MAKING A MARK: Review: Episode 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 10)

Friday, February 28, 2025

Review: Episode 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 10) - Bristol Harbourside

The heats - as per the running order of episodes Landscape Artist of the Year 2025 - finished with a cold and wet one - right next to some cold wet water at Bristol Harbourside.

Pods on the edge of Bristol Harbourside

Comments included below are by people who follow me on Facebook - unless indicated to be by an artist, wildcard or Judge.

Episode 6: Bristol Harbourside

This review - of Episode 6 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.

NOTE: This might be Episode 6 but it was actually Heat 2 and was filmed on Wednesday 12 June 2024 in Bristol (which rather suggests that the Suspension Bridge was Heat 1). I think they decide the running order of Heats - as Episodes - after they have filmed and know the outcomes. That and the fact that the two heats in the same area are never consecutive on the screens. Anybody care to divulge the actual filming date of their heat?

Location and Weather

The location was Bristol Harbourside

A side on perspective of Bristol Harbourside

I kept trying to work out where the pods are - because this programme has this unhappy habit of sending cameramen to film the view from locations where the pods are NOT located! Plus we had lots of top down views - none of which contained either pods or wildcards (presumably done in advance)!

For all those wanting to have a go at the same spot, the pods (see arrow below) were

near a Watersports Centre - and were located near its slipway
near the Cottage Inn Ferry landing.

Their view was across the floating dock to the older buildings and the marine brokers on the left and on the right the coloured houses of the Hotwells neighbourhood (see image at top of post).

The arrow in the pic below indicates where the pods were

Top down view of the older section of Bristol Harbourside.

Bristol Harbourside is an artificial harbour and in broad terms is around the corner from the last LAOTY location near the Clifton Suspension Bridge above the River Avon - and runs parralel to the River Avon running in "the cut".

The harbour covers an area of 70 acres (28 hectares).
The former natural tidal river Avon - which fluctuates 47 feet (14 metres) between high and low tide - was converted to its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out permanently
It is often called the Floating Harbour as the water level remains constant and it is not affected by the state of the tide on the river at other locations in Bristol. (The River Avon was in "the Cut" behind the artists)
The separation of the Floating Harbour and the tidal River Avon allows boats in the harbour to remain floating at low tide, reduces currents and silting and prevents flooding.
Patterson's yard within the harbour was used for the construction of many ships notably Brunel's SS Great Western in 1838 and the SS Great Britain in 1843.

Art and culture lovers head for the Arnolfini, Watershed, and Spike Island
Harbourside according to Google

Never be without somebody holding a big umbrella over you
when the rain gets going!

The weather became awful as the day progressed - of which more below.

Safe to say the Judges either hadn't looked at the weather forecast or like to dress inappropriately for a predicted cold rainy day.

I find it really pays to switch on that location bit in the weather app so you look at the forecast for where you are going rather than where you are right now

The Judges under umbrellas

The Artists in the Pods

Episode 5 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 - after they had finished posing for the camera sat outside the Cottage Inn

Hash Akib (Instagram) - An award winning professional artist / illustrator / art teacher who lives in Westcliff on Sea in Essex where he makes art and teaches art courses. He worked as an illustrator for 15 years with a list of prestigious clients. He now paints impressionist landscapes in acrylics and teaches. He's also been commissioned to produce a book for Search Press and his mini guide "The Acrylics Companion" will be published in December 2025. He wrote his first book about Vibrant Acrylics for Search Press in 2012. He's also exhibited with has exhibited with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, New English Art Club, Society of Wildlife Artists, David Shepherd Artist of the Year and Royal Society of Marine Artists (I KNEW I'd seen his artwork before!) See his submission below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hashim Akib (@hashpaints)

Mike Bennion (Instagram) - A collage artist and sculptor who lives and works in London. He is a trained graphic designer, receiving a BA from Kingston University and an MA from The Royal College of Art in London, England.
Bill Bone (Instagram) - Lives and works in Cardiff, where is a digital product manager. He also makes art and his submission took him 15 hours. He actually specialises in portraiture and has apparently been a PAOTY semi-finalist (Season 2). He typically works from pixelated digital abstractions and works in style of pointillism.
Molly Lemon (Instagram | YouTube) - She is a printmaker specialising in wood engraving. She grew up on the edge of Dartmoor and her artwork is inspired by rural British landscapes and wildlife. She graduated with a Fine Art degree from Winchester School of Art in 2015. She now lives in South Gloucestershire with her husband and rescue dog Winnie. She has over 260K followers on YouTube and started a YouTube Channel in 2023.
Bernie Millar (Instagram | Facebook) - A teacher who lives and works in Northern Ireland. She likes a historical narrative and paints the landscapes of Northern Ireland which are connected to either personal histories or folklore. Her submission was a painting of the Mourne Mountains.
Raoul Orzabal (Instagram) - a British artist based in London. In 2019 he was awarded the Art Gemini Prize, a highly acclaimed international contemporary art competition. With the aid of Photoshop, he explores the manipulation and distortion of line, colour and space by creating complex and intricately detailed compositions which combine architectural elements, buildings, skyscrapers and classical ruins which are fractured and layered. He also creates a constant tension between the man-made and natural worlds.
Colin Revell (Instagram) - He is a carpenter who lives in Norwich and paints in his spare time.
Beth Blakeman Shead (Instagram) - Based in West Sussex, England, Beth is an artist specialising in portraiture, landscapes and figurative art. She's also a senior manager for a luxury retail product. Looks like there's a close connection in the recent past with Kate Bryan as she used to be Managing Director - Retail for Soho House - where Kate Bryan is the Chief Art Director. (I had a bet with myself - and I won). This is her submission. I don't detect any general theme to her landscapes other than that they generally include a structure.

The Wildcards

The 50 Wildcards turned up again as per usual - but there seemed to be rather a lot of older ladies this time. I'm beginning to wonder whether entire art clubs all apply at the same time for the same heat - and have a day out!
Can anybody tell me?

They were located along the path than runs to the east of where the pods were located towards the Marina and the SS Great Britain.

Themes and Learning Points

Comments included in this post are by people following my Facebook page - unless clearly indicated otherwise.

What to do with a very panoramic view?

I thought it was a very odd week! There was an awkwardness about it I couldn’t put my finger on. Yet another Bristol scene, and another episode with more buildings than landscape scenery. So weird given that the UK has so many beautiful spaces even on a dull day!
Bristol harbourside is an extreme landscape as in very panoramic from side to side.

Artists were also at a huge distance from the subject matter on the other side of the harbour (lots of small boxes and ridges of trees), which to my mind was instantly going out to sort out the impressionists from the realists.

the location was not particularly inspiring - looked like the kind of view that gets used for a jigsaw puzzle - and also really over-complicated. What really annoyed me was Tai and Stephen M discussing how difficult it would be for the artists to paint such a complex view - and seeming to find this fact extremely funny. I almost stopped watching at that point.
Stephen highlighted at the end (although I think he might be speaking an agreed script)
"You gave them such a tough challenge, It was so busy, that view"
As Tai always says, the trick is to remember to EDIT. I think he said

"it's an intellectual puzzle to solve" Tai

The options are:

Draw / paint the whole view - which in my opinion was absolutely impossible even if you'd arrived with a panoramic support or knew how to do diptychs or triptychs (which people do do sometimes)
Compress the view - be selective as to what you include. This is what Beth Blakemen-Shead did. You can create a good-looking painting - but it won't resonate with anybody living locally if they know what you left out - especially if it's the middle.
Do a specific section - work out which part of what you can see speaks to you most. So, for example, Bernie Millar likes to paint scenes with a historical narrative and picked the section of buildings associated with the creation of the "floating harbour" - including the one which stops it from silting up.
Be highly selective - when editing try the section that you like best in different

picture formats (portrait or landscape)
aspect (16:9; 5:4; 4:3, 3:2 etc etc)
different horizon lines (low, middle, high)

TIP: The practical implication is you need to know:

What format / aspect you really like painting in advance - and workin that
So if you'd like to expand your scope and do well use the time before heats

to practice with different formats
as opposed to experimenting on the day!

BRING those formats with you!

Interestingly people did find a number of very different ways to paint the view.

Perhaps the most unusual was Mike Bennion's where he got out of his pod (the heresy!) and took photos of different parts of the scene near to where the pods were located. Then created three small still life paintings and presented them as a triptych - after he'd splattered them with paint. For me, the reality was he created a still life and not a landscape.

WEATHER! The rain and the wind and the cold!

Lots of umbrellas used by those who checked the forecast

"I've seen the weather forecast and it's going to be very wet."
Wildcard

It looked as if the second part of the day was really awful with a lot of people becoming very cold as well as trying to avoid the wind and the rain.

TIP: Always check the weather forecast for the location you aim to paint in at least an hour before leaving the house. You may want to repack...

These were the wildcards before the rain painting the Hotwells neighbourhood.

Great view of the view
but no option to bang anything into the ground as a shelter.

...and after the rain....

When painting in the rain it helps a lot if what you're wearing is
completely impervious!

I know I keep banging on endlessly about the problems people will encounter if they try plein air painting for the first time as a wildcard - but this heat demonstrated why.

However, in this instance, I think we had rather more experienced plein air painters (or people who's read my blog!) as lots of wild cards had obviously studied the weather forecast and arrived properly kitted out! I was VERY impressed by the numbers who managed to keep painting despite the cold, the wind and the rain!

Those who seemed to cope best with the situation - and lots carried on painting - had come well equipped with:

rainproof wet weather gear - preferably covering absolutely all of you (waterproof bike ponchos are great for covering you up completely with two holes for your arms!).

For the uninitiated, there is actually clothing which is completely impervious to rain - and that's what you need!

waterproof overtrousers is clothing which can be folded up in a backpack and then put on fast as the rain starts to fall.

Mine have great big velcro side strips which make putting them on really easy and then you just velcro them back up

BIG umbrellas - normal domestic size does not work as well

however the big ones can be weighty, which is why you also need.....

Somebody to hold the big umbrella! You're going to be too busy painting!!
"STUFF" to either keep all your art media dry and/or tied down and/or otherwise stuck down so it doesn't take off when the wind blows.

Bringing art media in containers with lids can be a good idea. However these also collect rainwater if you don't close the lid after removing what you want!

What to do on a grey day?

Colour POPS on a grey day

On a very grey day, when clouds are obscuring the sun, the range of colours and tones you can see get "damped down". Scenes can look very "washed out".

There are three things you can do

Find the bright colours that pop out at you - and decide whether you can

organise and incorporate this into a composition for a picture format that works. They draw the eye so must be soundly placed in design terms.
For them to really pop, their context also needs to be knocked back - which is what you see on a grey day.

Work with a limited palette - which is typically variations on black, white and one or two other colours - as exemplified by Colin Revell's watercolour painting in this heat
Develop a suite of coloured greys which work with the subject and the day. This takes expertise in making coloured greys and an eye that can see colour on grey days.

TIP: Develop expertise in knowing how to make coloured greys.

Coloured greys - or "mouse colours" as highlighted in Making Colour Sing by Jeanne Dobie AWS NWS - are wonderful colours IF YOU KNOW HOW TO MAKE THEM!

The best way to make coloured greys is by using combinations of complementary colours - which help to make greys so much more interesting.

Below is my chart of complementary coloured pencils with just three changes between one colour and its complement. In the middle are a group of coloured muted colours. The point being that all the variations on coloured greys are so much more interesting that Paynes Grey!

A chart of complementary colours using coloured pencils
with coloured muted colours in the middle row

Depicting Water

There's often quite a lot of water in the Landscape Artist of the year series. This year there has been a LOT! It was present in a significant way in Snowdon, St Pancras Basin and this episode. It was there in Clifton Suspension Bridge - because it's in the Avon Gorge.

TIP: Not liking to paint water - or not knowing how to paint water is not really where you want to be if you apply for a place as a pod or as a wildcard.

You need to know:

water does not lean (my guaranteed way of knowing when a painter is an amateur)
waves and ripples have really interesting abstract shapes - and those shapes also incorporate perspective and depth
there is a relationship between what is in the sky and what the water looks like
cast shadows and reflections are different and vary in strength depending on the quality of the light.

So my BIG TIP is learn how you paint water before you show up on location!

Allocation of people to Heats

I felt sorry for the guy whose submission painting was of a view so similar to the one he was offered in the heat. I felt that he was on an absolute hiding to nothing.

Hash Akib with his submission - a painting of Southwold

We've seen some very silly allocations of people to heats this year.

Why on earth Hash Akib was presented with a view which was VERY similar to his submission - given they knew what the view was like - is anybody's guess. It makes no sense at all. While we always expect to see some correspondence between the two artworks, we don't expect to see a repeat outing of a very similar view!

Or maybe they thought that HE ought to know that he needed to paint something different - but didn't mention that to him?

I felt he was unfairly treated - and had he been presented with the view in one of the other heats we'd have learned more about him - as he is very obviously an accomplished painter. (see his profile above).

You can see lots of townscapes on his Instagram. What you don't see as much of is paintings of landscapes - and I'd have liked to have seen him tackling one of the two locations in Wales. That's a reasonable ask, given the South of France is known for its landscapes and not its buildings!!!

There again, this series has a very pretentious flavour whereby the Judges want to discover "new artists" not ones who've been around for some time and are already earning their living as a professional artist.

The notion of "Landscape Artist of the Year" is ALWAYS undermined by this approach. If you want it to be about new artists, then call it "NEW Landscape Artist of the Year" - and watch the quantity of applications from experienced entrants dry up.....

This is just one example of silly allocation to heats. There have been lots of others. I could go on.....

Decision Time

"What we really need is an artist who really conveys a sense of place"
Judge

The Wildcard Winner

I thought the wildcard winning painting by Simon White was really good. He certainly succeeded in conveying a sense of place by creating a vertical slice of the west end of the floating harbour. I think he started with his support covered in a yellow ochre - and I'm not sure he finished covering it (eg middle right and towards the bottom) - but it didn't seem to matter - it worked!

The Judges liked how he managed to pack a lot in without overworking his painting.

Simon White is from Warwickshire but I can't find him anywhere online. Oddly, "wildcard winner" as a search query produces nothing on Instagram - which reminds me that we rarely see the wildcard winner posted on the Artist of the Year Instagram account.

Wildcard winner - a brightly coloured energetic depiction - by Simon White

The Heat Paintings

The Heat Paintings - lined up.

Below are pics of the artists with their heat paintings

clockwise from top left:
Molly Lemon, Hash Akib, Beth Blakeman-Shead and Bernie Miller

clockwise from top left:
Bill Bone, Colin Revell, Mike Bennion and Raoul Orozobel

I asked people who follow me on Facebook which they liked and comments included:

I really enjoyed seeing the work of the more seasoned plein-air artists although they all seemed to struggle with the time apart from one who avoided the greys - top right of first pic

My choice was the top two and the watercolour

I was happy with the shortlist and would have been happy if any of the three had won

So they can appreciate Printmaking after all!

The Shortlist

The right ones were shortlisted but for me the winner should have been Beth (top right), really loved her panoramic capture of the place.

The shortlist selected from this week's artists were:

Molly Lemon
Colin Revell
Beth Blakeman Shead

I think you can work out by now who I think should have been selected by the Judges.

"All of these three think about light in a really interesting way.....

These three we've selected, are those artists who we think really found a very successful way into today" Kate Bryan

Below is my commentary on each of the shortlisted artists in turn. Followed by observations in terms of what the Judges said.

Colin Revell

Submission and Heat Watercolour Painting by Colin Revell

I really liked Colin's submission - it was very quirky and benefited from the use of a limited palette to paint the statue of Yayoi Kusama about to apply another spot!

I thought his use of "wet in wet" for his watercolour in the heat was highly appropriate. The design with a high horizon line put an emphasis on the water and eliminated most of the background apart from the big shapes close by. I found the juxtaposition of the boats at the bottom left hand corner to be very odd.

Overall, the Judges thought his heat painting was very atmospheric - and that it felt like the day they'd had, with the total lack of light (they mean sunlight - if there was no light we'd be in pitch black!). They decided Colin was good at "mood" and his painting indicates how cold it was.

The Judges (Kathleen?) commented on how the red of the brick has "is like blood leaching into the water". I'd call it a reflection - it's what happens!

Molly Lemon

Submission and Heat Wood Engravings by Molly Lemon

We're very used to seeing printmaking which is rather larger in size - so it felt really odd to me to be seeing (or not seeing except through close-ups) two very small works.

However both of these while small are packed full of content. They're also very well designed both in terms of content, mark-making and palette used.

The Judges commented that

Tai was interested in how she conjures sky and water and thought her engravings were beautiful
they thought it was an interesting solution to the way in which the landscape was both difficult and overwhelming in something so small
her submission was all about expanse, distance, scale, monumentality of nature and then the heat artwork is like a knitted jumper(!)

Beth Blakeman-Shead

Submission and Heat Painting by Beth Blakeman-Shead

I liked Beth's submission - but would find that quantity of yellow very hard on the eye if hung on a wall. There's a difference between admiring something you can move away from - and wanting to hang it on your wall.

Interestingly, during the heat Beth compressed the very wide view they were presented with and left out the bit around the bridge which attracted both the wildcard winner and Molly.

She chose to use a limited palette which, in a lot of ways, exactly reflected the day. Except I found her greys to be a bit too murky and uninteresting. I think it could have been a much more interesting painting if she's used more coloured greys. Plus the colours of the painted houses did not "pop" as they should have done.

Her depiction of the clouds which went in fast at the end was good - it got that sense of the shapes they get when the wind is blowing hard in one direction.

It's crazy how hot that place is and how cold that painting is Tai

Tai highlighted the contrast between the very hot street scene in North Africa in the submission and the very cold and portrayal of the very cold, wet and windy day beside Bristol Harbourside in the second painting.

The Judges commented on the way in which she reduces her palette to reflect the place - in both her submission and during the heat and then plays with the various volumes of colour.

I agree playing with volumes of colour is demonstrated but I didn't see much playing with the actual colours.

Heat Winner

Molly Lemon with her submission

The winner of this heat was Molly Lemon. Kate Bryan commented that she demonstrated a deep connect to the place.

I think the thing that is distinctive about Molly is that she is really able to capture the energy, the character, the distance, the perspective of a place this big. She's really deeply connected to the landscape she is working in. That's the kind of artist you want to think about sending to the south of France.
Followers of my FB Page commented

I liked the shortlist and loved the winner but I’d be VERY curious how she would approach the commission!!
Usually I cheer for the watercolourists, but I loved the wood block print and was delighted it won.

This is her woodblock engraving which she produced during the heat. I'm guessing that Molly practiced and knew what size of block she was comfortable with in the four hours allowed. I really like her range of mark-making and use of colour palette.

Hotwells neighbourhood by Molly Lemon

If you look carefully, and I didn't realise this until I write this section of my review, the subject matter and the crop is almost identical to the wildcard winner.

This is the view - from somebody's photo while stood in front of the Cottage Inn. I think both of them have got some of the proportions wrong - but anybody used to standing outside that pub would recognise the view. If I was Molly, I'd be offering limited editions available via the Cottage Inn!

This is her submission which I actually like better - but then I like those colours a lot

Submission by Molly Lemon

I like Molly's engravings and she clearly knows what she's doing in terms of printing.

My one reservation would be about how would she convert her knowledge and expertise to producing a £10,000 commission of the landscape in the South of France for the Courtauld. I'm not saying she can't produce wonderful wood engravings - but to that value? How does that work?

I am looking forward to seeing whether she progresses in the semi-finals next week (see below).

Next Week - the Semi Finals in Portsmouth

Next week, is the Semi Finals and they're in Portsmouth - next to HMS Victory in the National Museum of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard HM Naval Base (PP66), Portsmouth, PO1 3NH - and back besides the water.

The pods in front of HMS Victory in Portsmouth

I'll also be doing a review of Landscape Artist of the Year after the Final and the Commission Show - highlighting what are the issues that the Artist of the Year team still need to address.

Or as one person commenting on my blog said

pottery showdown is a masterclass programme of happiness, skill, tutors, contestants, presenters etc. PAOTY could do with learning from Keith. He is so joyful and shows real emotion and is so down to earth. PAOTY is too snobbish and pretentious

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) and broadcast in early 2026

see my blog post about Call for Entries - Landscape Artist of the Year 2026 (Series 11). The deadline for submission is NOON on Friday 2nd May 2025 - 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.

MAKING A MARK

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