- Six weeks ago, we began our search for the next Turner, Constable or David Hockney.

48 artists were chosen to go forward to the heat, and now, just six remain.

- And by the end of today, those six will become three.

Welcome to the semifinal of Sky Arts' "Landscape Artist of the Year".

- [Joyce] Over the past few weeks, we set up home at some of the National Trust's most impressive properties in our search to find an undiscovered landscape artist.

- One artist from each heat has made it through to today's semifinal.

Jamie Hageman.

- Nerine McIntyre.

- Sam Taylor.

Emma Copley.

James Green.

Jo Abbott.

- [Joyce] And so the pressure is on as they get one step closer to the prize, a £10,000 commission to paint one of the National Trust's best known views, Flatford in Suffolk, made famous by Constable himself.

- But first, they've got to get through to the final.

You've got your spoon, have you?

- I hope so.

Yeah, yeah.

- [Joyce] So, with a surprise challenge... - I'm a bit nervous about the location, just because it is very urban.

- [Frank] And only three places on offer... - I know there's people looking over my shoulder, watching me, but I've gotta concentrate on what I'm doing.

- [Joyce] They will have to impress judges Tai-Shan Schierenberg, Kathleen Soriano and Kate Bryan.

- Have you got a reasonable idea of who the three are?

- I don't.

- I do.

- But who will make it to the final of Sky Arts "Landscape Artist of the Year"?

I dunno about you, Joan.

I'm frightened to death what they're gonna pick.

- Do you know what, I reckon I probably won't agree with them.

(gentle uplifting music) In today's semifinal, there are four professional artists.

James Green, Emma Copley, Jamie Hageman, and Nerine McIntyre.

- [Frank] And two amateur artists.

Sam Taylor, and Jo Abbott.

- [Joyce] As it's the semifinal, the judges want to test their versatility and so have selected a completely different type of vista.

- Wow.

- Ah, cool.

- [Jo] It's quite overwhelming though.

- It is indeed.

- Such a big structure.

- [Frank] Their horizon is dominated by the city, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

- I secretly hoped for something like this.

Got the sun out today.

Nice lot of shadows, lots of contrast.

And I like painting contrast.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

- It'll be a challenge, but yeah, we'll just get on and paint.

- It's such a recognizable place that you, I think, already have images in your head of what it should look like in a painting.

Cause so many people have painted this.

All right, I'm ready.

- [Joyce] But our six semifinalists are about to be joined by one more.

- [Frank] At each of the heats, we invited 50 more artists of all ages and abilities to try their luck as a wild card.

And each week the judges selected their favorite.

- I'm delighted to tell you that you've won today.

You're our wild card artist winner.

- That's fantastic.

Thank you.

- Congratulations, you're the wild card today.

- Am I?

- [Tai-Shan] Yes.

(applause) (gentle music) - [Joyce] But the judges had to decide on just one of them to join the others at Tower Bridge.

And the person they chose is David Alderslade.

- This is really good news, to be told that I was the wild card winner.

To have that extra chance to get back in and have another go at painting was really good.

I can't wait to get started.

- Artists, your semi-final challenge is about to begin.

- You have just four hours to paint this incredible view and your time starts now.

(gentle music) - It's a little bit daunting to be painting something that everyone knows, cause you've gotta get it right, or you've got to get the suggestion of it right so that people can recognize it.

- Until now, the judges have challenged the artists with more traditional rural landscapes, but today's location will test their ability to convey a busy cityscape.

And possibly the only one who's pleased about it is me.

It's exciting, isn't it?

I can't tell you how happy I am not to be in the countryside.

You're not feeling like that, I'm guessing.

- No, no, not very.

Well excited, yeah, just a bit nervous.

- Professional artist Nerine McIntyre lives in Fife.

Her landscapes normally feature woodland views and are created by building layers of enamel, shellac and oil.

From an early age, art has always been her passion.

- I met Nerine when we were at school, used to sit next to her actually in an art class.

Always knew that she wanted to do art as a career, but didn't know how far she'd go or what route she'd take.

Nerine's probably not the most confident in her abilities, but I suppose every artist is self critical.

I think she's just happy to get good comments from judges, just knowing that they like her work.

- [Frank] Even though her painting of Waddesdon ignored most of the manor, the judges thought the surrounding foliation undergrowth was captivating enough to put her through to the semi-final.

I'm guessing this isn't the sort of thing you'd normally go for.

- [Nerine] No.

- Are you gonna try and find a little bit of fairytale tree glade?

- Yeah.

- I mean, to be fair, you've got a kind of a castle with trees over there.

It doesn't get much more fairytale than that, does it?

And how much bridge are we gonna get from you?

- It depends how much painting time I get.

- Well, I mean, what's your cutoff point?

Are we gonna get that Union Jack?

- No, no.

I might have sort of a line point to reference it.

- Okay.

I'm looking forward to it.

There aren't many sort of fairy glade paintings of Tower Bridge.

- Yeah.

- That I know of.

(gentle music) - What a view that we've lined up for you.

- It's fantastic.

- [Kate] Are you pleased, or, how you feeling?

- I've had a while to digest it, so I've come to my senses and figured out what I wanna do.

- [Joyce] Emma Copley studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, but now lives in Cambridge, where she divides her time between painting portraits and landscapes.

Her technique of focusing on a small area of trees at Trelissick in Cornwall fascinated the judges.

But what will she do with such a large subject as Tower Bridge?

- [Tai-Shan] Are you going for both towers of the bridge?

- Oh no.

No.

No.

Just a bit of a corner of the tower.

- I think everyone today is gonna have to wrestle with it.

It's a huge iconic piece of architecture and you've gotta yet make it your own.

So I think it's a brave person who's actually gonna paint the entirety.

- I mean, I think you could, if you omit a lot.

- Yeah.

- You know, and you just think in shapes and big colors and maybe zoom in on just a few bits, but that is a challenge of itself to do as well.

- [Frank] Our semi-finalists are using a variety of different mediums, including lino cut, and acrylic.

But only one is using watercolor.

And to create his precise lines and contrast, he's using an essential tool.

- It's actually a fluid that you can paint with a brush onto the surface of the paper.

And then once it's dried, you can peel it off, preserving the pure, nice, clean colors.

- [Joyce] David Alderslade works on his watercolor and crayon landscapes in his caravan near Salisbury Plain.

He was invited to take part in a heat at Waddesdon Manor.

But when he failed to make it through, he decided to try again as a wild card.

- It's quite an unusual format for you.

I think I'm slightly more used to seeing you landscape.

You've taken a real slice.

- Yeah, I mean, it's a bit of a gamble just choosing one tower because of course they balance each other, you know, you're sort of so used to seeing them together.

- Might we see the odd red bus going across the bridge or something like that?

- I was gonna do that because it would give it a hint of a totally different color to the rest of the picture.

- [Kathleen] Constable and Turner used it to great effect for many, many years.

I think you're in good company.

- One thing is consistent, David.

The hat.

- Yeah.

- Can you paint without a hat?

- I dunno, probably not actually.

It's for practical use cause the hair goes in my eyes otherwise.

- Look at these beautiful wispy clouds coming in.

- Yeah.

- You've always finished most of the canvas.

I mean that's a very quick start.

Is this a kind of background over which you're gonna build the bridge?

- Yeah.

Oh, I see, okay.

- The heat, I just ran outta time.

I've realized I've just got to work even faster.

- [Frank] Professional artist Jamie Hageman lives in Fort William, Scotland, where he divides his time between painting and his big passion, which is climbing.

- Jamie's pretty much mountain obsessed, but a lot of the time he's going out, looking for ideas for new paintings.

Jamie's studio here used to be my summer room.

I think I had it for about two weeks after we moved in.

And then Jamie decided that no, he needed more room to paint than just the kitchen table.

So in he moved and out I went.

- [Frank] The finer details of his submission landscape secured his place in the heats, but it was the atmospheric style of his painting of Lyme Park that intrigued the judges enough to put him through to the semi-final.

- What I want to know is how much of the bridge are you putting in?

- I did a little sketch here.

- Oh wow, so we're gonna get the whole thing.

- [Jamie] Pretty big, yeah.

- In your paintings, you have these amazing angles where the mountain looms over you as if you've got this extraordinary perspective and you've done, again, you've done that sense of looming.

So I can see that again, that sense of the sort of David Lynch, sort of imposing atmospheric quality might creep in again.

- Yeah.

- You really like that, whereas for you, it was just a stage of the process.

- Yeah, it was really.

Yeah.

So I'll see how far I get this time.

- [Joyce] The artists have been painting for nearly an hour.

And they're drawing quite a crowd.

- It's a little intimidating having the public coming up to you, you know, in a steady flow and seeing them all walking by, looking at you.

That's a little scary.

I'm not used to that.

- I'm just trying to block everyone out.

I know there's people looking over my shoulder, watching me, but I've gotta concentrate on what I'm doing.

(gentle music) - [Joyce] Here on the South Bank in London, our seven landscape artists are battling it out for three places in the final.

And such a detailed and varied view allows a wide variety of approaches.

- There is an elephant in the room here and it's Tower Bridge.

You've decided to completely ignore it.

- [James] Tower Bridge?

- There it is, over there, look.

- Oh, yeah.

Yes I have, I'm afraid.

I've gone for the more modern architecture.

- When I looked at that cityscape of all those buildings, I did wonder if that might appeal to you.

It's a fabulous cluster.

You get to know the history of architecture on one piece of lino.

- That's my intention, yeah.

- James Green lives in Sheffield, where he's been working as a full-time lino cut artist for the past five years.

The perspective and design of his composition of Lyme Park's reflecting lake secured his place here today.

I think that we always talk about, when you're working, is the colors that you're gonna use.

- [James] Yeah, I'd like to do two if I can.

I'm gonna do a one color print first and see what that looks like.

- [Frank] Will that be blue?

- [James] I dunno.

- You dunno that even at this stage?

Really?

- [James] I might experiment with a few different versions.

- I find that interesting, that even at this point, the main color is still a mystery.

- [James] Yeah.

- [Frank] And you've got your spoon, have you?

- I hope so.

Yeah.

Yeah, here it is.

- I love the fact that some people who do prints turn up with this massive, great mill on the side, printing and rolling.

And you bring your spoon.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm kind of keeping it simple, I guess.

It's portable.

- More cheap.

It's not so heavy.

- [Joyce] One artist is taking a very literary approach to capturing Tower Bridge.

- And is this London's paper from today?

Are we being very site specific?

- Yeah.

- Excellent.

And how important is the collage to you?

How much of that are we gonna see in the finished product?

Do you know yet?

- I'm not sure yet.

A bit more of it will disappear.

And maybe a bit more will go on.

- [Frank] Amateur artist Jo Abbott lives in Oxford.

A regular feature of her work is to include a lot of sky as well as bleak and bare terrain.

She won her place in the semi-final with her painting of Waddesdon Manor's parterre.

- I'm really interested by your composition.

Again, you've done that thing where you've made everything very low.

I'm looking to get that feeling of, I suppose it's a bit childlike, that sort of sense of wonder and looking up and everything towers above you.

- It's interesting seeing your painting like this because your paintings are so evocative and atmospheric and at the moment it's quite timid.

I mean, this is important.

The skeleton's got to be there.

- Yeah, it is.

It's the bones, it's got to be there.

- Do you feeling impatient, like to sort of get going?

- Yeah, definitely.

I can feel it in you.

And I'm like when's she gonna do the really good bits?

- I want to know, what was your first reaction when you saw that landscape in front of you?

- I was a bit worried, to be fair.

It's not really, not a scene that I've ever done before.

I've never really done a cityscape in my life.

- [Joyce] Sam Taylor is from Yorkshire and is currently studying for his degree at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he experiments with the sizes of canvases he works on.

- The way Sam works is very risky, but there's a great spontaneity with his process.

I think Sam reacting to winning would be... Well, I don't think he would react like many other people.

He never really gets overly excited about anything, but I think he would be very, very pleased if he won.

- In his heat, he abandoned his first painting in favor of distilling the view of the Fal Estuary in Cornwall into a small square.

But his change of heart gained him a place here today.

Are we going to see the shape of the bridge at all?

- What I'm interested in more, what you can't really see now, is actually the shadows the bridge's cast into the water.

- [Joyce] You're almost painting simply the light on the river.

- [Sam] In a way, yeah.

- [Joyce] And it's changing all the time.

- It might be rather wonderful.

It might end up with something that like Whistler and all his lovely knock turns of the river.

we might end up with something that's really evocative and moody.

- I like, yeah, kind of like a mood of...

It all not being so nice and, you know, frilly.

And I went to a bit darker.

- Nice and frilly, but you're working in gold paint.

- Well, I wanna give it a bit of a dark, richer feel.

- Can I ask you one of my stupid questions?

- Yeah, go on.

- Why is this any different from painting mountains and lakes and trees?

- Because if you paint a mountain or a lake or a tree and you're quite loose about it, because that's the way you paint, it's still recognizable as a mountain, a tree and a lake.

Is that right?

Whereas with a building, if you're loose about it, it sort of disintegrates.

So you've got to adapt your style to the structures here.

- You don't have to have rigid straight lines and that in a painting.

You can still have that freedom of expression, can't you?

- Yes, of course you can be loose about it, but I think you have to reinvent your language to capture it.

- Is this something you'd paint by choice?

- No.

- Tower Bridge?

- No.

I'd paint that by choice, but certainly not that.

So I'm impressed by the ones who've chosen it.

- [Frank] During one of the breaks, the artists have a chance to compare notes on how each is approaching today's challenge.

- Looks brilliant.

- [Emma] Oh, thank you.

I'm dying to see everybody's.

- [Jamie] I don't know whether I am.

- [Emma] Oh really?

You might not... - Last time I did that, I felt very intimidated.

- Did you?

- How are you getting on?

- I've barely started.

Don't even know if I like my idea about it.

Oh well.

- It's difficult, isn't it, if you're doing somewhere that's so recognizable.

It's just sort of- - Yeah, I've just kinda- - Adds extra dimension to the sort of stress, doesn't it?

- Mm.

- It's great.

I'm really enjoying it.

- Good.

I would say that, if I wasn't so stressed.

As long as an element is done or some elements are complete.

- So what you're working in?

- It's more like a sketch, isn't it?

Acrylic.

- Acrylic.

- [Joyce] Well, I don't know about you, but I'm getting a very interesting eye on Tower Bridge.

- I like to think I'm learning to look a bit, hanging around with all this crowd, do you?

- Yes, that's right.

- Do you think generally that you're on the same page as the judges?

- They're ahead of me.

They're way ahead of me.

- That's impossible, Joan.

No one is ahead of you.

Look at the head start you've got.

- I'm learning a lot.

- Yeah and me.

I love that.

I pick their brains mercilessly.

Joan, I could talk to all day.

I will.

- You do.

(both laughing) (gentle music) Tower Bridge has been sitting quite happily in the same spot for over 115 years, but today, one artist has decided to make some changes.

- [Tai-Shan] You reversed it.

- Yeah.

- Because you didn't like the composition here?

- [Nerine] I do prefer working from this sort of perspective.

And so I just changed it to suit.

- I like the way Nerine takes control of all the elements and then puts them where she wants them to be and how she wants them to be.

I like that.

- Do you buy into this theory that you have developed a new style to cope with the four hour constraints?

- Yeah, I think so.

It's impossible to paint that amount of detail this quickly.

- [Frank] Of course.

- But actually I'm starting to quite like this, forcing myself onto the next bit and then thinking, right, that'll have to do, next bit.

- It's kind of like speed chess or something like that, isn't it?

All the thinking you thought you needed to do, maybe you don't need to do all that.

- Just go with your instincts.

- Yeah.

- Ah.

- [Frank] The artists are nearly halfway through the semifinal.

- I'm just trying to bring a bit of life into the sky and figure out a few of the lights and darks in the actual building.

I've got almost past the point where I was about to throw in the river.

- There's a lot to do and I wish I had longer cause I could be here for days.

But I only have a few hours.

(gentle music) - [Joyce] On London's South Bank, our artists are competing for three places in the final.

But who is impressing the judges so far?

- It's roughly the halfway stage.

You must have a fair idea now of who's doing well and who isn't.

- I'm definitely more excited by those artists who I don't quite know where they're going yet.

So Nerine and Sam, for example, I'm much more enchanted by the magical mystery world that they're creating.

- What about Jamie, who set off at a flying start and now the bridge is... - [Tai-Shan] Looming, I think.

- [Frank] It is looming.

- I think he's gotta be careful to cultivate that sense of atmosphere, because his style is very hyper realist, very labored.

He's got to inject his personality into it.

At the moment, I'm worried there's nothing that enigmatic about the work yet.

- I don't think he's lost it completely.

I mean, with that ghostly underpainting of the tower, he's still got elements of it.

- [Frank] What about David?

- It's quite interesting.

You get to the point where...

I hope it isn't only familiarity, but where I'm thinking, okay, where does the art come in?

Where do you come in?

How are you going to interpret the scene in a way that makes it more than just a response to it?

- And I think to be able to take such a large scene and for some of these artists to just go that's necessary, that's what I'm into.

That is their character because that's what they're seeing and that's what they think anchors the picture.

Cause you look at an artist like James with his lino cut, is the great, you know, reductive artist.

He brings everything down to what is absolutely necessary.

- [Frank] What about Jo?

- I feel like I'm looking at something that's a little bit twee at the minute, a little bit kitchy almost.

It's slightly too pretty.

And I think that's what we'll see in the next bit of time, her start to muddy and mess around with.

- [Frank] What about Emma?

- I'm fascinated by how she managed to reduce this enormous scene.

- She's like Google Earth, Emma.

She gets tighter and tighter and tighter.

- I mean, it's amazing.

And I think it gives so much character to the painting.

- Well she started to bring in, you know, colors and fine contrast.

It feels New York.

I don't know, it has something sort of, kind of epic about it, in this small rectangle.

It's quite impressive.

- So as we pass the halfway stage, you don't have to pick a winner today.

You have to pick three people.

Have you got a pretty reasonable idea of who the three are?

- I don't.

- I do.

- People who have got a really evocative painting can completely lose the magic.

And then other people who have got loads more to give can suddenly come through at the final minute.

So I never have a clue.

- One of the artists has made the spontaneous decision to use the gun smoke in the atmosphere to give a sepia feel to their work.

Nah, not really.

- How'd you get that on it?

Is that acrylic?

- It's gold leaf.

- Ah.

Yeah, I've always seen the shiny paper in the art section and thought I want it.

- Wow.

- Wow.

I know, that's why I just said.

It's like, wow.

- I'm jealous.

That's really cool.

- Me too.

And it's got a whole sort of cityscape in the background.

- [Nerine] I know.

- Aha.

So when you started, it was all pink.

- Yeah, that's just like the underpainting, kind of.

- My God, I've got so much to do still though.

- I know, I know.

But you know, they're gonna judge it based on what you can do in the time, and then- - Yeah, I know.

- How good what you did is, so it's not a completed thing I don't think, so much.

- Tower Bridge has provided safe passage across the River Thames for millions of people, for cars, even for sheep for the past 120 years.

But like "Landscape Artist of the Year", its design began in a competition.

- In the mid 19th century, this area of the River Thames was the busiest and most wealthiest port in the world.

There was about a million people living in this area of London at the time.

They had to compete to get over London bridge.

So the public demand for a new bridge, east of London Bridge.

It not only had to provide a means across for the pedestrians, but it also had to provide access to tall master ships to deliver their goods.

So in 1876, a public commission was set up.

Over 50 designs were submitted.

There were a number of wacky ideas, but a lot of these ideas weren't seen to be right.

So in 1884, a design was submitted by Horace Jones.

Horace Jones was the city of London architect at the time.

And he was also on the judging panel.

And his ended up being the chosen design.

- [Joyce] The concept incorporated a combined suspension and girder bridge structure.

The success of the design though lay with the two counterbalanced halves, which allow the bridge to perform its famous party trick.

Eight years of construction began in 1887.

- [Adam] At any one time, there would be up to 800 men working on the bridge and these men came from London, but also came with the companies that were given the contracts to do the work.

So the engines came from Newcastle and they brought their engineers with them.

The stone came from Portland and they would bring their stone masons with them as well.

- [Joyce] However, the final result deviated somewhat from the original plans, which depict the bridge as a largely iron and steel assembly.

- [Adam] The Portland stone and granite was provided as a skin, basically, because Queen Victoria didn't want this ugly bridge to shame the beauty of the Tower of London next door.

So when Stevenson came in, after Horace Jones died, he clad it in Portland stone and granite, and added some Gothic flourishes.

So it actually looks a lot older than it is today.

- More recently, Horace Jones House, a new housing development named after the bridge's designer, has been built on its south side.

Today, one of its residents will get to choose one of our artists' work to be displayed in its foyer.

Well, Monica, there aren't many people who've moved into a flat round here.

What on Earth's it like living here?

- It's just amazing.

As a child, these landscapes, you're constantly used to seeing.

- Did you play around here?

- Of course, yes.

Played around here.

We took school trips around here.

So it's just amazing to be part of it and to be in it.

- [Joyce] You're going to have to make a choice of one of the paintings.

- Yes.

- And it's going to hang in your building.

Now, where?

- So it's going to hang in a foyer.

And so that's open to everybody.

To visitors, residents.

So I think having that in mind, it will help me make that choice.

You know, it's something that's a bit historic, but also reflects modern times, and of course the art around us.

- [Frank] The artists have only 30 minutes left before three will be chosen to go through to the final.

- There's lots of very pale blue-green colors in The Gherkin and some of the towers and spires and things like that.

So I'm gonna try and use that as part of the color scheme.

- Deciding whether not to tackle the buildings.

I'm kind of liking the whole minimal feeling going on here.

I don't wanna like overwork it by putting in the building, but I'm not sure.

I dunno, I need to just experiment more, try a few things out.

- What will you do with the actual river?

- I'm gonna actually stretch the river and do some dynamic strokes of paint.

- [Frank] Okay, so you'll sheet it a bit to give yourself more water, yeah?

- Yeah, it's just...

I'm going use the colors that are in it, but it's really hard to describe.

I paint it cause I can't really describe it, you know?

- Oh, I see.

It's hard because I tend to describe it because I can't paint it.

- Have you ever painted just the sky with nothing?

- Yes I have.

- Have you?

Yeah.

- Could you just do that endlessly?

- I could do that forever, yeah.

I like the way that you can express energy in a sky without actually having any particular form.

- [Kate] Yeah.

- I would say I'm not on schedule at all, but I'll just try and speed up now as fast as I can.

- It's just the time.

It's just the time.

I'm just trying to work as quickly as possible.

But I know I've got elements of the painting that are very important that I haven't got onto yet.

So that's my main focus, is gotta get those done.

- [Frank] We're in the closing minutes of "Landscape Artist of the Year's" semifinal challenge, and our seven artists are soon to be whittled down to three.

- I think it's all right.

I'm kind of happy with it, I think.

I'll put it over here on the board and think a bit more.

- Artists, there are 10 minutes to go.

- I've got 10 minutes left.

There's not really much more I can do to change it drastically in this amount of time.

I'm just gonna try and not mess up what I'm happy with.

- [Kathleen] Have you started drawing something to deal with the building?

- I was just kind of penciling something, I'm not sure.

- [Kathleen] I'd go with your instinct.

It's worked pretty well for you in the past.

- I've run out of time.

I'm on the foreground, but it doesn't look like anything it's meant to be.

All I can do is whack a couple of lamp posts in, I think.

- I could do a lot more with it.

I wish I had another four hours, but... - Artists, your time is up.

- Will you put down your instrument and step back from your easels, please?

(applause) (gentle music) Before judges view the finished paintings, Monica Badejo, a resident at the newly built Horace Jones House, named in honor of Tower Bridge's designer, will choose one of the paintings to hang in its foyer.

Artists, would you turn your easels around please?

It's a great moment, this.

- Yeah, that's wonderful.

- Now this is all together more atmospheric, isn't it?

- Yes.

Yes it is.

That's a very modern view of the bridge.

Oh.

That's a beautiful view.

- You're going to have to choose one from these lovely paintings.

- I'm going to choose this one right here.

(applause) - Thank you.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

- Well, that'll look wonderful in the setting, won't it?

- It will do, yes.

- [Frank] The judges have a tough decision, so they want to study every detail of the finished landscapes.

Can we start with James' view of the city.

- The lino cut.

I would actually have liked to see him do the bridge because this is quite a similar composition to what we've seen already, with this kind of very dense, tight perspective going back.

What I'm really pleased about is the choice of color.

It's so subdued, quite sort of evocative, but gave it a bit more mood.

- I was very happy that James picked that jumble of buildings, but I think he was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information he was trying to get into a very small space.

- I think I agree.

I was really pleased that he took that little patch of buildings.

It's incredibly complex.

But I think he could have maybe introduced a third color, maybe looked to make it a little bit more sophisticated than what we've seen already.

- Well, Sam was clearly fascinated by the light on the river, but he didn't really know how to move beyond that for quite a long time.

- I think he's not really a competitor.

He's sort of more competing with himself and trying to wrestle with what am I trying to do?

Who am I in this artwork?

And actually he won today for me.

- I love the fact that he doesn't seem to go by any of the rules or regulations that making a picture seem to be about.

He's finding his own way.

He's finding his own style.

I worry slightly that what we've ended up with is something that's too much on the decorative side, but I'm still completely seduced by it.

And by his promise of potential, really.

- I think it's very exciting to watch somebody who has no idea where they're going with it.

And now we've got this sort of shimmering image of...

I suppose, that's what London is to a lot of people, a place where maybe the streets aren't paved with gold, but the Thames is shimmering with possibilities.

It seems like kind of some weird Shangri La.

It's very romantic and strange and dreamlike.

I think it's a very beautiful image.

- But the fact that one of the towers is just sloping off, every time I look at it, it really nags at me.

- I think with the location, it's been a lot more stressful.

I don't paint cityscapes.

A bit of a struggle, but I think I got there eventually.

- So what about Jo?

- Unfortunately I think that the introduction of the red buses on the bridge makes it feel like the touristy image that we're so familiar with.

- I wish she'd been a bit braver with the bridge and actually just let herself be far more reckless, taken more artistic license.

A bit like she's done in the underside of the bridge, where she's let it fall away.

- Nerine has flipped the bridge.

Now that really was a bold decision.

- We were quite impressed by her brazenness.

You know, she's got this fantastic, huge building and she felt free to put it in a dark forest, darkened the sky, flip it round and make a very sort of evocative image.

I think it's very beautiful.

- [Kate] I think it's a staggering accomplishment, to be able to come on a day like today and deliver something which is so clever and so different.

- One of your regular condemnations is with people, I know what they're gonna do.

I feel I know their style there.

I could have told you exactly what she was gonna do and she's done it.

- Really?

- Yes.

- Maybe another way of putting what we're saying is that with the others, in knowing them, you don't actually need to spend much more time with them anymore.

And when you look at something like Nerine's work, it invites you to spend more time.

And the more time you spend with it, the more things are revealed.

And I would suggest that some of the others that maybe we've become more familiar with their imagery, there's less there to reveal itself.

- The judges will probably have quite a tough job, I should imagine, today, because everyone's is really different.

I don't know what they'll be saying.

Hopefully I've done enough.

- Now, what about David?

- For me, this is not my favorite of his compositions because he's usually a bit cleverer and here feels it a bit traditional.

That said, I love the way that he's handled the water.

I think that's quite inventive.

- I think the image is strong and then you go up to it and there's not that much to look at.

And I would like to see more, really.

- One of the things I've always loved about David is his skies.

And I feel that with this sky, he didn't quite get the sort of formality to it that he has with the rest of the work.

- Emma is next.

- I really like Emma's artlessness in a sense that she reacts to what's in front of her and she applies the paint.

And as she moves her way across the cameras, an image appears.

But I don't really know, are we getting depth here?

And do we know what's going on really?

- I like the fact that we don't really know what it is.

It's sort of industrial chic.

I like it.

- I decided to crop the bridge a bit and do kind of what was under it and through it, rather than the overall view of the bridge, I hope that it wasn't too much of a gamble and that the judges appreciate what I was trying to do.

- And finally, this is unmistakably Tower Bridge.

- The interesting thing with Jamie is we know what his finished work looks like.

What we've seen here is this sort of middle ground, which I think is quite exciting and it's quite otherworldly, but it's slightly bordering on the kitsch at the same time.

- Jamie is the only other artist who's dealt with the whole bridge as it stands and he's avoided it somehow.

I don't quite know how he's got past the... Oh, he's got a bright blue summer sky and somehow he's still been able to bend it so it doesn't look like a postcard or the bridge we know and love so well as a symbol of London.

It's become something else.

- The background tower shows you something which is much more evocative and the front one is much more descriptive.

And I would actually rather that that they were more ghostly.

I always had this funny push and pull with him because I think the bits of his paintings that I really like and the bits that maybe he didn't get around to, because I I'm looking for more distinction between the kind of finished sophistication and the undone abstraction.

And I think that's the greatness of his work.

- To get through to the final would be wonderful.

I don't want this to end actually, I'm strangely quite enjoying it.

- I dunno about you, Joan.

I'm frightened to death what they're gonna pick.

- Do you know what?

I reckon I probably won't agree with them.

I'll keep up an old tradition.

Congratulations artists on another fantastic challenge.

It's always a great pleasure to watch you working.

- Yes, and sadly, only three of you can go through to the final and the judges have made their decision.

The first finalist is... Jamie Hageman.

(applause) - The second finalist is Nerine McIntyre.

(applause) - And the third finalist is... Sam Taylor.

(applause) - Huge commiseration to our remaining semi-finalists.

We've so enjoyed watching you work.

Thank you for being with us.

(applause) - I feel really happy.

Really excited.

Yes.

Very happy.

- Well done, mate.

- I feel like I've got so far now that I wanna bring something really good next time.

Really show off what I can actually do.

- Well done.

- Thank you very much.

- That's it now.

- Oh my goodness me.

To celebrate, I think there's a nice jazz bar in Battersea.

Listening to some gypsy jazz.

That's what I'll do.

If I can stay awake.

(gentle music) - [Frank] Next time, our three finalists face their ultimate view.

- It's like "MTV Cribs".

- [Frank] Stourhead in Wiltshire.

- [Joyce] Are you worried?

- Very worried.

- [Frank] With the £10,000 commission at stake, who will win?

- I do feel quite a little pressure just now.

- The Sky Arts "Landscape Artist of the Year" is... (gentle melodic music)