MAKING A MARK: Review: Episode 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 11 (2026)

Thursday, February 19, 2026

Review: Episode 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 11 (2026) - Dover Castle

This is my sixth and final review of the Heats in Series 11 of Landscape Artist of the Year. This episode apparently was the first heat of the series - and the view was of Dover Castle and its ramparts

Drone View of the location with LAOTY Pods, wildcard artists and Dover castle

As always my review provides:

more detail than the programme about each of the artists
overview of the location for the day and how this worked for the artists and programme
comments on themes which cropped during the programme
details of the artists who were shortlisted and who won the Wildcard and this heat.

My next review will be about the semi final - which is in Sussex (see end).

Episode 6: Dover Castle

Location and Weather

The location for this heat was an exposed hill across a wooded valley opposite Dover Castle. The pods were set up at the top of the slop and the wildcards were located further down the slope - in the eyeline of the pod artists.

DOVER CASTLE

Dover Castle:
a classic 11th century motte and bailey castle built by William the Conqueror
transformed by Henry II in the 12th century with a massive stone keep and curtain walls

Dover Castle is cared for by English Heritage and is VERY important in UK History.

It was originally built to overlook the shortest passage between the south east of England and the continent. As such it has played a crucial role in the "defence of the realm" for over nine centuries. As such it ranks alongside the Tower of London and Windsor Castle.

The history of the castle includes:

The massive earth ramparts and ditches surrounding the castle were thought to have been originally constructed about 800 years BC!
The Romans constructed a lighthouse (Pharos) to guide ships into the harbour
Churches were built in the 7th and 10-11th centuries
1066: William the Conqueror builds a castle there after he has defeated King Harold
1180-89: King Henry II rebuilds the Castle and constructs a huge Keep. This was the most expensive castle building project in England ever!
1215: King John constructs the important outer defences which hold when the castle is besieged the following year by the Prince of France
1217-56: over the next 30 years, enormous sums are spent strengthening Dover, making it one of the largest and most strategically important castles in England.
1793-1815: huge sums are spent during the French Revolution and the Napoelanic wars to make the castle safe
1939-45: The naval and later combined services headquarters were located in the Napoleonic tunnels and masterminded the invasion of France.
1956: the gun batteries were removed.

I didn't have the sense from the programme that ANY of this was explained to the artists before they started their paintings. I don't know any serious landscape painters of major important structures who wouldn't do a bit of research before they started painting - so they can make sure they include critical bits or because they need to know what they're painting - and which bits are where!

From a painting perspective, the earth ramparts (which are entirely artificial) are at least as important as the stone structure - and yet few really showed what they were there for or what they looked like.

One artist - the winner - did. Hence why I've explained the location in so much detail.

NOTE: Incidentally, I know that drones are fabulous things that allow filmmakers to get views they could never get before.

For me they are good for locating the venue and the nature of its vicinity.
However, the film-making of this series seems to have fallen prey to using the drone as much as possible.
what WE DO NOT SEE ENOUGH OF is what the view looks like from each artist's pod.

That view is the only one we need to know about to do an armchair judgement of whether or not an artist has captured a good likeness of what a place looks like.

All we got a was a very few seconds near the beginning as the artists began to prep their artwork.

All we needed was for Stephen and Tai to do their double act explaining the view from inside a pod - BEFORE the artists got into them. How difficult is that. Instead they talked about it from a place where all we saw was them talking rather than the view!

The (very) quick view from an Artist's Pod

Bottom line, it's exactly the same as portraiture - if you choose to make a portrait of a place then it must look like the place as well as being interesting as a painting.

i.e. what it looks like is the view from the pod - NOT the view from the sky!

Weather

Yet another very warm and sunny day - but apparently a great deal of gusty wind from time to time also. Easels, artwork, paint, water - all went flying! I'm not surprised there was a wind because I think the location for the pods was absolutely crackers!

Wind is normal. Artists normally avoid windy spots for all sorts of very practical reasons - the main one being lightweight plein air easels falling over. Which means Storyvault Films MUST project manage the set up for wind - and that might include (VERY serious suggestion):

having a VERY big think about the wisdom of some locations

where wind is VERY predictable
eg near the coast, on top of a hill!!

thinking about / finding out what the PREVAILING WIND DIRECTION is likely to be and how this might affect the pods i.e.

it looked to me like they'd pitched the pods right in the path of every (PREVAILING) south west wind coming up the channel!
I then checked on Google Maps and that is precisely what they had done!
HOW can a Location Manager not understand about prevailing winds - and hence why some locations are NOT a good idea? I am just gobsmacked.

The prevailing wind direction in Dover is primarily from the west and south-west for most of the year, particularly from mid-May to mid-April.

Strong winds (force 5 or greater) occur frequently, with higher, more dangerous gusts often coming from the South-South-West (SSW) to West-South-West (WSW) directions, affecting the port's operating safety limits. (Google)

The Artists in the Pods

Episode 5 artists are listed 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 - but typically only one

This is the atrocious pic of all the artists together we were offered
- in which we can't see the faces of FOUR people
I really don't mind if you line them all up in a row
and then ask them all to "smile for the camera"

Is this the most artists in one heat who

openly state that they like make a lot of their art plein air?
dislike websites and social media?

They are:

Aislinn Anne (Instagram) - a mixed media semi abstract artist from Cornwall who creates expressive colour led art inspired by nature. She spends most of her time sketching and painting plein air. She uses acrylic inks, pastels, charcoal and acrylic paint and sells her art online. She describes her art as being....

Art rooted in nature, feeling and expressive art-making

Ruth Baker (Instagram) - a receptionist from Somerset who enjoys using pyrography to create artwork. Pyrography involves using a hot wire tool to burn wood in a permanent way - so she does a drawing before she starts to make sure she has got her design right. Her artwork is very accomplished (see below with her submission) - but I don't think it's suited to a time budget of four hours!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ruth Baker Art (@ruthbakerart)

Lelia Garahty aka Lelia Kneeshaw - an oil painter from Kent who loves painting outside and apparently does not like websites or social media! She likes painting with Old Holland or Michael Harding Oil Paints. I wrote about her when she was the Wildcard Winner at Llanberis Quarry in Series 10 - and look what happened! ;) Plus she was also interviewed for Cass Arts post about Series 10 heat winners and wildcard winners

The Wildcard Winner was Lelia Kneeshaw from Kent who got it because she was bold and tackled the whole scene by producing what Kate called "an impressionistic panorama" through the introduction of variation in colour and mark-making. In fact I'd go so far as to say I'd be shortlisting her if she had been in a pod as she has caught the entire view and painted it in a way which seems to fit with the rugged nature of the landscape. Review: Episode 5 Landscape Artist of the Year 2025 - Dinorwic Slate Quarry

Sarah Graham (Instagram) - at the time she was a student from West Sussex but now has a BA in Fine Art from Winchester School of Art. She likes painting conventional landscapes in a palette of muted oils. No website.
Stu Gregory (Instagram) - a chartered surveyor from Warwickshire. 10 years ago he took an art class and took up painting as a result. He likes to paint plein air. He submitted a panoramic view of a village which included people which he'd apparently already sold!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The White Gallery, Cotswolds (@thewhitegallerycotswolds)

Paul Rothera (Instagram) - an architect who lives and works in Derbyshire. Born in Staffordshire, Paul studied architecture at Liverpool University and has now worked as both an artist and architect for many years. Paul has always been interested in buildings and the urban landscape. His submission was a view of a view from a window providing a view of his interior and exterior world. He participates in the Broadway Arts Festival and is represented by the White Gallery, Costwolds.
Kumar Saraf (Instagram) - studied Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, then went on to study painting at the prestigious Royal Academy Schools (1993-96). Here he won several awards and prizes, including the David Murray travel scholarship for landscape painting and a silver medal for excellence in painting. He relocated to Mid-Wales to paint full time in 2002. As well as painting Kumar works on art based community projects. He was also a heat finalist in LAOTY 2017.
Elaine Vicars - No website or Instagram. She is a student support worker from Liverpool. She paints in her spare time and likes using watered down oil paints. (Water soluble??)

The Wildcard Artists

some of the Wildcards arriving to set up

This heat was back to 50 wildcard artists who were located on the slope below the Pod Artists - with the same view of Dover Castle. Lots of easels were erected - and lots of ground sheets were spread. I think they're mostly looking very well organised!

The Pods and Wildcards across a wooded valley from Dover Castle

Given they had more or less the same perspective, the viewers can compare directly who was producing the best paintings - and I have to say, there was a point where I thought the wildcard artists had the edge

Submissions

I am still missing seeing all the submissions together to get a sense of their relative size.
I think I've given up on doing an analysis.

Themes & Learning Points

Every week, in my review, I highlight what I observed as being some of the themes arising from the location, the day and the nature of the artists in this week's episode.

The Importance of Castles in LAOTY!

Dover Castle and the Artist Pods

TOP TIP This series is absolutely besotted with Castles (and other similar old structures)! So why don't you:

paint a castle for your submission (a quick short cut to giving the Judges something to say!)
practice painting castles in advance of the heats - they are not easy! Getting shapes and volume right is at least as important and structure and detail and colours.

I was looking back and there have been ever so many castles painted by LAOTY artists over the years plus large country mansions and similar old structures. We have:

Season 2: TWO CASTLES

Scotney Castle
Wray Castle

Season 3: Knaresborough Castle
Season 4:

Inveraray Castle
Fountains Abbey

Season 5: Herstmonceux Castle
Season 6: (large country houses instead!)
Season 7: Compton Verney House
Season 8: Castle Ward
Season 9: TWO MORE CASTLES

Hever Castle
Dunnotar Castle

Season 10: Hampton Court

Here's a list of castles in the UK (i.e. those that have survived) if you want to practice! There's a lot to choose from!

Is it important to have a plan?

My other half in one of those people who trots out the old adage

"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!"
A poor plan can be very unhelpful. What I noticed was the heat not panning out quite how people expected. So I'd recommend you avoid anything which is NOT a plan so much as a statement about what you'd like to do on the day (that's just a statement of aspiration)

What's most important is indicate clearly

what you know you can achieve while painting plein air on any given day
the typical stages of your plein air practice
time allowed for different stages (eg thumbnail sketching; drawing in key aspects, mixing paints outside

The people who are probably going to struggle most are

those who have never worked outside before and don't know what will present a challenge eg how fast watercolour and acrylics dry on a hot day.
those who have thought more about what to wear for the cameras than what size and format of support and which paints to take
those who don't have a plan for how to pace their painting

Some of the wildcards

Also research your likely site. Find out ANYTHING that's likely to be helpful.
I will never ever forget that 2018 WINNER Jen Gash worked out where they were going for the semi finals in 2017 (broadcast in 2018) i.e. Felixstowe Docks - and where they were going to put the pods - and consequently looked up the tide tables and the shipping timetables for the dock re ships coming and going. So when an absolutely enormous container ship came and docked, she was not only not surprised, she was expecting it! While others lost a big chunk of what they were painting!! (read The semi-final in Felixstowe on the hottest day of the year)

Changing Light

Changing light is absolutely normal for all those painting plein air - and you MUST know how it works, if you don't want to get very frustrated by changing light.

It struck me that a number of the artists were less than familiar with changing light - and were surprised by how their subject changed. Or thought that everybody keeps the tonal values which they start with - for the rest of the day.

Strategies for dealing with it include:

locating the sun when you get there
thinking about how high it is in the sky - and what that means for shadows
working out how it will move across the sky during the time you plan to be there
how that will affect what you are painting in terms of a study of tonal values - e.g. where are shadows going to disappear and appear?

In very basic terms, the sun:

rises in the east
sets in the west
is highest above the horizon at midday
in the northern hemisphere at midday, the sun will be approximately due south (i.e. we're north of the Tropic of Capricorn)
mid morning it's halfway between the horizon and overhead
mid afternoon, it's halfway between overhead and the horizon

It can be hazier in the morning (water vapour has not burned off yet) and more golden as it goes towards sunset.

Including people - or not?

I'm very much of the opinion that absolutely nobody should ever have to paint for the predilections of a Judge i.e. if one of them doesn't like people in paintings, they should get over their prejudice and judge the painting -WITHOUT ANY BIAS!

However, if you're thinking about including people, do try to be somebody who has painted people in landscapes a LOT and can do that incredibly difficult thing of suggesting people with a very few judiciously placed brushstrokes

Stu Gregory showed us all how to do it. His little people were superb!

....and this is a closeup of his little people. I love the fact that each person has a posture, and those seated are very impressive, there are no faces and feet are difficult to discern. I was always told to paint what you see and to remember that hands and feet may be big in perception terms but they're tiny when painting a suggestion of a person.

Little wildcards by Stu Gregory

Tones versus colours

There was an interesting mix of

people who were painting with a very subdued, very traditional palette and
those who were using neon colours and generally mixing it up on the colour front.

I didn't get a strong sense that either understood how to paint in tones.

You may have a preferred palette, but you always need to remember that tone always tells the story. Tone provides the structural backbone to a composition

TIP A very quick way of assessing whether or not your painting is working is to take a photo of it - and then convert that to greyscale. If you haven't got your tonal pattern sorted, your painting will not "read". If you have favoured colour over tone, the chances are that it may confuse the eye.

My test of whether a painting is good or not is whether it makes me walk over to take a closer look if I start 30 feet away. My first tour of an exhibition is done from a distance without looking at labels. It always tells me which paintings are worth looking at again on the second time around.

The LOOK AT ME People

Why do the filmmakers fall for the "look at me" people every time? (Man in red hat with vivid red viewfinder)

This is supposed to be a programme about painting landscapes and the people we'd like to see are those who are making a good job of painting a landscape!

Is that too much to ask?

Decision Time!

The Judges: Tai Shan Shierenberg, Eva Langret and Kathleen Soriano

The Judges judge. I think Eva is an improvement on Kate. I began to get the distinct impression over the course of the programme that she was being rather more astute than either Tai or Kathleen.

The Wildcard Winner

Karen Adams, Wildcard Winner of Heat 6 of LAOTY Series 11 (Dover Castle)
- talking to Tai Shan Schierenberg

The Wildcard Winner this week was Karen Adams (Instagram) from Norfolk - and a very worthy winner she was too.

I actually thought she produced the best painting on the day of all the artists!
A richly rendered oil painting which brought the slabby monster to life

I think this is the best wildcard painting I've seen all series and one which, quite frankly, was better than those produced by the pod artists!

Winner of the Wildcard Entry
Dover Castle by Karen Adams

Karen is a full-time artist based on the North Norfolk coast where she finds the ever-changing landscape serves as a constant source of inspiration. She paints various subjects plein air around the UK and the world.

She has had a number of successful solo exhibitions in Norfolk in the last 7 years, most recently at The Burnham Overy Boathouse on the quay at Burnham Overy Staithe in north Norfolk - in the Summers of 2023, 2024 and 2025. (TIP: Do check out the Rogues Gallery behind the teamwhich run the Boathouse - you will not be disappointed!) She has also exhibited at ING Discerning Eye at Mall Galleries, Chelsea Art Society, Solo Norfolk Exhibitions, 340 Kings Road

I do love the posts which people put up on Instagram in advance of the big day!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Karen Adams (@karen.adamsart)

The Heat Paintings + BIG MOAN!

You can see all the individual completed Heat Paintings in a Facebook Post where each artist gets to stand with their finished painting. It's a great pity we don't see this on the programme. (Note: the link won't work for you if you're not logged into Facebook)

A VERY POOR view of the finished heat paintings

COMPLAINT!

I know they were struggling with the wind all day, but in my book there is absolutely NO EXCUSE for giving us such a very poor view of all the heat paintings together.

I can't even tell who produced some of the paintings - and
I cannot even see the ones behind the Judges heads on the far right.

If they want to do such locations then they MUST also work out

how to keep the wind away from the artists - which dicates location and views
HOW to present the artworks together in a way that the viewing public can appreciate their size and differences - which you can only do when they are lined up next to one another.

i.e. if you give us a "fill the screen" view of all the artworks - individually, one at a time - most viewers will not appreciate the differences in ambition and skill which can only be assessed at a bigger distance.

They then had the artists lined up - but NOT with their own paintings - because they left the paintings in the pods.

This is just crazy? Why bother - unless we can all SEE ALL THE PAINTINGS and the artist stands next to it? What is the point?

If the positioning is so so difficult, why not just have the artists hold their paintings in front of them - as they do with their submissions?

Is there a different photographer for this series, as most of these set piece photos have been "not very good" (polite term).

The Heat 6 Artists NOT WITH THEIR PAINTINGS
- which we can't see anyway

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The Shortlist

The shortlist selected from this week's artists were:

Lelia Gerahty
Sarah Graham
Kumah Sarif

They did NOT pick the expressionistic artist who got a lot of air time instead!

Submission and heat paintings by the shortlisted artists
Can you see the artwork - because I can't!

Below are the submission and heat paintings for each shortlisted artist and my commentary on their artwork.

I always look at the size of the paintings with a view to assessing who looked most likely to deliver a commissioned piece.

Lelia Gerahty

Submission and heat painting by Lelia Gerahty

Kathleen kept referncing how the gaps and the white spaces suggested an airiness to the heat painting - and her submission suggested she knows how to paint.

However, the big thing which struck me forcefully, when I watched the episode for a second time, is how clearly these two paintings "read". Lelia varies colour, tone and intensity.

I wasn't a huge fan of the submission painting (but that's because I don't like funfairs!). However her painting of the castle looked like it had the potential to go all the way right from near the beginning. It was clear she had a concept of what she wanted to achieve.

For me, this is the ONLY painting (apart from the wildcard) which gives a clear sense of place and how the castle looks and sits in its surroundings. Like I said, a lot of artists underestimates the importance of the ramparts. I'm personally not in the least bit bothered by the lack of correct geometry because it's an impression, this was deliberate and it's emphatically not a realism painting.

Sarah Graham

Submission and heat painting by Sarah Graham

I really didn't understand this choice for the shortlist. I'm assuming her submission got her through - which was good, although frankly I've seen a lot of painters paint like this, and it's not distinctive.

Eva waxed lyrical about what she was doing with the Castle, while I had my mouth open and eyebrows raised. To me is was a painting that did not read at a distance - in contrast to how the castle appeared in front of them.

In the end I decided they were being nice to the young artist starting out.

Kumah Sarif

I really do not know why he got selected for the shortlist. If you've not watched the programme, I believe the image below of his two paintings explains why I take this view.

Submission and heat painting by Kumar Saraf

Kathleen commented that he seemed to be only interested in mood and the interplay between light and darkness - and I think she's right

His submission was OKish (but needed a better presentation (i.e. if you're going to present a watercolour on lightweight paper then mat it - otherwise it looks cockled and crumpled (which it was)!).

However I really did NOT like his heat painting. Eva explained the reasons why from her perspective. This is my version. The top half had something shimmering about it - which was completely and wholly undermined by the absolute rubbish which was the vegetation in the bottom half. Apart from that it was a painting of two halves - never a good idea.

Having looked at his Instagram, he is very clearly capable of producing very good paintings (example). I can only conclude that painting plein air in four hoursas part of a competition is a format which did not suit him.

I have to say that overall, I think the Wildcard Winner's painting was the best of ALL paintings done on the day!

The two people I would have put through to the shortlist were:

Stu Gregory - the man who included the people. I think Judges need to remember that people are often a feature in landscapes.
Paul Rothera - because I think Tai needs to go and study the castle ramparts again and reflect on his "shadow" comment.

Dover Castle by Paul Rothera

Episode 6: Winner

Lelia Gerahty won Episode 6 with her large painting which, for me, told an excellent story of place.

Lelia Gerahty - Winner of Heat 6 at Dover Castle

This just goes to show why Judges should spend a lot longer looking at the contribusions of the wildcards

Lelia Kneeshaw (Gerahty) was the Wildcard Winner of Series 10 Heat 5 (Slate Quarry, Llanbeis)
In Heat 6 of Series 11, she won the Heat from a Pod!

Series 11, Episode 6: Winning Painting by Lelia Gerahty

Lelia is not phased by big landscapes. Indeed I think she's very probably stimulated by them.
She is perfectly capable of constructing a painting which tells a story of the place.

What I very much liked about her paintings was that she was the only painter to convey the way in which the castle sat within the ramparts, which all sat on top of the earthworks and how the vegetation grew around the castle.

Next Week

The Ouse Valley Viaduct and the Pod Artists

It's the Semi Final and what better way of sorting out the heat winners than to offer them the chance to paint an enormous viaduct in the Ouse Valley which carries carries the Brighton Main Line over the River Ouse in Sussex.

This, in my view, is the most boring every challenge. I think maybe Storyvault Films needs a new Location Scout!

I will be very surprised if we see some decent paintings.

This is also when we find out which of the Wildcard Winners was selected for the Semi Finals.

Who do you think will make it through?

Reference

This covers:

Series 11 reviews to date
Entering Landscape Artist of the Year Series 12 in 2027
Past Series reviews - which you're recommended to read if you want to enter - LOTS OF TIPS

Series 11 - my reviews

Entering Landscape Artist of the Year Series 12 in 2027

READ MY BLOG POST BRAND NEW FORMAT for Landscape Artist of the Year Series 12 (2027) announced!

For all those interested in entering the series which will be filmed this summer (during June/July) - I will be writing a blog post in the near future about Call for Entries - Landscape Artist of the Year 2026 (Series 12). (Note: It will be very similar to Call for Entries - Landscape Artist of the Year 2026 (Series 11) but will take into account the already announced changes with respect to how many artists will be selected.

The deadline for submission is NOON on Monday 23rd March 2026 - and entries are ONLY accepted online.

Past Series

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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