The fourth episode of Landscape Artist of the Year broadcast in early 2022 was filmed last summer in the area of terraced gardens at the Eden Project.
This episode is a difficult one for me.
I didn't really like any of the heat paintings, although did like some of the paintings by the wildcards. You may be surprised when I tell you which was the best painting on the day.
I didn't understand the rationale for the shortlisted artists which seemed to me to go against the criteria operating in other episodes.
The critical issue for me is one which goes back to "first principles". This is a competition about LANDSCAPE artist of the year!
- It's not about angst or anxiety or abstraction or chairs or mark-making - it's about landscapes.
- AND each episode is about a very specific PLACE - and I expect that all or most of the pod paintings should give me a real "sense of place" - while also demonstrating diversity in what media people use, how they approach making artwork and how they make marks.
There's also far too much talk from the Judges about aspects which have little to do with landscapes and far too little talk about what makes a good landscape.
There I've said it. So now I'll get on with the review - although, to be honest, I could stop right now and I'd have said everything I want to say about this episode.
Episode 4: Eden Project - Terraced Gardens
Location - The location for the fourth episode was the terraced gardens at the Eden Project.
- These are deeply terraced - with planting on horizontal layers across the terraces.
- There was so much green that the view was referred to as "50 Shades of Green" at one point in the programme.
The pods were set up with biomes behind the bods.
Weather
It sometimes seems as if the production team don't think enough about what the weather / light in different seasons/months/hours of a day will do to a "view" i.e. they don't think about what it will look like if the light is very grey and flat - with no sunshine - as happened in this episode for most of the day. Or maybe they don't get enough good advice from the people who know the place extremely well. (i.e. they don't ask for the advice or they do ask but the advice is not good enough!) |
| The view from the pods |
The view began to get sun in the afternoon at which point the sky made a more
interesting counterpoint to the vegetation and lit it so that the various
terraces were rather more obvious in terms of both colour and tone.
Prior to
that much of it was a huge wall of green due to the flat light in the morning which only changed when it began to get sun in afternoon.
Artists
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| The artists lined up for the shortlisting announcement |
It's worth bearing in mind that not all the artists in the pods are people who
applied to participate.
I think it's more likely that this applies to those who have a unique and/or
distinctive way of creating art.
During the pandemic, like many others I spent many hours in isolation and this gave me time to return to my artist roots. I explored collage combined with paint and pen wash, mixed media, plus embellishment with crystals. I have been showing my work on art gallery websites and now combine this with my couture business. Early last summer I was contacted to appear on the TV program “Landscape Artist of the Year” and was both flattered and delighted to take on this challenge. (one of the artists - see if you can guess which one)
Professional Artists
- Elizabeth Bessant (Saatchi, Instagram) - an artist and fashion designer who produces collaged images uising paper extracted from Womans' Weekly magazine articles. poor quality paper tears easily - she sees the world differently. (She's also an artist who has had an impressive career to date both as an artist and as a bridal and couture designer)
- Thomas Macgregor (Instagram) - a painter and printmaker living and working in East London
- Sung Lin Hon (Instagram) - Malaysian figurative painter. Graduated from Leeds University with a degree in Fine Arts in 2021. She has an interesting Instagram story about her experience. She uses a brown underpainting covered by a grey wash. She painted a lone tree in oils for her submission. She finds colour a distraction.
- Stephanie Trow (Facebook | Instagram) - a British artist who studied Visual Arts at Salford University, graduating in 2004. She now lives and works in Manchester, UK. She applies and removes layers of oil paint destroying and creating at same time.
- Susan Isaac - a professional artist from Nottinghamshire. She "works mostly in oils in a loose figurative style which occasionally dissolves into the abstract elements of her compositions."
- Hugh Dunfood Wood (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University; Artist in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and at London's Globe Theatre, then at the Museum of Bermuda Art. Lives in Dorset but has lived in Brazil and Tahiti and he likes vibrant colour. Very fast worker in acrylic and pastels but not keen on green. I like the page devoted to landscapes on his website
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| The artists - posed for their photoshoot - after they had finished painting |
Amateur Artists
- Richard Baggaley (Instagram) - a graphic designer from Lincolnshire. He started painting while on holiday in Portugal. liked empty chair
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Paul Whitehouse (Instagram) - based in Oxfordshire, UK. Oil painting, mainly
urban and rural landscapes. Likes diagonals and hard structures to hang
things on. His submission
featured in the Annual Exhibition of the New English Art Club in
2020.
Wildcard Artists
It seemed to me that the wildcard artists were enjoying themselves this
episode. They'd certainly come packed for every eventuality - including all
sorts of weather! They also demonstrated that they were very innovative in
their use of both tools and technique.
In a lot of ways I'd have liked to have seen more of this episode given over
to the wildcard artists.
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The wildcard artists - in the gardens near the biomes - with complete flexibility as to which way they faced and what they painted |
Submissions
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| The Submissions Wall - note the change in size of paintings! |
What was interesting about the submissions is that, in contrast to other episode, there were LOTS of big pictures.
I began to wonder if the production team had set up this episode as the contest of the big picture painters - to get the best big picture painter.
The submissions included the following commentary from the Judges
- a railway station platform with dominant diagonals and strong contrast
- a very vivacious and colourful palette for a painting of a tunnel of trees through a wood
- collaged images from a magazine - created by somebody with a very good eye for composition
- a big lorry with man standing on it - which combined abstract shapes with an interesting use of light
- very subtle monochromatic painting of tree in a portrait format
- a complex painting of rubbed out colours
- a landscape which looked as if it was german expressionist painting
It was a strong wall of very diverse paintings. It generated very high hopes among the Judges
What it reminded me of most was paintings done by artists who rarely left their studios.
