(gentle music) - Welcome to the wonderful seaside town of Margate in Kent, where the air smells of fish and chips, sun tan lotion, oil paint?

Turps?

- It's been an inspiration for artists through the centuries, from Turner to Tracey Emin.

And that's why we thought it was the ideal location to bring our semi-finalists.

- Joan, you are my rock.

Welcome to the semi-final of "Sky Art's Landscape Artist of the Year".

(gentle music) - [Joan] Over the past few weeks, hundreds of easels have been set up at some of the National Trust's most beautiful locations.

And we've seen some superb art.

- [Frank] But from each heat, only one artist was selected to compete in the semifinal.

- Wow, what an enormous compliment.

- I'm still in shock actually.

- Semifinal here I come.

- [Joan] And now they're one step closer to this year's prize of a £10,000 commission to paint a view of Petworth in west Sussex, made famous by Turner.

And that will become part of the National Trust's permanent collection.

- There's definitely a lot more pressure this time.

I feel like I want to win now.

- [Frank] But it's our three judges who stand in their way.

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

- We've chosen some incredible semifinalists.

I think it going to be really difficult.

- [Joan] With only three places available... - At this point, it could go horribly, horribly wrong.

- [Frank] Who will make it through to the final of "Sky Art's Landscape Artist of the Year"?

- This is just a (blowing a raspberry).

(gentle music) (gentle music) - [Joan] Among the semi-finalists, four are professional artists: Howard Weaver, Titus Agbara, Anna Perlin and Gregor Henderson.

- Wasn't really expecting to be in the semifinal.

So it's quite a nice surprise., I suppose.

A really nice surprise.

- [Frank] And two are amateur: Richard Allen and Philip Edwards.

- I have a horrible competitive streak so yeah, I've been sizing them up already and yeah...

There's some good guys here.

- Wow.

This is beautiful, isn't it?

- Lovely colors.

The light's great, isn't it?

- [Joan] But our six semifinalists are not the only ones joining us at Margate.

(gentle music) At each heat, 50 more artists, of all ages and levels of experience, came to try their luck as wild cards.

And each week the judges selected one to go forward to a pool of wild cards.

- We've all decided that we'd really like you to be the wildcard today.

- Wow.

(audience applauding) - Congratulations.

(audience applauding) It's a lovely celebration of the day.

- Really, you're sure?

- Yes.

- So congratulations.

- [Joan] But from that pool, only one could be chosen to take a place in the semifinal.

- It's so nice to be reminded of all these wonderful places that we've been to.

- It's really diverse though I mean...

I like seeing the people in here.

I like the technique here.

- I have to say that I'm most in love with the ones from Stowe.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- I think my preference is this one.

I'm really keen to see what you could do if you took this artist and elevated them into the pod.

- [Tai] She knows what she's doing.

- Are we happy?

- So we're agreed?

- I'm very happy with that one, yeah.

- Fantastic.

(gentle music) - [Joan] So it was this large scale, ambitious ink painting of Stowe in Buckinghamshire that won Kim Whitby be her place here at Margate today.

- Making it to the same final is a bit unreal.

It's quite a surprise.

Being in the little pod will be very strange, but yeah, very exciting.

(gentle music) - [Frank] To decide who will claim the three places available in the final, the judges have presented the semi-finalists with a view that will test their approach to an urban landscape.

From the Harbour Arm, their view of Margate takes in, not only the Victorian seafront, an iconic Ferris wheel, but also a lighthouse, the harbor sands, and even a 1960s tower block.

- I'm feeling incredibly nervous.

In a way that I don't think I was with the heat at Stowe.

It's really because there's so much more to take in.

- I just need to map out which buildings I'm gonna keep in.

But definitely want to get the Ferris wheel in 'cause that's what says Margate out of the view here.

- Artists may the spirit of J.M.W.

Turner be with you because your semi-final challenge is about to begin.

- You have four hours to paint this very challenging sea view and your time starts now.

(gentle music) - I'm just gotta tell you, from lunchtime, this fills up with water.

So the tide is going...

I think it might be still going out and then it comes up to, see where the steps turn green?

- Yeah.

- So very quickly, this is full.

So, keep that in mind.

- [Joan] Until now the artists have been presented with more traditional landscapes and today's sunny seaside location isn't to everyone's taste.

- This is your proprietary sketch.

Is that what we'll see later?

- Well, I'm kind of a bit lost.

This is not...

I'm way, way beyond my comfort zone.

It's just far too nice a day.

I like it when it gets gnarly and angry.

So I was kind of secretly hoping for a thunderstorm today.

- [Tai] I don't think you're gonna get that.

- No.

- No.

- There are clouds here.

They're very pretty at the moment but you could change your tone range.

Would you make them darker?

- I would.

But I think, rather than kind of fight what's there, I would rather say, okay, fine, this is what we have today, let's try and bring out the beauty of what's there rather than what's in Phil's head and he really wished he'd seen.

- [Frank] Amateur artist Philip Edwards is from Perth.

An accountant by day, his love of drawing takes over after his two children go to bed at night.

He secured his place in the semifinal with his slice of sky at Stowe.

And today, he's taken the bold step of swapping his usual charcoal for some red chalk, favored by Renaissance portrait artists.

- I love using sanguine.

It's got a lot of the things about charcoal that I love, but it also gives you a little bit more in that there's a little bit of warmth you can play with.

It's not really used in landscape.

- No.

- No, no definitely.

- Which I think's a bit of a shame because I think it's really, really nice in landscape.

- I dunno if I've seen a sanguine landscape.

- In Margate.

- In Margate.

- No I haven't seen Margate seafront.

- So you're bringing the Florentine Renaissance to the Margate seafront and I salute you for that before you even begin.

(gentle music) - [Joan] One artist is hoping to clinch a place in the final by speeding ahead of his competitors.

- Really concerned about the tide and how it will change over the course of the day.

So I'm frantically laying in some of the tidal area, knowing that it's gonna vanish at about one o'clock.

- [Frank] Amateur artist Richard Allen is a professional illustrator, but his first love is oil painting.

His ability to capture the trees at Stowe with thick brush strokes earned him a place in today's semi-final.

An event that's torn him away from his family holiday in France.

So did you consider the idea of saying, well, you know, I can't do the semi-final because I've got a holiday with my family and I put them before my career?

- They can cope without me, I'm sure.

- So you didn't.

It's great though.

It's great that you're in the semifinal and here we are.

What do you think about this as a view?

Be honest.

- The view itself, I think it doesn't really do it for me.

- Oh, okay.

That's a slight problem, of course, always.

You went for it on the tidal front.

- [Richard] I did.

- It's on its way, isn't it?

- [Richard] I know, I was just panicked into doing it.

I thought I'd just lay it in there.

- I think you've made a very good decision.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Another artist earned her place in the semifinal with an exciting use of mixed media.

- I'm gonna use exactly the same materials as I used last time.

I'm gonna do acrylics with fabrics.

Got a real mix.

So I don't wanna be obviously blues for the sea and yellows for the beach.

So I need to work out exactly what I want to do.

- [Frank] With a degree in textile and marketing from Manchester University, Anna Perlin gave up her job at Disney to become a professional artist.

For her heat landscape of Wray Castle, the judges felt the fabric gave a new sense of life to the work and coexisted well with the painted elements.

- You've almost finished.

(laughing) You've blocked in your whole canvas- - [Kate] Lots of paint already.

- [Tai] And there's a great sense of space.

- I want to put up lots, lots of layers so I need to get on paint quickly.

And also in this weather it's actually drying quite quickly.

So when I'm mixing new paint, then I need to get it on straight away.

So I've taken a bit of a gamble that...

I would like the tide to come in a bit more.

So I'm kind of going to build it up as if the tide was in.

- Then I think it will.

- Yeah.

- [Tai] We can... - If the tide doesn't come in, the entire planet has done something different.

So I think you're good to go on that one.

(gentle music) - Titus you're really doing a very naturalistic presentation of the bay.

Can you just describe your meticulous technique.

Pallet knife?

- [Titus] Yeah, when I started painting, I just wanted to differentiate myself from every other kind of painting I was seeing then.

- Yeah.

- So I started, okay, let me start using the knife.

And it's been an ongoing process since I left school in the 90s, 1990.

- Well, it's paying off, isn't it?

- Yeah, yeah.

- I mean, you reached the semifinals here.

A professional artist and part-time security guard, Titus Agbara studied for a degree in fine art in Nigeria.

The judges felt he created richness and depth with his painting of Scotney castle.

Impressing them with the illusion of water, from dripping paint, and references to his African heritage.

Have you been to Margate before?

- Nope, this is my first time.

- What do you think of it?

- Yeah, it's a nice location to paint.

I've been around taking some photo shots, so that I could really represent it in my painting.

I love the seascape actually.

Yeah.

- [Joan] Marvelous sands, aren't they?

Glorious.

(gentle music) - I'm gonna find it really, really difficult today because they're all right at the top of their game, in their particular media, doing things that are, you know, all based on the same landscape, but very, very different.

So judging between them is gonna be nigh on impossible.

- You're absolutely right.

They are all very good artists.

Have to wait till this afternoon.

Hopefully it'll become apparent because it's gonna make our job really tough.

(gentle music) - [Frank] One hour of the semi-final challenge has passed.

- I can't work out whether this panic that I'm feeling is healthy or is it just something that's gonna, have me sort of throwing things around and having a bit of a meltdown.

So watch out for that.

- What do you make of that extraordinary tower block there?

- It reminds me of what my old Latin teacher said, he said, "The 60s were the worst time of barbarism since the Visigoths sacked Rome."

(laughing) - I just want to do something that I would like to put on my wall.

Whether that's then what they want to see going forward to the next round, then only they'll know.

I'm gonna do my best and that's all I can do.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - [Joan] Here on the Harbour Arm in Margate, our seven semifinalists are out to impress the judges and to try to claim one of the three available places in the final.

- [Frank] The view today is brimming with detail.

So one artist, working in ink, is taking her time.

- I'm having a look at what's here, 'cause sometimes it's not until you start drawing that you can actually see what's gonna work.

Although it looks like perhaps wasting time, for me, this is the crux of it.

I need to do some drawing and do some looking and work out what my composition is gonna be.

- A former primary school teacher turned professional artist, Kim Whitby, works in an array of mediums, including pencil, oil, watercolor and ink.

Attracted to the more detailed aspects of a landscape, like the striped lawn at Stowe, she caught the eye of the judges by managing to create an ambitious ink painting.

Kim, from wild card to semi-final.

- Yeah.

- Kim Wilde.

That's what I call you.

So what are you...

I've been watching you today, you don't seem very happy in your pod.

You're out there, you're over there.

It's like a- - Yeah, well I don't- - Like watching a chimpanzee in a jacket.

- I don't generally.

- Little bit of a... - I don't generally work in a studio, you see, I work outside.

So it's very challenging for me to be in a little sort of like housey bit.

- Well, it's little more than a shelter.

- It is, but I'd like to push it into the middle of where those seagulls are.

That would be great for me.

- [Frank] I'm afraid that's not allowed.

- No.

What I'm hoping to is do the top half and then see what happens to the boats when the water comes in.

- I'm gonna guess what happens to the boats when the water come in.

I think that'll start to bob somewhat.

- Yeah, whether they come into view.

- Oh, I see, yeah.

- Do you see what I mean?

- These ones around here?

- Yeah!

Well done for transcending all those people that turned up for the world card thing.

And here you are in the semifinal.

- How bizarre is that?

- Respectamundo.

- Thank you.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Some of the semi finalists are finding that painting a tidal harbor is not totally plain sailing.

- At the moment, we've got these nice pools, which are nice for reflections, but of course later on the water's gonna start coming back.

So it'll pose different problems.

So have to make a decision as to where you actually put it.

- Scenic artist for films and television Howard Weaver divides his spare time painting landscapes of Wales and Transylvania.

The judges were taken by his ability to capture the light and mood of the day with his oil painting of Scotney Castle.

There's almost too much information out there, isn't there?

- Yes.

- How are you selecting it?

- Obviously I've gotta edit it somewhat.

So I'm gonna try and block in the buildings in the background.

- What do you make of the great tower block in the middle?

(laughing) - Yeah.

Needs a bomb under it really doesn't it?

You know, it's a bit ugly.

- Are you going to include it?

- No, I don't think so.

(gentle music) - I dunno whether this is the most difficult challenge we've ever given the artists or the easiest.

- Go on.

- Because there are so many different landscapes in this.

There is sand and sea, some sort of brutalist buildings.

To try and include it all, I think, is difficult.

- [Tai] The problem is for our artists, if they want to find a certain rhythm between these different elements, they've gotta take in quite a lot of landscape.

- When you talk about the rhythms of a painting, what I'm hearing here is three or four pieces of music running at the same time and it's slightly... - No.

- I think what I'd do if I was painting this is I would get my cropping square out and I'd say, I'm gonna do that section there.

And I'd decide whether I was gonna do urban, whether I was gonna do poignantly sad or whether I was gonna do something a bit more beautiful.

- But the problem is that you have these expanses.

So if you do crop only a little bit, you don't get the feeling of the place- - No.

- We're sitting in today.

So it is difficult both in terms of scale and in terms of time.

A whole half of the painting is going to change when the tide comes in- - And massively so.

I mean it's suddenly gonna become a seascape.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, we've made it really difficult for them.

- I think this is very, very challenging indeed.

I just hope none of them make the mistake of including a seagull, 'cause I know that it's gonna finish them off.

- That's right.

You're absolutely right.

(gentle music) - [Frank] As predicted, each artist is finding beauty in different elements of the view.

- The tower block's kind of interesting.

Gives you a little bit of...

I dunno, something a bit different in the painting so, I dunno, go with it, see how it looks.

- Glaswegian youth worker Gregor Henderson has a fascination with abandoned industrial spaces and uses spray paint to produce his art.

His unique take on the Wray landscape, created from cutting shapes from manipulated photos, intrigued the judges enough to put him through to the semifinal.

It's a stencil virtually, isn't it?

You must have very good eyesight.

This is meticulous, isn't it?

These tiny roofs and...

It's very, very brilliant.

And there are two more.

- [Gregor] There are two more.

- [Joan] And then when are you going to print it on?

- So they're all gonna go on board and I've got- - And this is your final...

This will be it?

- This is the final one.

- Excited mounts.

(laughing) (gentle music) - [Frank] As well as having to cope with the complex view and the competition, the artists are also attracting a crowd on the busy Harbour Arm.

- Everyone's been making really positive comments actually, which is really nice.

It gives you a little bit of...

I don't know, it kind spurs you on to do more.

And so yeah, it's actually been quite nice having people around.

It's been good.

- See the rubber you can, it's a funky rubber, so you can squish it into different shapes and then you can use it to... Come up and have a look.

So if you see a wee highlight on the boat, you can decide, hang on, look, and then you can pull it out like that.

- That's quite cool.

- The public, especially in the foreground here, I'm losing a lot of the scene, but I've yet to break out a megaphone and demand that they get out of my line of sight.

That may come yet.

I may start being really diva-ish in a moment.

- [Frank] Keeping any diva tendency in check is Richard's dad, who came along to give support at the heat at Stowe and is doing the same today.

Peter, we meet again.

- Hello.

- So what do you think, having looked at the others?

Have you got a... Could you pick a top three?

- I think I could, but I'm not gonna tell you.

- You're not?

- No.

- I thought we knew each other quite well now, we've stood in castles together.

- [Peter] Such variety again.

And you've given him a very complicated landscape.

- [Frank] Yes.

I agree with that.

- And very busy.

I think he's done well because he's taken a section and it's got balance and it's got activity in the foreground.

- I can tell you are a stern critic.

'cause you're quite an analyst, aren't you?

- Yeah.

- I love that.

(gentle music) - You must be feeling fairly comfortable with time then, given the medium you're working with.

- I don't know, I've already put two big ink sploshes in the wrong place, which I've managed to camouflage.

But that is the problem with ink, you don't get a second chance.

You can't scrape it off and do it again.

- Well, I think that looks incredibly promising.

Yeah, really, really good.

(gentle music) - Just finished putting on my first layer of paint.

I'm now gonna start putting some fabrics on.

I don't want to mess up areas that are working, but I do want to get some definition in the front.

(gentle music) - [Joan] The artists have just over two hours left before three of them will be chosen to go through to the final.

- Kind of in that the middle stage, which just always feels like a bit of a mud wrestle.

I just need to kind of pin a few bits down.

- Wow.

- It's roughed in.

I'd like to have got a bit more detail in by this stage.

- I love the moss, seaweed, whatever it is.

People eat that kind of stuff.

(laughing) - Yeah!

(gentle music) - At this point, it could go horribly, horribly wrong.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - [Frank] From our location on Margate's Harbour Arm, our seven semifinalists have spent the last two hours interpreting the view before them.

- [Joan] Competing for only three places in the final, some of the artists can't resist checking up on their competitors.

- That is really coming along what she's doing actually so... - Absolutely love it.

- [Anna] Like no color at all, just tone.

- [Gregor] I love black and white.

- It looks almost finished there.

- Yeah, nearly there.

- My god.

- [Gregor] There's a lot going.

- [Howard] Yeah.

- But it's the judges' opinion that really counts.

So it's roughly the halfway stage, I'd love to know how you guys are seeing it so far.

- It's really, really great to have so many people today who are using different kinds of media.

The downside to that is that we have less of an inclination of how it's gonna look at the end of the day because a lot of them are process driven, they've gotta go through several layers.

- I mean, with Gregor, it's his stenciling.

I've just seen him sweating over this panorama he's photographed, cutting out the minutest detail.

- But at the moment it's a man cutting up a photocopy with a Stanley knife, is basically all we can see.

- Yeah.

- And it'll be that for right till the end I think.

- In a way I feel that the painters at the end, Howard included, are slightly suffering because we've got so many different types of media going on that, perversely, the painting is sort of being like, oh, painting, oh, that's not complicated.

Whereas actually what he's doing is really rather good.

It's simple and it's not as shouty as everything else.

- [Tai] Yeah.

I think you can see his roots in scene painting.

- I kind of hope that this afternoon, the magic happens, that the light comes through somehow.

At the moment it's not got much sort of soulfulness to it, it's a bit flat.

- You see, there I'd have to move on to Richard who has painted this sandy sump with the mossy boats on their sides.

And I think he's really caught Margate.

- Yeah.

- I can smell the harbor in his painting.

- Yeah, the way that he paints lends itself so beautifully to wet, dirty sand.

It works really well.

- [Frank] So Titus... - I'm a bit worried, funnily enough.

There's a kind of conventionality to the painting.

It feels very much like a sea...

I know we're at the seaside, but it just feels a bit too much like that.

- So then we've got Kim wildcard.

- Which I think is just...

Her work is just brilliant.

- It is so good!

She's competing today like she's been in the competition from day one.

It's absolutely brilliant.

- [Kathleen] It's just full of promise.

And I'm so excited to see where she's gonna go with it.

- So Anna.

There's a lot of pressure on that fabric application.

- I am not enjoying the fabric going on.

That said, it's so early.

I think she suffers from one of those things, which is not her fault, which is the process is a little bit ugly.

- So Philip.

- He's a master of both the black and the sanguine and he knows what he's doing.

At the moment, he's got this fantastically dramatic sky and the lighthouse there.

- I'm not happy, I'm not happy with it at all.

I'm really unhappy that he's using the sanguine in such a dense way.

It's about lightness of touch and sort of outline.

I just don't see him getting that richness and the depth and the tone with the sanguine at the moment.

I mean maybe it'll come out later.

- [Kate] Yeah.

- So, at this stage, do you have a top three?

- Yeah, I have no idea at the moment.

- Well they're tough bunch to pick between.

I think we've chosen some incredible semifinalists.

I think it's going to be really difficult.

(gentle music) - [Frank] They say that time and tide wait for no man.

And they're certainly not waiting for our artists.

- Everything is changed now.

- Maybe it was good that I lit a fire under myself and sort of plowed on with it.

'cause I think, if I hadn't have done that, I'd have missed the tidal area.

- [Kathleen] Am I looking at sea or sand here?

What am I looking at?

- This is the sea here.

- Yeah.

- And there was a lovely little stream.

- Yes.

- Which came almost to touch the boat here, which I left myself an hour to do it and the hour is gone because the water came in and it disappeared.

- [Kathleen] But does that matter?

Can you not sort of do it from your memory?

- I am appallingly bad at taking stuff out of here.

- It's good.

- I think it's... For years I've trained myself not to draw what's in my head, but draw what's in front of you.

So, anytime I don't have it exactly in front of me, I don't have a minor freak out, but I have a minor freak out.

- Okay, well I'll leave you carry on with your minor freak out.

Crack on.

- Yes, thank you very much.

(gentle music) - I'm just getting through the second layer.

I'm a little bit apprehensive because there's a lot of detail in the landscape and I've chosen to keep most of it in, which might be too much, 'cause I might just not have time for it.

(gentle music) - [Joan] The vibrant seaside town of Margate has made its mark on the art world in recent years with the opening of its world class gallery, located only a stone store away from our artists.

The Turner Contemporary stands on the site of an old boarding house that the great artist Turner used in his adult years when visiting Margate.

Here, he would paint the amazing views from its windows, all the while falling in love with his land lady Mrs. Booth.

But his relationship with the town went right back to his formative years.

(gentle music) When he was 11 years old, his mother suffered from mental illness so his father sent him from London to relatives on the Thanet coast for a quieter life by the sea.

- Margate came as something of a revelation to the young Turner.

He'd never experienced the open vast sea and the open skies before, that he discovered in Margate.

Turner immediately developed a love of the sea.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Even though Turner returned to London to study and pursue his career, he came back to Margate regularly.

- Turner was very aware of the elements, the changes in wind direction, the tide, and he depicted that.

- He made this famous remark about there being dawn clouds to the east and glorious sunsets to the west.

And some of the loveliest skies in Europe.

- What he was really referring to was the quality of our light here.

Margate is north facing, very unusual in this country, and Turner loved that north facing light.

- [Joan] Over the course of his career, Turner completed more than a hundred works inspired by the east Kent coastline and the love of the sea stayed with him all his life.

(gentle music) - [Frank] With only half an hour of the challenge to go, the gloves are already off, but Titus is going one step further.

- [Tai] Titus, what are you gonna do now?

- I just want to put my foot prints on the landscape.

- [Tai] Have you done this before?

- No, have not really done this.

- One has got to look at the landscape.

Then I look at it, I say, "Okay."

- Okay, come on then.

It must feel very funny, or strange, let's have a look.

- Very funny, but starting this just in.

- Okay.

But actually you found the tone that mixes in with the... so you want to be quite subtle?

- Yes subtle, so it's go in to the painting.

It's gonna work out fine.

Really- - What is extraordinary, it's not dissimilar to the way you add color with a pallet knife.

It seems to be the same language, which is nice because I thought you were doing something that would be so different that it would be jarring, but actually- - Okay.

- It's very subtle.

(gentle music) - Is this the moment it all starts to come together?

- [Gregor] It's the moment, aye.

- Can I watch you do it?

- Yeah.

I won't interfere, I'll just stand here.

You go, you go.

- No worries.

- [Kate] How many colors are you gonna work, do you know?

- [Gregor] I've got three just there, I'm hoping for one more so- - Okay.

- Four, five total.

- Mmm.

This is absolutely fascinating.

I have no idea how your brain works, but I like it.

- Good.

(laughing) (gentle music) - [Joan] Just 15 minutes of the semifinal remain.

- I'm trying to sort of bring it together.

Hopefully some of the clouds'll clear and maybe we can have the sun breaking through the clouds over in the far beach there, sort of a golden glow off in the distance.

(gentle music) - [Kate] You always seem quite calm.

- Not really too calm, but you know, (laughing) I've not been at this stage before and I'm a little bit nervous anyway, but I'm okay.

- You're okay?

- Yeah.

- You're okay.

- The judges are very cool.

They don't give much away when they come around.

Very nice, very friendly, but they don't let you know what they're thinking.

- I think I've got a bit of artist's block.

I need to start resolving my painting now.

And I think this bit's always the hardest.

So I need to take a step back and look at what I've done and then try and get into the bits that I need to finish within the time I've got.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - [Frank] Landscape Artist of the Year's semi-final challenge is coming to an end.

- Artists, you have just five minutes left.

Five minutes to go.

- Pushed for time, as usual.

(gentle music) - [Joan] After all their hard work, only three of our seven artists can go through to the final.

- I didn't give myself enough time to do this.

So this is just a (blowing raspberry).

- You've got your squiggles, if I may call them that.

(laughing) - You can call them squiggles.

- Every time I look at them, I think, I might get a jellied eel.

Artists your time is up.

Your semifinal challenge is over.

- Please put down your equipment and stand back from your work.

(audience applauding and cheering) - What a mess you've made.

(laughing) (gentle music) - [Frank] It will be for the judges to decide which three artists make it through to the final.

But that hasn't stopped today's spectators from giving their own verdicts.

- What's so lovely is how everybody interpreted it so differently.

I mean here with so few colors, you've caught the mood of the place, haven't you really?

- I like all the colors and like the fabric in the middle.

- I like the fact that it looks bit rusty.

Rained on like- - Yeah.

- English summer.

(laughing) - Yeah.

- I think I would've liked a little more detail in that foreground yacht, but that's just me so... - [Male] Yeah.

- Definitely has some of the earthiness of- - It's the harbor- - Margate harbor, when the tide's out.

(gentle music) - [Joan] With such a difficult choice to make, the judges want to know more about what the artists were trying to achieve.

- What I really like about your work is the way so much of it is left for the viewer to put in.

- Yeah.

For some landscapes, it works better than others.

- We watch you cutting the stencils and we don't see anything.

It's kind of surprising to you, isn't it, as well?

The end result?

- It can be.

- Okay.

- Sometimes.

Like, there's usually like a reasonable idea of what it should look like, but you can never tell until it actually happens.

(gentle music) - Kim, for someone this morning who started a bit like a caged animal trying to escape the pod, it looks like you've done a very good job.

- Thank you very much.

Yeah, it's okay.

It's okay, it's not my best work.

- [Kathleen] Which bits are you not happy with?

- [Kim] Composition.

Yeah.

And I feel that it's rather conventional.

- Although you say that, half of it is abstract, so that's not entirely conventional by a lot of people's standards.

- [Kim] Thank you.

(gentle music) - Titus, done a great job today.

- Yeah, thank you very much.

- I saw you put your footprints on there.

Tell me, are you happy with the way it blends in?

Do you think it works?

- Yeah.

It's not too vivid, but you could see the toes around and the foot itself.

- [Tai] And I see you've also then started to scratch in after that.

- [Titus] Yeah, that's my tribal patterns, where I am from.

- I love the fact that it's a lovely sort of moment, almost like a signature.

(gentle music) Another powerful, emotional, glorious piece that we have from you today.

I want to ask you about the way in which you've drawn this wonderful light that joins the foreground and the background.

It's almost too perfect and too romantic.

- This one is by accident rather than design.

I'm very not happy with that line.

- Okay.

(laughing) I needed another 20 minutes to sort that line.

- Okay.

(gentle music) - Howard, the light in your painting is fabulous.

- Thank you.

- But it strikes me that you don't really have a population.

- Yeah.

- Do you feel that, if you were to put people in, that they might detract from an overall sense.

- In a way, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you often like to have a place to yourself, you know, especially when you're out in nature.

- Aesthetically, the palette pleases me enormously.

- Oh.

- It's beautiful.

- Thank you.

(gentle music) - I think these passages of paint where you mix color, just absolutely stunning.

- Thank you.

- Is there any point you would think, okay, my pieces of cloth don't work in this instant, I'm just gonna use paint?

- Yeah, I mean a little bit here.

I do like the fabric in it still, with the colors, but this one's focused a lot more on the painting than the fabric for me.

(gentle music) - I think it's really difficult, when you are painting something with boats in, to stop it from looking twee and too sweet.

And I think you've done them incredibly well sort of impressionistic way with lovely hints of color, like the shot of orange and the red.

And, you know, I congratulate you on the boats.

- Thank you.

The idea of it turning in something that was quite twee was the main thing at the back of my mind that I think, you know, working within the constraints of the scene.

Yeah, I am reasonably happy.

- Well done.

- Yeah, well done.

- [Richard] Thank you.

(gentle music) - With today's work freshly in their minds and a tricky decision to be made, there's something I'm curious about.

So judges, it's certainly Margate.

You recognize it obviously, but how much does it matter that it looks like the place?

- For me, I think it matters more that there's an individual story from each of these artists from their own perspectives.

- Sometimes in the past, on this show, when people have moved a tree or moved a lake, I've never been quite sure why they've done it.

But, for example, on Anna's piece, because she has captured, it seems to me, the way that British seaside towns are forever in the 1950s, in some respect, it had to have the Ferris wheel.

It was like the Ferris wheel is there for Anna to portray.

- Yeah.

- Given that we admire all those pictures, with their individual view of Margate, how are you to choose three from that number?

- I think there are some that really shine.

- It's interesting to see the way in which some of the artists are starting to produce something that looks like it may take them, and us, somewhere else with that work.

- Margate's got this weird ambience, you know, I can see it embodied in some of these paintings and three have risen to the top, as it were.

- [Frank] But which of our seven semi-finalists are about to become the three finalists of "Landscape Artist of the Year" 2016?

- Artists, it's been great watching you work all day.

And I've got some fantastic news.

The Turner Contemporary wants to stage an exhibition of all the work that has been done here today by you.

(audience applauding) - However, only three can go forward and the judges have decided.

- Yes, indeed.

So here are the three finalists, the first is Gregor Henderson.

(audience applauding) - The second is Kim Whitby.

(audience applauding) - And the third finalist is Richard Allen.

(audience applauding) - Commiserations to the others.

Your work was well deserving too and it will go on show in the Turner Contemporary.

- Brilliantly well done today.

(audience applauding) - I'm chuffed but kind of shocked a little bit.

- [Titus] Congratulations.

- Working in the morning so no massive celebrations.

- You started as a wild card and look at you now!

- Amazing.

It's very exciting.

What can I say?

A surprise?

- Well done.

Well done.

- I'm just enjoying the moment right now.

And looking forward to the final.

- Our three finalists are fabulous because of their vision of the world.

We've got this kind of dystopian, graphic art based work of Gregor, we've got the traditionalist Richard, but he does it in this fantastic bravura painting style and you got, Kim who's sort of translucent washes and mark making.

What she can do with ink is just extraordinary.

So three very individual voices, but all masters in their technique.

- [Frank] You can see all the works from today's semi-final up close at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate from the 6th of December until the 8th of January, 2017.

(gentle music)