Films, documentaries and programmes about art and artists

In the current context, a lot of art is being consumed online - and some of that it is in the form of films documentaries and programmes about art and artists.

Below are some references to what you can find online or via your television screen.

The Royal Academy of Arts has done us all a favour and come up with a list of films and documentaries to watch - all about artists

You can find the listing here 10 artist movies and docs to watch on Netflix, Amazon Prime and more

To which I would add

British Film Institute

• National Gallery - available from BFI

Over a mesmerising three hours, Wiseman follows the intricate inner workings of a hugely complex organisation, from finance board meetings to the meticulous work of restorers and educators (most memorably in a scene of an art appreciation class for blind people). The rich, absorbing tapestry that unfolds ranks as one of Wiseman’s finest achievements and is required viewing for anyone with an interest in British cultural life.

Museums in quarantine

BBC iPlayer

• Museums in Quarantine (2020):
• Warhol - a last look at the Warhol exhibition at Tate Modern
• Rembrandt - the Young Rembrandt exhibition at the Ashmolean
• Tate Britain
• British Museum
• Titian: behind closed doors - Titian at the National Gallery
• The Billion Dollar Art Hunt (2020) - about the hunt for the Vermeer considered to be the most valuable stolen painting in the world. The art was taken from the walls of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in the early hours of 18 March 1990. It kept me rivited...
• Age of the Image (4 episodes - 2020) - James Fox examines how images have become more powerful – and less trusted – than ever before, from hyper-real paintings to movie special effects and deepfakes
• The Abstract Art Collection (various dates) - programmes about abstract artists
• Beardsley and his work (1982) - The life and work of Aubrey Beardsley, one of the world's most exciting graphic artists, whose drawings still retain their power to fascinate, to amuse and to shock.
• Bob Ross: The Happy Painter (2020) - Documentary that takes a behind-the-scenes look at American painter Bob Ross’s journey from humble beginnings to pop culture icon. I enjoyed this and I'm not a big Bob Ross fan!
• Francis Bacon: Fragments of a Portrait (1966) - Francis Bacon's paintings have been called sick and corrupt. He has also been hailed as the greatest British painter since Turner...
• The Visual Scene: Playing it Cool (1969) - new methods of making art - in 1969
• Whoever heard of a black artist: Britain's Hidden Art History (2018) - finding examples of black art in public collections 

and for those needing some Life drawing you can still Draw along with BBC Four's Life Drawing Live! (2020) as Pose Cam remains on the models throughout each session

I'll add more in as I find them.......

NOTE

I'm currently preoccupied with an essential project - hence why fewer posts than normal. 

 

Art and the Holocaust

Today is the International Holocaust Memorial Day - just as it is on 27 January every year. The day is also the anniversary of the day that Auschwitz-Birkenau - the largest Nazi death camp - was liberated.

The day is for remembering the 

• the 6 million Jews, 2 million Roma, 250,000 disabled people, and 9,000 homosexual men as well Sinti and Slavs and many others, who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Shoah - and the changed lives of those affected by the Holocaust.
• the millions of people who were killed or have been affected by the terrible crimes committed during conflicts in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Art and the Holocaust

My blog post today deals with art and the holocaust - and places online where you can find out more about it.

Art from the Holocaust falls into a number of categories

Below I note my previous blog posts on this topic and other ways that art associated with the Holocaust is being remembered today.

Art made by Jewish artists and others affected by the Holocaust

Six years ago, on 27 January 2015, I wrote about Art from Auschwitz - which includes drawings made by inmates of the camp

Pushing chairs
Black watercolours, cardboard, 13 x 20.8 cm, Paris 1945. 

Collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

The Imperial War Museum has a page about Artists' Responses to the Holocaust - which includes many images with explanation of who made them and what they are about - including images by British war artists.

The BBC in a (2016) article titled Art from the Holocaust: The stories behind the images covers the artists included in an exhibition at the German Historical Museum in Berlin in 2016.

Visual Arts Cork has an excellent ( as always) section on Holocaust Art (1933-1945) Artistic Images of the Shoah. This takes a slightly different view of categorisation i.e.

Holocaust art may be divided into three basic categories. (1) Propaganda imagery used by the German authorities to promote their ideology and prepare the public to accept and support their genocidal activities. (2) Images (mostly drawings) that record the individual experiences of victims of - or witnesses to - the holocaust. (3) Post-war art created at a later date in remembrance of the Holocaust as a general event, rather than to remember an individual experience. Typically this type of art consists either of official memorials (mostly sculpture), associated with specific places (concentration camps, city ghettos or places of deportation) or events (like the Warsaw Ghetto uprising); or works by individual artists, such as "The Holocaust" (1983, Legion of Honor Park, San Francisco) a white-painted bronze sculpture by George Segal.

If you want an in-depth discussion about holocaust art, this is a good place to start.

Google Arts and Culture in its Spotlight Article Art and the Holocaust reviews:

• Artists persecuted by the Nazis
• Artists who documented the atrocities of the Camps
• Art after the Holocaust

Today ART UK is doing its bit.

Between 1933 and the Second World War some 300 artists came to Britain

For Holocaust Memorial Day, we revisit Peter Wakelin's story about artist refugees and British art: https://t.co/9AhtqDqqhQ

'The Mutilated' by Jankel Adler (1895–1949) 📸 @Tate pic.twitter.com/VlXZhkfCqi

— Art UK (@artukdotorg) January 27, 2021

 

Art which commemorates those who survived

Seven years ago, in January 2014, I wrote about Drawings of Holocaust Survivors done in pen and ink by a young man and art student called Gideon Summerfield who had developed a project to draw Holocaust Survivors called "From Generation to Generation (L’Dor V’Dor)". Gideon is a Londoner who was part of the Young Artists programme at the Royal Drawing School between the ages of 12-17. Since then he has graduated from Cardiff School of Art and Design with a First Class Honours Degree in Illustration.

Art previously owned by Jewish families and confiscated by the Nazis

In 2017 I wrote about Adele Block Bauer and 'Woman in Gold'. The Klimt painting was 'nationalised' by the Nazis during the purge of the Jewish community

Google's doodle omission

I'm amazed at how Google failed completely to recognise the International Holocaust Memorial Day. I can't see any Google Doodle for today Indeed I reviewed the archive and Google has NEVER marked the Holocaust Memorial Day. 

Bernie Sanders and his mittens in Historical, Modern and Contemporary Art

The Bernie Sanders meme continues - and some of the best are those produced by art galleries and museums who have portrayed him within various paintings and artworks.

Now that Bernie himself has embraced the meme, put a picture of himself kitted out for cold weather on a sweatshirt which then sold out fast and donated the proceeds to feed low income senior citizens in Vermont - see Sanders hopes nation smitten by his mittens will back food charity push - I'm happy to write about it.

Chairman Sanders crewneck on his campaign store
100% of proceeds go toward Meals on Wheels Vermont

 
The art galleries and museums could also

• work with Bernie sanders to do likewise and
• sell sweatshirts of the Bernie meme to benefit those who need to use food banks at this very difficult time. 

Hence this post - suggesting just that......

In the meantime, here are a lot of rather inventive creations of

• art curators and social media employees of various art galleries and museums
• or highlighted by those art galleries and museums!
• their visitors
• various artists 

How about it museums and art galleries - and artists? 

How about giving some support for those who can't afford to eat right now?

Museum of Modern Art 

Bernie is present https://t.co/r4z2cpyVc1

— MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (@MuseumModernArt) January 20, 2021

But he's getting around the museum and popping up all over the place and creating new art

one and three bernies https://t.co/C7HyLqTXTh pic.twitter.com/g9v9VXoYge

— laura (@laurahillegas) January 21, 2021

The Phillips Collection

Review: Episode 2 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2021 at West Wycombe Park

The second episode of Series 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year in 2021 looked like an idyllic spot with lots of space for all concerned - and sunshine to boot!

My review below considers:

• the location and weather
• the artists profiles
• themes arising during the episode 
• who was shortlisted and who won

Episode 2 at West Wycombe Lake

The second episode was at the lake in West Wycombe Park - and this is the link to Episode 2

The Location

West Wycombe Lake in Buckinghamshire is set in 45 acres of landscaped parkland and part of the West Wycombe Park estate which has belonged to the Dashwood family since 1698. The house is now owned by the National Trust.

The nine acre lake is entirely man made and was designed to have the form of a swan.  Swans were seen swimming on the lake during the episode and swans seem to be a recurrent motif of the series so far!

Spot the swan - and the Temple of Music!

A lot of the artists seemed to be challenged by the curves of the classical architecture of the Music Temple. I don't think any of them got it right.

The Weather

They had a bright sunny day - albeit with a strong breeze / blustery wind which caused a few problems for some of the artists. 

The Artists

The Artists relaxing - in a socially distanced way - after they finished

The names of the artists below include links to their websites (if they exist) and social media sites are listed after their names. 

Professional Artists

There were four professional artists - of varying levels of education and experience:

• Dougie Adams (Instagram) -  A former Guardsman who was did three tours of Afghanistan but was discharged from the army in 2014 after being diagnosed with PTSD as a result of some of his experiences there. Enjoys painting landscapes plein air and also paints dogs. Selected for 'Art in the Aftermath' exhibition.
• Sophia Brook (Instagram) - b. 1984. Used to work as a qualified teacher until she began studying full time at Heatherley School of Art in West London in 2015. This is her submission Bay of Naples
• Renata Fernandez (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) - b. 1971, Venezuela. Based in London since 2003. Selected for the Lynn Painter Stainers Prize 2016 and 2018, Mall Galleries. Started to explore landscape painting in 2013.  Her blog has an irritating habit of not producing the image which has been trailed! These are her Artist Support Pledge artworks

I'm ready to do anything to make it work Renata

• Shaun Morris (Instagram) -  1990-1993 BA (Hons) Degree in Fine Art, Painting, University of Sunderland; 1994-1995 Master of Arts Degree in Fine Art, Painting, Norwich School of Art And Design. Shaun is a painter and printmaker from the Black Country whose aim is to attempt to depict an alternative landscape of contemporary Britain, one that explores the often overlooked physical and psychological spaces that we often pass through or occupy.  He works in series related to his interests and was a bit out of his comfort zone in this classical manmade landscape idyll. Good track record in terms of art competition, exhibiting and commission work from public bodies. You can see his final painting here - Disco Temple

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dougie Adams (@dougie_adams_art)

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by sophiabroke_art (@sophiabroke_art)

Amateur Artists

There were two amateur artists - who don't have their own websites.

• Kirandip Green (Instagram) A Laser Therapist working in the beauty industry in Birmingham. She likes to frame the scene in her landscape paintings.
• Rosemary Firth (Facebook | Instagram) Works in collage - using discarded artworks for her material. BA Fine Art Hull College of Art. Retired Art Teacher - left teaching to open an art gallery in Doncaster where she lives.  She now teaches art from her home. She lists her artwork on the Yorkshire Art website and has produced a book on producing collage artworks by recycling old artwork.

"(it's) much more fun than painting!" Rosemary 

Wildcard Artists

The Wildcard Artists

There were 50 wildcard artists. Obviously the parkland provided lots of space for suitable social distancing.

It turned out they included a lot of people who produced some very interesting artwork. Indeed, as is not unusual with this series, a number of the wildcard efforts, faced with the same view, were rather better than some of the work by pod artists

I do wonder whether the company who produce this programme have reviewed the process they use to choose artists who generate a good competition.  If not, maybe they'd like to ponder on the above....

Episode 2: Themes and Learning Points

As with all my other blog 'Artist of the Year' posts, I tried to detect some learning points within this episode - read on for more of these.

Today, these are:

• Interpretation - producing something different
• Things Tai-Shan Schierenberg does not like
• Shifting conditions / "The water keeps changing"
• Practice beforehand

Visit the London Art Fair - Online!

This weekend you can visit the London Art Fair Online.

It usually takes place at the Business Design Centre in Islington - but this year due to the pandemic and lockdown it had a virtual opening ONLINE on Wednesday 20th January (but I guess quite a few of were viewing another event on that day!) It continues until Sunday 31st January 2021.

However the London Art Fair offers 

• 63 leading Modern and Contemporary galleries in an alternative digital format.
• Each of the Galleries can feature up to 20 works per gallery

Works are presented with audio and written commentaries narrated by the galleries themselves, allowing you to interact with the works on show in an alternative format.

• This is ALSO an opportunity for artists to view the type of art which get shown at a leading art fair in the UK - without having to travel/pay to see it.

How to do you view the art galleries and the art?

London Art Fair - six of the galleries

Essentially, click the item in the menu which leads to the content you want to explore

• Viewing Rooms - takes you to the art gallery microsites
• the LAD Edit Programme - takes you to the range of events and offers also associated with this art fair e.g. 
• LAF Selects invites experts, collectors and prominent friends of the Fair to present their own personal highlights from the Viewing Rooms.
• LAF Workshops - provides a listing of online workshops on offer.
• LAF Talks - very focused on the art collector perspective. 

I think they'd have done better if they'd 

• developed some talks and workshops for artists 
• about how to deal with the current situation and share success stories about how to market art during the pandemic.

London Art Fair - what's on offer

A note about Art Fairs

I think it's safe to say that there are going to be few if any "usual" art fairs for most of this year. 

One of the key reasons is that it appears to be 

• very difficult to get public liability insurance for communicable diseases and 
• the insurance market is not offering Covid-19 cover for cancellation and business interruption. 

See this article in The Guardian Government stalls on insurance scheme for UK music festivals (which I picked up on following the cancellation of Glastonbury)

Virtual tour – Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul

Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch - The Loneliness of the Soul was due to run 15 November 2020 — 28 February 2021 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

She’s been a major figure in contemporary art for over 25 years; he pioneered a radical new style known as Expressionism. In this landmark exhibition, Tracey Emin selects masterpieces by Edvard Munch to show alongside her most recent paintings.

Tracy Emin / Edvard Munch at the Royal Academy of Arts

It got caught by the second lockdown, then by the Tier 4 rules and then by the third lockdown. Bookings to see it have now been suspended given there is no obvious prospect of it opening before it is due to close.

It's also apparent that the RA is having to review its programme of exhibitions for 2021.

Following the announcement of a third lockdown, we have made the difficult decision to suspend ticket bookings for Tracey Emin: The Loneliness of the Soul. We are currently reviewing our programme of exhibitions for 2021 and will share more information as soon as we can.

I'm not sure but I think the Royal Academy of Arts may have changed its approach to Virtual Tours of its exhibitions. I've got a vague recollection of an online tour being available - but subject to a charge

Now you can see a video of the hung exhibition - for free - but you are invited to make a donation of £15 to the cost of the exhibition.

I like Munch and I know some people love Tracy Emin - but she's never been one of those artists I'd go out of my way to see. Nevertheless: 

• here is how to see the VIDEO - Virtual tour – Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul
• plus the VIDEO Conversations on Contemporary Art | Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch

• plus the YouTube VIDEO - with narration by Tracy Emin 
• below is more information about the exhibition.

RA Website

• Exhibition website: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/tracey-emin-edvard-munch
• Article: Inside the exhibition: 'Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul'. By Tiffany Greenoak. Published 3 December 2020.
• Press Release

Reviews:

• The Art Newspaper: The Big Review—Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul - The British artist rekindles her love affair with the work of her favourite artist at the Royal Academy—and it is Emin whose voice emerges strongest
• Apollo Magazine: Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul - While some museums are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibitions will include shows at institutions that are currently open as well as digital projects providing virtual access to art and culture.
  
  
  
  27 Nov 2020
  
  28 Dec 2020

NEW £20,000 Portrait Prize + Last Call for Entries for Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2021

The Royal Society of Portrait Painters TODAY announced a BRAND NEW £20,000 PRIZE for Portraiture - BUT - and this is a big BUT - the deadline for entries is Monday 25th January 2021.

Portrait Artists Opportunities with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

NEW William Lock Portrait Prize

The NEW William Lock Portrait Prize awards £20,000 to the artist who submits 

the most timeless portrait with a real feeling for paint and its aesthetic potential

This pleases me enormously as it's rewarding people who can really PAINT - but is in no way prescriptive as to the type of paint to be used. I'm very sure it will be much appreciated by any number of other portrait painters.

This is a VERY new prize - it wasn't even listed in the prizes available by the Mall Galleries as of last Sunday!

In the absence of the BP Portrait Award it's also the best award available for a portrait selected from an exhibition in the UK in 2021.

As a result of the new prize the deadline for entries has been extended by a week to 25th January 2021.

The Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries

Call for Entries - Annual Exhibition 2021 of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

The Royal Society of Portrait Painters welcomes 

• portrait paintings, drawings and original prints from artists over 18, 
• from the UK and internationally 
• to be shown alongside members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at their Annual Exhibition 
• at the Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1Y 5BD 
• 6 -15 May 2021 (COVID-allowing)

The DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES is 12 noon on Friday 25th January 2021.

Criteria for entries are summarised below:

• ARTISTS: 
• Any artist over 18 may submit.
• Note that artists accepted for exhibition will be invited to advertise portrait commissions through our Commissions department on which a commission will be payable.
• MEDIUMS: All mediums aside from sculpture and photography are acceptable.
• DATES AND EXHIBITIONS
• must have been completed in the last three years and 
• not been exhibited in London previously.
• PRICING: 
• Works must have a minimum sale price of £300. 
• Works may be listed as not for sale – if your work is not for sale, please input the price as ‘NFS’ when prompted.
• The price of works for sale must include 45% + VAT commission.
• NUMBER: A maximum of three works can submitted for selected. It is possible for all three entries to be selected
• SIZE: Works should not be larger than 2.4m along the longest dimension.
• ENTRY FEES: The submission fee is 
• £20 per work for standard entries and 
• £14 per work for artists aged 35 or under. 
• This includes free admission to the exhibition (normally £4).

You can find out how to enter the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters on 

• the official call for entries website
• the RP website - Exhibit with us
• Notifications of selections will be advised as from Friday 29 January 2021, 12pm

I was convinced I'd done the Call for Entries post for this year' annual exhibition - but apparently not! 

• Maybe I was confused by the number of blog posts I did last September for the delayed annual exhibition!  
• Then I thought maybe I didn't get a dedicated email about it and found that the only thing I received was a generic Mall Galleries update on 10th December......... 
• so I'm now left wondering whether other painters are in the same boat??

In terms of my thoughts on the benefits of entering this open exhibition in the interests of a fast blog post I can only point you in the direction of LAST YEAR'S call for entries by me 

• see LAST CALL - Annual Open Exhibition 2020 of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (but note all the dates relate to 2020 (NOT 2021)
• This blog post Annual Exhibition 2020 of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters provides details of the number of entries and the numbers selected last year who were not members of the RP 
• This is my Review: Annual Exhibition 2020 of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - which provides you with views of the portraits selected for exhibition by members and artists selected from the open entry.
• You can also see some of my PHOTOS of the exhibition in the album Royal Society of Portrait Painters: Annual Exhibition 2020 on my Facebook Page
• Below are details of the other significant cash awards offered by this open exhibition.

Awards by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

This open exhibition also offers other significant cash prizes 

• The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture: £10,000 plus the Society’s Gold Medal awarded for the most distinguished portrait in the Society’s annual exhibition
• The de Laszlo Foundation Award: £3,000 plus a Silver Medal for the most outstanding portrait by an artist aged 35 years or under
• The Prince of Wales's Award for Portrait Drawing: £2,000 and framed certificate for a portrait in any recognised drawing medium
• The RP Award: £2,000 will be awarded to the artist whose work best represents the year's chosen theme - which for 2021 is 'Childhood'. The judges will be looking for the most interesting and engaging interpretation of the idea of 'childhood' within the parameters of portraiture.
• The RP Prize for the Best Small Portrait: A prize of £2,000 for the best small portrait in the exhibition, measuring not more than 38 x 30.5 cm (15 x 12 inches) unframed
• The Burke’s Peerage Foundation Award for Classically Inspired Portraiture: The Burke’s Peerage Foundation Award, established by its founders William Bortrick and Mark Ayre in 2015, is presented for Classically Inspired Portraiture in the RP Annual Exhibition. It is presented each year with a certificate and a cheque for £2,000.
• The Smallwood Architects Prize: £1,000 for a portrait in which architectural or interior features play an important part

Young Artists Summer Show at the Royal Academy of Arts

Did you know that the Royal Academy of Arts has a Summer Show for young people?

No? Neither did I! 

Find out more about the show below and on the RA website https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/

What's the purpose of the Young Artists' Summer Show?

Taking inspiration from the annual Summer Exhibition, the Young Artists’ Summer Show is an opportunity for young artists aged 5 - 19 years to exhibit their work online and on-site at the Royal Academy.

The project is generously supported by Robin Hambro, a passionate advocate for the importance of access to art, and the benefits of encouraging the arts, for children and young people.

Are there any prizes?

There are prizes each year (Take a look at the 2020 prize winning artworks)

• for two inspiring artworks 
• from each key stage

Award winners are chosen by the President of the Royal Academy.

The public can also vote for their favourite artwork in our annual People’s Choice Award. 

some of the artwork in the RA Young Artists Summer Show 2020

How to enter

Who can enter?

• children and young people aged 5 - 19 studying in the UK and British schools overseas.
• collaborative artwork entries are welcome - and and there is no limit to the number of students involved.

What can I enter?

• Each student can submit up to three artworks of any type e.g. a painting, sculpture, photograph, installation or video piece. 
• Your artwork can be made of any materials. 
• There is no theme so artworks can be of any subject.

What does it cost to enter?

• The competition is completely free.

How do I enter?

The entry process works as follows:

• entry is online - you cannot submit artwork by post.
• a teacher first needs to register your school
• once that is done, artwork can be submitted 
• by a teacher or parent/guardian if you are under 12
• by the student if you are aged 13 or over

What do I need to submit?

You need to upload images of your artwork - with some text.

Images need to be 

• files are 5MB or less
• one of the following formats: JPG, PNG, GIF.
• If you want to submit a file that is not a JPG, PNG or GIF, you can use a file converter website to change your file so it will upload.

You need to describe your artwork as follows:

• title of the artwork
• a description of what the work is about and why you made it

How selection works

Each artwork will be seen by a panel of judges - made up of panel of artists and art professionals. 

Everyone who submits artworks will hear from the RA by the end of May.

There are two sets of judges

• one for artworks made by primary students and 
• one for artworks made by secondary school students. 

When the judges make their selections, they choose where the artwork will be seen i.e.

• which artworks will be shown online and 
• which will be shown at the Royal Academy. 

Review: Episode 1 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2021 at Chartwell

This is the first of my reviews of the new Landscape Artist of the Year programme in 2021.

Pods in front of the house at Chartwell

Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 6 - filmed in 2020)

This is the sixth series of this programme which is produced for Sky Arts by Storyvault Films.

The "Artist of the Year" programmes are some of the most popular programmes produced by Sky Arts. The audience for the Landscape artist of the year programme seems to grow with every series.

LAOTY boasts the titles of “best-performing, non-scripted series of all time” and second-biggest series ever for Sky Arts, with viewing figures growing over the course of the series.

You can view it

• on Wednesday evening at 8pm on Sky Arts (on Sky / Now TV / Freeview)
• on demand on Sky TV and Now TV anytime you like 
• you need the Sky TV or NOW TV app to watch on a mobile device or your own TV - if you have a relevant subscription (which is what I do - see my blog post about how to do this)

The Judges are the same as always - and - because filming took place outside - we also saw the return of Joan Bakewell which was excellent news.

We saw lots of suitably socially distanced discussions!

The Judges: Kate Bryan. Tai-Shan Schierenberg Kathleen Soriano - with Joan Bakewell

Episode 1 at Chartwell

The first episode was at Chartwell - and this is the link to Episode 1

The Location

Chartwell is the former home of Sir Winston Churchill and is now a National Trust property. The large course stands in manicured country gardens on top of a large grass slope leading down to a lake and several acres of woodland and farmland.

It's a garden I have visited often over the years and last summer we paid it a lot of visits once it was open again.

The view they had is actually very difficult because:

• they are looking up - which is a situation most artists don't normally encounter when working plein air
• it involves a lot of different levels
• getting the size, shape and perspective of the house correct is a challenge on its own.  One I have tried and come a cropper on in the past - when drawing with a view from just to the left of there they were positioned.  (I'm going to see if I can remember where that artwork is)

The weather

As you might expect - given last year's weather - the weather was dry, sunny with a bit of cloud from time to time.

So no challenges there then - apart from how the sun was going to move across the subject

The Artists

This year 36 artists (12 less than usual) took part in six heats which were filmed last summer. This means that there are six artists (rather than eight) in each of the six heats

Artists in their Pods at the start

You can find out how to enter for the series being filmed this summer for next year at the end of this blog post.

Artists are listed by status and then alphabetically. You can see their profiles on the Sky website . Interestingly they all have surnames in the first half of the alphabet.

Professional Artists

There were two professional artists in this heat

• Gail Davis (Facebook | Instagram) - artist based in Berkshire, mainly painting in oil on canvas. Studied at Berkshire College of Art and Design. Worked as an exhibition design manager. Has been a professional artist for 12 years. Selected for the 2020 Exhibitions of the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal institute of Oil Painters. Appeared in Episode 8 of Portrait Artist of the Year in March 2020 
• Paul Gadenne (Facebook | Instagram) - a Canterbury-based artist who has been a Chartered Designer and has a background in commercial Interior Architecture and Exhibition Design. He is an SAA Professional Art Teacher and currently teaches "Art for Everyone" - art lessons for adults of all abilities at venues in Dunkirk and Sandwich, Kent. He writes for 'the Artist' magazine and is the founder member of Urban Sketchers Canterbury. He has previously been filmed for this series in 2015 at Waddesdon Manor. His Facebook Page has some good photos of the day. 

Amateur Artists

There were four Amateur Artists - although I think I dispute 'amateur' status for one of them - on the basis that you need to know rather a lot about art in order to be employed teach it!

These were:

• Julia Burley (Instagram) - no information online. 
• Shelagh Casebourne (Instagram) - Following a London-based career in publishing, in 2010 she gained a Fine Art degree from The University of Reading and a PGCE in Secondary Art and Design. She has a studio in Berkshire. Her Instagram indicates she was painting along with Portrait Artist of the Week. She made a last minute application with the hope of getting a wildcard place.
• Gabriella Fernandes - First class degree (2015) in History from Durham University - which involved History of Art. Recently worked as cabin crew with British Airways
• Stuart Jarvis (Instagram) - He's an experienced teacher and currently Director of Art at Uppingham School (a boarding school). In recent years he has enjoyed commissions by Drax power station, North Yorkshire; Bradwell decommissioned power station, Essex; and Ketton Cement Works, Lincolnshire. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Julia Burley (@juliarocciaart)

Wildcard Artists

Wildcard artists at Chartwell

I hear that the number of Wildcard Artists are reduced from last year. They had 50 last year but I think it's just 25 artists in each heat this year.  

They set up on the grass which slopes down from the house to the lake in the valley bottom. It's actually a better view of the house - and I've certainly seen artists and art groups painting the house from this vantage point on my visits to Chartwell. 

(I'm not telling you what my favourite vantage point is - but I've done many sketches from there!)

Wildcard artists on the grass slope below the house at Chartwell

I think maybe this lady missed the big sign near the entrance warning about the black swans and their "assertive" behaviour! (For which read "aggressive" - my other half howls about the time I was chased away by them when settling down to sketch!)

The infamous Chartwell Black Swans taking an interest

Themes and Learning Points

As with all my other blog 'Artist of the Year' posts, I tried to detect some learning points within this episode - read on for more of these.

Today, these are:

• Artist profiles 
• Composition and completion
• Simplification and what to leave in and what to leave out
• The importance of shadows
• Highly Coloured Grounds