The Sky Arts website recently announced innovations for the next round of Landscape Artist of the Year.
At the weekend we heard - via the main Sky Arts website only - that:
- Fearne Cotton is to join as a new celebrity Co-Host
- More Celebrities will be involved in every episode - talking about their landscape
- Still no announcement about the Judges for LAOTY although we now know who two are.
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| Image for Series 12 - using submissions from Series 11 |
However, what is very weird is that
- they have added text to the page,
- without removing images and text associated with previous incarnations.
- Hence we have two lots of text describing the format of one programme in two different ways!
A New Co-Host
Fearne Cotton is to be a new Co-Host for Series 12 which will be filmed this summer.
She a long-standing British TV presenter - mainly associated with the "popular
tv" end of the market with mainstream broadcasters.
She also describes herself as Mother, Broadcaster, Writer, Founder.
Since finishing The Fearne Cotton Show (2009-2015) for BBC Radio1 she has
branched out on her own and now hosts an award-winning podcast
Happy Place
(on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Her
Happy Place Brand
has since expanded into:
- a wellbeing brand including
- a book club,
- an annual festival and
- a marketplace that champions small businesses that are female-led, minority-owned, and/or based in the UK.
In other words, treading the well trodden path of celebrities who now need
to differentiate themselves - while remaining popular - and generate their
own audiences in the new social media world.
“I am thrilled to be joining Landscape Artist of the Year as part of the presenting team at Sky Arts. Art is such an important, emotive and expressive medium for me and I know that the audience is just going to be absolutely blown away by the level of enthusiasm and passion that we see from the artists taking part in the show. I can’t wait to be part of that journey and to help them tell their stories.”
She also comes with:
Which makes her very good fit with lots and lots of women over the age
of 30 who like watching Landscape Artist of the Year.
I can see why she could be attracted to LAOTY and why Sky Arts might be attracted to her.
Casting now depends on social media following - as well as the ability to
do the job!
 |
| Fearne Cotton and her self portrait - see "The Reveal" video on Instagram |
and - as if by magic - here's her first post for Artist of the Year!
More Celebrity Involvement
The "next new thing" is the involvement of celebrities on LAOTY as well as PAOTY
every episode will take place in a location championed by a celebrity with a personal connection to it.
Challenging the contestants to capture not just the landscape but the emotion and memory it holds, the artists will hear each celebrity’s story, before revealing their approach with an initial sketch that sets out their composition, materials and creative instinct.
At the end of each episode, the celebrity champion chooses the artwork that speaks to them most, taking home a painting that captures their connection to the landscape. Then comes the judges’ toughest decision: one artist must leave the competition.
- criticism of Sky Arts / Storyvault Films choice of locations deflected by making it a choice of 10 different celebrities - one for each episode
- which means it could be anything - but I would take a bet on a lot of them being about places where they spent their childhood or teenage years.
- which does not necessarily make them a good subject for a landscape!!
- BUT this approach does really underline the notion that the competition is about choosing somebody who can take on a commission and interpret what the client says and what the chosen landscape is
- PLUS No one artist will go out because they've never painted "whatever" before - unless they make a complete hash of it.
I think this approach has scope to make it a more interesting competition. We shall all wait and see....
The real task now is going to be about getting celebrities who come up with interesting landscapes.
Who are the judges of Landscape Artist of the Year 2026?
 |
| Tai Shan Shierenberg and Eva Langret |
The new version of the Sky Arts Page for Landscape Artist of the Year make it clear that the Judges for the filming this summer will be Tai Shan Shierenberg and Eva Langret - so
- one old Judge (who paints landscapes) and
- one new Judge (who is judging both PAOTY and LAOTY).
(Although for some reason Tai is being referred to as Jutai - and I'm guessing they're using copywriters who have never ever watched the show!!!)
That makes me think there is still scope for a third Judge and that this might be:
- either the celebrity who is associated with each episode - so a rotating cast?
- or another landscape painter who is both experienced and articulate (i.e. what most of the artists and a lot of the viewers want!)
- a previous winner of LAOTY - on a guest basis?
My preference is very definitely for another landscape artist of one sort or another - and not a celebrity.
Will we know who the Judges are before the programme launches next January?
Yes - because however they are doing it and whoever is involved is unlikely to survive the social media associated with the competition at the various venues this summer.
You can ask for people not to say - but you can't guarantee secrecy - and I'm pretty certain it will be too tempting for this one not to leak!
Not forgetting the Wildcards
I am surprised to see that they are proposing increasing the Wildcards from 50 to 100.
up to 100 wildcard artists gather at every location, and while they’re not competing, will show off their work and share their reasons for entering.
That only works for me if they allow the Wildcards to position themselves around the place which is the commission - but in a much more natural way. Like artists in a group going out to paint a place.
If they get a semblance of "this is what it's like painting outdoors with a painting group" they will have done a good job.
If the cameramen keep going for those who "wannabe on tv" types, I shall probably switch off.
My view?
The format of 10 artists at the start and then losing one each week is a well established "knockout" format which works well on other shows - typically in terms of having two or three challenges for each show.
It sounds to me like they're going for:
- #1 challenge - the sketch
- #2 challenge - the worked up painting
Frankly, I do not think landscape painting needs ANY celebrities.
- I'd have been happy with an articulate landscape artist being a presenter.
- Also, I'm not keen on time which could be spent watching artists paint being subverted by including the talk with the celebrity.
- It's by far the most boring bit of PAOTY and to have it now introduced to LAOTY is no way a plus point in my book.
It also subverts the very important mantra of "keep it simple, stupid".
- None of the other "knockout shows" have celebrities involved
- because "the joy is in the doing" and NOT in watching yet another minor celebrity earning yet another fee from a tv company.
I sometimes think the problem with tv programmes is that the people who make them seem to only know tv people - and that is not the world of the viewer.
Bottom line, people watch this programme to watch painters. They don't watch for the celebrities.
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