Sunday, March 08, 2026

Review: £10,000 Commission for Landscape Artist of the Year 2025

The Commission Prize comes right after the we find out who won Landscape Artist of the Year for 2026 - see my post Kim Day wins Landscape Artist of Year 2026

This post is about the Commission:
  • the brief for the Landscape Artist of the Year commission
  • the Commission Programme - what's involved in understanding the brief and the constraints on the artist
  • the Commission Painting produced by the winner of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023.
Before the Unveiling of the Commissioned Painting of Croagh Patrick

The Commission


It's probably worth saying that this is not a prize in the sense that a nice tidy sum of £10,000 lands in your bank account. 

First you have to work for it!

What you get in effect as a prize is an opportunity to EARN £10K through creating a painting - which everybody will want to comment on (and have done!)

The Challenge


The Commission is both like and unlike a commission an artist usually receives.

Usually it's only illustrators who get a tight brief and an absolute deadline for delivery - and given her day job is being a scenic artist for film and television Kim will have been very used to working on commission.

However most artists have some flexibility about deadlines (i.e. you say whether to accept it or not and when you can do it / deliver it) and briefs when doing a commission. This one you have
  • a very specific subject - it has to be a painting about Croagh Patrick, the holy mountain associated with St Patrick in County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland
  • a very specific deadline - for delivery to the National Gallery of Ireland and the filming of the Winner's Commission programme
  • considerable latitude as to what you do and how you do it - within the context of media allowed in the competition - and the constraints of being followed around by a film crew the whole time
The winner will receive a taxable fee of £10,000 (ten thousand pounds) (“the Winner’s Prize Fee”) for creation, completion, and delivery of an artwork (“the Winner’s Prize Artwork”) of a landscape (“Winner’s Prize Location”) on dates and times and locations to be determined by the Producer at its absolute discretion. Extract from the Series 11 Terms and Conditions

The Brief


The first part of the Commission is a visit to the National Gallery of Ireland to meet Dr Brendan Rooney, Head Curator and Curator of Irish Art to:
  • get the brief
  • ask questions
This is the Instagram film which reveals how that went. 

NOTE: I do think (being piccy) that the programme maker and/or the client respects the winning artist best by including 
  • HER FULL NAME in the text and 
  • the address of her Instagram account
That to me should be part of the prize i.e. every reference to the winner comes with expectations as to what using her name means. I know of no good reason why it can't be so.

Key points - Bottom line the formal brief from the National Gallery of Ireland is to:

  • produce an artwork about Croagh Patrick
    • this the first commission of its kind to fill a defined gap in artworks of important aspects of Ireland. Croad Patrick being a legendeary mountain of the Western Seaboard of Ireland which is conspicuous by its absence from the Collection of Irish Art (which I assume means about Ireland rather than by Irish artists)
    • Kim was shown images by another important painter of the West of Ireland - Paul Henry who balanced realism and modernity and was associated with Achill Island. (You can see more of his paintings on this auctioneer website)
  • there are absolutely no expectations or limitations as to size or media or framing

Let us not forget that actually producing a commission within the context of the constraints she was under is a remarkable achievement in and of itself! 

Kim's agreed commitment (as per the T&Cs) to the programme was to 

  • be available between the Final Date and end of September 2025 to attend the Winner’s Prize Location and produce the Winner’s Prize Artwork on exact dates to be determined by the Producer. 
  • agree to allow this process to be filmed for a documentary following the creation of the Winner’s Prize Artwork intended (but not guaranteed) to be broadcast on Sky Arts in 2026 (“the Winner’s Film”). The Producer will have the right to film You 
    • working at the Winner’s Prize Location, 
    • in your home/studio at work on the Winner’s Prize Artwork and 
    • at any other necessary locations. 
    • While the Producer will work with You to find mutually agreeable dates, You agree to make Yourself available on date(s) to be provided.
I know such tight control over delivering both the commission artwork and making a film might make some people very anxious and stifle their creativity. 

But not Kim! I kept listening out for her description of "tingles" because that is what had become clear is what she feels when she is very stimulated by a subject and when she's got an idea for what might work.

A Trip to the West Coast of Ireland


This is Kim Day's video portfolio of photos she took while in Ireland and of all the places she visited and the people she met and all those who helped her - which also gives a very good sense of the places she went to and some of the challenges involved.

Anybody thinking you're just left to get on with it would be very wrong!

I'm not going to describe all the people she met and places she went. She certainly covered some miles and met a lot of people who all told her about their own very personal interpretations about the mountain - and it's clear it's not the same thing for everybody. Which is an important point to ponder on....


One of the things Kim did was climb to the top of Croagh Patrick - like the 100,000 people who do it each year. It took her three hours - and when she got to the top she stood looking out at the stunning view of some of the 365 Islands in Clew Bay. That was the point when I wondered whether she toyed with the idea of "stuff the mountain - I'll paint the view from the top!"

Kim on top of Croagh Patrick looking out at Clew Bay

I liked all the sketches she did during her stay - and understand the various purposes they served.

Kim in her studio - working on her commission
with "atmosphere" rendered by her studies in the west of Ireland

NOTE: I am by the way in total admiration of anybody who wears a cream jacket to the final and a cream cardigan in ger studio - and looks impeccably dressed at all times - with no messy fingers streaking what you are wearing! I couldn't do it!
 

The Commission - the painting

Kim painting the commission in her shed.

The Commission was painted in Shed 16 in Corfe Castle, her studio for her painting activities. Which just goes to show that if you have a garden and have room for a shed in it, then you have room for an art studio!

NOTE: I had a number of people telling me she was bound to win because she came from Ireland. We eventually worked out that they'd never heard of Corfe Castle (in Dorset) and thought the word was Cork!
 
The programme, as ever, shows us precisely nothing prior to the unveiling. 

However, the camera people set up a fixed camera in the studio and if you wait until the very end of the programme then you get to see 
  • how big the painting was in her shed
  • how it progressed in terms of colours and layers during the course of the painting.
Her comments about process were enlightening - and ones which other artists (and viewers) might want to reflect on.  It certainly struck me rewatching the programme that maybe quite a lot of people had not listened to what she said.
"Coming to the decision of what to paint is difficult because there's part of your head which is going "I know what I can do which is pleasing to people" and it's like I'm trying to avoid too much of that" Kim Day
and
"I really wanted to add the drama of light into it which is also a metaphor for the path of light and faith and showing the way" Kim Day

Just reread that last sentence. It's worth it.

 

The Commission - the unveiling


The Commission Painting was unveiled at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, a month after the journey to County Mayo. 

The reason nothing ever gets out about the unveiling before the broadcast - which is a period of months is because the audience there on the night is a mix of friends, volunteers and gallery staff.
 
After the Unveiling, the Director comments....

Curator Dr Brendan Rooney admired the fact that the mountain is so huge that the canvas and frame cannot contain it - and the top has disappeared.

{UPDATE 9 March] He comments - in a National Gallery of Ireland Facebook Post - as follows
“Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo, known locally as ‘The Reek’, is considered Ireland’s holiest mountain, and has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. It is named after Ireland’s patron saint, who is believed to have spent forty days fasting on its summit, but was a gathering place for the celebration of Lughnasa long before the arrival of Christianity. In this painting, at once abstracted and familiar, Day references the longstanding tradition of torchlight processions up Croagh Patrick, which seem to animate the mountain and enhance its spiritual significance.” Dr Brendan Rooney, Curator of Irish Art, National Gallery of Ireland
A number of people have commented that the painting looks nothing like Croagh Patrick - and they are very disappointed. 

I think it's very likely that they :
  • prefer literal interpretations
  • are not taking account of the fact it's a mountain covered in scree - not lava flows!
  • that the lights at the bottom might be interpreted in various ways:
    • as people carrying torches up during climbs at night
    • as what one person referred to as a "wraith" meaning a spirit of a person - living or dead
    • that it reflects the torchlight procession celebrating Lughnasa - a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season. (See also Reek Sunday)
    • the the whole climb brings individuals a spirit of enlightenment

"Croagh Patrick" by Kim Day
(Do watch the video of it being painted at the end of the The Winner's Journey Episode")

The light of life?

I feel sure it has got a proper title - one which might involve the word "journey" but I've not seen anything to date. 

For me, the light at the bottom kept reminding me of "The Light of Life" which is a profound biblical metaphor - which seemed very apt to me.

Kim said
"I think I want people to feel it more than it be about the painting. It's just kind of the eneergy and th light" Kim Day
For me, the words she said about the painting back in her studio had an immense resonance
It's also about journeys and you don't always know the end destination but you take it anyway"
Kim Day

It struck me that this was a metaphor also for her entire journey through the series and how she kept going not knowing how it might end for her.

People who are brave can accomplish the most amazing things.....


The Commission and the Judges 


I don't think I've ever seen such a happy bunch of Judges in all the series to date! 

I couldn't help thinking what a risk they took with the location of The Final and what might have happened if Kim hadn't had the very good sense to walk away from the subject which did not inspire - and to do something very sensible beforehand and produce an absolute corker of a commission about her home.

The Judges have now seen the painting!

I think the judges were confident - but you can never ever tell until you finally see the painting - and they were very, very pleased when that red drape came off the painting. They were certainly nervous about the fact they could see she had done an awful lot bigger. (About which I'm going to comment in my next post about the Series as a whole)

I can do no better than to recount what they had to say. This is what they had to say...
I'm absolutely delighted with Kim's work. The idea of cutting the mountain off at the top.  It went beyond your concept of vision. It's so innovative and it really sings. Tai Shan Shierenberg
I'm really proud of what she has achieved. It's just such a significant moment for her in her career. And I really think she's grown in. this competition. So it's been a really wonderful journey for us to witness Eva Langret
"She has stepped up and given us something that will very confidently in these hallowed halls" Kathleen Soriano

The Commission - on display

The painting is now on display at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin - although I've yet to find a reference to it on the website.  It is however on their Instagram account.



However I know it's there as several people have written to tell me about it. Some liked it and others didn't.

For all those who love Kim's paintings / County Mayo - she has a message for you....


A Review of LAOTY 2026

My next post - early this next weel - will be a review of the series as a whole - in which I will pepper it with comments from my Facebook Followers!


 and finally - a thought for all future LAOTY participants


I will reiterate what I said last year 
I am 100% certain that when choosing the winner each year, the Judges are very clear that they need to pick an artist who will deliver an excellent commission.

It goes without saying therefore that there are two paintings which are of particular importance as a reference point for the Judges.

These two paintings are:
  • the submission painting - done in your own time with no time restraints. For me it should always be commission standard. This effectively sets the scene and allows the Judges to speculate on whether or not you might be a good fit with the the Client, the prize money and the Commission
  • the Commission painting in the Final - where you need to really knock the Judges socks off - because you are in effect auditioning properly for the Final Commission. The artist has a constraint in terms of the time deadlines to produce it by - but has much more latitude in terms of what to paint, how big and why. For me it's always this painting which actually decides the winner.
So if you're entering this year - you might want to give some very careful thought to your entry submission.

Do not forget - this is my post about the Call for Entries: Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 12)

Previous Commissions

I've not done dedicated posts for every commission

However, the posts I have written associated with previous paintings for the Landscape Artist of the Year are listed below.



Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, March 08, 2026
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