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| Snowdon in the background and the pods left of centre (next to bright green grass) |
At last! A real landscape everywhere you looked. This week's episode came from the foothills of Snowdon - the highest mountain in the UK outside Scotland.
Very many of the people commenting on my Facebook page said they had been all set to stop watching Landscape Artist of the Year 2025 based on the ridiculous subject for last week's episode.
A lot of people are really fed up with the programme's complete obsession with buildings - which are NOT LANDSCAPES.
But this episode may have saved the day..... More of which below!
Episode 2: Mount Snowdon
This review follows the same format of my other reviews and considers.
- the location and weather
- the artists' profiles
- themes arising during the episode
- who was shortlisted and who won
Location and Weather
The subject of this week's episode was
Yr Wyddfa, otherwise known as Mount Snowdon.
They were very lucky with the weather which was dry and sometimes warm!
The Pods and wildcards were together on a flat piece of land inbetween
Llanberis Station
and the lake called
Llyn Padam
and just north of the
National Slate Museum
and across the lake from the village of
Llanberis in the Snowdonia National Park.
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The Pods with the Artists and The Wildcards with their
Easels on the one bit of fairly flat land overlooking both Snowdon and the Lake! |
They had great views of the end of Llyn Padam, the roofs of the National
Slate Museum, the ruined 13th century
Dolbadarn Castle
- which was painted by a Young JMW Turner!
(see his painting here) - and across to Snowdon
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The map co-ordinates for anybody wanting to pay a visit and have a go
at Snowdon |
This is the view they were looking at
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| The view |
The Slate Museum (and slate quarries are off to the left, the 13th century castle is straight in front. Snowdon is also top left and Llanberis is across the lake.
I loved how all the artists tackled a proper larger than life, possibly overfacing in its sublimity, landscape.
They each were able to tackle it in largely the same way they’d approached their submission and we got a better sense of what they could all do in a “real life” situation rather than one of the stately home views that can force an artist to make bad choices due to the pressures of the day. comment on my Facebook Page
The Artists in the Pods
including
- a synopsis of their background
- Links to their websites (if they have one) are embedded in their names.
- Social media platforms are also referenced
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| Episode 2 artists: Clare, Kayla, Anna, Charlotte and Marcio, Mike, Mark and Simon |
- Mike Biddulph (Instagram) is an urban designer and lives in Cardiff. His practice is to draw directly from the subject and on the heat he worked with fine line pens and coloured pencils. He also likes wide landscapes and panoramas. These are his landscape drawings - the second one is the one done during the heat. His submission can also be seen on his website and took him 20 hours using fine liner pens.
- Marcio Fernandez (Facebook | Instagram) is from Panjim, the capital of Goa in India. He currently lives in London. He graduated from Goa College of Art in 2020 and subsequently at the City & Guilds of London Art School. He urrently works at the Tate.
- Simon Gazzard (Instagram) lives in Muswell Hill, in North London. He spent 20 years being an architect before making a commitment during Covid to becoming a painter. He loves painting the parkland, heaths and woods near his home and his paintings often contain London’s unique mix of nature, architecture and people. He will be exhibiting his art at the Battersea Affordable Art Fair in March 2025
- Mark Harrison (Instagram | Blog)- from Brighton. He's a professional artist who considers himself to be an imaginative realist. He did a post grad course in illustration graduating in 1981 and then painted 485 book jacket illustrations for most UK and USA publishers until he quite in 2004 and started painting for sale. He has exhibited widely, latterly mostly at Illuxcon in the USA.
- Charlotte Mei - an artist and freelance illustrator based in London. Charlotte's Artwork has been exhibited in London, Hong Kong, Berlin, New York, Tokyo and more. She has run creative workshops for the V&A, Soho House, Now Gallery, and has spoken at the Royal College of Art, Pictoplasma Berlin and University of the Arts London.
- Clare Rose (Instagram) - a practising professional artist. She studied fine art at Aberystwyth University (MA & BA) and has lived and worked in Wales for the past forty years and currently lives and works in St.Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire. She has taught at institutions and privately across the UK , Europe and China.
- Anna Rotheisen (Facebook | Instagram)- an artist and business developer from Alton, Hampshire who generally works in acrylics - focusing on colour and shapes - from a studio in her garden. She studied Illustration at University of Westminster (1993-97) and subsequently was a commission-based painter for many years. Exhibited for the first time in 2022 and was selected for ING Discerning Eye in 2023 and 2024. Previously appeared in one of the Ascot episodes in 2023. (see Review: Episode 2 of Landscape Artist of the Year - Royal Ascot - when she painted Aldershot Railway station for her submission)
- Kayla Spence (Instagram) comes from Moray in North East Scotland and recently graduated from Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen in 2024.
You can visit the Sky Arts page about the artists - and view the videos of them painting their painting
One thing I thought funny was one artist had trained in urban design and said he paints urban landscapes, and another who worked as an architect and usually paints London landscapes and they put them in one of the rare heats that doesn’t include large buildings! Whereas the “pure” landscapers get lumbered with concrete, bricks and mortar. Maybe the selectors are being deliberately mischievous. comment on my Facebook Page
The Wildcard Artists
As per usual, 50 wildcard artists made their way to the location from all
over the UK and found they had lots of options as to how to locate and what
they had to paint
"every direction you look, there is something to paint"
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| the wildcards arrived up the trail to the location for painting |
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| and got set up - with a huge choice of what landscape to paint! |
Themes and Learning Points
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| People watching the pod artists paint the view in front of them |
Look at the French Impressionist Landscape Paintings of the South of France
- settle very early on the subject of the commission - and
- then try and match the locations for the heats to the challenge the winner will paint for the commission
Indeed this is one of a very few which is actually a proper landscape - with
views in every direction!
It's also a great way of showing off the countryside in the UK to a home
audience and in due course a much wider audience. People who watched this episode will in future be boosting the local
economy by booking to stay here in future. I got as far as looking at room
prices!
The importance of grounding in place
If you're painting a landscape, then it should be recognisable as being about that landscape. In other words, if people know the place well, they should be able to recognise what you saw and painted.
- At least three and possibly four of the artworks, to my mind, failed to achieve a look of the landscape.
- Whereas four really grounded their paintings in different views which could be seen from the pods.
Some of the paintings were such that you'd be find it hard to say in which country they were located.
Use a sketchbook and thumbnail - like Clare Rose
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| Clare Rose using a small sketchbook and pre-drawn format shapes to work out her design and plan of action |
This was highlighted last week and I'm highlighting it again this week for the
very good reason it's one of the most useful tips for working out how to
tackle a big landscape.
Working out the four most important lines (the edge of your composition) is one of the most important decisions you ever make - and being very clear about where these are in the enormous landscape in front of you is equally important.
See also my blog post - Composition - the four most important lines
Use a composing frame - like Anna Rotheisen
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| A composing frame for two formats |
Anna Rotheisen used a composing frame to find the view she wanted to paint. In the end she focused on a small area of land down at the lake level - right in front of her.
I noticed that her frame contained two different formats cut out - one was square and the other was a more conventional rectangle (maybe a 5x4 or a 7x5 format?)
Then working out the big shapes for the tonal values and finding your way through a big complex landscape is absolutely essential!
See also
Not having a clear idea of what you are going to do
It's particularly important to work out what you;re going to do when faced with so much landscape.
TIP: Work out what you are going to do
Your artwork always benefits from trying to work out
- what is your focal point?
- where are the four lines which represent the edges of your painting? (ie what are you including and what are you leaving out)
- what are the big tonal shapes you intend to use?
- How you want to get the viewer's eye moving round the painting
It made me think she'd applied just to say she'd been on the programme. Whereas, to be very honest, I think she'd have done her better to protect her reputation and stay at home.
The importance of using big brushes
How many artists have lost out in LAOTY because they found it difficult to cover their canvas in the time?
Bottom line, they chose not to use and
learn how to use big brushes which get paint down fast and avoid artists
moving very slowly across the canvas... They can also allow for achieving confident edges in skilled hands.
Most of the artists this week used much bigger suppoorts than we generally see. A number of them demonstrated expertise in their use of brushes - particularly those that were shortlisted.
If you're going to go BIG, then it's absolutely essential you are fluid and expert in using big brushes.
Do NOT mess it up near the end.
I was quite confident that one painter was going to get shortlisted - and then he messed up.
I saw at least one painting ruined because, right at the end, the artist chose to include a clumsy representation of a group of bright orange kayaks.
TIP: Things to think about as you get to the end
- Just because you've got four hours does NOT mean you need to use four hours. If you feel you've finished it's wise to stop. Do NOT titivate!
- Just because something exists does not mean it needs to be included
- Just because you like to have people in your painting does not mean you need to grab at straws to include them.
Decision Time
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| Sophie Ryder won the Wildcare competition |
The Wildcard Winner was Sophie Ryder (Instagram) from Hayle in Cornwall.
I liked her painting. It was bold and confident and relied on big shapes and a well considered colour palette. It had great depth - and it also looked very like the view she was painting. It was also very grounded in the place - so much so, it included the edge of the pods!
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| Llanberis and the Pods by Sophie Ryder |
The Heat Paintings
LAOTY this year have introduced a very sensible innovation and that's two
images which summarise the eight paintings produced with the artists.
It's nice to see ALL the artists getting credit for what they produced -
and it also has the scope for explaining better which ones did not make it
to the shortlist.
Which ones did you like the best?
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clockwise from top left: Anna Rotheisen, Kayla Spence, Mark Harrison and Clare Rose |
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clockwise from top left: Simon Gazzard, Marcio Fernandez, Mike Biddulph and Charlotte Mai |
The Shortlist
In general, as you can see from the pics above and the lineup below, most of the artists produced paintings which were bigger than we normally see in the heats. |
| Artists lined up to hear which three artists made the shortlist |
- Anna Rotheisen
- Clare Rose
- Mark Harrison
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| The display of the submission paintings with the heat paintings |
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| Submission and Heat Painting by Anna Rotheisen |
Her submission of a close cropped view of orange chairs was a debatable
landscape. I thought it might more accurately described as a still life
given all the chairs were empty. It was however an attractive painting.
Her painting on the day looked down at what was in front of her rather than
up at the mountains or around at the lake. It was a very attractive painting
of a place most people would find difficult to locate.
For me she was in a contest with Simon Gazzard for the third slot on the
shortlist. I think Simon gifted it to her when he chose to include some
rather clumsy odd looking people in orange kayaks. A classic case of "look
at me" painting - but there was not much to admire!
Clare Rose
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Submission and Heat Painting by Clare Rose (note the size by measuring it relative to the rest at the bottom of the easel which they sit on - and note also they are the same size, which creates even more impact!) |
Clare impresses with her two BIG paintings, both of which have an emphatic
presence. Indeed so much so, I really do wonder why I don't see more large
submissions
(I have preached on this topic in the past - at length) and more
large heat paintings.
The composition in the submission painting is almost sublime in its own right, in
terms of its design and colour palette. I spotted it online before the
series started broadcasting and thought "WOW! I can feel the cold, I know
what time of day it is and it is totally convincing in terms of rendering a
real place.
In relation to the heat painting, you could tell within 10 minutes of
starting to paint that she was going to win by the way she got her big tonal
shapes sorted and the way she got the paint down using big brushes. I loved watching how it both stayed the same and changed during the course of the day. Clare worked hard on her painting and it really paid off.
As the Judges commented she really captured the majesty of the mountains and a sense of their weight within the overall landscape.
Mark Harrison
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| Submission and Heat Painting. by Mark Harrison |
Mark impressed me a LOT with how fast he paints and how well he knows and
understands his materials and brushes and how to paint skies and tonal
values which grab your eyes and hold them - and how to paint fast!
His work is imaginative realism i.e. he starts from a real place and then
starts to invent and wonder what would it look like if..... Which is how
Snowdon came to be painted as a nightime scence - and very effective it was
too.
He painted on a size that he knew AND he knew what to do with in the time
available.
I didn't mind in the least that he looks at the features of the landscape,
decided how to crop and then - after watching how the mountains changed as
the light and wind changed, decided to opt for a twilight scene.
The feature which particularly impressed in both paintings was the sky which
was very atmospheric in both paintings. That's not to say this is what he
saw - but his imaginative skills convinced us that he may well have done!
Most of all, Mark created two paintings which caught and held the eye. Very
impressive work (but I still like Clare's paintings better)
Heat Winner
The Heat Winner was Clare Rose - and it was a very well deserved win.
"I'm absolutely beside myself. I never thought I'd win this.
It's so refreshing (in this competition) and rewarding to see somebody produce a much more than competent large painting which had both impact and looked like the place she painted!
As Tai said
"We love courageous artists... She's evokes modd with light, she's very good at capturing place and mood, light and atmosphere - and she nailed it"
"It was an fascinating experience and a wonderful professional affirmation. I had the best time with the other (incredible) painters" Clare Rose
Wonderful landscape and a worthy winner. Much better episode all round Comment on my Facebook Page
Next Week
The location next week is Bristol and the subject is the Clifton Suspension Bridge. It took more than 30 years to build and the artists will have just 4 hours to paint it.I'm wondering where they're going to put the artists. I assume there has to be some sort of viewing platform to avoid neck ache!
Reference
The programme is broadcast by Sky Arts ( available on Sky, Now TV and
Channel 36 on Freeview) and the films are made by Storyvault Films.
Series 10: Episodes to date
For all those interested in entering the series which will be
filmed this summer (during June/July)
- see my blog post about Call for Entries - Landscape Artist of the Year 2026 (Series 11). The deadline for submission is NOON on Friday 3rd May 2024 - and entries are ONLY accepted online.
You can read past reviews of the Landscape Series of the Year
which very many artists have said they have found helpful. See
my Art on Television Page which:
- lists all reviews I've published for series episodes broadcast between 2018 and 2024
- together with the topics / themes /TIPS I identified in each episode.
Series 10
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