Episode 2: Liverpool Docks
- the location and weather
- the artists' profiles
- themes arising during the episode
- judges decision-making
- who was shortlisted and who won
Location and Weather
"The most complicated landscape we've ever given them"
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Background: The Royal Liver Building Left: Liverpool Museum Right Background: Mann Island Buildings Right Foreground: Great Western Railway Warehouse - with docks and ships in front |
Kathleen Soriano commented that the view from the pods was probably the biggest and most complicated ever given to pod artists. That's because it included:
"the jumble and chaos of building styles""so many ingredients for your stew"
Just sorting out how it all worked would take most people some time.
- the Museum of Liverpool (opened 2011) and the River Mersey off to their left and
- the Mann Island Buildings on the right - in black - which include the Latitude Building, the Longitude Building and RIBA North (the national centre for architecture)
- the Royal Liver building - topped by the Liver Bird - in the distance
- with the historical landmark of the Great Western Railway Warehouse in the foreground to the right - next to Canning Dock
This article
provides a great photograph of the location
To complicate an already challenging day, it was by all accounts a very,
very hot day!
It was very hot, the temperature reached around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) and I really felt for all the artists, but especially the wildcards as they were located in full sun with no shade.
Landscape Artist of the Year Wildcard
The Artists in the Pods
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| The artists in this heat - shadows suggest this was midday. |
My first port of call is always https://www.skyartsartistoftheyear.tv/landscape-artist-of-the-year/profiles/series-9/
where you can also see videos of them painting the heat paintings.
Those who have a profile in the
Artist of the Year Gallery have an asterisk next to their name
50 artists join the pod artists at every heat. In this heat, they were a
bit closer than they usually are - and set up just behind them.
- Nathaniel Fowles * (Facebook | Instagram) - He studied Fine Art at KIAD, Canterbury, and spent 10 years working as a professional artist before moving into teaching. He now lives in West Sussex and works part time as a supply teacher which enables him to focus on his artwork once again. He predominantly depicts landscapes and scenes which captivate my imagination and paints in oil and acrylic. He experiences neurodiversity, which makes completing artwork a challenge (His submission was painted over 10 years) and one of the things he got out of this experience was the reality of being able to produce a painting in four hours which others thought had merit.
- Rose Jones * (Instagram) - a representational artist based in rural Staffordshire. Early career was spent as a surface pattern designer. Rose works in acrylics, watercolours, oil pastels, graphite and most recently coloured pencils. She also works as an art tutor within Adult Community Learning.
- Judy Milner (Instagram) - Judy lives and works in London, trained in sculpture at the Royal College of Art and is a practising sculptor. Her submission was a view of the race course at Ascot (one of last year's locations - which I assume means she was a wildcard in 2023.) She is described as a rather "messy painter".
- James Murch * (Facebook | Instagram) - He went to Art College in Bristol and moved to Devon in 2009 and became interested in plein air painting. He's now based in Paignton and is a full-time artist with a studio in the Cob Barn at Cockington Court. He's spent many years practising the classical approach to painting and sight size. He prefers to work entirely from life in front of the landscape he's painting - even if it involves several visits to complete a painting - as it did with his submission. He was a LAOTY Semi Finalist in 2019 - see my blog post about his heat Review: Episode 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2019 - Drake's Island which he won and Review: Semi-Final of Landscape Artist of the Year 2019 at Cromarty Firth. I didn't recognise him this time around. His neat clipped beard has become full on and he now dresses like a plein air painter rather than somebody going to the office!
James Murch struck me as one of the coolest artists I've ever seen in one of these heats. He's not given to over-emoting or panicking or does a very good job of hiding it if he does! Cool, calm and collected - and making very sensible decisions.
- Anil Patel (Facebook | Instagram) - A graphic designer and art teacher from Leicester. Talks well on camera and has previously appeared on
- BBC's The Big Painting Challenge in 2019 - see Review: Still Life - Big Painting Challenge 2018
- was wildcard artist in LAOTY in 2018.
- was a pod artist in 2021 - see Review: Episode 3 Landscape Artist of the Year at West Reservoir
- Wesley Smith * (Instagram) - A chef and a painter based in Brighton’s North Laines where he paints landscapes and still lives. He spent 10 years living abroad in Taiwan and his paintings are influenced by Asia. His Instagram account is worth a review - I'm more impressed by the paintings on there which demonstrates very clearly that he can paint a range of landscapes.
- Matthew Timmins-Williams (Instagram) - a painter and decorator from Birkenhead (the other side of the River Mersey).
- Georgina Saunders * (Instagram | linktr.ee/georginasaundersart) Georgina got off to a good start after studying Art A level where she came in the top 10 in the country Art A level and Art GCSE. She then went on to study the History of Art at York University followed by short courses at Heatherley’s School of Art and the Art Academy to supplement her self-study practise. Back in 2021, she wrote about her Landscape Artist of the Year Wildcard Experience. She's now a primary school teacher and a painter working in Hertfordshire. Her work explores her love of nature and the outdoors. I'd say she likes skies to play an important role in her landscapes - when she gets to choose what she paints.
The Wildcard Artists
If you put "landscape artist of the year liverpool" into Facebook search you'll come up with LOTS of posts by wildcards about the day! :)
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| Pods and Wildcards |
Submissions
I can't show you the submissions by the pod artists as you have to watch the programme to see them with their artists at the beginning and then discussed with the artist in the pod - where they hung for the duration of the heat.
Most were medium sized with two large and one small painting.
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.
Today, the themes are:
- Find your zones: foreground, middle ground and distance
- a study in perspective - and proportions
- The sun on a cloudless hot day presents particular challenges
- Reducing the size of the support - to edit and tidy up
- The Plant Mister: useful kit for watercolour painting on a very hot day
