big difference to the result last night.

"Being in the Final, what it says to me is you shouldn't be so negative about your possibilities" David White

The Final Judgement

Not only did we have a worthy winner in Suman Kaur (who I had a lovely messaging chat with in the week - where she didn't betray a thing!).

We also saw four artists who had genuinely been - in those cliché words much beloved of TV people - "on a journey".

If you've missed my earlier blog posts about this series (and the last series) you can find them at the bottom of this post - along with links to the websites of all the participants in the series (including the Judges and Mentors - unmissable!).

Now for the final!

The Penultimate Challenge

The location was the Queen's House in Greenwich - which is a magnificent building and a beautiful setting for this challenge.

Hearing that the Penultimate Challenge is a Portrait

The presenters indicated that

The final episode would contain two very different challenges which would show how far they had progressed during the series. (Let's not forget that the different aim of this series was a much more educational slant to the programmes and continuous mentoring throughout up until this point.)
The ultimate aim was to identify the Finest Amateur Artist of 2017. (I'm guessing this is because Sky has already nabbed the Artist of the Year title - and this BBC series wants to emphasise its relationship with amateur artists across the country).

The Finalists were also told that the big difference in the Final was that the Mentors would NOT be able to counsel and coach - and they were on their own for the first time. That was a smart move - it made the first five episodes seem like lessons and tests and this was "The Big Exam" at the end of term!

So the first challenge was to be a portrait - but they were not told who was going to be the subject. So much speculation with the favourite being that they were going to paint their mentors.

They had tips from the mentors

"Think about your strengths that you've got remember to keep looking, keep observing. Think about composition, could be the face, could be the whole thing, think about the background, think about colours. You're going to be on your own. Just have my voice in your head saying 'Do that, do that!'." Diana Ali

"If we can get this triangle right between the bottom of the nose and the centre of both the eyes, no matter whether it's square on face or three-quarter view, if you get that right you can kind of do anything you want with the painting. You;re going to do the best painting you've done so far - I'm 100% sure." Pascal

This challenge was WAY BETTER than the penultimate challenge from last year's series which was completely unrealistic in terms of subject matter and how people respond to it. You can't make people paint subjects that don't mean anything to them - especially when the subject is the Royal Naval College!

This year, the penultimate challenge of evoking an emotional response for a painting was so much simpler when the artists were given the chance to "paint a parent"! (Well done to the parents for agreeing to sit and be painted!)

The challenge was to paint a portrait in 3.5 hours AND:

to showcase all they have learned
to paint a portrait which demonstrates the character of the sitter

The overdub opined that painting parents can actually be a very real hindrance to painting a portrait BECAUSE of the emotional reaction. However I think the BBC forgot that compared to the challenges they had put painters in previous episodes this challenge apparently felt like a bit of a walk in the park. Well maybe not that relaxed - but definitely one which stimulated them to do well but without making them stress about the subject.

In fact, the presenters kept commenting on how much more relaxed the session was! Nobody was stressing out in a corner........

The episode also enabled the programme-makers to give a potted summary of "the progress the artists have made so far". They're particularly interesting on reflection because in a lot of ways they're not untypical of very many other amateur artists out there who have similar issues re. skills and areas they need to improve

The summaries went something like this....

Jennifer

her abstract style contributed to the success she had with the public panel
she's made big improvements in skills in observation and drawing
she recognises that she always needs to impress the judges if she's in a competition

David

A brave artist who is not afraid to experiment
On the other hand he has a tendency to "rampage through different styles"
His analytical approach tends to result in removing his emotional engagement with a subject

Alan

one of the most inexperienced artists in the competition
despite this he produced one of the strongest portraits in week 4
he has a willingness to listen and learn

Suman

wants to get it right all the time
her confidence in her own abilities has grown enormously through the series - because she won immunity three times
she has a strong desire to push herself and improve

I really want to emphasise how much I was impressed by all their portraits of their parents. I thought they were amazing - and particularly so for being done within the time limit.

For me they emphasised how much people had some of the artists had progressed during the series - with David's and Alan's paintings being the ones for me which showed the most progress in relation to how they were painting at the beginning - AND they were great portraits.

Portrait of Alan's Mother by Alan Tsang

The end of the first day - stood outside the Queens House, Greenwich
- hearing about the next challenge

"With the next challenge we're really pushing the boat out...." Meriel Frostrup

David wasn't far wrong when he said at the end of the last programme

"What will they have us do next - watercolour on roller-skates?" David

Mentors Tips

Since the Mentors were limited to Tips ONLY this week, it was interesting to see what they chose.

This time Diana decided to tailor her tips to the individuals.

Diana decided to try helping Jennifer with her observation and proportions. The technique of using a cut out in a piece of card to make marks to locate relative proportions and sizes is a good one. However only if you locate the top and bottom first - because otherwise everything varies depending on the distance you hold the card from your eyes - and that's an ESSENTIAL bit of information!
I liked the exercise she gave to Alan who always likes to think long and hard about what he's doing - and then seems to use the smallest brush possible when he starts to paint. She gave him a big brush, a big dollop of red paint and told him he could portray the scene in front of him using only 10 marks. I wasn't quite sure about her interpretation of what constituted a mark. However, it certainly got him thinking - and it resulted in a more interesting painting later on.

Pascal's painting with mops exercise was very funny but was just what two people who like to be precise needed to loosen up! I think he was making the point that you can apply paint with a lot more than brushes

#bigpaintingchallenge @bbcarts @mixital Experiment with ways of applying paint with stuff you might have at home. https://t.co/NIwBs2wRP3 pic.twitter.com/0DkaWh7tUx
— Pascal Anson (@iampascalanson) March 19, 2017

but you might find the clean-up afterwards a tad more challenging! This from the Producer....

Behind the scenes #bigpaintingchallenge little bit of a clean up needed after @iampascalanson exercise - the glamour of TV pic.twitter.com/wOLJ6Hdh9b
— Meriel Beale (@merielbeale) March 19, 2017

The Final Big Challenge

It doesn't get much bigger than being asked to paint the view portrayed by Canaletto. Just a reminder.....

Greenwich Hospital from the North Bank of the Thames (BHC1827) by Canaletto (1752)
oil on canvas, 686 mm x 1067 mm; Frame: 833 mm x 1217 mm x 60 mm
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection

You can see the real thing at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich (which is behind the hospital, to the right of the Queens House and below the Observatory!)

This is the view - with backlighting and great sky!

This is a view which has been painted many times before by various painters. To my mind asking them to paint it from a boat didn't do it justice as you need to stand back (i.e. as Canaletto did - on the opposite bank of the Thames) to get it 'in proportion'.
(I've provided a tip on where best to locate to paint this view on Facebook - basically go to Island Gardens via Docklands Light Railway or the slipway of the slipway of the Poplar, Blackwall & District Rowing Club ).

I'm trying to enjoy it and not get too worried about the situation David White

I'm going for a bit of energy. I think I've done realistic now... I feel like I need to do something slightly different. I just want to be free and have fun! Suman Kaur

I quite like these drips. It would be quite nice to let some of the under marks show through Alan Tsang

Plus points and perplexing points

It was great seeing

All of them use sketchbooks to try and work out what to paint on their canvas
The boys getting much more relaxed about how to apply paint to the canvas - it was quite a revelation!
Suman down on her hands and knees using a great big sponge to get a base coat of a coloured mid tone down on her canvas - FAST - to eliminate the white

The paint dripped down Alan's canvas and he didn't care!
His painting was probably the best in terms of colours of the subject
and he included some clouds. He has great colours in the water.

Some things that perplexed me expressed as queries below.

Set-up- created by the BBC

Looking directly into the sun became part of the challenge
Diana and Pascal had the same view as the artists

The set-up was directly into the sun - and yet nobody gave the artists sunglasses! You can get a blinding headache looking into the sun all the time. I assume nobody checked what the sun would be doing if you looking south for five hours at that time of day.....
The angle of their easels

Why with huge canvases do they have to peer round the end of the canvas to see the subject?
Why not angle them so they can look to and from subject to canvas and back again with ease?
If angles were all to suit the camera angles the BBC need "shooting"! Cameras should work around the artists not vice versa!!!

Weight on the easels

Why are these easels not weighed down so they can't fall over? Basic rule of painting plein air - don't let your easel fall over - use weights! These needed to be supplied by the BBC given the fact handy rocks are not close to hand!

Why did the BBC not supply panoramic canvases for a panoramic view? I couldn't see any.
Did anybody consult the tide timetables and provide information to the artists about whether the boat was going to be sinking or rising as they painted? (If they did I didn't hear it!)

What the artists found - a very tight set-up in very small space
given the amount of "studio extras" that have to be accommodated

Artists' behaviour

Why do the artists NEVER draw out the format of their canvas in their sketchbook so as to see better what view is best suited to that particular format of canvas? (Does nobody supply them with the size in inches or the format ratio or teach them about ratios?)
Why don't they increase the size of their brushes when they increase the size of their canvas? Huge brushes exist for a reason!
Why did NOBODY paint a great sky? One of the things about this view is that it seems to attract great clouds - and yet nobody seemed to have painted a good cloud - and clouds do balance a landscape!

A lot of these are down to the people making the programme rather than the artists. Let's hope they read this and make suitable notes for next time!

You can also add your queries and comments for BBC digestion below! :)

Landscape paintings

Painting Greenwich Hospital from a boat #1

On the day, for me it was between Suman and David - with Alan improving by the minute! Jennifer got the exact sort of subject she hates painting and was sea-sick to boot! To my mind she very rapidly became an 'also ran' which was a great pity as I had high hopes of her given her performance in recent episodes.

On review, and it was really difficult to tell while the programme was running, David's painting seemed better drawn but was very muted. Suman's painting was 'edgier', used colour better and included the odd detailed touches which can make a painting come alive. You can see the contrast in colour in the image with Daphne in below.

Painting Greenwich Hospital from a boat #2

Now bearing in mind I know this view well and have drawn it in the past and know the problems it presents......

David's painting of Greenwich
slightly odd composition and crop - but looks finished
great foreground and water (his water has perspective!)
however I think his buildings have stretched in the middle
and the hill in the background is absent (but when did he paint it - see below)

For example, how much you can see of the hill in Greenwich Park depends entirely on what height you are relative to the buildings - and whether your boat is rising or falling.........

(I wrote a comment in the middle of my note-taking which went "which clown thought a boat would be a good idea?" which I think came after it left Jennifer having to exit to be sick!)

Suman's painting of Greenwich
Close crop of the subject; great depth with the
Queens House and a bus in the background all obvious
Water is less wonderful overall (but good in parts);
Trees could do with being knocked back a bit for spatial perspective
the buildings either side and side of the painting are unfinished

The Final Judgement

A few people in the room for this one - with family and previous participants brought back for the Final Judgement.

Just a BIT TENSE!

I thought it was a real pity the exhibition of both portraits and landscapes was held on the boat because of the really weird lighting you get on boats. Everything is in shadow with very bright backlighting and the colours all get a very odd tint.

It would have been so much better if they'd held it in the room in the Queens House where they painted the portraits.

Daphne Todd commenting on Suman's portrait
(in the picture David's portrait and half his landscape and Suman's portrait and a bit of landscape)
Are the muted colours what was painted or due to the context of the lighting?

To be honest I thought, the final was a really close run thing. The challengers raised their game and each of the girls were not quite on top of their game as they had been in previous episodes - which made for a much more close run final than I was expecting.

(I felt really sorry for Jennifer suffering from motion sickness on the boat! That was a challenge too far in my book. I don't think we'll be seeing any more boats featuring in challenges which are about skill in painting and not whether you can keep control of your stomach contents!! There is a perfectly respectable public park across from the view which would have been a great place to hold the Final.)

I'm still not sure whether the judgement was in relation to just the Final - or the Final and everything that had gone before. For me the latter is always the fairest judgement, although in painting competitions it very often tends to be the painting you produce and submit which creates winners and those who just don't quite make the cut at the end of the day.

Judges comments were interesting and I'm reprising some of them below

Please note I've changed the colours slightly to get back to a proper white somewhere in the picture. Everything seemed to be cream colour on the television!