Chloe Barnes wins Portrait Artist of the Year 2025

Yesterday, Portrait Artist of the Year programme revealed that Chloe Barnes won the Final of Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year.

Chloe Barnes and her monoprint of Brian Cox in the Final

I'm splitting my comments about PAOTY Series 12 and the two most recent programmes into three separate posts:

• Today - a review about the Final and the final and commission paintings produced for the Final by the artist 
• Sunday 7th December: the Winner's Programme and the Commission
• Monday 8th December: - a review of the PAOTY series and approach taken this year, and a summary of why the Judges , rather than the programme, continue to annoy so very many viewers and whether the competition is really a competition.

Followed sometime soon after with the details of how to enter Series 13 in 2026!

This review covers:

• The Final: Artists, Sitter and Set
• The Portrait Paintings for the Final
• The Judges' Perspective
• The Final Portraits - and my comments
• Why Chloe Barnes won.

The Final

The Artists working in the Final - watched by the audience
(left to right) Lauren, Katie and Chloe

The audience for many of the episodes was largely female and middle aged to older; plus very proud parents and a smattering of young people who seemed to be associated with individual artists. I think this probably reflects the audience for the programme too.

They are VERY well behaved - as you have to be when filming is taking place. I highly recommend those that want to, to apply to watch the heats next year - and you'll learn a lot more about this competition is really like!

The Artists

Katie Jones, Lauren Ross and Chloe Barnes
sat on the steps outside Battersea Arts centre

In order of the heat they appeared in, they are

• Episode 3: Katie Jones (Instagram) - A community arts tutor who lives and works in Somerset and has a studio on the Mendip Hills.
• Episode 4: Chloe Barnes (Instagram) - a printmaker with a first class honours degree in Illustration and an MA (Distinction) in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking. She works as a Gallery Production and Studio Manager and lives in Peckham in London. 
• Episode 5: Lauren Ross (Instagram) - an art tutor and painter from Edinburgh. 

You can read more about them in The PAOTY 2025 Semi Finalists + their Exhibition!

The Sitter and the Setup

The Sitter was Brian Cox, the 'media mogul' star of "Succession"who is 79, still active and still acting to great acclaim.

There was no repeat of the craziness of last year when, with absolutely no notice, the contestants suddenly found themselves painting two sitters - with an extra half hour for the challenge!

Instead we had a stripped back set and one sitter this year.

• The Set used a comfortable burnt burnt orange armchair. 

"That armchair is doing a lot of work" Kathleen Soriano

• The cloth hanging at the back was Jute which is very much associated with Brian's home town of Dundee and his ancestors where it has been produced for very many years
• The jute and the armchair, both combined to create a very warm set.

The one benefit for the artists is that were rather nearer the sitter in the Final than they were during the semi final.

The Start: The sitter - Brian Cox - and the setup for the three artists
and how close the cameras are over every artist's shoulder

Review: Semi Finals of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025

This rather late review is about the semi-finals of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12) which was broadcast on Wednesday night - except it wasn't uploaded to Now until a LOT later) Which is why this is late!

It covers various observations about the Semi-Final (the reality and the programme) including:

• The Semi Finalists (Heat winners)
• The Heat Portraits
• The Sitter setup and setting
• Themes of the semi-final
• Judging and Finalists
• Sitters for the Final

Dame Mary Berry sees the portraits after they've been turned around

The Semi Finalists

You can read all about the Semi Finalists in my post last week in my blog post last week about The PAOTY 2025 Semi Finalists + their Exhibition!

They are - in order of the episodes (i.e. not the heats) as follows:

• Episode 1 - Edie Bound (Instagram) - review of Episode 1
• Episode 2 - Paulina Kwietiewsska (Instagram) - review of Episode 2
• Episode 3 - Katie Jones (Instagram) - review of Episode 3
• Episode 4 - Chloe Barnes (Instagram) - review of Episode 4
• Episode 5 - Lauren Ross (Instagram)- review of Episode 5
• Episode 6 - Uthman Wahaab (Instagram) - review of Episode 6
• Episode 7 - Vincent Stokes (Instagram)- review of Episode 7
• Episode 8 - Courteney Bae (Instagram) - review of episode 8

The Heat Portrait Wall

The Wall of Heat Portraits
Left to right: Katie, Uthman, Vincent, Courtenay, Lauren, Paulina, Chloe and Edie

Imagine walking into a semi final. You have absolutely no idea about:

• who your fellow semi-finalists are
• what they can do in four hours!

......and then you see the Heat Portrait Wall (see above i.e. NOT the self portrait wall or both together)

What you don't know as a semi finalist is if any of the others spent time and effort producing an absolute stunner for their self portrait - and then went small for their heat.

Then the artists line up next to the side of the support they're working on - and you begin to get the picture of what you are up against!

The Setting and the Sitter

The Nightmare Set-up

The Artists in the Semi Final enter the room
This is what it looks like - with easels very close together

I've been to a couple of Semi-Finals at the Battersea Arts centre - and it's an absolute nightmare of a set-up.

• Eight artists is just too many to be comfortable and have space to walk around, think etc. 
• Plus the audience seems much closer than in the heats
• Eights artists means ALL must be further away from the sitter than in the heats
• Some are going to have very acute side profiles - if working from life
• Notwithstanding some are going to be painting from devices rather than from the sitter.

Chloe Barnes summed it up rather well in her blog post about the Semi Finals (link further down - near the end of this post)

PAOTY 2025 Semi Final NOT on NOW!!! (Plus I identify who painted which portrait!)

Where is the PAOTY Semi Final on NOW?

I have NOT yet seen the Semi Final of Portrait Artist of the Year (2025)!!!

I'm fuming and have been since last night!  In this year's series, the episode has been available from the Wednesday morning - and on one occasion I watched an episode before it was broadcast. Now the ***** who posts early can't be bothered to post at all!

I'm posting this more in the HOPE that the Semi Final of Portrait Artist of the Year will EVENTUALLY be posted to the NOW streaming service for Sky TV.

Thing is I cannot write a review after watching it through once on Freeview - which is normally what I do - for the first pass on the programme during which I make some notes

I then watch it again at least twice to pick up the themes, add info and fill in the gaps in my notes and get quotes down correctly when I've heard something I want to quote but didn't quite get it all written down.

I cannot think of anything less likely to promote a service offering than messing up the end of a series by not posting it to the way people watch it.

BIG ADVERT: 

DO NOT USE NOW TV 

AS THEY PULL THE PLUG BEFORE THE END!

So until such time as it is posted, and I can actually write my review......

.....I'm going to guess who painted which painting! 

Who painted which portrait in the Semi Final?

I don't actually know who painted which artwork - I'VE NOT YET SEEN THE PROGRAMME!!

So here goes - using the pics of the portraits produced from Instagram.

I got these two straight off. They have very distinctive and consistent styles. 

Top right is by Chloe Barnes (Episode 4) who painted another monochrome on an aluminium panel. I like it. Both faces are good.

The bottom one is by Katie Jones (Episode 3) A few more wrinkles this time....

I'm guessing that both of these two got selected. The painting by Katie is in my opinion the best of the bunch and if she has been selected, then my my guess is she wins the Final next week.

Top left was - this is by Edie Bound (Episode 1) - who I would also put through to the Final. She has a strong and consistent style and can capture a likeness - and in this painting I think she's also captured the sense of fun in Mary Berry. The orange underpainting was the giveaway!

The next two took a bit more thinking about.

Top right is Paulina Kwietiewsska (Episode 2) who I got to through a process of elimination.

Bottom is by Lauren Ross (Episode 5).  The background colour was the first clue and then the flowers in the background and then how she has approached the painting of the portrait. Looks to me like she ran out of time to do the tonal variation in the fur of the dog.

Two of these were really easy.

Top left is easy. Who else paints women with large bodies and very small heads? This is Uthman Wahaab (Episode 6). Nice dog!

It should of course have been the wonderful Laura Cronin who was a wonderful portrait painter and it was a crime to not even shortlist her and her wonderful portrait of Shane Lynch. (That even got mentioned to me yesterday afternoon when I was at the PV for the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition. There's LOTS of people out there still feeling "miffed" for Laura)

Top right is Courteney Bae (Episode 8) - who has "a very distinctive painting style". I shall say no more.

The bottom is Vincent Stokes (Episode 7) who looks to me like he started with a good idea and then it all fell apart a bit.  Obviously I'm not seeing the whole drawing, but the subject of the portrait ALWAYS needs to be prominent in a portrait competition. It's also a tad too illustrative for me. Great basis for a proper portrait of her as a person though. Just not one in four hours.

The major comment I have on the paintings as a whole is that the big theme of this series for me is PROPORTIONS.

I shall be doing a summary of themes about Series 12 as a whole - including judging approaches and production values after the review of the commission.

I think it needs one....

The PAOTY 2025 Semi Finalists + their Exhibition!

This is a listing of all those who have made it through to the Semi Final of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12). 

PLUS news of their Group Show in December in London!

PAOTY 2025 Semi Finalists' Group Show: "Marks of Reflection"

This year, seven of the eight semi finalists have organised a group show of their work ‘Marks of Reflection’ - details below - which is great news for all those who would like a closer look at their work!

I've only just noticed that they are all women apart from Uthman Wahaab. Very sadly Vincent Stokes is not taking part.

The basics are these. At the end of this post are more details about the nature of the exhibition - and the Panel Talk about Contemporary Portraiture.

The show will feature a selection of work featured on the show, as well as new, unseen paintings.

• Venue: Noho Showrooms, 67 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 7PT (a three minute walk from Oxford Circus )
• Dates: 16th-21st December 2025 (11am - 6pm)
• Panel Discussion: 18th December 2025 with Kate Bryan and Curtis Holder

Portrait Artist of the Year: Heat Winners

Can I suggest you note the size of the heat portraits - there's an awful lot of small ones....

Episode 1

Self portrait and heat painting by Edie Bound

Edie Bound won the first heat to be screened in 2025. This was the profile I used in my review.

Edie Bound (Instagram) - b.2002 is originally from Wiltshire but now lives in South London. She did a foundation year at Camberwell School of Art and then chose to work at a ceramic studio whilst pursuing oil painting in her free time.

Edie being announced as the winner

This was what I said in my review of Episode 1

Tai-Shan thought the self portrait to be a little gem. Edie produced a very small but extremely competent self portrait. The orange carried over into her heat painting. It catches the eye like red but is much less wearing on the eye.

Tai was also a big fan of the minimal mark-making in the heat painting and the fact that, after starting out with the portrait upside down (to mark out the big shapes and tones) she caught the likeness very fast.

"I'm always impressed when young artists go out on a limb and still nail the likeness"

I thought she was very clearly the only artist to have a very good likeness from early one. The fact that her particular method of mark-making was not boring made the end result a racing certainty. 

Episode 2

Paulina Kwietiewsska was the winner of Heat 2.

Review: Semi Finals of Landscape Artist of the Year 2024

This is a review of the Semi Finals of Landscape Artist of the Year 2024 which took place at the historic shipbuilding village and maritime museum of Buckler's Hard in Hampshire.

Judging the seven paintings produced in the LAOTY semifinals

Below you can read about:

• The Artists - but also see yesterday's post The Semi-Finalists in Landscape Artist of the Year 2024
• The Wildcard Winner
• The Location and Weather 
• Themes, Learning Points and Tips
• Decision Time: The Finalists
• My take on the Semi Final Paintings - covering them in order of the Heats

The Artists

The Semi Finalists - after they had finished

The Artists were:

• all the Heat Winners - We already know who all the artists are - and I did a recap of them yesterday in my post The Semi-Finalists in Landscape Artist of the Year 2024 - so no section devoted to artists in this post!
• plus the chosen wildcard from the Wildcard Winners in each heat.  The Wildcard Winner who got a place in a pod and who was selected from the six Heat Wildcard was Rebecca Patterson from Aberdeen.

Rebecca Patterson with her Heat 1 painting of a nocturnal Dunnottar Castle

Rebecca Patterson took part in who took part in Heat 1 at Dunnottar Castle. She is a professional artist and a creative practitioner. She graduated from Gray’s School of Art in 2009 with a BA(Hons) in Painting and again in 2010 with a Master of Fine Art. She works with Grampian Hospitals Art Trust on their Art Room projects and the charity Life With Art which hosts creative workshops with vulnerable groups in Aberdeen.

During the course of the day, Rebecca drew her very own following as those watching were very interested in her very different techniques for creating art.

The very interested spectators around Rebecca's pod
- as the time came to remove the cling film!

The Hordes

The LAOTY Pods at the top of the
maritime heritage village at Buckler's Hard in Hampshire
plus just some of the visitors who stopped to watch

LOTS of people came to watch the semi-finals.  Rather too many to make it conducive to good artwork in my opinion. 

It was difficult to tell whether these were normal visitors who stopped to watch a bit or people who had specifically come to watch. I decided those with collapsible chairs were probably part of the latter group! However inspection of "bucklers hard" on Instagram suggests virtually all were there to get seen on the television...... i.e. very few mentions on social media. I think many of those who sat on the grass in front of the artists maybe thought they were going to get memorialised in a painting as well as getting their "face on the telly".

There's a point at which onlookers get in the way of artists performing well.

I think those who produce this programme might do well to consider long and hard whether and when they announce the locations at which they are filming. However, I'm sure they've already learned some lessons from this experience.

PS If you get selected as a pod artist this year, ask them what they are doing about keeping audience numbers to more sensible levels.

Location & Weather

The location was unusual. Buckler's Hard is a historic shipbuilding village and a Maritime Museum on the west bank of the Bealieu River in Hampshire.

Review: Semi Finals of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023

This is a review of the Semi Finals of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 which took place at the edge of the Thames Barrier Park - in the Royal Docks area of the London Borough of Newham - with a good view of the Thames Barrier.

The Thames Barrier from the Thames Barrier Park in Newham 
- with Woolwich in the background

It's going to be very different from my previous reviews of the Heats of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023.  Not least because I've highlighted who has got to the Final before I comment on the paintings. It just seemed to make more sense that way round!

• Location & Weather
• Themes & Learning Points 
• Decision - the Finalists (and comments on the Judges Approach)
• My take on the Semi Final Paintings

As always I'll be offering TIPS on the way through! NOT guaranteed in any way to help you do better - but they might! People have told me they've appreciated them!

The Artists

The artists waiting to hear their fate

The Artists were 

• all the Heat Winners - We already know who all the artists are - and I did a recap of them yesterday in my post LAOTY Semi Finalists + PAOTY Call for Entries Deadline extended - so no section devoted to artists in this post!
• plus the chosen artist from the Wildcard Winners. The Wildcard Winner selected for a Pod was 17 year old school student called Luke Sturgess. His work was different in that he drew in monochrome using pen and ink. Which left me wondering whether being a wildcard whose work did not look like any of the other semi-finalists' work.          

The Artists in the Thames Barrier Park

Location & Weather

The view was of the Thames Barrier, which is one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world. It spans 520 metres across the River Thames near Woolwich. 10 steel gates can rise and protect 125 square kilometres of central London from flooding caused by tidal surges.

The location for the pods was the north side of the River Thames on the edge of the Thames Barrier Park run by the GLA. Yet again, I'm reminded that the programme is beginning to seem more like a marketing exercise for anniversaries and new sites 

Opened in November 2000 it was London’s largest new riverside park for over 50 years.

This is a link to the Google Map of the area should you want to visit or have a go at painting the Barrier for yourself!

Interestingly, although the barrier seemed very big on screen, I think it probably looked a lot smaller from the pods. I think that's because most of our views were from drones and involved close-ups. I don't think we ever saw a long view from a pod.

Here's a couple of views which suggest it might look other than we think it looks to the artist.

The Pods on the edge of the Thames Barrier Park.

What the Thames Barrier looks like from just above a pod.
Doesn't it look an awful lot smaller?

The weather was mostly grey - which meant artists had to work much harder at both tones and colours. Personally I thought the clouds in sky were rather interesting quite a lot of the time.....

LAOTY Semi Final Locations

I wrote this in a previous semi final post!

The location for Landscape Artist of the Year Semi-Final
....MUST be:
very different
include huge and difficult structures
Accompanied by water - and reflections

I did a tot up of all the venues for the semi finals in recent years - and almost all had one thing in common. Large complex structures often near water. Links in the list below are to my reviews of each semi-final - where you can see pics of the structures

• 2015 - Potters Fields Park in central London - painting Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and the City of London
• 2016 - Margate Harbour - painting views of the harbour
• 2017 - Castle Farm in Kent (the exception which proves the rule - given what happened the next year) - painting enormous fields of lavender 
• 2018 - Felixstowe Docks - a container port with very big cranes and ships and stacks of containers - complete with an ocean going container ship turning up halfway through. (The eventual winner of the series knew it was coming as given a vague idea of where the semi finals were she'd had the foresight to look up both tide tables and arrivals and departures!)
• 2019 - Oil Rigs in the Cromarty Firth - extremely peculiar vertical structures sat in the middle of the Firth?
• 2020 - change of timing of broadcast (the year of two PAOTYs)
• 2021 - the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at Stratford in East London (filmed under Covid constraints in 2020 and broadcast changed to Jan-March slot in 2021) - looking south down the River Lee - towards the Olympic Stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbit in the distance.
• 2022 - Forth Bridge - a VERY meccano set over the Firth of Forth
  
• 2023 - Thames Barrier - next to the River Thames!

TIPS For LAOTY Semi Finalists (and Pod artists)

• Expect a big structure at some point - polish your perspective chops
• A panoramic format might be a very useful option for your support
• Take suitable tools for drawing/painting structures e.g. take 
• a ruler (for measuring) 
• large pieces of stiff card (for very fast delivery of sharp edges)
• flexi curve or french curve for bends
• Binoculars - because sometimes the structure is a VERY long way away!
• Make sure you know how to paint effective water quickly and easily

To my mind, this preponderance of structures is fine IF you've not had anything complex as a structure BEFORE this semi-final stage.

BUT in Series 10 we've had piers, rollercoasters and giant grandstands! I just don't see the point of yet another weird structure. A very ordinary green landscape would be a much better test of the artists at this stage given what's been thrown at them so far!

It's also divisive in the sense that

• such locations won't suit those who lean towards greenery, vegetation and a more natural environment (most landscape painters!)
• but may well suit those who like structures but are awful at vegetation.

PLUS I cannot make any connection between the locations chosen in this series and the commission required - based on the fact I saw the Van de Veldes Exhibition in the Queens House at Greenwich at the press preview on Tuesday this week!

Although one person commenting on my Facebook Page made the case for the barrier structures looking a bit like sails on a sailing ship - which is a reasonable point.

Bottom line, whoever has been selecting locations for the series in 2023 needs 

• a very stern talking to; and
• needs to try getting out and about in the UK countryside a bit more!

The weirdness of the locations needs to be explained. My theory is that "somebody" (any guesses?) decided that the series needed to be made more interesting and changed up a gear and become more innovative - and that while they were at it they could reinvent landscape art as well! 

To which I have one response. Poor choice. You're losing your core audience! 

I suggest a return to basics in the next series if you don't want to lose your audience altogether. 

We'd all very much like the series to continue. If anybody is bored then there's always the option of moving on.......

Themes, Learning Points and Tips

LAOTY Semi Finalists + PAOTY Call for Entries Deadline extended

Portrait Artist of the Year 2023

The deadline for entering your submission for Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 (Series 10) - has been extended:

FROM: 12pm (midday) on Friday, 24th February 2023

TO: 12pm (midday) on MONDAY, 27th February 2023

So basically you've got three more days to get your entry in.

Don't forget what my recommendations about this Call for Entries and submissions generally:

• READ my tips in my blog post covering the Call for Entries. See
  Portrait Artist of the Year 2023 (Series 10): Call for Entries
  
• Make sure you submit a self-portrait which:
• does not like very common formats for self portraits - makes yours about you and make it different!
• demonstrates what you can do it you had more time - as a proxy as to whether or not your commission (should you win!) could be impressive

Interestingly the first episode of Series 9 suggested that the self-portrait submission could be regarded as evidence of what an artist can do when not constrained by time.

• has a style which could be consistent with what you can do in 4 hours i.e. the submission gets considered alongside the heat painting in determining who wins the heat from the three artists who are shortlisted - and a coherent, consistent, unique, mature style is important. (That's mature as in you've painted a lot of portraits and learned how you paint best - and has nothing to do with age)

Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 - The Artists

It's the semi final tonight and the subject is the Thames Barrier. WHY yet another gigantic architectural construction when there is so much else in the landscape to paint?

Below are the pics of the winning artists in each heat - see if you can spot who's got a chance of being a Finalist.

I'm identifying who I think at the end of this post - but make your mind up first before you read what I think!

HEAT 1: Finn Campbell Notman

Finn Campbell Notman: submission and heat painting

see Review: Episode 1 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 - Blackpool Beach and Pier

Finn Campbell-Notman (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) - a professional painter and illustrator. Born in London in 1970, he grew up in rural England as part of an artists' commune. His art education also includes BA (Hons) in Fine Art at U.W.E. Bristol and at Wolverhampton (to 1993), a double First Class B.A. (Hons) in Illustration from Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, UK. (1998-2001) and an M.A. in Communication Art & Design from the Royal College of Art, London (2002-04). You can see his illustration work here. Since 2020 Finn has been without a studio or permanent home and divides his time between Bristol and Andalucia.

HEAT 2: Susanna Macinnes

Susanna Macinnes: submission and heat painting

See Review: Episode 2 of Landscape Artist of the Year - Royal Ascot

Susanna Macinnes (Instagram) - Lives in South London a BA (HONS) degree in Fine Art from Manchester Metropolitan University. Member of and Secretary to the friends of the Chelsea Art Society. She has been painting landscapes for 20 years and is an experienced plein air painter. She has exhibited in various locations over the years. Painted from her roof during the first lockdown. 

• She took part two years ago in the 2021 series - see Review: Episode 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2021 at West Reservoir, Stoke Newington (again!) - also in the hottest day of the year and
• Previously participated as a wild card artist in Episode 3 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2019 - Millennium Bridge Gateshead where she did a splendid painting.
• currently painting in Goa - see her Instagram

HEAT 3: Stefano Ronchi

Stefabno Ronchi: submission and heat painting at Castle Ward

See Review: Episode 3 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 - Castle Ward

Stefano Ronchi (Facebook | Instagram) - from Italy, lives in Hackney and can work big. He describes himself as a "punk surrealist painter". He has been influenced by Leonardo, Brueghel, Dali, and Hieronymus Bosch mixed with comic book art. His very large impressive submission was called The Hill (Acrylic on canvas, 120x80 cm 2017)

HEAT 4: Ann Byrne

Ann Byrne: submission and heat painting of Blackpool Pleasure Beach

See Review: Episode 4 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 - Blackpool Rollercoasters

Anne Byrne (Facebook | Instagram) - retired marketing Executive from Chester and a contemporary landscape painter interested in a contemporary take on traditional approaches to landscape painting. Trained at St Helens School of Art in the late 70’s. Currently represented by The Harbour Gallery in Portscatho, Cornwall. Her work suggests she knows how to create a composition. Works in oil with big brushes relative to format size.

HEAT 5: Steve Nice

Steve Nice: submission and heat painting

See Review: Episode 5 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 - Ascot

Steve Nice - a retired IT consultant from Nottingham. His submission was large and mostly monochromatic. He appears to have no presence online.

HEAT 6: Helen Lloyd Elliot

Helen Lloyd Elliot: submission and heat painting

See Review: Episode 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023: Strangford Lough

Plus one wildcard artist

This I think is always the most difficult to predict. In part because I think they choose somebody who is NOT like the other artists and also because we never got to see their submission.

I'd like to see Matthew Timmins-Williams (Instagram) who did the very panoramic view of the garden of Castle Ward - but he is quite similar at least two other artists

As is Jo Burns who I think might be the other contender.

Who will make it to the Final?

I identified who I thought had a good chance of making it to the Final when I wrote my reviews.

The three artists are:

• Finn Campbell Notman

One look at his website also tells you he's a very accomplished draughtsman and painter.

• Ann Byrne

I must confess, I did the profiles of the artists yesterday afternoon before I watched the programme and I'd already decided - on Wednesday afternoon - that if I were judging I'd be picking Anne as my winner.

Indeed I'd go so far as to say, bearing in mind the pic in the intro part of each episode which presumably relates to the commission, I think she has a good chance of making the Final and might even win! She can certainly handle sky!

• Helen Lloyd Elliot

The winner was Helen Lloyd Elliot - and very deserved it was too. I thought she might get edged because in some ways she's very close to the winner at Blackpool in Episode 4.

I think Helen will be in the final. She talked about the win giving her confidence. I don't think she needs it, I think she just knows how to respond to a scene and how to paint it.

Based on what's happened in previous years, appearing in the opening credits (which change every week) is a pretty good indicator of who wins - in which case Helen Lloyd Elliot will go through to the Final and win!

If you fancy having a go and would like to be a pod artist or wildcard this summer, you have until to NOON on Friday 28th April 2023 to submit an entry

READ MORE about the call for entries - plus my tips - in my blog post about Call for Entries: Landscape Artist of the Year 2024 (Series 9).