(gentle music) - [Frank] Hello from the bucolic surroundings of Stowe in Buckinghamshire.

- It may look tranquil now, but we've brought together eight artists who are preparing to do the battle of the brushes.

- Art lovers, you're in the right place.

This is Sky Arts' "Landscape Artist of the Year".

- We're in the right place too.

- I hope so.

- Today, eight new artists will attempt to transform this inspiring National Trust landscape into eight inspiring works of art.

- I think it's just the adrenaline keeping me going, cause it's pretty nerve-wracking.

- [Frank] Ready to cast a keen eye over their efforts are our three judges.

Art historian Kate Bryan, independent curator Kathleen Soriano, and award-winning artist Tai-Shan Schierenberg.

- [Tai-Shan] We're asking them to reinvent this.

- You basically want it to go feral.

- Exactly.

That's exactly what we want.

- [Joan] Our artists are vying for a possible life changing prize, a £10,000 commission to paint a view made famous by Turner.

Petworth House in West Sussex.

Which color first?

- I don't know.

- Now come on, get a grip.

- [Frank] And they're not alone.

50 wildcard artists are also embracing the challenge.

- Cloud over as much as you want.

- No, don't say that, I don't want it to cloud over.

- [Joan] But however they feel about the landscape... - It's fantastic.

So many possibilities here.

- [Frank] They have just four hours to make their mark.

- [??]

How long have we got?

- We've got 10 minutes left.

I'm going.

- Go and get on with your work.

Go and get finished.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Today, seven of our artists are professional.

Clark Nicol, Ruth McCabe, Gary Jeffrey, Daniel Seleda Dejuan, Kumar Saraff, Louise Stebbing, and Holly Brodie.

- Usually I do sort of uglier landscapes.

Also I usually make things up as I go along.

So to be presented with a view is kind of unusual for me.

- [Frank] And we have just one amateur artist, Philip Edwards.

- I'm not used to being in an environment with lots of people while I draw.

It tends to be okay kids, off to bed and I'll grab an hour or so.

So it's gonna be different, but I'm really excited.

Looking forward to it.

- [Joan] While the judges have seen digital versions, nothing compares to standing face to face with the actual submissions and poring over every detail.

Right, first of all, as much of a landscape as you can hope for.

- Yeah, it's just a great vista.

And that's how it feels like to be on a beach in that sunshine.

- Yeah there's something also filmic about it too.

The way in which they've boxed up these little views, it's almost like you go in for a close up on those rocks there, then you pull out again, then you go over there.

- They're really playing around doing different things, different marks.

I really, really like this painting.

- [Katherine] I like the comedy element.

- It's quite jokey.

- Yeah, it is quite jokey, but it's also very well painted.

I love the tree in the left hand corner.

- I also like the fact that it's main feature is a featureless brick wall that runs straight through the painting.

And I can tell you painting brick walls is both tedious and very difficult to do and they've done it very well.

- I like its peculiarity, and I like the way that it's been painted.

- We're used to charcoal drawing.

It's a very loose medium.

It's sort of expressive without being too precise.

Whereas this is very precise.

- I'm always fascinated by the way in which artists use the paper itself to create the light, to give you that sense of depth and perspective.

I think it's masterly.

- Yeah, sometimes you see something, you sort of forget everything you've already learned and say how did someone do that?

- I think we've all experienced a wandering in a sort of autumn, winter townscape at night, trying to get somewhere.

It's got a great atmosphere.

- It's obviously quite a big space, you know, but they've brought it down quietly into this small canvas, which I think gives it even more power.

- And I like the sense that actually it's about the play of light.

And I just think that putting it in that scale was so clever.

- Well, we're going to have a good day seeing what work they do in Stowe, aren't we?

- Absolutely, yeah.

- [Frank] Stowe House is now an independent school, but the lush gardens are part of the National Trust, which, as well as caring for this vast natural setting, maintains the monuments, temples and Corinthian arches that are scattered around it.

Today, the pods offer views across the Octagon Lake to the impressive mansion and its sweeping, well tended lawns.

- The main view looks daunting.

So I think I'm gonna move to the side and look the other way.

- This view has got so many elements in it.

It's fantastic.

It's nice and wet, with my favorite subject water.

So many possibilities here.

- [Joan] Professional artist Clark Nicol is head of art and photography at Plymouth College.

For his submission, he chose to focus on the jagged rock faces of Sandymouth Bay Beach in Cornwall, but rocks aren't the only rugged feature he's drawn to.

- I'm a big advocate of dysfunctional brushes.

You keep things like this.

If you've got a perfect fan and it makes perfect marks that are predictable, you don't get these kind of unexpected things happening.

You get tired of your own marks.

These introduce a bit of, I don't know, chaos.

- Artists, you have four hours to create something really amazing.

- Good luck, everyone.

Your time starts now.

- [Frank] You'd think an impressive mansion, acres of water and beautiful foliage would be enough for most landscape artists.

But one is looking for something less obvious.

- I'm taking the urn on the...

Which I can't quite see, but I did just pop round the corner.

- No, it's well spotted though, the urn.

- And I like the fact it's sort of funereal.

- So, it's a sort of island of death.

- It's an island of death.

Also, I keep seeing fleeting moments of helicopter.

I'm definitely putting a helicopter in.

- Okay.

- Because to me, helicopters are good for suggesting crisis.

And so I'm going really dark.

- Holly Brodie has been working as a professional artist for 10 years.

Her submission is typical of her surrealist approach to painting, suggesting a disconcerting narrative by combining random objects or views from around her family home in Somerset.

Is it true that you include Twitter in some way in your creativity?

- I used to hate people seeing work in progress, but I started posting pictures of things as I was working on them.

And sometimes I do ask people, what do they think?

So I did one recently of a polar bear.

It was gonna be looking at something in the sky.

And I said, you know, should it be the International Space Station or a star?

And we went with the International Space Station.

But that was a Twitter decision.

- [Frank] Might you do that today, do you think?

- [Holly] Yeah.

Well, there's lots of people around so anybody who comes up with an idea, I might incorporate.

- That's communal painting.

- Yeah.

- The main thing I noticed was the skies.

The skies are just massive compared to where I am, which is right the edge of the Highlands.

You know, from my window there's hills, the back garden there's hills, 10 minutes outta Perth there's hills.

You never get the massive sky which you get here.

- [Joan] Amateur artist Philip Edwards is an accountant from Perth.

His submission of the Cuillin mountains in Skye was done in charcoal.

He focused on capturing a single moment when the sun broke through the clouds.

- You used the paper in your submission to tell the story of the white so that you left it nude.

Is that right?

- It's just the paper.

I'm a big fan of having a definite light and a definite dark.

In the same way, you know, like your favorite album will have the bombastic massive boom boom boom bit, but it'll also have a nice, quiet, lyrical bit.

I think the same is true in a drawing.

You know, you need the darks to show off the highlights and you need the highlights to show off the darks.

- How will you make sure you don't overwork it?

Because it is a small area to be working on.

- [Philip] I get to a certain point and then I have to go.

I mean, I'll disappear- - You mean you go for a walk?

- [Philip] I'll go for a walk for a half hour and get it outta my system, outta my head.

- So I won't be perturbed then, if mid afternoon Joan and I see you wandering around the grounds.

- I'll be talking to myself.

- Oh, good, okay.

So slightly mad.

Excellent.

- You're going to go this angle here.

Are you taking it straight on?

- Yeah.

I wanna paint the palace straight on.

- That's very brave because there's nothing to break up the distance.

You go straight to the house.

- Yeah.

- [Frank] Professional artist Daniel Seleda Dejuan lectured in fine art in Spain before moving to the UK.

For his submission, he contrasted different views of London at night, using acrylic paint and printed images to blend the view we saw before him with the view as seen from above.

- I can see that you're splitting the canvas in two like your submission.

Why do you mix the two things?

- [Daniel] Yeah, because I love the aerial view.

- [Kathleen] Aerial, yes.

- And I like that kind of landscape from my point of view.

- [Kathleen] Fantastic.

- [Joan] Also in with a chance of a place at the semifinal are 50 wildcard artists, invited on a first come first serve basis to join today's contestants here at Stowe.

A wildcard winner is picked from each heat and then the judges will select one of them to join those going through to the semi-final.

- I've come from Ireland today, so I traveled across to do the competition because I've always loved my art.

And it's just a great experience to be able to come and sit out here and paint for today.

- I'm still deciding what I'm gonna focus on.

I might try and do the whole thing.

I've got another two canvases underneath.

- You've got started so early.

Are you going to burn yourself out?

- Oh no, I hope not.

It's a big old canvas.

And it's a scary thing.

- So you've captured this lovely blue quality, very vibrant greens.

It keeps clouding over and going gray.

If this painting gets rained on, you'd be able to deal with it?

- Yeah, no problem.

Give it a muddled effect.

Fantastic, English summer.

So cloud over as much as you want.

- No, don't say that.

I don't want it to cloud over.

(gentle music) - [Frank] A place at the semifinal is guaranteed for one of today's eight heat artists, and they are nearly an hour into the competition.

- Okay.

What's going on up here then, Phil?

There's gonna be a whole lot of jazz going on here.

And a little cut, then a cut.

So what's going on up here?

- I think I'm okay so far.

It's just that I'm getting so many ideas that I'd like to put in and I don't know what I'm gonna have time to do.

So I'm gonna have to be quite selective.

I think it's just the adrenaline keeping me going cause it's, yeah, it's pretty nerve-wracking.

- At the moment I draw in the architecture.

Yeah, it's a challenge.

Yeah.

- The primary objective is to get rid of all the white canvas, but I mean the real work is still to be done.

And that's where the fun begins.

- [Joan] Here at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, our eight heat artists have had nearly an hour to settle into the challenge.

- [Frank] And for one artist, it's not just the competitive element that needs to be overcome.

Gary.

- [Gary] Yes.

- How you feeling?

- Tense.

- Why?

- I'm always tense when I paint.

- I thought the whole idea of painting is that it's a therapeutic, relaxing... - [Gary] About three quarters of the way through you start to relax and enjoy it.

- [Frank] Oh, dear.

So you're gonna have a horrible day for much of it.

- [Gary] Yeah.

- Yeah.

Professional artist Gary Jeffrey developed a taste for painting outdoors when he was an art student at Kingston University.

He completed his submission of Land's End during four one hour sittings on a family holiday in Cornwall.

How did it all happen?

Are you one of these people who just had the natural gift?

- My dad was a frustrated artist.

He wasn't allowed to be an artist.

So he poured all his ambition into me.

He worked in a printing factory, used to bring home great big rolls of paper.

So I'd draw a picture in a corner of it and then tear off another great big sheet.

It was just endless paper.

Great big rolls, the end rolls.

- It used to be a phenomenon when I was a kid, is that if you saw any blank paper at all, someone would say I'll take that home for the kids to draw on.

- Yeah, well he did in grand style.

- [Joan] Of course, just by holding a brush differently, artists can create different types of marks.

But if you're creating a lino cut, it's all about choosing your weapons.

- I've got all these different tools, they're all different sized shapes.

So I've got some really fine ones for cutting fine detail and then some bigger ones for gouging out.

So you actually cut the lino away.

- [Joan] Professional artist Louise Stebbing lives in Cambridgeshire, surrounded by fields like the one depicted in her submission.

As a student of print making, she opted to take a master's degree at Camberwell because of its reputation for being difficult.

And she's not exactly making things easy for herself today.

- I'm gonna put the first layer of colors on.

- Which color first?

- I don't know.

I haven't- - Now come on, get a grip.

Using the reduction method, Louise has cut away the areas as she wants to keep white and then rolls ink onto the lino and prints it onto paper.

She'll then repeat this process, cutting further into the same piece of lino and over printing on the same piece of paper, with different colors each time.

- [Louise] This is just the first layer.

So there's lots more to do.

- [Joan] Oh, it's lovely.

- [Louise] That's the start.

- It's such a skill.

- Tai, here is the challenge.

The pond seems to be dripping with naturalness and wildlife and things.

And then you've got a manicured lawn and a big posh house.

- You know, the way the landscape's been designed is it has a certain symmetry.

And what we're looking for is something that intrigues the eye.

And we're looking for rhythms going through the landscape that aren't symmetrical and straight.

Incredibly difficult because it is beautifully designed.

And each tree I think has been considered.

The eye travels very freely through the landscape to the house.

And I don't want them to do that.

- [Frank] No, exactly.

- So in a sense, we're asking them to reinvent this.

It's a tall order.

- You basically want them to release this landscape gardening back into the wild, don't you?

You want it to go feral.

- Exactly right.

That's exactly what we want, yeah.

- [Frank] Being presented with such a well-ordered setting can be a problem if that clashes with your style of painting.

- I don't do neat.

I can do neat.

I like it now and again.

But I'm not here to do neat.

So as you can see, I'm not trying to paint trees.

I like to just lay down shapes.

- [Frank] Professional artist Ruth McCabe didn't pick up a paint brush till she was in her fifties.

She was attracted to the sense of calm and permanence of the old estuary in Suffolk, and chose to depict this in watercolor for her submission.

- You've obviously done a drawing underneath and there is a big sort of mass of trees there, but you've left that.

- I've been weighing up what to do over there, because I don't want to detract from the sort of, in my view, the eye kind of takes a nice little journey that way.

- [Kate] So, what's the priority?

- Just do a lot of looking and decision making and not much painting because I think I could just take it one step too far.

- [Tai-Shan] Well, we'll let you- - We'll leave you to your thinking, not your painting.

- Okay, that's great.

- Thinking, not painting.

- Thank you so much.

- Hopefully a little bit more painting.

- Yeah.

- Whatever they're working with today, most artists are sticking with a single medium, but after using acrylics for over an hour, one artist has decided to try something else.

Now, this is a key moment we've reached here.

- Well, yeah.

Most of this now is acrylic paint, which dries really quickly and is getting a bit kind of...

I think it looks like plastic.

If you can see, it's sort of stuck in its brush stroke.

So we've changed from the acrylic paint to oil paints.

- [Joan] Professional artist Kumar Saraff lives with his family in Powys in Wales.

His submission shows War Memorial Park in Swansea at dusk.

And he's hoping to capture a similar sense of light and shadow today.

- Normally I might work with oil all the way through and leave it to dry, come back to it.

If it doesn't work, leave it, scrape bits away, whatever.

But today, because of our time limits, I thought I'll start with acrylics.

I've now got to a nice stage where I can sort of see where everything is and now the painting can sort of take over for itself.

- Okay, well, oil it is.

- Oil it is.

Let's carry on.

- [Frank] Competing against seven other artists is one thing, but trying to stand out from the crowd when you're one of 50 requires a bit of imagination.

- [Kathleen] It's a different angle.

Where did you find those?

Oh, up at the top of the hill.

- [Kate] How is collaging outdoors?

- Interesting, yeah.

There's a lot of sort of tucking in places and trying just to hold the paper down.

- I'm interested to see how this emerges.

It's like quite naked at the moment, isn't it?

Yeah, it's quite exposed.

- Is this what you do for a living, James?

What do you do?

- I drive HGVs.

- It's a great combo, isn't it?

- [Frank] One minute you're in the cab.

- Yep.

Well, yeah.

- Would you ever sit in the cab, you know, on a break and do a bit of art?

- [James] Chance would be a fine thing, yeah.

- I like to pick things from the environment, so I've used some mud.

- Oh.

- To sort of base my canvas.

And there was some lovely berries.

- Well you can't tell the mud from the paint.

But that's okay, isn't it?

Cause it's all working to create the picture.

- I think they've got a lot to work with.

They're in this idyllic setting.

Having said it's idyllic, it's one of the noisiest places in the country.

- Yeah.

I think I can hear racing cars or bikes.

- Yeah, Silverstone is just around the corner.

We've had planes and helicopters.

The geese get quite aggressive at times.

- Every now and again, yeah.

- And then we've got the lawn mower and a couple of golfers.

- And all these judges talking and talking and talking.

(gentle music) - [Joan] There are just two hours of the challenge remaining.

- What I'm trying to decide now is which bits to emphasize, key areas, creating marks that bring it back to the surface.

This is the zone.

I'm in the zone.

- I'm just gonna overprint the first layer with the second layer.

You never quite know what's gonna happen at this stage.

I might change the color totally.

I think it looks a little bit harsh against that, but let's just wait and see.

- At the moment it's at that stage where anything could happen.

So it's quite an exciting stage, but it's a little bit worrying as well.

- Kind of at a tipping point at the minute, but that's okay.

There is a point in every drawing I've ever done in my life where I despised it, hated it and never wanted to drive ever again.

Just have to plow on, as they say.

- Our artists are halfway through their challenge to create a landscape of Stowe in Buckinghamshire.

And whether they're attempting to capture its charm or reveal its dark side, it's the judges who'll need to be convinced of their approach.

So we're just about at the midway stage.

What about...

Thanks for that, Kathleen.

Sorry, it's just I've watched a lot of sport punditry.

So, here we are.

So what are we thinking about Louise?

- She's very confident about her technique and it sounded very promising, and I've looked at her first few prints with color and I was expecting something richer.

- [Frank] Okay and Kumar?

- What I think he's done here, which is great, was it's all about light and there's a freshness, but I think he's gotta keep that, that quality of this... Basically it's like a big green light box here today and he's gotta get that.

- [Frank] Clark.

- He's chosen a lovely post box form.

Skinny, I was a bit worried about it being so skinny.

I thought it might look a bit twee.

But it's working really, really well.

- And again, he's doing that fantastic little squaring in, so it's almost like a little pause within the painting.

For me, he's a really strong contender.

- Yeah.

Holly, we're waiting for a bit of fun.

You know, her picture promised us there'd be something to laugh at.

- [Frank] Well I know there's a helicopter about to arrive at any moment.

She told me that.

Do you know what, what I like about her is she takes the narrative seriously, but not too seriously.

- We're always looking for new angle in landscape.

You know, it's nice to find somebody who's using it in a conceptual way.

And why not?

- I'd like to see her just amp up the surrealism a bit more.

- [Frank] Than we have Phil.

- The picture is just loaded with emotion, and to be able to do that just with black and white is just so impressive.

- But there is a sort of a religious statement about it, isn't there, because it's an absolutely grand palace, which he's made tiny and minuscule beneath this beautiful menacing sky.

- I think he's gonna have a great afternoon because the weather's suddenly gone very biblical.

And so that might help him.

- Right.

Come on, Phil.

(indistinct mumbling) - As the artists refine their work, they increasingly introduce elements that distinguish their painting from the others.

Well, I recognize this style, of course, because of the upright blue lines.

- Yes.

- [Joan] Is this your signature?

- It's become a mark that I make more frequently now, because I started to play around with little compartments, little snapshots.

- This is a little picture in itself, isn't it?

It's like a shot from a movie.

It's a most intriguing, and it's not an obtrusive stylistic idiom, but it's very effective.

I must say it makes me very fond of it.

- The helicopter's made it into your painting.

- Yeah.

So I was pleased about that.

There've been several going across, so I'm not sure about the right level of detail, but I think it's roughly representative of the ones that have been going over.

- [Tai-Shan] So you've just added the helicopter.

Are there any other things that spring to mind as you've been working?

- Part of me wants to, cause I often use red, obviously for sort of that element of threat.

And I was wondering about a life ring, just floating in the middle of the lake or something.

Cause I quite like the idea of bringing that... - I like that.

Oh, I'm not allowed to say anything.

- We're not allowed to say what we think of that brilliant red life ring.

- [Joan] While most people would consider a garden a place of rest and repose, for the ruling classes of the 18th century, gardens weren't just for pleasure.

Stowe's owner, Lord Cobham, was a prominent member of the whigs, who were the dominant political party of the 1700s.

But there was one whig prime minister Lord Cobham couldn't abide.

Robert Walpole.

Though Cobham initially supported him, in the 1730s the two men increasingly clashed over policy and it became personal.

- The argument between Walpole and Lord Cobham was extraordinary in its ferocity.

And Lord Cobham gets dismissed from his rank in the army.

He's dismissed from the government.

And he sets up his own whig patriot party in opposition to Sir Robert Walpole.

- [Joan] Lord Cobham took revenge in the design of his garden at Stowe.

He created monuments to celebrate noble values and the people he believed upheld them.

But he made sure Walpole was conspicuous by his absence.

- One of the best examples of this is the Temple of British Worthies.

He used this to show 16 important people around him, eight of whom were famous for their thinking, the other eight were famous for their actions.

However, in amongst these is one man who was not famous at all.

He was purely in there because he voted with Cobham against Walpole's Excise Bill.

So it was an insult to Walpole that this person made it into the worthies and he didn't.

- [Joan] To top it off, Cobham even included his own dog, Signior Fido, implying that even a Greyhound had more worth than Walpole.

- I think it is fair to say that Lord Cobham used Stowe as a propaganda tool.

He even had temples such as the Temple of Friendship, where him and his friends would discuss their political future.

And I've got no doubt that it was at Stowe that they made their plans for the opposition of Walpole.

- [Joan] Despite Cobham's efforts, Walpole became the longest serving prime minister in British history.

And the attraction of Cobham's gardens at Stowe would outlive both of them.

- [Frank] Completely exposed to the elements, today's wildcard artists have had to contend with rapid changes in the weather.

But with faith that things will brighten up soon enough, most have plowed on regardless.

- Ambitious lot today.

We've had people in a field with the rain coming down, with an umbrella for shelter.

I mean, it's extraordinary.

- They've been very resourceful.

- I thought the girl making the collage was interesting.

I thought that she created really beautiful shapes and depth and form.

It probably could do with be being a bit more gritty, probably needs a lot more time.

- I really like the woman who buried herself in the bushes.

And used the bushes to make the work and the berries and the leaves and the mud.

I have to say, I think she has slightly overworked it.

- That's happened with a couple of my faves, especially one guy with the big floppy hat.

- [Kate] Yeah, by the water.

- He started very, you know, with huge gusto and he hasn't been able to step away and have a look at it.

So it hasn't evolved at all, has it?

- [Joan] Out 50 paintings, the judges have agreed on their favorite.

- Hello.

Found you hiding beneath the tree.

- Oh wow.

- Delighted to tell you that you're our wildcard winner today.

- Oh wow.

- So you've got a chance of going through to the next stage.

- Oh wow, that's absolutely amazing.

I can't believe it.

No, you sure you've got it wrong?

- [Kate] No, it's definitely the right person.

- No, really, are you sure?

(applause) - Yeah, look.

That's an actual bonafide round of applause.

- Oh thank you.

- [Joan] Diane Roberts from Bourmouth will now join a pool of winning wildcard artists.

And when the heats are over, one of them will be selected to take part in the semifinal.

- [Frank] There are just 30 minutes to go and Holly's making the most of having an audience.

- I'm not really sure where else to go with them.

- Don't listen to what anybody says.

- [Holly] No, it's good, cause I normally ask people on Twitter.

- I wouldn't have too much crisis in there cause it's a beautiful scene.

- I know, but you see, normally I paint really ugly things.

- Well if you want something really ugly, I can go and stand over there.

- I need to walk away, because a line between a drawing that's good and a drawing that you've completely overworked, this is rubbish, I don't wanna look at it, is so fine.

See, having said that, you see one thing in the corner and you have to just do it really quick.

So I'm gonna sketch that bit in really quickly and that's it.

I'm not doing anymore.

I'm going away.

Bye.

- Time's nearly up.

And I don't think I should take it any further.

So I'm happy with... Happyish with that.

- Yeah, I'm not very happy with that.

It's not come out dark enough.

Hopefully the next layer will bring it back together.

I want to cry now.

- Tweaking it a little bit here and there.

Can't believe it really.

I think I'm pleased.

- Are we there?

- I think so.

Maybe.

- I know you're desperate to get in another dabble, aren't you?

- Yeah.

Go on.

Don't spoil it.

(upbeat string music) - [Joan] Here at Stowe in Buckinghamshire, our artists have been painting for nearly four hours.

- And even though it's nearly the end of the competition, Philip is still on his walkabout.

- [Philip] How many are you gonna do?

- Only this.

We've got 10 minutes, haven't we?

- Do we?

- How long have we got?

- Have we got 10 minutes left?

I'm just wasting my time.

I'm going.

- Go and get on with your work.

Go and get finished.

- For the greater good, we're all going.

- I like this life ring just floating in the middle of the lake, cause I wanted to corrupt it somehow.

- Artists, there are five minutes to go.

- Not panicking!

I am just a little bit.

- Things are going all right.

It's all in control.

Now it's a case of trying to organize that lake.

- I didn't think I could do it, but I think I might have just pulled it off.

- Finished.

- Artists, your time is up.

- Stop painting and step away from your easels.

(applause) - [Philip] You all right?

- [Holly] Yeah.

- Let's go and have a wee lie down.

- I know, I know.

- [Frank] The judges will soon be drawing on their expertise to pick today's winner, but you don't need to be an artist or an art historian to have an opinion.

- I love the cloud.

I think the cloud's lovely.

- You don't like the helicopter?

- [Woman] I don't like the helicopter.

- [Man] I quite like it actually.

- I like the originality of it all.

- Well it takes you back in time, doesn't it?

You can almost see the kind of horses pounding towards the house.

It's got kind of a haunting feel with it.

- It looks like a print, doesn't it?

- Yeah, it does.

- And that tiny house.

That's someone who doesn't need glasses.

- Very impressive landscape.

- [Woman] Yeah, it's amazing.

The water's really nice.

(gentle music) - With the artists' work at an end, it's down to the judges to decide their fate.

And to help identify a winner, they start by narrowing it down to a short list of three.

- Well, his submission, we knew it was gonna be full of promise and he's absolutely delivered today.

- [Kate] Yeah, I mean, I've not seen anything like this in this day and age.

It feels historical.

- And you can even see from here, the detail on the tree and each ripple in the water, and it's on something at the bottom, this size.

He's absolutely master of his tools.

- But right now after the four hours, I am completely shattered.

I am knackered out my box, as we say where I'm from.

Yeah.

But it was a really good day and I really enjoyed it.

- The red ring entered into the painting.

That's brilliant.

I think it needed something else and I'm pleased that she put that in.

I like seeing this surreal style in the landscape.

- She hasn't quite got the humor or the level of surrealism into it that I was hoping for.

- The narrative, is there enough to bring you into the painting and start asking questions?

And I think it's fulfilled its function in that sense.

- I love the start that he made.

I love the color palette.

The only reservation I've got is I'm not sure I like the dripping along the bottom.

It sort of tips it over possibly.

- What's interesting is these different elements and these weird slices that he's been able to tie it in and it reads as one image and gives you a great sense of the flatness.

I mean, that pond does go deep.

It works very well.

- I've never painted so fast.

Normally a painting like that would take me about 12, 15 hours, working two or three hours every evening kind of thing.

And what did I do it in?

Four?

It's just, you know, more dabs per second than I've ever done.

- I really like the way Kumar started with his transparent acrylic this morning.

And then he got a bit sort of mosaicy when he put his oil paint in, and I was worrying.

And actually he's really found a nice rhythm between the larger areas of color and the smaller dibby dabby brush marks, which get this fantastic sort of flickering light that's coming to the lake.

- My complaint with it is a strange one.

I think it's too big.

When it's smaller, you forgive the lack of form, cause you're so interested almost as a study of light, whereas here, because it's bigger, you maybe lose a sense of the landscape.

- Well, I think she cracked it, don't you think, with the different colors?

Such a dangerous approach, it's full of risk.

- In her submission, I like the abstraction in the sky.

Here I can't read it.

It looks a bit like it could be mountains floating around.

- I actually really like the sky.

I think it's really imaginative.

- To get through to final three would be really good.

It would be excellent.

But having not seen the work, I don't know what chances are anyway.

- [Tai-Shan] I must say this is really growing on me.

- [Katheen] I'm torn between those two.

- I think I'm heading more towards this one.

- I'd be happy with either of those two going through to the last three.

(gentle music) - But there's only room for three on the shortlist.

And the first of those artists is Philip Edwards.

(applause) - And the second is Clark Nicol.

(applause) - And finally, the third artist to make the shortlist is Kumar Saraff.

(applause) - [Joan] Sympathies to everyone else.

Well done.

- [Frank] Yeah, thank you very much.

(applause) - I feel pretty gutted at this point in time.

- I really enjoyed the day and I'm gonna, I think, later on that's what I'm gonna remember and the guys who got through are all really nice guys as well.

So yeah, I definitely don't begrudge them.

- Well, I think it's true that we're increasingly impressed by what you can do with charcoal.

- It's really impressive.

And two very, very different works.

You know, one, a huge monumental landscape that he's swept us across.

And then in the other, very much from the earth looking up.

Still monumental, but he's reduced it to this sort of very small format, which makes it even more precious.

- What I'm really pleased to see today is that it's not just about execution.

He also has very, very intelligent choices.

That's an excellent composition.

- He talks about the black and the white and using those contrasts, but also the level of detail in the ripple of the water and the leaves on the trees.

I mean, the range of marks is extraordinary.

I mean, he really has got out of it as much as you could possibly get.

- I'm really, really pleased about being shortlisted.

And now I kind of feel like a wee kid in an exam room and I've got the horrible knot in my stomach, and yeah, it's...

I mean, it's great, it's exciting, but it's scary at the same time.

- [Joan] There's nothing monochrome about Kumar's, it's absolutely translucent, isn't it?

- I like his marks.

I think they're just very interesting ways of making light dance on the surface.

He's found a very efficient way of doing that.

- It's a scene you want to go into.

It's fascinating, the way that he's able to extract a sense of a place, and by giving us slightly less information, he allows us to kind of walk straight into the painting.

- It's interesting because you could fall into the trap that it's actually quite freeform and instinctive, which is actually, it's really a very controlled painting.

- He understands that it's not just about his relationship with the canvas.

It's also about other people's relationship with what's on the canvas and he's trying to construct something that is not so tight and so limited that it doesn't allow space for anyone else.

- It feels really good.

It hasn't really sunk in yet, but yeah, excited and all the other things that go with that.

- [Joan] What about Clark's work?

- What I really like about his paintings are there's something comfortable and traditional about them.

And then there are also these great surprises, and I feel like they help refocus and reemphasize certain bits.

- And that lovely slice on the right hand side that he's given us.

It pops forward, not just because of the lines on either side, but he's given the green of the grass a slightly deeper or brighter acidity, and look at the sky.

It's a completely different time of day.

- And the games, visual games he plays with the marks and how to create that incredible distance.

They're the games that enrich our viewing experience rather than being tricks.

And I think that you can see his mind at work as well, which I think it just makes for a very good painting.

- I'm relieved to a certain extent, and well, excited now.

Really excited.

Hope it's gonna happen, you know?

- Philip, Kumar, Clark.

After long and arduous discussion, the judges has decided which one of you will go through to the semifinal.

- Yes, the judges were very keen to point out that they felt this is the best top three that we've ever had on this program.

So well done for that.

However, they have selected a winner.

And the winner is... Philip Edwards.

(applause) - Yeah, it's all a bit mad.

My immediate reaction was wow, what an enormous compliment from the judges, cause you know, these guys know what they're talking about.

- Philip was our winner today because he made charcoal so much more than what you would expect.

It wasn't a sketch.

It was a completely beautifully formed work of art with this absolute extraordinary contrast between dark and light.

The composition was really innovative.

It told a brilliant story.

So for us, he's someone who's really, really interesting.

He's got the full package.

- It'll take me a while to process it all and let it all sink in.

But I just enjoyed it so much and I genuinely can't wait till the semifinal and I get to go through all this again, cause I had such a good time today.

(gentle melodic music)