(dramatic music) - [Frank] Hello, and welcome to the beautiful Lyme Park in Cheshire.

Set in 1,300 acres of deer park, it today hosts the latest heat in our search to find a talented new landscape artist.

- [Joan] Eight competitors, a mix of amateur and professional, will attempt to capture one of Lyme Park's most outstanding views, in just four hours.

- But to claim a place in the semifinal they'll have to impress our three esteemed judges and cope with one of the wettest climates in the country.

This is Sky Art's "Landscape Artist of the Year."

(dramatic music) - [Joan] In our search to find a new landscape artist, we're setting up home in some of the National Trust's most inspiring estates.

- [Frank] Over a thousand applied but only the most impressive have been invited to the heats.

- I'm really pleased with the view.

It's got everything I like in an image.

- [Joan] At stake is a 10,000-pound commission to paint one of the National Trust's most historic views, Flatford in Suffolk made famous by Constable.

The winner's painting will become part of its permanent collection.

- You can just, sort of, get high by looking at the landscaping, like, "Wow, look at that color.

It's amazing."

- [Frank] Today at Lyme Park, eight more artists are out to impress.

- I'd like to see much, much more.

I'm sure my fellow judges would like to see much, much more as well.

- Yes.

- [Joan] But it's not just the judges eyeing up their work.

Kate Atkinson has dedicated 33 years to Lyme Park.

So, as a thank you, she'll be rewarded with her favorite landscape.

- I wouldn't have believed that there were so many techniques.

- [Frank] And 50 more artists of all ages, abilities and mediums, are descending on Lyme Park to compete as a wild card.

- So, I decided to use spoons.

- I was about to ask about the spoons, right, okay.

I thought maybe you had a cup of tea on the go.

- [Joan] But with just four hours and a temperamental environment.

(wind roaring) - No way.

[Frank] Who will judges Kathleen Soriano, Tai-Shan Schierenberg, and Kate Bryan.

- I'm at the panic stage.

(laughs) - [Joan] Send through to the semifinal.

- Debbie, are you actually wearing an official artist's smock?

- (laughs) No, I'm wearing an official Guernsey-seaman's smock.

- Oh, okay.

(dramatic music) (bright music) Hoping to captivate the judges are professional artists, Mike Kirby, Kyle Noble, James Green, Georgia Murray, Yinjie Sun, and Debbie Grice.

- The location is absolutely amazing.

It's a beautiful place to come and visit.

And I'm really excited about painting it.

- [Joan] And today's amateur artists are Frances Whorrall-Campbell and Kathy Thomas who also competed in Portrait Artist of the Year.

- Last year I was shortlisted.

I managed to make the final three which was fantastic.

So, I'm hoping to be able to do that again today and possibly even better, fingers crossed.

(upbeat music) - The style and talent of each of the artists was recognized by the judges when they evaluated a digital copy of their submission landscapes.

So, these are the paintings submitted in the flesh.

We begin with "High Drama."

- [Kate] Yeah, I mean, it does sort of deliver the eye into the distance at least.

- Fantastic sense of the mood.

They should be very happy today.

The weather's changing constantly.

- [Kate] It does make me think that this is an artist who has got their own mind.

(gentle music) - [Frank] I felt like I wanted to say, "And now we head to the Far East."

- [Kate] (laughs) I like an artist who's not afraid to bring in outside influences, and to create something which is totally unique.

- [Tai] I'm looking forward to seeing Lyme Park a la Japanais.

- Yeah.

- Exactly.

This applied to Cheshire.

(all laughing) - [Tai] This looks familiar, doesn't it?

- [Kate] Yeah, this extraordinary paper.

- [Frank] Yeah, this is Kathy who was in the Portrait series.

- [Kathleen] And made her own paper, didn't she?

- Yes.

- I quite like the filmic nature of it.

It's almost like looking at a little story in sections.

And you, sort of, travel along it, and I think it's rather clever.

And we definitely recognized her and spotted her, even from the digital image and I think it jumped out really strongly.

- [Tai] I find it remarkable the way he understands design.

You know, he's made it so your eye follows it through to the open space in the background.

- I love this aerial perspective.

I feel like I'm flying over the rooftops.

It's just really vibrant and joyous.

- Look at those lampposts down at the bottom.

- They're great, aren't they?

- They are just incredible.

Oh, I remember this on the image.

This was gorgeous.

This had a fantastic, sort of, tragicness to it.

- And also the artist has edited their views.

So it's, actually, a very well-balanced piece of abstraction as well.

Rather than putting something in the center and to make it the main subject.

- I hope that they take a very, very good little snapshot and deliver a really interesting little corner or make a feature out of something which isn't really a feature.

- Yeah, what I like about the wall generally is it asks a lot of questions.

And then they're all gonna get answered in the next four hours, which is great.

(dramatic music) (light happy music) - [Joan] Today, the artists have been asked to turn their backs on the 16th century building of Lyme Hall, to face the stunning view towards the reflecting lake.

Surrounded by luxurious herbaceous borders, with several mature trees, this man-made water feature includes an island, covered in flowering plants and a small waterfall.

- I'm really pleased with the view.

It's got everything I like in an image.

It's got lots of pathways, lots of really nice structures in it.

- It's not perhaps what I'd normally do.

I'd normally have buildings and stuff in the landscapes that I do but, you know, again it's a good challenge.

- Artists, I hope you're all settled 'cause the judges are ready to be impressed.

- You have four hours to complete your work.

So good luck and your time starts now.

(bright suspenseful music) An ornate garden isn't every landscape artist's idea of a perfect view.

- Most of the time I do a lot of urban landscapes, and this is a bit, sort of, pretty picture, sort of, chocolate boxy and not my normal subject to be honest.

- [Frank] Mike Kirby is from Liverpool and studied at the Wigan School of Art and Design before he became a storyboard artist for an advertising agency.

His submission is of Stanley Dock on the River Mersey, where his father, a merchant seaman, was gateman during the '60s.

I like the steps bit that you've already identified.

- [Mike] Yeah, It's a nice feature I think.

- Well, it's man made and so that's gonna make you feel at home.

And also it's got some great light on it as well.

- [Mike] Yeah, have you painted before?

- No.

- You're quite good now, that's- - No, well I just listen.

- Right.

- And watch.

- Yeah, I mean, it is.

That's a nice focal point.

(dramatic music) - I've got my inks here which I'll be using for the printing, and my little rollers here for rolling the ink on and this is my printing press.

Otherwise known as a spoon.

- [Joan] James Green has been a full time linocut artist for 10 years, and captured this view from near where he lives in Sheffield.

In "Portrait Artist of the Year 2013," he was shortlisted with his print of Simon Weston.

- Back for more.

- Afraid so, yeah.

- So, you're probably feeling very relaxed and calm.

- No, this is twice as big as the linocutter that I did in the Portrait series, so.

- [Kate] And it's still quite a small work, isn't it?

- It doesn't feel that to me.

It feels quite big to me.

- [Kate] Oh!

And will you print in two colors, or?

- [James] I'm not sure yet.

It depends how much time I've got.

- So, when do you work that out?

Is that really a time factor?

- Yeah, I see how I get on for the next hour and then I might add another color elements.

I'm really not sure yet though.

- Well, you've got everything stuck down.

- Yes.

- So I don't want to see your linocut flying into the lake.

Otherwise we'll have a Mr. Darcy moment of Tai retrieving it for you.

- Yes, yes that would be fun.

(Kate laughing) (bright music) - I don't tend to do lots of landscape painting.

This is quite a new venture for me.

I've probably had a practice on about two or three paintings so far.

- [Frank] Amateur artist and former police officer Kathy Thomas primarily produces portraits.

She paints acrylic on handmade paper, and her submission of Macclesfield Forest was only the second landscape she'd made.

- I'm doing something very different.

- You're doing the yew walk.

Is it down there somewhere?

- Yes, and it's absolutely beautiful.

- [Tai] Yeah, it is fantastic.

- [Kathy] Yeah, it is.

It's really nice.

I love all the textures and- - Yeah, but we gave you this fantastic view with reflections.

- It's very pretty for me though, very pretty and I prefer something a little more rugged.

- Yeah, I mean, your submission was, kind of, what's the word?

It was, sort of, a fairy tale and a slight, sort of scary, gloomy.

- Yes, for me, this is just very, it just seems on one level really, one depths.

- It's very landscapey.

- It is, yes.

(laughs) (bright music) - The original plan was a landscape with a whole lake here.

Actually, I just accidentally took some photo with the portrait.

And then when I see the photos I feel like, "Oh yeah, portrait is definitely going to be better."

(bright music) - Born in rural China, professional oil painter Yin Gee Sun teaches adult art classes at his Whitechapel studio.

Reimagined from memory, his submission captures Sanqing Mountain in China and a peach tree reminiscent of his childhood.

We're not very far into the competition, and yet you've made a fantastic impact already.

- Thank you for the compliment.

- Are you racing somebody?

- [Yinjie] (laughs) No, because once I decide what I'm going to paint, actually, the image is already in my mind.

- And once you've decided just go for it.

- Just go for it.

(dramatic music) - [Frank] As well as our eight heat artists, 50 more have traveled to Lyme Park to give it a go as wild cards.

Laden with paints, brushes and easels, they're here to capture the many views on offer in a bid to impress the judges.

- I want to concentrate on the plants.

I thought I'd go for an organic type of painting.

- I might go portrait and do the building or landscape and put the trees with the lake in.

I'm just deciding.

- [Frank] But painting en plein air, they're exposed to the elements.

- I'm normally in shorts and a t-shirt, you know, which on worse days than this in hail and what have you.

So, this is quite a novelty for me to be sat in my clothes.

- I love this.

- [Artist] Ooh, I'd better stop then.

- [Frank] Do you always start with purple?

- What I do is I start with all the darks and then as the day goes on I'll get lighter and lighter and lighter and I start racing and then I'll get thicker and thicker and thicker.

- I see no purples in that.

Do you see purples in it?

- I'm choosing to, I'm not a fancy or a fan of green paintings very much.

I don't do lots of tree green things, so this is a bit of a challenge.

- That is a slight dilemma, isn't it, with this.

- Yes, so to make it more enjoyable for me.

I'll maybe, sort of, transfer colors a bit and see colors that aren't there.

- Why not?

- [Kate] This is very unusual.

It's very dark scene you've conjured up.

- Basically, I couldn't loosen up my work.

So I decided to use spoons.

- [Kate] I was about to ask about the spoons, right.

Okay, I thought maybe you had a cup of tea on the go.

No, you're painting with it.

- No, no, no.

(dramatic music) (bright music) - [Joan] The heat artists are one hour in to their four-hour challenge.

- The clouds, are these, these are a new addition, are they?

- [James] Yeah, because when I took the photo originally.

There, it was just a sort of white.

- [Frank] Oh, it was just clouds.

- And there wasn't really any break in it.

So, I'd much rather use a, you know, a contrasted sky.

So, I'm drawing the clouds in real life and, sort of, working as I go along.

- I love a stylized cloud.

(dramatic music) - This isn't my typical, kind of, scene.

I'm used to something a lot more bleak and perhaps more barren but I've sat here and I've got my head around how I'm gonna deal with it.

(dramatic music) - he vastly changing sky is a challenge.

- The danger is concentrating on one particular area.

I can't do that.

I can't afford to do that.

I need to think of the whole thing.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music) (bright music) - [Joan] Lyme Park in Cheshire is home to our latest heat of Sky Art's "Landscape Artist of the Year."

Our artists have three hours left to capture the view they've been presented with.

- Debbie, are you actually wearing an official artist's smock?

- (laughs) No, I'm wearing an official Guernsey-seaman's smock.

- Oh okay.

- It's from Guernsey, yeah, but I've had it ages and this is an official, if you want to have a photograph as an artist, it's the one to wear.

- Yeah.

Professional artist Debbie Grice studied at Glasgow School of Art and prefers to capture landscapes whilst painting outdoors.

Her submission is of Howarth Moor in West Yorkshire.

She wanted to capture its bleakness, weather and drama.

So, when you paint something like this.

I mean, those flowers, you don't take them piece by piece, do you?

- No.

- At all.

- No.

I'm looking for some sort of musical symphony.

- [Frank] Okay, almost like you can hear this scene, if you know what I mean.

- That is how it is.

Yeah, now you're gonna diagnose me.

- (laughs) No.

No, I think it's fascinating.

- [Debbie] The, sort of, big drive of the music, really, is these heavy marks here.

These would be the percussion.

- And I can see how they, that those flowers bring that light treble to the whole piece.

- [Debbie] Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

(dramatic music) - [Kate] You seem to have got quite far ahead in such a short time.

Are you happy with the pacing?

- Yeah, I work quite quickly naturally in my studio, and being here right in front of the landscape is just really inspirational.

- [Joan] Georgia Murray studied at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee before doing an MA at Edinburgh College of Art.

Created whilst living in Taiwan, her submission represents the connection between her and her brother whilst living on separate continents.

Today Georgia has a connection with another artist who by pure coincidence was also chosen by the judges to attend this heat.

- So this is Kyle in the pod next to me and he's my boyfriend and we met at art school.

So, we've stuck together ever since.

It suits us to be beside each other.

We're very supportive of each other's careers.

For me, it's very natural to be working beside my partner like this as an artist.

- [Kate] I've just been having a nice chat with Georgia and I hear that you're both suitably united by a love for color?

- Yes, it is only maybe, like, four or five colors in my piece whereas Georgia's it'll be.

(imitates explosion booming) - [Frank] Like Georgia, Kyle Noble also studied at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee before taking an MA at Edinburgh College of Art.

His landscape is inspired by a combination of places he has traveled to, including the waterfall and forest in Dess in Aberdeenshire.

- So, what I'm looking at here is a smattering of colorful lines appearing.

What's your process?

- The process is chaotic but it's almost like, you know, playing guitar solo or something like that.

Like the actual process of line and moving that around, and that's why I think there's quite a strong element of drawing in my work 'cause it feels like I'm, sort of, able to flow through time using the line, or something like that.

- But you say flow through time, there is a time limit today.

How are you feeling about that?

- Squashed.

(dramatic music) - [Joan] Despite the time limit, another artist won't be rushed.

- At the moment I'm just making a very detailed drawing of the pattern in the grass and the sun, and then also use the graphite powder to fill in some tone in the background to give it more of a composition, instead of just being a very small drawing.

- At 19, Frances Whorrall-Campbell is the youngest artist in the competition and has just completed an art foundation course at Central Saint Martin's in London.

Her submission landscape of Kingsway Tunnel ventilation shaft in Liverpool is an acid etching which she completed for her GCSE.

So, will you give us that or will you give us a sort of a brutalist straight lined metallic robot 21st century version of it?

- I think somewhere between the two.

- Okay.

You don't seem to have that much stuff with you.

- No, I was a bit worried.

Everyone's got, like, a tray full.

- Yeah, everyone's got barrel loads of paints and things and you've turned up with a pencil case.

- [Frances] Yeah.

- I'm glad you've kept that GCSE spirit going.

(dramatic music) - [Joan] Over at the wild cards, the artists are having to deal with some rather erratic conditions.

- Maybe one, and the wind.

(both laughing) - It's being quite windy.

It's quite difficult to keep the canvas on easel.

I did have the umbrella but it went for a little walk, a little play, shall we say?

- Oh, that looks nice and warm.

I wish I was there.

(both laughing) - That is beautiful, if you don't mind me saying.

- [Artist] Thank you very much.

- [Frank] Are you a full time artist?

- No, no, no, no.

I'm a Taekwondo instructor.

- You have your sensitive side and then you can kill someone if you need to.

- Yes, I could.

I do my best not to.

- [Frank] No, obviously.

- Don't get on the wrong side of me.

- Obviously not.

No, that's why I've come over and said what a wonderful painting it is.

- Well, you're getting the spirit of the weather.

- I know.

- It's happening a lot.

Somebody's just lost an easel over the other side.

- [Artist] I know.

- [Joan] Well, it's a blowy day and it's a blowy picture, isn't it?

- Yeah, yeah.

- I love the feel.

So, you decided not to bother with the trees and the water and all that natural stuff.

- [Artist] I thought we had to do the building.

- Oh, did you?

- Yeah.

- [Frank] Did it not seem suspicious to you that some people were painting in the opposite direction?

- Yeah!

Yeah.

(laughs) (dramatic music) (bright music) - [Frank] It's nearly midway through the competition.

- I'm looking at trying to get the right, you know, the different greens.

You've got bluey greens.

You've got yellowy greens.

- [Kathleen] That's good, isn't it?

Isn't that good?

- It's a nightmare.

(Tai laughs) Green is a nightmare, isn't it?

- [Tai] I think you've gotta embrace the greens.

- [Mike] Yeah, yeah, we'll see how we go anyway.

(wind roaring) - No way.

- [Frank] How much of a problem is the wind today?

- Very much so.

It's blowing everywhere.

And I'm very sorry to the owners of Lyme Park because they may be finding bits of paper for quite a few weeks to come.

- They may but do you know what?

- Yes.

- It's beautiful paper.

- [Kathy] Thank you very much.

(gentle music) - [James] I'm just rubbing to press the ink onto the paper.

It takes a while to do this bit.

Yeah, it's dried out a bit you see.

You can see, you can get the idea anyway.

- Oh, yes.

What's unsatisfactory about that?

- [James] Well, it's all blotchy.

- [Joan] But you're pleased about the design.

- I think so, yeah.

(bright music) - The collage is all done now, so it's just a case of applying paint.

I would like to have been finished a little bit sooner but I could be in a worse position than this.

(laughs) (bright music) - [Joan] It does make you look at trees in a way that you rarely do.

- We've had the, what's what and who's who of trees out in the living room.

- Have you?

- We seriously have, yeah.

(bright music) - I think it's going a bit behind schedule.

I should just try and keep going with it and see where I get to.

(dramatic music) (bright music) (gentle music) - [Frank] Here at Lyme Park in Cheshire, our eight artists are using a range of mediums, from paints to pencil, collage to linocut, to try and impress.

- [Joan] Well, we're about halfway through.

How do you think people are doing, Kate?

- I'm a bit worried.

There's a couple of people here who are not working very well to time.

I'm thinking of Frances.

I mean, she's literally drawing blades of grass at the moment and it's about the size of a postage stamp.

- [Tai] But they're very beautiful blades of grass.

- My guess is she's slightly overwhelmed and her way of coping with this incredible landscape is, actually, to focus on the detail.

- Well, what about James, because James has been on one of these competitions before?

- [Tai] The lino that he's cut is just very beautiful.

- He's so calm and he knows exactly what he's facing today.

He's planned it all out.

- Just looking at the composition though, I find it a bit boring.

I'm sorry, But I'm hoping it comes alive.

- [Joan] Well, Kyle's submission was very, sort of, jeweled and layered.

How is this in comparison to what he's doing now?

- I just spoke to him and he admitted himself it was rather penny, meaning he'd drawn with pen and had not really got much going, but I think he had a little break and he came back and started working an area darker and with that, sort of, contrast he's brought a bit of life into it.

- It's the pen drawing that we really loved.

It may be that we end up deciding that that might be just enough.

- Now, Mike isn't very satisfied.

- Mike, I don't think Mike is ever satisfied which is good, you know, it's the struggle and he's always struggling and fighting.

- [Tai] And he's done a very interesting composition, a bit like his submission where he's abstracted it and just taken a corner, which has made it incredibly difficult for him because it's all green.

- Yeah.

- And he's not worked with the sky at all as a contrast.

So, he's made a rod for his own back and he's moaning about it, yes.

(dramatic music) - Now, your submitted piece, there's peaches and we're looking down on the landscape.

I notice you have peaches at your side.

Is that a deliberate motif that you take with you.

This is just lunch.

- Randomly pick it up, for my lunch or my breakfast.

- I thought I'd found a really important thing in your work there.

- No, no, no.

- It's lunch.

(laughs) (dramatic music) - [James] I'm going to add another color, so I'm going to do a blue.

- [Kate] Oh, this is the second color.

- [James] Yeah, I'm going to do blue clouds.

- [Kate] So, the color will be the clouds and this grass line.

- [James] Yeah, I'll hopefully get a, kind of, three color effect.

- Oh, because of the blending.

- Yeah, yeah, but I'm not sure if it's gonna work.

So I'm gonna try it.

(upbeat music) - I think hopefully people will be able to see the image emerging now from the blackness.

- I'm just trying to bring it all together.

It needs a bit of structure, strengthening in some areas and a bit of bringing some more highlights in, give it a bit more depth.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Everyone likes to create an impression.

So, when the Legh family built Lyme Hall, they created an integrated landscape design that combined the house, the gardens, and the surrounding moorland.

Once a medieval hunting lodge, Lyme Hall was transformed in the 16th century into the house that now sits at the heart of the estate, but it was only the beginning of the Legh family's grand design of this beautiful landscape.

- They started adding features in the landscape.

So visitors would be amazed as they came in along the original drive and gradually all these outlying buildings would come into view.

So, the Cage first of all, Paddock Cottage, the Lantern, and then they'd reach the house.

They then started putting in vista lines to the various outlying buildings.

Visitors to the house could go and stand just outside this window and see up the vista lines to all these magnificent buildings.

- [Joan] To the north stands the Cage with Lyme Avenue to the south and the Lantern to the east, mirrored by Paddock Cottage to the west.

This web of views in the landscape design of Lyme Park becomes even more elaborate.

- Other vistas were created from focal point to focal point.

So you've got a vista from Paddock Cottage to the Cage.

You've got another one from the Cage to the Lantern.

So, you've got criss-crossing lines going between the vista lines as well.

- [Joan] Kate has worked and volunteered at Lyme Park for over 30 years.

- I've often experienced life on those vista lines, walking in the morning before I start work.

It's a joy.

It's a privilege as well, and if you feel as if you're in another world.

It really is a magical place to come.

(gentle music) - So, Kate, what does it mean to you this place?

Do you think you could sum that up?

- It means peace, tranquility, beauty, joy.

- That's a lovely summing up.

I was surprised you didn't include rain, wind, sub-zero temperatures.

- [Kate A.]

It gets into your bloodstream, everything, and if you're not careful it can take you over.

- What happens then?

- Your family disown you.

(laughs) - Oh no, I thought you were going to say you turn into a deer at midnight.

Later on, Kate, you're gonna be choosing a landscape of Lyme Park.

- [Kate A.]

Wonderful.

It will be cherished.

- Okay, well I look forward to your choice.

(dramatic music) With 50 artists trying their hand as wild cards, there's many different mediums and techniques on display.

But with a chance to gain a place in the semifinal, the judges need to agree whether any of the wild cards has impressed them enough.

- [Tai] I really like the guy who's painting that small painting up high.

- [Kate] Yeah, I liked him.

He's obviously- - [Tai] He knows what he's doing, doesn't he, yeah?

- [Kathleen] What about the woman that's started in purple?

- [Tai] I love her.

I like the way she put the paint on.

It was, kind of, moody and dark and interesting.

- [Kate] I like that one.

There's a woman who's doing a watercolor and she's done the orangery beautifully.

- No, the sky is fantastic.

- The sky is amazing.

The sky has got the big gray foreboding clouds and I think she's told the story of today beautifully.

(dramatic music) Hello, you're (laughs) sitting there with your tea, and I'm delighted to tell you that you're today's wild card winner.

Well done.

(audience applauding) Well done, a great painting.

- [Frank] Sandy will now join a pool of other successful wild cards, from which one will claim a place in the semifinal.

- [Joan] Not only do our artists have to create a piece of work for our judges in just four hours, but they have to do it in front of a steady stream of spectators.

- Hello, everybody.

It's nice having a bit of attention from the general public.

I've had a nice few conversations with people.

A few people have asked me how much time I've got left, like there's some impending doom coming.

So, it's pushed me on a little bit.

- And some of the onlookers are far from impartial.

So Anne, you're the mum of Frances, and Evelyn and Grace, you are not only the sisters of Frances but you're the- - [Both] Triplets, yeah.

- What about you two?

What do you do?

- We do art as well, yeah.

- It's pretty amazing, isn't it?

- It is, yes, it is.

- [Frank] So, what do you think of Frances' chances?

Have you looked at the- - Haven't looked at anyone else's.

- [Frank] That's what you've got to do, is check out the rivals.

I think you should hunt as a pair.

See if you can unnerve them.

(dramatic music) - [Andrew] I'm married to Debbie, and I've just followed here to bring her bags and her equipment.

- Now, you're a professional artist too, aren't you?

- Yes, I am, yes.

- So, what do you paint?

- [Andrew] Well, I like to paint animals and people, things that are in front of me.

Debbie's more about landscapes, and she's quite good at seeing things.

I can't see what she's seeing.

She's picking up on the music and the spirituality of the landscape.

I find that really difficult.

I find it difficult to enter it.

- So, the walls of your home are covered in paintings.

- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, very much so.

But mine aren't allowed on the walls, (laughs) in the main part of the house.

- I'm getting quite an insight into your domestic life.

(both laughing) Thanks very much.

- Okay.

(gentle music) - [Kathleen] What are the big issues for you at the minute?

- The main thing is the oil's still wet underneath and when you put oil on top of oil.

You're mixing in the color underneath which makes it muddy.

- [Kathleen] I see.

- [Debbie] So, I'm going to leave over layering until the last 20 minutes.

- It's almost as if we're looking at a small brook running through into a valley.

I quite like that license that you've taken with it.

- [Debbie] Yeah.

- [Joan] There are 30 minutes of the competition remaining.

(dramatic music) - I've got to wait for the ink to dry on the first blue layer, and then I've got to print the second layer with the green on top and see if that works.

(dramatic music) - Are you going to be able to seduce us in the way that you did with your entry?

- Well, that's a big statement, but thanks.

I don't know, we'll see.

It might end up being in areas intense.

- Okay, well I really don't want to hold you back because I'd like to see much, much more.

I'm sure my fellow judges would like to see much, much more as well.

- Yes, thanks.

(dramatic music) (bright music) (playful music) - Our artists are entering the final 10 minutes of this heat of "Landscape Artist of the Year."

Have you, actually, had the chance to do that thing that artists do.

When you just stand back and think about it for a bit?

- No, I'm afraid not.

(dramatic music) - The paint isn't drying fast enough, but this has got to be finished whatever.

- [Frank] This is fabulously intricate.

- Thank you very much.

- Are you worried about time?

- [James] Yes.

(dramatic suspenseful music) - I'm gonna speed up a bit more and just throw a bit more paint on.

I'm at the panic stage.

(laughs) (dramatic suspenseful music) - Artists, your time is up.

- Please put down your materials and step back from your work.

(audience applauding) - [Georgia] I'm so tired.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Before the landscapes are judged, Kate Atkinson chooses her favorite painting to keep in recognition of her dedication to the estate.

Artists, will you turn your easels around please?

(gentle music) Kate has had a long association with Lyme Park, having worked and then volunteered here for over 30 years.

- When I started work here in '81 that was buried completely.

It's lovely to think that we've brought back something in the landscape.

I wouldn't have believed that there were so many techniques.

- And yet they're all part of the landscape you know.

- Exactly.

I know which one I'm going to go for.

- Okay.

- [Kate A.]

And it's over there.

(audience applauding) It really is lovely.

- There you are.

- Thank you.

- You're very welcome.

(audience applauding) - [Frank] Before selecting an artist for the semifinal, the judges first have to decide on their shortlist.

- [Tai] The use of the two colors, we didn't know which two colors he was going to use and he's done that very nicely in the ripples.

- They're sort of strange colors to put together because this is a very natural earthy green and this is something which is much more sort of minty and cool, but I really like that combination.

I think it's successful.

- The judges might think it's too simple, but that's just the way that I, you have to work with linocut.

You can't really be too detailed.

- I really enjoyed watching him actually make the trees today, and in the right light you do get that fantastic sort of gloaming as the path goes beyond the yew trees.

- Good sense of mood.

She's taken a really small space and made it monumental and grand.

- I don't think she needs this 3D application.

I think she's got a great sense of light and depth and recession without it.

- If I'd had more time I would have liked to have used more collage within my work, but I was quite happy with the end result.

So I can't moan.

- [Tai] Mike moaned about the greens but I think he's done a very nice job.

They're very beautiful.

They're harmonious.

- You look at it now and you think to yourself, "Oh blimey, it's a bit too green and this is a bit muddy," and then I look at this and I go, "Well, that's exactly what it is."

I think he would have had a better day if he'd have chosen something which allowed the sky to come in.

And I think it's missing that but there's still great bits in it.

- I did intend to put some sky in.

I was too busy with the greens and the foreground and the trees, trying to get the balance right.

- Frances said she might do this before she came and I must say I really enjoyed her concentration on this tiny bit of turf grass.

Today maybe wasn't the right time to do it.

There are some bits which work very well, but the majority is of this, sort of, doodling and I don't think it's got enough power.

It's not really holding it together enough to draw me in to some different space.

- It reminds me of when I was 18 and I wanted to be a cartographer, so I was constantly drawing these little contours to make little mountains but you're right about the passages.

If you look at the pencil drawing of the clouds, I think that's really, really beautiful.

In a way that's what we wanted to see more of.

I really like Debbie, full of energy, completely in the landscape.

- Isn't this bit glorious, with the light streaming through and this brilliant gray sky which we had at times today.

- [Tai] Her enthusiasm, you can see it in the way she's applied the paint.

It's got a really nice wristy, lively quality to it and you're right, the light is absolutely stunning.

- There are things that I would critique myself.

There are areas that got overworked.

There are areas that I think that have become a little bit decorative, but as it is I think it's an okay painting.

(dramatic music) - It's between those three then.

- [Kate] Yeah.

- It's gonna be a good three, yeah.

(dramatic music) - But there can only be a shortlist of three.

The first artist is James Green.

(audience applauding) - And the second artist is Debbie Grice.

(audience applauding) - And the third artist to be shortlisted is Mike Kirby.

(audience applauding) (dramatic music) - Commiserations to the rest of you.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you for your work, and sorry you didn't make the shortlist.

(audience applauding) (gentle music) - I can understand why I wasn't shortlisted, but I'm surprised that you didn't make it into the shortlist because your picture's quite, kind of, large and ambitious and quite well completed, I thought, and mine is quite fiddly and small.

- Oh, but pretty.

- Ah.

- Congratulations to the three who've been shortlisted.

Their work's absolutely fantastic, so well done to the three of them.

(dramatic music) - [Frank] To help decide which artist should claim a place in the semifinal the judges quiz Debbie, Mike, and James about today's work and their submitted landscape.

- On your submission here you've got this fantastic, sort of, smoky sfumato, sort of, here in the foreground, or the middle ground.

- [Debbie] Yes, yeah.

[Kathleen] Would we have seen you start to do that more here or?

- [Debbie] Yes, that would have been more dramatic and something, you know, probably away from reality.

I found this area here, I disliked that area and that maybe would have come into something a little bit more, sort of, meaty and, you know, agitated at the front.

(gentle music) - You complained a lot about the greens today.

Did you realize that in doing that, sort of, cropping of a corner you were gonna lose that contrast of the sky?

- [Mike] I did intend to put some blue aspects of the sky in there, but.

- You ran out of time?

- I forgot.

- You forgot.

- I forgot.

(all laughing) - James, I'm so pleased you found the time to do the second color because it really lifted it.

I like the color that you've chosen, actually.

I thought you might go for something bright, but you've chosen something within the same, sort of, green, blue pool.

Did you consider any other color, or did you always know you were going to do that?

- I wanted to go for something related to it, something that would fit behind the green in the water area and also work well in the clouds too.

And luckily it worked, but I literally only had about three minutes before the end to realize that.

- [Kathryn] (laughs) Well done.

(bright music) - You know, where we are now demonstrates the difficulty of the day, because there's a storm cloud over there, very dark.

Over there bright blue skies and white clouds.

Now, how difficult is that?

- I think it's incredibly difficult, because there was a camp which decided to just stick with this morning's weather and they've decided to go with a gray sky, and then there's another school which seemed to be playing catch-up with the weather the whole time and then fall behind.

- It is really about seizing the chance when there's a beautiful cloud and you've got to decide to put it in or wait until a better one comes along.

- You know, this is "Landscape Artist of the Year" after all and what we really want is we want some artists who get out there into the landscape and are used to sitting in the landscape and depicting it, no matter what and I think we found those people.

The artists who really enjoyed that struggle with their painting, they've actually reveled in those changes as well.

- I was over at the wild card and there was a woman painting and the ground was brightly lit with a dark sky above it and it looked wrong, and then I looked at it and it was brightly lit with a dark sky above it.

- We've been here, and it's been an experience and I think we want our artists to convey that a bit as well.

- Each one had a completely unique vision, didn't they?

Not at all one like another.

- No, not at all.

Which makes it really hard to judge.

- Yeah.

(dramatic music) - James, Mike, Debbie, congratulations to each one of you for making it to the shortlist.

The judges very much admire your work.

However, only one of you can make it through to the semifinal.

- The judges felt the artist they have chosen to go through to the semifinal stayed true to themselves whilst capturing a sense of place, and that person is (dramatic suspenseful music) James Green.

(audience applauding) (James laughs) Well done, mate.

- [James] I can't quite believe that I've won.

I just entered this as a challenge, you know, I never expected to, you know, to be selected.

That was, yeah, it's crazy.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- I'm made up to get to this stage.

I was quite pleased with myself, and would I do it again?

Possibly, possibly.

- Oh bad luck, Debbie.

- It's okay.

- [Frank] It was so lovely to meet you.

- I'm really happy for James.

It's quite refreshing to see, actually, somebody doing work like that in the field.

I had my eye on him so, yeah, the best man won.

- I thought about maybe jumping in the lake.

I might not do that.

I might go home, have a glass of wine, and celebrate in that way instead.

(dramatic music) (water whooshing) (dramatic music) (bright music)