Monday, February 10, 2025

Review: Episode 3 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 10 (2025)

The "landscape" for Episode 3 of Landscape Artist of the Year was a civil engineering structure - the very wide Clifton Suspension Bridge connecting the two very steep sides of the Avon Gorge in Clifton in Bristol.

View of the Pods in front of part of Clifton Suspension Bridge

Episode 3: Clifton Suspension Bridge


This review - of Episode 3 of Series 10 of Landscape Artist of the Year - 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
The programme is available to view on Sky Arts on Sky/Freeview/NowTV.

Location and Weather


The view was of the Clifton Suspension Bridge which spans over 702 ft (214 m) across the Avon Gorge and is  nominally 249 ft (76 m) above the River Avon.  It had the longest span of any bridge in the world at the time of construction.
  • designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859)
  • started in 1831and completed in 1864.
  • Brunel only finished the towers before he died in 1859
  • the suspension chains recovered from the earlier Hungerford Suspension Bridge by Brunel and reused for this bridge
  • it has a very informative website and also a museum.
The view also included one very steep side of the Avon Gorge and Leigh Woods which grows up it.

Fortunately the weather was fine with some cloud but no rain.

The Pods were located on the terrace at the rear of the Avon Gorge Hotel on Sion Hill in Clifton Village. (You too can sit out on the terrace and have a go)

This is the view they were looking at

View from the Pods

The Wildcards had a rather more ACUTE angled view from an area of grass at the top of Sion Hill.

Top down view of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, Avon Gorge Hotel
and the grass at the top of Sion Hill

The Wildcards adjacent to Sion Hill

The Artists in the Pods


Episode 3 pod artists are listed and profiled BELOW in the alphabetical order of their surnames; 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
The artists in Episode 3

I don't remember the bit in the entry requirements which said that if you are a chap you must also have small goatee beard....
  • Ian Cox (Facebook | Instagram) an artist and fine art printmaker from Devon who chose to work in charcoal for the submission and heat. He used charcoal dust to allow him to get tonal shapes down fast - which seemed like a jolly sensible idea to me - plus fine charcoal pencils.
  • Kieran Guckian (Instagram) - Born in Dublin, Kieran attended Crawford College of Art and Design graduating with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting. He switched from his career in web design to becoming a full time artist a year prior to the heat - so this was a big opportunity for him.
I'm always drawn to landscapes that have a sense of time and am happiest painting in the mountains.
  • Jonathan Hargreaves (Instagram) - an oil painter and illustrator based in Sockport. He used to cycle for Team GB. Apparently he has featured on Sky Arts on a number of occasions - but does not say how. My blog indicates that he won Heat 2 in 2017, participated in Heat 1 in 2018. I liked the fact he chose to include the balustrades which grounded "how" you could see this view.
If you’re not familiar with the program it’s like an arty cross between the National Lottery and Squid Games. 
  • Sarah Harris  (Instagram) a mixed media artist based in Warrington. She produced a very large and rather psychedelic submission featuring a graphic building and flowers. I struggled to find any landscape artwork on her website. (Do Selectors not look at websites at all?)
  • Charlotte Kenyon (Facebook | Instagram) - She likes architecture and cityscapes and works in gouache on paper. She favours attention to meticulous detail when painting structures and likes opaque shapes. I really like her Sea Kale, Walberswick Beach. Gouache on paper.

  • Chris Priestly (Instagram) - a painter and writer based in Cambridge. He also illustrates children's books. He's got a very apt post on Instagram about the experience - worth a read.

  • Jo Rance (Instagram) - a contemporary british painter living and working in Cambridgeshire. He work is informed by her local countryside, flora and fauna through the seasons and via drawing on location. She has a background in textile design and she graduated from Loughborough University. Now moving into painting, she works primarily works with acrylic on canvas in her studio and uses vibrant colour palettes and a decorative painting style. She has been consistently exhibiting with a wide range of venues and has a show at Cambridge Contemporary Art in June 2025 - and I have to say I am not surprised.
  • Dan Wall (Facebook) She lives in Bristol. I must confess I was very puzzled as to how this individual got selected - although the submission was good. I'm afraid I cannot take anybody seriously who brings a soft toy which is referred to as "a familiar". It all came across to me as a bit of "a drama / performance art / look at me". Not really what this  competition is about.

Themes and Learning Points


Quotes are included below from the followers of my Making A Mark Facebook Page - who have a lot to say.

Yet another very silly location


The Cliffton Suspension Bridge spanning the Avon Gorge
Pods on a terrace to the right;
wildcard artists on the green to the right of the Tower on the right
Neither have this view

Yet another humongous bridge continues the obsession of Landscape Artist of the Year with huge man-made structures. 
"I still think they should change the title to "Object in a Landscape"  
Let me count the ways in which this location was silly.
  • the only area which provided a location for the pods did not allow the artists to see the whole bridge. 
  • that's because it connects two sides of a GORGE!!! Which was actually far more interesting....
  • it did occur to me that maybe somebody checked out and said Yes to the location when the trees were not in leaf - as in obscuring the right tower....
  • the South of France has no huge bridges - so what is this testing?
  • There was a brilliant view of the Gloucestershire countryside just beyond the pods. If I'd been in that end one, I'd have turned the other way and painted that!
  • there was a widish gap between the balustrades and the pod. Anybody painting plein air would have had their easel set up right next to the balustrades. One of these days an artist is going to get out of a pod and do just that!
The landscape of the natural countryside beyond the pods

  • As was identified by one of the Judges (Tai?) the location presents a view which is very wide and very deep and consequently needs a LOT of editing
  • ....and then at the end, I'm sure I recall some moaning from the Judges that most of the artists had virtually edited out most of the bridge and focused on just on one tower! Surprise, surprise! (see below for more on this topic)
the danger here is of making it an architectural study, which might have been useful before cameras were available, but nowadays is just an example of representational skill rather than an interesting painting.
To my mind it only opens up the opportunity for some clever television production company to pitch a completely NEW SERIES
  • about "The Best Real Landscape Painter 2026". 
  • with two established plein air painters as judges and one guest plein air painter for every episode (ie. people who know how to dress for the outdoors in all weather gear)
  • travelling around the UK to great NATURAL landscapes
  • with artists painting using easels - like the wildcards do - which means no need for flat ground and pods.
  • forget about the final commission painting; make it a cash prize and reward all those who get shortlisted with an exhibition in a very accessible art gallery.

"One iconic view and eight different views"


I think this was said by Kate Bryan. Oddly enough, I think we get eight different views more or less every episode....

However, the view from the pods was emphatically NOT an iconic view. The actual iconic view is
  • either from the air 
  • or from a location on the side of the Gorge which is a bit precipitous which shows the whole bridge
This was a view of one big tower, very little gorge and an absent tower on the right hand side.
When Kathleen said ' I'm just a bit surprised that we've got this incredibly wide thing, going across this very deep gorge, and so many of them are focusing on the one tower.' it showed, yet again, her lack of understanding of landscape painting. The pods have to be placed in a convenient position, but the view of the bridge from them was not one that I would have wanted to paint.
These are iconic views. What makes them iconic is the extent of the drop from the bridge down to the river. If you can't see that then it's "just another bridge". 
Interestingly three of the artists "got" that.

The proper panoramic version - probably from a drone

from the rather vertical heights above the gorge
no space for eight pods

The Judges seemed really surprised that so many were focusing on the area around one tower. I think any number of potential participants could have told them what would happen if shown the actual view from the location in advance.
Yet another poor choice of subject for a landscape painting competition. Faced with such a wide element in the view, the artists really only had three choices: tackle the whole bridge and either work small or super-simplify to avoid running out of time; focus on one element of the structure (which most did, but there was only one element available); ignore the bridge (which the winner sort of did.)

I was a little underwhelmed with every aspect of this episode. Dull is the word that comes to mind.

and 

I wish whoever chooses the subjects would understand that just because a building/structure is fabulous in itself, that doesn’t necessarily make an interesting painting. (Especially with a straight-on view. The winner did well to sidestep the straight on-ness with his crop and at least the one with the balustrades lead the eye in to the bridge.) I know they have to consider placing the pods but nearly all the paintings ended up ignoring the lovely rhythmic wires - the suspension part! - and just showed a tower in some trees, so the rigid viewpoint and subject choice lead to some rather dull images which hadn’t much sense of place to me, although I’ve been to that bridge many times.
and
Whilst the Clifton Suspension Bridge is a truly spectacular piece of engineering in a dramatic setting, I don't personally think it's a particularly beautiful structure. The view the artists were given was challenging for all sorts of reasons but it was rather boring in many ways. Once again, the main focus in the landscape was a man-made edifice rather than natural objects. I think all the artists made valiant efforts. My favourite didn't get through to the shortlist but I liked the winning painting very much, especially in terms of framing and composition.

and 

Another “inspiring” view chosen by a non-artist. Faced with the view from the pods, and the trees in fairly uniform summer green, what could they do but paint the supporting tower?

And I say that because making those suspension cables believable (i.e. “this could indeed be holding up this whopping great bridge”), and correctly proportioned with the right perspective is hard.

 

Being on TV


I'll make no bones about it. I've got absolutely no time at all for people who enter television competitions to get on TV. Not because they have a talent. Not because they have any ambition in this field of endeavour. But just because they want to be on television. 

I simply do NOT want to see filming time wasted on "look at me" people/events. I rather suspect there's a big part of the audience who thinks likewise. Particularly those who complain there's never enough filming of the artists actually painting!!

The problem arises when you have a team filming who are more used to talent shows - where this is apparently totally normal. Where far too much time is spent filming those who have histrionics and meltdowns - or might do!

TIP (to the production team: For EVERY participant in the pod - I want to be able to go to a website or Instagram for every participant which demonstrates very clearly that they are VERY interested in landscape painting and also do it regularly. The website and Instagram accounts of Jo Rance (both listed above) provide excellent examples.

If Sky Arts are not getting enough such applicants, try pondering on why that might be. 
I can also spell this out if you don't get it after this big hint.....

How to paint trees


The majority of the landscape was about TREES - not a bridge. 

Consequently, one of the major challenges for the artists in the pods - and the wildcards on the grass (after they had grappled with the composition) was about how to paint the trees.

There were some interesting treatments - particularly by Jo Rance, who is not trying to be realistic but is trying to get a clear sense of the place and the patterns and the colours.

Variation in mark making, patterns and colour is intrinsix to painting trees

TIPS about drawing and painting trees
  • I wrote a blog called The Art of the Landscape for a few years - which is still accessible online. It contains a rather useful blog post titled How to draw and paint trees (7 November 2010). This provides lots of very useful tips from very experienced painters of landscapes.
  • TIP: Foliage and Sky Holes is aother useful post. I always remember to do foliage holes because one of the people who taught me always used to refer to them as "birdy holes"
  • An artist who is well worth studying by all those plein air painting in the UK is Stanley Roy Badmin RWS - and "February" by Stanley Roy Badmin RWS is my blog post about him which contains links to his paintings of trees through every month of the year.
PS The Art of the Landscape has stacks of useful tips for aspiring plein air painters of landscapes. It was always written to record what I had learned and to make that more accessible to others.

In relation to this particular competition, it's also interesting to note another post titled
40 Antibes landscapes in 4 months by Claude Monet. 

As in this quote from one of the Judges
We're looking for an artist who is willing to experiment to create as much as Monet did - to try and create something extraordinary.

100 Hours to 4 Hours


I'm still wondering why people enter if there is such a discrepancy of hours worked between 
  • artwork being produced in a studio - over a very long period of time
  • artwork produced in front of the subject working semi-plein air in the heat - in just 4 hours
Why not send everybody a photo of the location and ask them to return their paintings at the end of the week - and leave it up to them to decide how much time to spend on it?

Or maybe make the submission painting one that MUST be produced while working plein air in a limited amount of time eg (say) no more than ten hours?

Now that would give the selectors an excellent idea of who is going to deliver on the day.

This is a short video about Kieran Guckian developed the painting he submitted. Why can't would-be participants be asked to submit videos as well as images of their paintings?


How much of the judgement is about the artist rather than their paintings?


I KNOW I've moaned before about the complete lack of criteria guiding the assessments and judges' decision-making.

However we appear to need to add into the mix is that maybe they're not actually judging the artwork at all - so much as the artist!!

I keep hearing remarks from the Judges about looking for 
  • an artist who paints in an original way, 
  • who can (in this episode) do what Monet did and find new ways to convey information about a landscape.
I think this notion maybe accounts for why some people are in the pods.

I know they need to end up confident that the artist they finally choose can go to a specific location and produce something impressive. However there are all sorts of reasons besides creativity which might contribute to that such as
  • being experienced at painting plein air
  • making sound compositional decisions
  • demonstrating their competence with the techniques they use - as opposed to trying something new on the day!

Decision Time


The Wildcard Winner


The wildcard winner was Rose Dufton from Leeds. (Subtitles need sorting! They listed her as Rose Duffden!) She likes to paint in a vibrant and expressive way who frequently paints plein air - and she really likes painting trees!

Wildcard winner - Rose Dufton's painting

I thought most of the wildcard artists had a major challenge. The angle they had looking towards the bridge from their location was VERY acute. 

It's unsurprising therefore that one artist decided the tree she was planted in front of offered a more satisfying subject to paint - and she sneaked one end of the bridge in under its branches. 

Not the greatest painting of a tree - but Tai liked the way she put paint down. One day Tai is going to remember that his personal preferences aren't what the competition should be about.... Otherwise to be fair to all the artists out there the programme should be rotating artists into a judging position on an annual basis.

The Heat Paintings


I heartily approve of the new feature of social media posts showing each LAOTY artist in each heat with their paintings. It's one of the few times we have to study each painting alongside the others. It also gives a much better appreciation of relative size and impact of each painting. 

Notwithstanding - as on this occasion - it's a major challenge when you've got bright and luminous at one end of the spectrum and quiet and subtle at the other. One grabs the eye and it would be too easy to overlook the other.

When you look at them, checkout the extent to which 
  • it's a painting about a tower 
  • it integrates the tower into the geomorphology of the landscape

clockwise from top left:
Chris Priestley,  Jonathan Hargreaves, Jo Rance and Charlotte Kenyon
clockwise from top left: Ian Cox, Dan Wall, Sarah Harris, Kieran Guckian

The Shortlist


This is the lineup to hear the shortlist - where again you can see relative size and impact of each painting Remember on a dull day, we tend to notice bright colours more.

The line up for the announcement of the shortlist

The shortlist selected from this week's artists were:
  • Kieran Guckian
  • Jo Rance
  • Sarah Harris

The display of the submission paintings with the heat paintings

Below is my commentary on each of the shortlisted artists in turn
What a strange, incongruous shortlist, given the nature of the final commission, but was very relieved when the only possible winner ( in my mind) won.

 

Kieran Guckian

Submission and Heat Painting by Kieran Guckian

I though Kieran's landscape was the stand-out submission in terms of the composition and treatment of the tonal shapes and colours. This was a more considered painting done over a few days. 

However it was interesting to see how, in the heat painting, he finds design within the morass of trees, identifies tonal shapes, varies the colour and tone and generally connected the top to the bottom. This was also the ONLY painting which really got to grips with depth of the gorge and hence WHY the bridge is iconic.

Jo Rance


Submission and Heat Painting by Jo Rance

I liked Jo's  submission a lot once I could see it up close and notice all the meticulous markmaking in relation to different areas of vegetations. There's lots to look at and it works well at a macro and micro level - once you've got to grips with the innovative use of colour.

Jo repeated the pattern making in her heat painting. It demonstrated a good sense of place albeit very little was realistic in terms of colour.  Although having said that I think it was more realistic than in her Dartmoor painting which I actually preferred.
I really like Joe's patchwork quilt of the scene. I'd like to see her take on the South of France.
When I saw her website and instagram I totally understood why she was in a pod - and if she had won I wouldn't have been annoyed. She just paints landscapes in a more contemporary and innovative way - but like Kieran - she looks a lot.

Sarah Harris


Submission and Heat Painting by Sarah Harris

I'm guessing that Sarah was picked as a pod artist because the Judges felt that she might be able to grasp the challenges of a landscape in the south of France. Her preferred palette is very bright and almost sunny.

However Sarah is not really a landscape painter - as you can see if you look at her website. That's not to say she's not a very accomplished painter and she's obviously a popular teacher. But for me she wasn't a good fit with the competition.

I'm afraid neither of her paintings appealed to me. 


Heat Winner


Kieran Guckian is announced as the winner of Heat 3

The Heat Winner was Kieran Guckian - and was well deserved.

The Judges said
Kieran's got a really strong grasp of what makes a really good landscape painting. He's got a delicate touch, he's really good at composition and he looks really, really hard
He largely ignored the suspension bridge which was a really stupid subject for this heat's participants and focused on the depth of the Avon Gorge and captured the proliferation of the vegetation and the rail tunnel at the bottom. Plus a small part of the base of one of Brunel's towers and a nod to the suspension bit.

One commentator on my FB Page said
The right painting won, I think. I love the way he extracts such a range of tone out of one colour, and the sheer depth of the gorge is very impactful.

and another said

From the winner we had the feeling of the enormity of the structure and setting. As this is LAOTY we should be focusing on the landscape and how the bridge becomes a part of it. 

Kieran's heat painting - in front of his subject

When I'm painting a landscape, I'm trying to capture a feeling of the place. Like what does it feel like to be there, so today I want to get the deepness of that gorge somehow. Kieran Guckian
Kieran Guckian with his submission painting.
I'm in total shock. I was not expecting to win today. It means everything because it can be a scary at times, trying to do this full-time.
My one concern about Kieran is that he is wedded to his palette of very Irish olive green / brown / gold countryside colours and I'm not sure how he would cope with the completely different palette associated with the south of France. I know - I've struggled with it.

I think he's good enough to be in the final and I'm guessing whether or not that happens will depend on whether there are others who might persuade the Judges that they've got a better grasp on a wider colour range.

Next Week


Next week, the programme is coming from St. Pancras Basin - which is is part of the Regent's Canal in the London Borough of Camden.


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) 
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.
Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, February 10, 2025
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