(bright music) - Welcome to beautiful Flatford in Suffolk, made famous by John Constable's "The Hay Wain."

It's one of the most celebrated views in the history of art.

- Today hosts a very special event.

When Nerine McIntyre won Sky Art's Landscape Artists of the Year, she was commissioned to produce a painting of Flatford.

Today is the grand unveiling.

(bright music) - [Joan] For the past eight weeks we've traveled the country in search of an undiscovered landscape artist.

- All right, I'm ready (laughing).

- Exciting.

- [Joan] From painters to lino cutters, etches to sketches, over a thousand applied, but only one could win.

- Nerine McIntyre.

(crowd cheering).

- [Frank] Nerine never failed to impress the judges throughout the competition.

- She's just gone beyond my expectations.

(bright music) - I think she lives and breathes landscape.

- It's fantastic.

I'm so happy.

This will definitely change my life.

- [Frank] Now Nerine tackles her amazing prize, a £10,000 commission to paint one of the jewels in the National Trust's crown, Flatford in Suffolk.

- It's so iconic.

It is quintessentially the soul of England.

- [Frank] Following in Constable's footsteps.

- I never thought I would be able to come somewhere like this.

- [Joan] And finding her own way through the landscape.

- It's very magical being here, because you're taken back to when he painted.

- [Joan] Nerine will be painting one of the world's most admired views, that will then become part of the National Trust's permanent collection.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Here we go.

- Okay.

(bright music) (gentle intense music) - [Frank] Back home in Dysart, on the southeast coast of Scotland, being crowned Landscape Artist of the Year is still sinking in for Nerine.

- I couldn't believe it when they said my name.

I really couldn't believe it.

I remember shaking and just... 'Cause I just didn't think I would win.

I was so emotional and was almost like a dream.

- [Frank] Nerine's journey in the competition started at one of the heats at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, and she faced a challenge from the outset.

- I was really, really nervous about going to Waddesdon because I don't normally paint buildings at all.

So the first hour I was panicking quite a bit.

Then I thought, well just keep painting and get through it.

- I think it's a really courageous, brilliant contemporary painting.

- This is absolutely magical.

- I've fallen for it, I'm afraid.

- Yes.

- I've been seduced by it, completely.

(bright music) - Nerine evolved throughout the competition.

She entered with this very magical, realist undergrowthy forest which came out of Grimms' fairy tales, and the competition puts incredible strains on the artists.

She really was moved out of her comfort zone, and she adapted very well.

- [Frank] Nerine overcame the challenges of including buildings in her compositions, so much so that she was even playing with the reality of the view in her painting of Tower Bridge in the semi-final.

- We were quite impressed by her brazenness.

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

- It invites you to spend more time.

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

- She's delivered something really special there.

- [Joan] With her place in the finals secure, Nerine was given two weeks to paint a commission piece for the National Trust at Plas Newydd in Anglesey.

This was judged along with her final competition painting at the Landscape Garden of Stourhead in Wiltshire.

- Here, in a commission, you get not only the mysterious light, but you go through the painting.

I think it's come together fantastically.

It's just phenomenal.

(gentle music) - I really like the Stourhead landscape in terms of the huge amount of woodland and the different shapes and lines created by the trees and sort of the layout of that landscape.

I really like that fact.

I also like the fact that there was not one central focus of a building, so you could take quite a few elements from each.

So I really enjoyed that.

- She's also doing something with layering as well.

So in the way that we're taking the elements from this landscape, it's almost like there's a layering of history.

- The Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year is Nerine McIntyre.

(crowd cheering) - I couldn't be more proud of Nerine winning the competition.

More than anythin', she just wanted to get really good comments and feedback from the judges, and for the judges to actually like her stuff.

So I think that was probably the most important thing for her.

- She won as soon as I clapped eyes on that painting, and I really felt so strongly that we had a groundbreaking artist.

- If you think of painting as a sort of three-way thing between the subject matter, the artist, and what happens on the canvas, there was a lot of stuff coming from her into the picture.

And I like what she had to say about the world.

- I think she deserved to win because she's got this incredibly fresh approach to landscape.

It's not really like anything we've seen before.

It's a new language.

And in a way, I think that's what you're always hoping to find in an artist's work.

You want to see them looking at the landscape, interpreting it in a brand new way.

(waves crashing) - My work is mainly seascapes or dark woodlands or quite maybe haunting woodlands, some people would say.

I almost feel like you can go through them and you can be engulfed in them.

And the darkness helps with that contrasting maybe with dark elements of gold or light.

So it does create, for me anyway, a magical mood or a magical motion within the work.

- What is clear is that she has a voice, and it's a voice that's developed over quite a few years.

She's a mature artist, not in years, but in experience and what she wants to say about the world.

And it was refreshing.

It was new.

It was something I hadn't seen before.

- [Nerine] Do you not know what it is?

- Mm-mm.

Butterfly?

- Nearly.

- Lady bud.

- Yeah.

It doesn't fill me with much confidence (voice muffling).

- [Frank] Nerine graduated in fine art from Edinburgh Art College in 2002.

Now 35, she has two young sons and juggles home life with her own painting.

She works part time as Principal Teacher of Art and Design at Dunfermline High School.

- It's really structured, really organized.

Just now think about even more geometric shapes or even almost like a broken or a smashed mirror or something like that.

- Miss McIntyre comes around, and she'll just fire out ideas and we just sort of take it as a class, and everyone's always helpin' each other.

- We're really pleased that she's won.

It's an amazing achievement, and we're proud of her.

- Kind of excited to see what her work's like now.

- I know.

- Because so many people applied to be part of this competition, and that she's won.

- Yeah, I'll definitely be taking her advice from now on.

- Yes.

(Megan laughing) - When she entered the competition, she didn't actually tell us.

It was only when she came rather sheepishly to say that she'd been invited to attend some heats, that she asked for time off.

And when she told us a full story, we were absolutely delighted to support her.

She plays everything very, very quietly, indeed.

She never boasts or brags about anything.

My only worry, and it's a very selfish one, is that I don't want her to be too successful in that sphere, 'cause I do not wish to lose an outstanding teacher.

- [Frank] Nerine's prize as Landscape Artist of the Year is to produce a painting for the National Trust permanent collection.

At £10,000, this is the biggest commission of Nerine's artistic career and will bring its own challenges.

She'll be painting a location which came first in an online pole held by the National Trust.

Flatford in the Stour Valley in Suffolk, made famous by one of the greatest British landscape painters, John Constable.

- I'm really pleased that Nerine's painting is going to hang permanently at Flatford.

I think it's a real mistake if you think about what the National Trust does is preserving everything in aspect from the past.

We're really trying to incorporate new views of the world into the work that we do.

And I think she will make a great contribution to that debate about what landscape means to us as a people, the importance that we as the English nation hold our landscape for and what we do with it.

And I think that is really something that she could contribute to.

- Giving the winner the chance to do a commission of Flatford Mill is bonkers.

I mean, it's so iconic.

You can't even see the view without thinking of Constable and seeing it through the lens of Constable.

It is quintessentially the soul of England.

Also, Constable paints about light, but actually there are very rich, green, dark shadows, and I'm thinking Nerine will have a fantastic time painting this.

So, on the one hand, it's a crazy endeavor to give it to her because it's so iconic.

On the other hand, it'll be refreshing to see what she comes up, 'cause I think as an artist, she will find something new for us to see.

- I was really excited to find out that it was the Flatford view.

Constable, such an iconic artist.

It would be really interesting to delve in a little bit more and see his working methods, his approaches, the sort of things that interested him in landscapes.

I've never seen a Constable in real life.

So I mean that would be... That's gonna be amazing.

And to actually be in the place where he's worked, it's a very big, big feelin', a big responsibility, almost.

So, I'm really lookin' forward to it.

- What I want her to do is go through a door that Constable opened in the sense that spend time with the landscape, walk through the landscape, see it different times of day.

Think about the clouds.

Think about the way that the light interacts with the water, and really think about him as an artist, and not be terrified by that, but actually be really encouraged by that and be really inspired.

And I think if she can follow his lesson of really looking, observing, spending that time outdoors, and really feeling the landscape, then she's bound to produce something wonderful.

- [Joan] Before traveling to Flatford Nerine has come to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, home to the largest collection of Constable's work.

- They're a different world.

- [Joan] She's meeting Dr. Mark Evans, a leading authority on Constable, to learn more about the artist's working methods and to see the full size oil sketch for "The Hay Wain."

- Could you tell me a little bit about "The Hay Wain" sketch, oil sketch, and the view?

- Yes, well the big sketch for "The Hay Wain" arose in the winter of 1820 to '21, because Constable was really in a hurry to get a painting finished for the Royal Academy.

So he had six months.

And what he did was that he found an old art sketch.

He had these two of them showing Willy Lott's cottage.

And then he extends the composition across to the right.

And then of course he needs a central motif.

So the idea of a farm wagon crossing a ford, which is basically what we're looking at, is something that he would've known from earlier Dutch and Flemish paintings.

And then punctuating it, I suppose, with these foreground motifs, the typical Constable black and white dog that you see running around in so many Constable landscape pictures.

- How does the painting differ from the oil sketch?

- There are little features, like for example, the boy with the horse, and if you look at the finished painting, you can see a shadow, because he originally painted the boy in, and then decided he didn't like it, so he painted it out.

But generally it's a matter of finish.

The sketch is more monochrome, and of course to our eye, looks rather more dashing and expressionist than the finished painting.

- Could you tell me a little bit about his process?

- I mean, his process developed over time.

Of course, he always made little pencil sketches.

He carried a little notebook like this to make pencil drawings.

But a central period of his career is the period when he was oil sketching out of doors, very systematically.

These weren't on the whole studies for pictures, but they were ways of capturing ideas and capturing the way light and cloud and water looked in oils.

- Did that make him quite radical then?

Because I mean, were other artists doing the same sort of thing or- - Very few artists in Constable's time worked like that.

And it was something that Constable made uniquely his own.

- [Joan] Seeing Constable's paintings up close helps Nerine to get a feel for Flatford.

She spends time looking at a collection of Constable's sketches that are not normally on public display and a replica of one of his notebooks.

- It's really amazing being able to see one of his sketchbooks.

Some are full page and some he's just got little details, or sections of the pages.

Must have carried them with him all the time, just in case he saw anythin' that sort of captured his eye.

I always say to the kids at school about using a variation of line, different quality of line and pressures and your tonal ranges, and if you look at an artist like Constable, you're able to see how many different marks he used to capture an image, which is what you need to do.

You've still got the essence of everything there.

The structure of the trees and the landscape and the water.

(gentle intense music) It's a complete shock to see how fresh the pieces are.

The color's still really alive.

The landscapes still look really alive.

And Mark was just brilliant.

I mean, he knows everythin'.

It was really interesting to hear him speak about Constable and his techniques.

It was really good.

I'm so happy to have come here.

(gentle intense music) I never thought I would be able to come somewhere like this.

And I'm... To speak to people that would know so much about artists that I've looked at before, and to see the work, and I'm really looking forward to going on and seeing Flatford and Constable Country, and just being able to see the images in real life.

(gentle music) (gentle intense music) - [Frank] Landscape Artist of the Year winner, Nerine McIntyre, has been commissioned to produce a painting for the National Trust, and so far her research is going well.

- I really enjoyed my time at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

It was really worthwhile.

I feel that it's really helped me prepare going forward to Flatford.

I just can't wait to really immerse myself in all the visual imagery and gather as much information as I can.

- [Frank] Nerine is on her way to find out the National Trust's hopes for the commission and to start her preparatory work in the place that has become affectionately known as Constable Country.

- It feels really exciting to be traveling into Constable Country, especially at the same time of year as he would've been working on his landscape, the haymaking time, with the way the natural lights hitting off the landscape and the atmosphere that's created.

I just get a stronger sense of connection.

So I'm really excited about going to Flatford.

- [Frank] Since the end of the 19th century, visitors have traveled from London by train to set foot in the landscape, which featured in so many of Constable's paintings.

- [Nerine] The scenery is beautiful.

The landscape is very green.

There's so much space.

It's very reminiscent of the pieces that I've seen of Constable's so far.

So I would say it is quite classically his landscape.

- [Joan] John Constable was born in 1776 and grew up in the village of East Bergholt, a stone's throw from Flatford.

His father, Golding Constable, was a wealthy corn merchant and owned Flatford Mill.

It was this working landscape, its light, atmosphere, and realism, which imbued John Constable's art.

- In many respects, Constable sort of defined what British landscape painting was.

In his day, Constable was groundbreaking.

He was pioneering in the way that he thought about composition, in the way that he sketched, in the way that he brought together the painting.

- He was a great example for the impressionists, because he was the first person to look at how light falls on surfaces.

I mean, to the point where on his six footers, the big final pieces, he would add flecks of white to try to recreate the way light flickers off the surface.

I mean, that was very radical in actually looking at the landscape and seeing it as it actually was and how it affected your retina, rather than harking back to some romantic classicism.

- He's so radical that he's become the establishment.

And actually, that's what's so exciting about being on this journey with Nerine is that she is really radical, but actually people respond so well to her paintings.

Yes, the vocabulary is new, but they still really speak to you.

(gentle music) - Getting here and being confronted with all the different scenes of the landscapes of Constable is really exciting, very unbelievable, almost in a way, that you can see the scenes of his life and painting.

And just to be able to be here within these scenes, it's really quite magical.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Nerine is eager to start recording her first impressions of Flatford in her sketchbook.

- There's a huge amount of color in this landscape, vast array of greens, silver green.

Then you've got that contrasting with the dark blue green is just beautiful to see such a contrast and variation of colors.

(gentle music) Today, I'm working on a ground, which is just a varnish with a enamel finish, and it just gives you a prepared tone to work on.

So I find it better.

(gentle music) Lookin' at the lines within the trees and the shapes and just the different textures, lookin' at as much of the natural elements as possible, so that I can maybe try and incorporate a few different elements within the commission piece.

- To find out more about their hopes for the painting of Flatford, Nerine is meeting Ben Cowell from the National Trust at Bridge Cottage.

- Constable didn't live in this building.

This was a building lived in by estate workers, mill workers, who worked for his father.

His father was a very successful businessman, and he had a reasonably prosperous upbringing, but he very much made Flatford the center of his art.

People had been coming on pilgrimages to Flatford, actually ever since Constable's day itself, to soak in the landscape that inspired him.

And this is the place we'd love you to create a work of art for, because we've got these blank walls here that just need something in them to bring them to life.

And really it's for you to think about what landscape would fit best in one of these two spaces.

- Because I do such a lot of work editing the sketches and the photographs that I take when I go back to the studio, I would probably wait until I've really immersed myself in that, but I'll definitely have in my mind going along and going back to the studio, a really clear vision of where the image can possibly hang.

And do you know whether you would be framing the piece or whether you would leave it frameless, because that would maybe allow for a bigger dimension of canvas and a bigger image.

- That's a really good question, and I think it depends on what you produce, actually.

We got to bear in mind, this is quite a small enclosed space, and there's some quite heavy timbers here.

So I'm thinking maybe without a frame would give you more freedom and produce an image that really jumps off the wall at you.

But let's see what you produce.

- Okay (chuckling).

(gentle melodic music) - We're really thrilled to be part of the Landscape Artist of the Year competition.

Landscape as an idea is really important to the National Trust.

The landscapes of this country, which are famed all over the world, are really under pressure.

And the National Trust is looking to the future to think about how best can we protect them?

How can we protect the nature in these landscapes?

How can we ameliorate the pressures of development?

And I think art is a wonderful way of expressing the tension between development and conservation.

And I think that this competition, and Nerine's contribution to it, will be fabulous in that context.

- [Joan] Ben takes Nerine to see the view that is most associated with Constable.

- So here we are.

This is the famous scene that Constable depicted in "The Hay Wain."

(bright string music) - It's really amazing to see it in real life after having seen the painting.

The landscape still looks really familiar.

- It does, doesn't it?

It's very evocative.

Iconic is an overused word in relation to works of art, but this truly is an iconic scene.

And we try and maintain this view very much as if it was "The Hay Wain," so that people can recognize it.

- Well, it makes it endearing to the visitors, just as it must have done to Constable.

- Absolutely, so, but for him it was an everyday working scene of working life as part of his father's business here at the mill.

- Why do you think Constable was such a revolutionary artist?

- This was a time when landscape painters, painters generally, would go off and find the most dramatic scenes to depict, scenes of mountains or rocky scenery in the uplands.

Constable decided to stay put.

He stayed in this quiet corner on the edge of Suffolk and Essex, and he painted pictures that were about the everyday landscapes of his father's business.

They were industrial scenes in many ways.

And that was really what was so radical about it.

I think that and the fact that he took such meticulous detail to record every single little nuance and subtlety in that landscape, you can lose yourself hours in the pictures that he painted.

Every single aspect of the landscape, he just reveled in, and he made it his life's mission to paint landscape in a way no one else had painted landscape before.

I think Nerine has a tough job following in Constable's footsteps, and I'm not expecting a copy of "The Hay Wain," nor any of Constable's famous pictures.

I think it would be great if we could include some of that detail that Constable was so meticulous about recording, and in a sense, there's a tension at the heart of this.

So, I think Nerine has to create a scene that is both peaceful and placid, but also full of movement and activity, and somehow recreate that essence of what made Constable's art so special.

(intense piano and string music) - [Nerine] It's a huge amount of pressure, because I want to create something that suits the area that it hangs, and I also want to create something that is reminiscent of the landscape round about us, that soaks up that atmosphere, that evokes that.

(intense piano and string music) (gentle piano music) - To fulfill her £10,000 commission to paint Flatford in Suffolk, Landscape Artist of the Year, Nerine McIntyre, has set out her palette and is getting a feel for her surroundings.

- I've just started the painting today with a ground of enamels and acrylics.

And I would usually work on a ground in the studio as well, because it gives me a tone and sometimes a texture to build upon what I'm doing, because I'm limited in my time.

I'm outside, so it's like a painted sketch, if you like, is using the oils to sketch with, and then taking away the shapes and elements to create the image that I'm looking for.

(geese squawking) It's really nice to be able to work outside just like Constable did, and I'm getting the same sort of experiences, 'cause I'm sure he would've sat in the exact same position I am, soaking up the atmosphere and looking at exactly the same landmarks and landscape that I am.

And we're just interpreting it in different ways.

When he was painting outside, that was a very different thing to do for painters at that time.

So it's really nice that we've got that connection.

(intense music) - [Joan] By using the various photographs she's taken of Flatford, Nerine can get a feel for what the final commission will look like.

- I've edited the composition and changed the trees sections and brought some of those forward, moved the cottage and the bridge over to the side rather than having that as a central focus.

Really the colors are coming from everything that I've soaked up, other things that I've seen.

So that's something that I'll be able to look at and see if it works and decide later on whether to use that or not.

Also, the scale of the piece, I'll be able to see whether to keep it maybe a rectangular framed format, or I might decide to use another dimension.

It gives me plenty to think about.

(bright music) (intense music) - [Joan] Nerine has come to Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich to take one last look at some of Constable's most important work, but now she's experienced the landscape for herself.

What effect will it have on her own composition?

(gentle music) - To see his work up close is fantastic.

The paintings are beautiful.

The way he works on different scales is very different as well.

But I'm finding that each of the pieces are very textural.

They're really rich in the way that he's worked the colors up and the layers up.

So you can really immerse yourself in the detail.

(gentle piano music) The larger pieces like Salisbury Cathedral are framed by huge arching trees, beautiful structures, and then they're balanced out by the large expanse of sky.

I mean, there's so much color and depth of color, and he's created the lighter tones on top so that you can really see the contrast within the dark and the light, and that creates much more form to the piece for me.

These gorgeous little bits of contrasting warms against the cool blues, which is just, oh, it's just really lovely to see as an artist.

Having seen the works here this morning, I will be able to view the landscape with fresh eyes, because I'm seeing it from his perspective, almost.

I mean, these images in particular, you can really see the depth of the landscape and more of a closeness.

I was thinking about including quite a dominant collection of trees or something quite powerful, either arching to frame the piece or possibly even center of the painting.

So it is comforting to know that he also went down that route and explored that structure within his composition.

So it's definitely given me some food for thought.

(gentle bright music) - [Frank] Back in Flatford, Nerine has a final opportunity to soak up the atmosphere of Constable Country and to step into "The Hay Wain."

- "The Hay Wain" is Constable's most famous viewpoint, and it is very magical being here because you're taken back to when he painted his landscape, but it's also quite eerie as well, because the landscape remains largely untouched, to be honest.

It is still very recognizable.

I'm just using some pencils on top of enamel and some charcoal, just quite quick color tone sketches.

Not similar, I would say, to Constable, just because of the works that I've seen of his, he's made oil sketches and graphic pencil sketches.

So, different in that respect.

I'm just trying to capture the layout of the composition and some colors that I might play around with back in the studio.

- I think if we ended up with a copy of "The Hay Wain," I would be a little bit disappointed because it's been done.

Constable's done that.

But Nerine is a completely different artist.

She has a different story.

She has a different way of seeing the world.

And that to me is part of what's being an artist about is sharing something of yourself, and people will be able to see what makes Nerine tick and be excited about.

And so I'm really excited about seeing what Nerine comes up with.

(gentle intense music) (bright music) - [Frank] Before Nerine leaves Flatford she's keen to experience the landscape from one last viewpoint.

The River Stour itself.

- My visit to Constable Country has been fantastic.

The landscape is beautiful.

(gentle piano music) Being able to walk in amongst the landscape, being able to visit the cottage, "The Hay Wain," being able to see all of these views that Constable has painted is almost like sort of stepping into the paintings themselves, because the landscape is still so familiar.

Yeah, really magical.

And the boat trip's just the icing on the cake.

The water is gorgeous.

The reflections on the water is almost like there's an atmosphere, especially on this stretch of water.

And the colors are really soft and light at the same time.

It's just, it's been really beautiful.

(gentle intense music) (bright music) - [Joan] Nerine's visit at Flatford is now at an end.

Armed with her sketches and memories, it's time to start work on the commission back at home in Scotland.

- Being back home and thinking back to Constable Country and Flatford, there's so many things that I've taken away from that that were fantastic.

Being immersed in his world, if you like, and seeing the sort of landscapes that inspired him was a real highlight.

I saw so much.

And so coming back, I've had a good amount of compositional development, in terms of the possibilities for the piece.

So I'm still, I have to say, even at this stage, when I'm ready to paint, I'm still thinkin' it's gonna be very changeable.

So I do have quite a few ideas.

To create the composition I go through all the photos that I've taken, and I'm really sort of looking for maybe a structural piece or something quite familiar in the landscapes.

Within the journey there was some really nice trees that stood out just singularly, so I'm gonna try and incorporate one or two of those.

(bright music) - [Frank] Having gathered all their ideas together for the commission painting, Landscape Artist of the Year, Nerine McIntyre, is ready to put paint on canvas.

(bright music) - It's always quite exciting when you start a new painting.

(bright music) I am quite apprehensive about this piece.

Obviously it's a commission, so I want to do a really good job and create a really beautiful painting.

But at the same time, I'm just at the beginning, so anything that I do that I want to change, I can do, and that's the wonderful thing about painting.

If there's something that isn't goin' as well as you'd like, I can put it somewhere else or take it back and develop it in a different way.

(bright music) I usually have a very good idea of what I want the composition to look like when I start, but it always evolves.

So things change.

I may change the color tone of something.

The placement of something's not looking quite right I'll leave things out.

If it doesn't look balanced enough.

So yes, it's an evolving piece.

It's very natural, I suppose, and organic in terms of the development of it.

(gentle music) - During the competition, what we got to see were the paintings that Nerine could produce in the short time frame that she had.

And I love that sort of sketchiness and the looseness that she managed to get in those paintings.

What I'm thinking we're going to see is something that's much more resolved, but I'm slightly nervous at the same time that it will lose that ghostly magical, mysterious quality.

- I hope that she will have picked up some tips on how Constable looked at light, because Nerine is about the shadows, and she has a very strong voice.

Her work is of a kind.

She did evolve through the competition.

But it would be nice if she looked at Constable and sort of imbued some of his relationship to light and brought it into her commission.

I'm really looking forward to see whether that's happened.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Nerine has been working on her commission piece for the National Trust for two weeks now.

- Things are gettin' on quite slow at the minute, just because I started with the tree in the middle, but then I wanted to maybe explore a little bit more balance in the composition, so I've sort of obliterated the middle section and taken it back, and I'm gonna try with a tree sort of archin' over, maybe just to try and balance out each side.

So it's, yeah, it set me back a little bit.

So I'm just sort of frantically trying to catch up or to be where I think I should be at this point.

(gentle music) I really hope that they like it when they see it.

I hope that they see somethin' recognizable, but different as well.

And the fact that I've tried to bring in quite a few elements of the landscape, because it was a big journey.

I was able to take away a lot from it, and I wanted the painting to feel like that, that there was different elements in it.

It's not just one view.

There's different aspects to it.

And I just really want them (laughing) to like it.

(grand music) - [Frank] The day of the unveiling.

Nerine has made the long journey from Scotland to Suffolk and arrives with her painting.

- It feels really lovely to be back at Flatford, just a bit more relaxed, 'cause I've got the painting with me, and I can just really enjoy the landscape.

I am nervous (laughing) just thinking about the unveiling of the painting, just because I want people to like it, obviously.

I mean, to ever think that I would get to paint for the National Trust, it's amazing.

So there's a lot...

There is a lot of pressure with that, which is why I'm nervous, but I'm just excited.

(gentle, quietly intense music) - Nerine, so you are the battle scarred veteran of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year.

A, how has it been as an experience?

And what I'm really interested in, has it affected your art, the way you paint, do you think?

- It's been amazing.

I would never have had this opportunity, and it's just, it's been fantastic.

In terms of my artwork, I feel that I've been able to move forward with my, I suppose, technique and lookin' at the composition and maybe developing elements within my paint work.

And a more (voice muffling) I would say.

So I've noticed a big difference in my own practice.

- So it's been educational sort of.

- Yeah (laughing).

- And what's it been like being in a setting, which is actually one of the most famous landscapes in the world, and you've been painting here?

- Well, it's like painting in a painting.

Everywhere you go in Flatford it just feels like you're walking into a Constable painting.

- And is that intimidating or encouraging?

- Both.

It was very intimidating.

And then when I got back into the studio, I sort of just tried to let that go and then just painted how I would and just sort of grasped my way of working.

- In your mind, do you have kind of what you'd like to see?

- I think I don't want to see another Constable, actually.

I want to see something a bit different.

- Can I quote you on that?

You never wanna see another Constable?

(crowd laughing) As long as you live.

- Absolutely, not from Nerine.

But I want to see something that's been inspired by Flatford, as he was inspired all those years ago.

So I want to see this wonderful landscape continuing to inspire artists today and in the future.

- We're going to unveil it, the both of us, okay?

- Okay.

- Off we go.

Here we go.

- Okay.

(intense music) (crowd clapping) - I love it.

That's great.

(crowd clapping) - Are you thrilled?

- I'm just happy that he's, Ben's happy.

- Come on, Ben, what do you think?

- No, it's terrific.

I love just the way you've used the colors in that tree there, and you've picked out the detail of the tree.

And I love this structure on the left.

That's really interesting.

- I tried to incorporate elements along my journey, like I would usually do in a landscape, create a landscape, not just from the one view, from taking in elements from around, and I've called it Flatford in summer because it's elements of Flatford to me, rather than just looking at "The Hay Wain" view.

- It's the Flatford experience.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Okay, well done, Nerine.

You are- - Thank you.

- I think it's fair to say, a worthy champ.

- Thank you.

- Well done.

(crowd clapping) (whimsical music) The judges have swooped.

- That is fantastic.

'Cause you know, Constable, the way you always have that little pop of red, and it looks like you're going, I'm using blue.

That is just gorgeous.

- [Tai] It's interesting because your painting is usually quite dark.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And Constable's very much like, I get the feeling his painting is very much about the lights in the landscape.

And you found this light green, which you don't usually use in your landscape.

So you have been open to his influence, which I- - Yes, it's slightly less your palette than- - Yeah, it's lighter.

It's a lot lighter than I would usually.

- Well done.

It's really... You should be just, you should be over the moon, 'cause I am.

- It's fantastic.

- [Kate] It's brilliant.

- [Tai] It's just endlessly rewarding.

Well done.

(bright music) - Nerine's created her own interpretation using different images.

So it's a sort of compilation of her experiences here at Flatford.

And I think that works really well.

It's a modern interpretation of what landscape is and what this landscape is.

So I think visitors will love it, because it's so different from Constable's art.

And I think that's what makes it a fantastic addition to our collection.

- The different qualities, the different layering within the painting, and the light playing on each aspect just creates a lightness in me, if you see what I mean, and that's how you feel when you come to Flatford, you're so lifted by being able to see all of these special landmarks and seeing what Constable has done, the legacy that he's created and left is really special.

So I just, I hope that when people look at the work, they think that it's special and they enjoy it.

(gentle music)