The Final
The Prize
The prizes are:
- a £10,000 commission for the Manchester Art Gallery to create an artwork celebrating the heritage of the North West of England.
- £500 of materials from Cass Art.
The location
The location of the Final of Landscape Artist of the Year 2022 was Levens Hall - an Elizabethan Manor in Cumbria, which is privately owned but open to the public during the summer months. It also markets itself as a location for filming purposes.
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| Levens Hall, the Topiary Garden and the pods |
The subject for the final paintings was
the Topiary Garden
which is over 300 years old. (There's a
World Topiary Day
on 12th May!)
Topiary is the shaping and cutting of small-leaved trees and bushes into geometric shapes and forms which resemble common objects and people.
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| The Pods set up looking east towards the Topiary Garden |
The pods were set up between the Hall and the Topiary Garden. Although I think somebody forgot that since this particular perspective faced east, the artists would be painting into the sun all morning! Just look at those shadows - and where the sun is!
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| Not so much "contrejour" as "blinded by the light" - and they wondered why Elisha took her time getting started! |
Below is a view of very nearly the same bit of garden on a more overcast day.
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| The Topiary Garden |
In addition, there are times when I think there needs to be a serious
discussion about what landscape painting is really about. We haven't had one
single naturalistic landscape in the entire series - which in my view is
simply appalling. The Location Manager really needs to work harder!
Landscaped to the max ☝️😂 #LAOTY pic.twitter.com/hQsSbWlDwa
— Storyvault Films (@StoryvaultFilms) February 26, 2022
The Weather
They were extremely lucky with the weather - in the sense that it was blue
skies, warm and sunny all day long.
Although whether the artists welcomed that sunshine in the morning is debatable!
Although whether the artists welcomed that sunshine in the morning is debatable!
Here's a tweet from somebody who caught the film crew filming! Hiding in the shade behind the vegetation so they didn't get the sun in the lens of the camera!
Catching up with @SkyArts #laoty as we were at @LevensHall on the day. The garden was beautiful pic.twitter.com/cnch8jlAv1
— Peter in 2m space (@AViewAt2Metres) February 26, 2022
The Artists
The artists in the final were:- Elisha Enfield [Instagram] a figurative and landscape painter working between London and Berlin. She graduated from the University of Brighton in 2011 with First Class Honours in Fine Art Painting. Some very impressive paintings on her website. Born in Milton Keynes and comes from High Wickham.
- Thomas Macgregor (Instagram) - a painter and printmaker living and working in East London
- Afsheen Nasir [Instagram] - Comes from Karachi in Pakistan and now lives in Surrey. She is self taught and works as a civil servant. She paints landscapes in oil and loves skies - but this was her first time painting 'en plein air'. She exhibited at the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2019 and previously appeared in "Show me the Monet". This is her submission.
Afsheen did an interview with BBC Radio Surrey in which she talks about what reaching the final meant to her
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| Elisa Enfield, Thomas McGregro and Afsheen Nasir |
The Final
- pod painting within 4 hours at Levens Hall
- commissions - of three locations - within London
- followed by the announcement of the winner.
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| Line-up waiting for the announcement.... |
