(exciting classical music) - Over 1500 artists applied, 48 were shortlisted, 300 wild cards joined the competition.

Eight made it to the semifinal, and today, we're down to the last three.

- So we brought them to this suitably magnificent landscape surrounding some of Britain's most spectacular and historic buildings, here in Greenwich.

- It's famous throughout the world as the place where time is measured.

It was a former home to the Royal Family, and today, it's the setting for the final of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year.

- [Stephen Voiceover] Over the summer, we've challenged our artists with a range of complex and surprising landscapes.

- [Joan Voiceover] From swarming, sandy beaches to fairy tale castles.

- (groaning) What am I gonna do?

- [Stephen Voiceover] Towering abbeys to colossal container ports.

- The great big ship just come along, it's parked itself right in the middle of the painting.

- [Joan Voiceover] They've endured high winds.

- (yelping) No, it's all gonna blow away!

- [Joan Voiceover] Stormy seas, and torrential downpours.

- I quite like painting gray, but this is gonna be really pushing it to the extreme.

- [Stephen Voiceover] But three artists overcame every challenge they faced.

- Greg Mason.

(all applauding) Alan Marty.

- [Kate] Jen Gash.

(all applauding) - Did I ever get to think I'd be in the final?

No.

Just complete shock.

Still think I'm in some sort of alternative reality.

- To win, that's an incredible achievement, definitely spur me on to even greater heights.

- If I hear my name called at the end, I think my heart might stop beating, and you might have to pick me up off the floor.

- [Joan Voiceover] Today, they have one final chance to give it everything they've got.

- But you can't paint that in four and a half hours.

Are you a sadist?

- Don't be stressed.

It's only the final.

- Cheers.

(Kathleen laughing) - I just hate the railing thing.

It's just not working the way it is.

Oh god.

That is a panic.

- [Stephen Voiceover] They're all competing for an extraordinary prize, a 10,000 commission from the Imperial War Museum to create an artwork inspired by the landscape of a First World War battlefield.

- That museum commissions the best contemporary artists to make works, and now our winner will be amongst them.

So it really is an absolutely critical moment for their career.

- This is Gregory stressed, by the way.

- I know what I need to do now.

It's very scary.

- [Joan Voiceover] To win, our artists will have to impress our three judges.

Independent curator, Kathleen Soriano.

Art historian, Kate Bryan.

And award-winning artist, Tai-Shan Schierenberg.

- Are you happy with that tree?

- Yeah, I'm happy with the tree.

- Okay, I mean why?

- Because I think it's a nice tree.

(Jen laughing) - [Stephen Voiceover] So which of our three finalists will triumph today, and walk away with the prize and the coveted title?

- The Landscape Artist of the Year is ... (bright exciting music) (soft music) - Oh, goodness me.

That's quite a view.

If I wasn't nervous before, I am now.

- I think the last time I saw this view was when I was a kid, and none of that was actually there at that time.

- At what, the city?

- Yeah.

- Oh really?

- No.

- [Alan] There's so much history here.

- [Joan Voiceover] The iconic view of the capital our artists are taking on today is from Greenwich Park, and encompasses an array of architectural styles, from the neoclassical Queen's house, and the old Royal Naval College, to the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf.

The pods sit alongside the Royal Observatory, a symbol of Britain's proud naval history.

- We've basically compressed an entire city into this one big slice, and it's got real distance.

- The weather, with this sort of heavy sky that flattens some of the grays behind us, it feels like it's more suited to Alan and Jen somehow.

- [Kate] Yeah, I would agree.

- [Kathleen] Whereas I think Greg will benefit if that sun comes out this afternoon.

(gentle uplifting music) - This view is awesome, daunting, challenging, basically quite frightening because it's so, it's the whole of London in front of me.

There's trees, which is great, because I've only been to the beach so far.

- This is what you call a finalist's view, I mean it's the ultimate challenge, isn't it?

There's so much in there, it is a bit overwhelming, and I'm not quite sure where to start right now.

- Sure, I think if you're gonna paint it, it's gonna be a difficult view to paint.

Notice I said if.

- Artists, your challenge is about to begin.

- This is the final, and so the judges are expecting truly exceptional paintings.

That's why they're allowing you 30 minutes extra to explore your surroundings, seek out inspiration, and create something worthy of the occasion, so you have four and a half hours to complete your final landscape.

Good luck.

Your time starts now.

(uplifting music) - [Stephen Voiceover] While Alan and Greg head down the hill towards the Naval College, Jen is heading off the beaten track.

- [Jen] Hang onto your hats.

I'm going in the bush.

You can come in with me.

I like hiding.

Quite like hiding.

(camera shutter clicking) - This angle, I think, gives me a little bit of what I'm looking for in terms of making things easier to understand.

Let's see.

- [Jen] Look!

- Well, I've left the pod, I've moved position down here.

So actually I can look back up at the hill where the Observatory is.

(camera shutter clicking) So, I'm quite familiar with the history of Greenwich.

It's nautical, and that's actually been an interest of mine from when I was young.

- [Joan Voiceover] It's not the first time in the competition that Glasgow-born artist Alan Marty has been captivated by an alternative view.

In his heat at Inveraray Castle, he chose to paint, not the building in front of him, but a forbidding watchtower on the nearby hill.

- [Stephen Voiceover] At the semifinal, he all but ignored Felixstowe Docks, choosing instead to paint the two observation towers of a nearby military fort.

- Alan excites me because he's very, very good at finding a particular viewpoint.

He turned his back on the main view in front of him in finding that element.

He can give you a real essence of the day and of the experience.

- [Stephen] Knowing you a little bit as I do from the heats.

- Yes.

- I imagine you're not painting the view that you're sat in front of.

Would that be fair enough?

Or are you-- - Do you know what?

I think that's very perceptive of you.

(Stephen laughing) - [Stephen] So what are we attempting to paint today?

- Well, I actually wanted to paint the Observatory itself because of the resonance for me.

- [Stephen] Do I remember rightly?

Did you once tell me that you had ambitions to go into the Navy?

- To be more specific, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, yes.

- Oh, right.

What is that exactly?

- [Alan] It's the supply ships for the Royal Navy.

- [Stephen] Oh, okay.

- But the beauty of it is that you're unarmed, so you're an absolute target.

And my-- - That was your ambition?

- Absolutely.

(Alan laughs) But my grandmother was fiercely opposed to it.

- I'm not surprised.

- Yeah.

- [Stephen] So this must be an interesting place for you to come.

- Oh, absolutely.

I mean, for me, that, while beautiful and intriguing, doesn't suit what I do as an artist, because I'm not an landscape artist.

- Don't tell anybody.

- No.

- This is Landscape Artist of the Year.

- Oh god, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I realize that.

I've sneaked in.

- You have sneaked in.

Security?

(Alan laughs) (gentle uplifting music) - So what I'm doing right now, I've just laid out three acrylic colors.

They are gonna be my underpainting.

So blue on the landscape, and ochre on the sky, and a purple for the middle distance and far distance.

I'm taking it straight on.

For better or for worse, that's what's gonna be my painting.

- [Joan Voiceover] London-born artist Greg Mason isn't afraid of using a large scale canvas to tackle a complex view.

At the semifinal, he impressed the judges for boldly confronting the expansive vista of cranes and shipping containers.

- [Stephen Voiceover] He won his heat at Studley Royal Park in North Yorkshire with a diptych, and was praised for his sophisticated conceptual approach, and his sense of narrative.

- Greg's an interesting artist.

He's got many strings to his boat.

He has a very sharp brain when it comes to finding interesting narratives through a painting.

Then he showed us in Felixstowe that he can just paint in a very sort of Bravura kind of beautifully painted way.

I'm quite intrigued to see what he produces today.

So Greg, I'm visiting you in your wind tunnel.

- Hello!

- [Tai-Shan] That's a bright start.

- [Greg] I think every step along the way, I've tried something different.

- Now, it's a very complicated view.

(Greg laughs) I was asked this morning how I would approach this, and I thought the best thing is to run away.

(Greg laughing) - What I'm really trying to do is focus on the moment that's in front of me.

It's a straight view, it's symmetrical, I'm hitting this face-on.

I think the hero is the Queen's house.

Hopefully within four hours, I can achieve that.

- Well, it looks a very intriguing start.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

(exciting classical music) - [Joan Voiceover] While Alan and Greg are busy covering their canvases, Jen is still trying to determine her composition.

- It's the cross of those two paths, but also how this path curves into the tree, and also the fence.

That is what's exciting me here.

But the cross is particularly interesting.

- [Stephen Voiceover] Gloucestershire based artist Jen Gash prides herself on searching for the hidden character of a landscape.

At her heat at Broadstairs in Kent, she depicted the faded beach huts and crumbling cliffs behind, evoking a nostalgic seaside scene full of mood and mystery.

- [Joan Voiceover] At the semifinals, she won over the judges with an atmospheric and intriguing depiction of cranes and containers.

- Jen is the more radical of our artists.

She's not so much an landscape painter as an atmosphere painter.

She does so much with so little.

She really transports you to a place without having to fill in all the detail.

It will look very other, and it's that otherness that is so exciting.

I've been wandering around, and you haven't been there.

Where have you been?

- Not far, actually.

Just kind of went over there, and did a bit of exploring.

- Okay, so very down in the bushes.

Are you down there looking for the Jen secret doorway into this view?

Is that what you're hunting for?

- Might be, might be.

I need to go a bit quiet and then yeah, feel what's going on around us.

- [Kathleen] And then try and emerge from it like a butterfly?

- Yeah, I like the emerge bit, but I'm not sure about the butterfly bit.

(both laughing) But yeah, and that's why I'm quite happy to be quite slow at the start, if that makes sense.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Because when I-- - We don't call you Speedy Gonzales.

(Jen laughing) No, that's not what your nickname is.

- [Stephen Voiceover] As the end of the first hour approaches, and with the 10,000 pound commission at stake, our three finalists are under pressure to get their paintings just right.

- I'm just mapping in at the moment the horizon, this incredible silhouette of skyscrapers.

Trying to remember to breathe.

- The beauty of all the colors I seem to use, it just sort of happens.

There's more conscious choices today, because there's a lot of purple out there.

- What I'm doing just now is I'm blocking areas in, which gives me the general feel, and then I can start to actually work in some detail.

I start slowly, and continue slowly.

(inspiring classical music) - [Joan Voiceover] Here in Greenwich Park, our three artists are entering hour two of their final challenge, the stage where their painting should be taking shape.

- I'm working really quickly right now, because the sky is coming good.

And it may not be good like this for very long.

- The main challenge actually is to give you a real sense of the buildings, so it will still have this darkness that I work with very often.

- Behind me right now is my eldest daughter Jillie, and my niece Poppy.

And they're probably thinking, oh my god, Mom's done nothing to the painting yet.

I think I'm a little bit behind the others, maybe.

- [Joan] But what do you worry about?

- I just worry about lacking focus, so I'm having to exercise the most focus I've ever had in my life.

Whenever I panic, I look at the sketch, and go no, go back to the sketch.

Forget actually the view that you can see.

Think about your sketch.

- The sketch strips away all the extraneous stuff you don't need.

The sketch has simplified it.

- [Jen] Exactly.

- [Joan] I'll go away.

- All right, then.

- Leave you to your focus.

- See you later.

Bye.

(uplifting music) - What a view.

- It's fantastic.

- But you can't paint that in four and a half hours.

Are you a sadist?

- I didn't mean to be a sadist.

We thought this would be a great view.

- You're a sadist.

- [Tai-Shan] Problematic for me is this symmetry that we've got in the old buildings in front of us, and then you get the jumble in the background, which is very abstract, and I would have thought the artists would have had to do some very strict editing, or go for an impression of this.

- If you were filming this, you start with nature, you then move into this very civilized, decorous set of buildings here, and then ba-ba-ba, the city, the modern day suddenly is looming up behind it.

I think what I'm trying to say, though, is that pictures are better when they move.

(Stephen laughing) - Well, you're in the wrong competition then, Stephen, aren't you?

(uplifting music) - [Stephen Voiceover] The challenging view in front of them is not the only thing the artists have to contend with in their bid to win the competition.

Each finalist was also tasked by the judges to complete a commission designed to test their unique individual skills.

- Trying to find a winner, and we need as much information as we can.

The commissions always just fundamentally important.

We need to feel like the paintings are competing.

- [Joan Voiceover] With just two weeks to complete the commission, each artist began by visiting a specially selected landscape, and for Alan, that meant a trip to a picturesque lighthouse in Norfolk.

- Ah.

That's very red and white.

It strikes me as a very picture-postcard image.

- Alan, with his very inquisitive mind, likes to find other things to look at, rather than the location given to him, and in Happisburgh, the lighthouse on the cliff is all there is.

And we thought, okay.

And let's deal with the landscape we give you, and see what you come up.

- Primary colors.

Not what I would choose, usually.

- [Stephen Voiceover] Jen was sent to the bustling south coast to take on Brighton's famous palace pier.

- This is just such a rich landscape.

The structure is lovely.

I'm getting very excited now.

Because I've been guessing for weeks, trying to guess where we're going.

- I knew that this was a great location for Jen.

It's on the one hand very joyous, very pretty, and on the other hand, there's a bit of a darker underbelly there.

If Jen doesn't deliver us a really nuanced, atmospheric painting, then I'll be disappointed, because I know she's got it in her.

- [Joan Voiceover] Greg headed to Lincoln City.

A place dominated by its medieval cathedral.

- It's impressive.

It's vast, isn't it?

Huge.

Okay.

Just taking that in.

- We know from talking to him that he's really interested in depicting scenes where you can feel and see the impact of man on the landscape.

And the thing about Lincoln Cathedral is it has this looming presence.

And we thought he'd be quite inspired by that, really.

- [Stephen Voiceover] To help each artist better understand their landscape, they were introduced to a local expert.

- Expert.

- Good to meet you.

- Thanks for coming here.

- [Stephen Voiceover] In Happisburgh, Alan met Stephen Berg, a local campaigner trying to save the 200-year-old lighthouse from a growing threat.

- Now all that coastal erosion then is now part of a feature of the area.

- It's massive.

You see how close we are.

And getting closer all the time.

We've lost several houses down there, and some houses were demolished, and one house went over the cliff edge.

- Right.

So that was a road then?

- Yes.

- Does the road just stop?

- And the road literally falls into the ocean.

- It just stops?

- Yes.

We don't have any real defenses at the moment, and that's what we're campaigning for.

- Yes.

- Happisburgh without the lighthouse would be nothing.

- Right.

(uplifting music) - [Joan Voiceover] In Brighton, Jen was introduced to the dockside of the seaside by local historian, Dr. Jeffrey Mead.

- Everyone likes the top of the pier, the amusement arcades, the chip shops, the seagulls swooping around.

People don't think what's under their feet.

Brighton's a bit like that.

We do have a lot of social problems in Brighton related to the fact that it's a seaside resort.

And of course Graham Greene and "Brighton Rock" really explored this.

The pier had been two parts.

It's something people don't often consider.

- You're giving me some great ideas.

- That's what I'm here for.

- [Stephen Voiceover] Until the mid-16th century, Lincoln Cathedral was the world's tallest building.

- [John] How far have you come today?

- [Greg] From Exeter.

- Exeter?

- Yeah.

- Well, welcome to a proper cathedral.

(Greg laughing) - [Stephen Voiceover] Greg met with verger John Campbell to find out more about its thousand year old history.

- You can see Lincoln Cathedral in the daylight, from up to 35 miles away.

You can imagine that medieval atmosphere, to draw people to what is the mystery of the building.

I think it was shown some of the fear of God as well.

You can imagine, that small person trembling at the aura of this place.

- [Joan Voiceover] The artists now had an opportunity to find their own unique interpretation of the landscape.

- The erosion part intrigues me, so having the cliff in there could refer to that.

- It's some nice raw iron railroads there, so I'm just doing a bit of a quick charcoal sketch, and then I've got about 15 other sketches I think to do.

(bright piano music) - And we're up on top of a roof, we've got chimneys in front of us, we've got the scaffolding.

So if I can catch something kind of gritty about the cathedral, that will be great for me.

- Now the light's starting to change, so I'm kind of thinking that I might be working right up until midnight.

(Jen chuckles) - [Stephen Voiceover] But working in the fading light was all part of the judges' plan.

- The light is changing, and it's changing rather quickly.

To get as much information as you want, is potentially gonna be quite difficult.

- [Stephen Voiceover] And the artists were asked to stay at their location until night had fallen.

- This challenge was actually to give our three finalists a location that was affected dramatically by changes in light.

To see whether they could deal with this idea of shifting form, and also whether through the light change they can find a new access to the landscape.

I wanted something new.

I wanted something new said about a sunset.

(bright piano music) (birds chirping) - Sunset scenes?

Never done one.

But I don't see this as a sunset scene.

I see this as an atmosphere.

This is still just part of the process of telling a story in the painting that I do.

- Already, you can see the light on the pier coming alive, and it's not really very dark yet.

I've got to take another photo, because it's just changing as we speak.

- The light's incredible.

When I put down this kind of bright blue and the ochre, about 10, 15 minutes ago, it was completely right.

Now, it's completely wrong.

(bright piano music) - [Joan Voiceover] Day turns into night, and each of our artists' landscapes takes on a completely new persona.

- So now it's getting dark enough so that the actual lights on the lighthouse is registering, so just looking at, just blue and this pinky orange of the landscape, so forgetting the lighthouse, and just doing a quick sense of that in this very quick painting.

- It's really tricky not to make it amusement, arcade-y, not really interested in that, personally.

The sort of secrets of the pier.

Dark side, yeah I really like that.

I'm really tired.

(Jen laughing) I can hear my voice going all croaky.

- So the light has gone now into some really strong contrasts.

I'm telling myself not to worry about whether or not I like my painting, because it does look kind of a mess, but I'm asking myself what am I learning from my painting, and that, I think, is the purpose of today.

(bright cheerful music) - What do you notice painting in the dark?

I think I'm gonna have to stop painting.

- [Stephen Voiceover] With their trip complete, the artists then had two weeks to produce their paintings in their respective studios.

And the finished works will be unveiled for the very first time before the final judging.

- [Joan Voiceover] Here in Greenwich Park, our three finalists are reaching the halfway point of their timed challenge to paint this iconic view of London.

- Well, I've been waiting for the moment to put the sky in.

It's still base layer, so I'm still gonna work on top of this in oil in about five minutes time.

I'm a little bit terrified under the surface that I'm gonna run out of time here.

But do you know what?

It's gonna be what it is.

And I'm just gonna keep the energy going into the painting.

- I've got the actual gist of everything in the sketch.

I can see a bit of the slope down to the lovely cross of the path, and then there's a bit of the Naval College sort of in the top corner-ish.

There's not gonna be much time to spare at the end, but I'd rather it be that way than have time at the end in which to wreck whatever I've done, so I'm feeling all right about where I am, actually.

- I like actually trying to merge a very monochromatic feeling to get this muddiness.

No, I don't feel used to working under these circumstances, because usually a painting like a quarter of this size could take me two or three days.

(inspiring classical music) (bright music) - [Stephen Voiceover] Here at Greenwich Park, our three finalists are into hour three of their final challenge of the competition.

- Oh, is it gonna rain?

Do you think it's gonna rain?

The sky has hit a moment which is really useful to me right now, and it's time to lay in some oil color, and see if I can capture that, just that moment of light.

(bright uplifting music) - I'm still just kind of drawing in the main point, and then I wanna hopefully do some very quick kind of drawing in of things like windows and frames, and stuff like that.

Just so that you get a sense of the building.

In a way, wish I could work faster, but it's just sort of, doesn't come naturally, I'm sorry.

- The foreground's really not working.

I know what I need to do now.

It's very scary.

But I need something stronger in the foreground, I think.

There's probably a railing that's gonna go in.

So it will help the rest of it fall back, hopefully.

That's the plan.

- Halfway through, Greg powering ahead.

- [Kathleen] The way in which he's treating the sky as one of the clouds, you feel as if he really is an artist who understands about working en plein air.

But the other thing that Greg has done I think is really brave is he's taken a really big canvas, and it's giving us the whole of that view.

- It's an exact replica of what's in front of us.

Maybe he'll find more here and make something more of it, but at the moment it's literal.

- [Stephen] Jen is having an emotional wrestle, partly with herself, as much as with the view.

- [Kathleen] I really like the mood, and that wonderful X, and the way she's got it off to a side, it's almost as if we're in the landscape, because she's produced something which is beginning to look and feel quite seductive.

- Yeah, I mean I think it's a bit hairy, time-wise.

She really took a long time to get going.

She will look very undone compared to the other two if she doesn't speed up a bit.

- And someone has kidnapped Alan, and tied him up in a cupboard, because there's some bloke at the end painting with quite a lot of color.

- [Kate] Yeah.

- [Kathleen] Like the rest of them, he knows it's a competition, so trying to take risks, trying to do things that he know will challenge what we think of him.

- [Tai-Shan] He's working solely from photographs, and what's happened is the Observatory looks a bit suburban, to me.

- [Kathleen] I think it's early stages.

So I've got a funny feeling that what we'll see over the last couple of hours is him really starting to build that detail in.

- We've got three very different takes on the view in front of us.

- Yeah.

- So it'll make for an interesting afternoon.

(bright inspiring music) - [Joan Voiceover] In the foreground of today's view, hidden among the multiple buildings that make up the old Royal Naval College is Britain's answer to the Sistine Chapel.

The Painted Hall by James Thornhill was intended as a dining room for the Naval veterans of Greenwich Hospital.

But thanks to the endeavors of one man, it became home to one of Britain's first free public galleries.

- Edward Hawke Locker was quite a visionary man, really.

The whole idea of national galleries was only really happening at around this time, and it came at a time where philanthropists wanted to bring their work together.

- [Joan Voiceover] By the 1820s, Edward Hawke Locker, the hospital's secretary, felt the relatively unused Painted Hall must be shared, and he enlisted the support of one of the country's most prominent art collectors - George IV kick-started the whole project by donating 30 works from his collection, and then he actually commissioned Turner to create a painting, his largest painting, actually, that he ever made, for the College on the subject of the Battle of Trafalgar.

- [Joan Voiceover] Turner's Battle of Trafalgar was the centerpiece of an extraordinary collection which opened in 1824, bringing many famous artworks to the public for the very first time.

- What's really important is that Edward Hawke Locker believed in free entry, and he fought through parliament so it could be enjoyed by everybody, and accessible to everybody, and it's a tenant that museums and galleries hold onto today.

And all credit really to Edward Hawke Locker.

- [Joan Voiceover] The gallery was closed in 1936, and the collection moved across the road to become the National Maritime Museum.

- [Stephen Voiceover] Back up the hill in the pods, our artists are well into the third hour of their four and a half hour challenge.

- It's very satisfying to know that 150 years ago they'd recognize that painting.

- Yes.

- They wouldn't recognize the landscape in front of us, would they?

- That's a really good point, yeah.

- [Joan Voiceover] While Alan's working with small brushes and fine detail, Jen's making a bold decision with something a big larger.

- [Jen] I know the railings aren't as curvy, but I think they're gonna have to be less curvy than I've done.

God, everyone's gonna go mad.

I can just see my family watching this going what is she doing?

- [Kate] How you getting on?

- Yeah, you met me at the most stressed version of Gregory ever.

- Oh!

Why are you stressed?

It's not like you haven't got much painting there.

There's loads there.

- I've done a lot of painting.

Just maybe not enough.

Now it's about making people see the thing that I want them to see.

Cranes, and crazy stuff destroyed the view of this beautiful 17th century Palladian villa.

- [Kate] So you've put Canary Wharf very purposefully into silhouette?

- [Greg] Totally.

- [Kate] Right.

Well, I get that.

- [Greg] Good.

- Don't be stressed.

It's only the final.

- Cheers.

(Kate laughing) - I just hate the railing.

It's just not working the way it is.

So off quite a lot of it comes.

Oh god.

This is a panic.

Oh well.

- How's the Jen emotional rollercoaster today?

- She's kind of like come off of the coaster and is dangling in midair.

- What I love about you is you never just get up and paint something.

There is a whole-- - Torture.

- There is to every painting, there's an emotional toll on you.

- Yeah.

It looks better from over there.

- Okay.

Well I'll tell the judges to stand over there when the time comes.

(Jen laughs) The last thing I want to do is panic you.

But you're running out of time, so get on with it.

- I know.

Thank you.

- [Stephen Voiceover] As the pressure mounts for the artists, the number of spectators has increased.

But among the crowd are family and friends here to offer their support.

- How are you feeling?

All right?

Pushed for time?

- Yeah.

A bit of time.

- A little bit?

- I think it's really lovely, the sky.

- Well, it's starting to have the feel.

- Yeah, definitely.

- That I was hoping for.

- Crack on.

- Thank you.

- Bye!

- Bye.

- Art means absolutely everything to my dad.

It's like living in a gallery sometimes at home.

There's no family photos, but a load of paintings, load of prints.

- Whatever happens happens.

We're gonna be celebrating regardless, because we're so overwhelmingly proud of him.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- [Joan Voiceover] Supporting Jen are three generations of her family, including her mom, Maggie, her husband, Jeff, and her daughter, Jillie.

- How's it going?

- Well I just rescued this appalling thing.

I tried to put in this rail.

It's not my best painting, sweet pea.

I'm sorry I've let you all down.

- Don't, no you haven't.

It's fine.

- Yeah.

- Good luck.

- I love you.

- I love you, too.

- We'd love her to win.

Really, really would be absolutely brilliant for her.

- Me and my mom have had a really hard past two years or so, because I had two years basically out of school, with depression for me, and she's been caring for me that whole time, and this whole competition is a huge changing point in her life.

I feel amazingly proud of my mom for getting through what we've been through, and ending it in such an amazing way, really.

So yeah, she's amazing.

- [Greg] So you like it, huh?

- This looks so different when you come up close.

It looks fantastic from back.

But-- - [Greg] It holds together up close?

- [Kelly] It holds together up close, because I can see that the technique you've used is even across the canvas.

- Yeah, that's what I want.

- I quite like the misty bits you've got going on over here.

I do feel a little nervous.

There's a lot to accomplish, and he's set himself a very ambitious task today.

I'm proud of him, whatever.

Whatever happens today.

- [Stephen Voiceover] With the title of Landscape Artist of the Year within their reach, our three finalists are entering the last half hour of the competition.

- I've put in the red ball, the time ball, that sits on top of the building there.

So that was one of the reasons for using color today, actually.

What stage we're at?

Panic.

- I made choices, and you kind of have to go with them, and that's just how it is.

The painting will be what it will be now, and that's that.

- At this moment, I'm under so much pressure, I can't think beyond it.

So I'm working my socks off.

(bright inspiring music) - [Joan Voiceover] In Greenwich Park, our three artists are in the final moments of their bid to be crowned Landscape Artist of the Year.

- Still painting furiously, and I feel like I should have been not painting furiously.

I'm feeling really rubbish.

Never mind.

- I feel stressed.

A lot more time would be very useful.

- Artists, you have five minutes left!

(exciting classical music) - I did not picture my painting like this at the beginning of the day.

I didn't expect this to be so difficult.

- There's things I want to do, which I'm not gonna manage, probably.

I can only do what I've got in five minutes now.

- I'm an absolute emotional wreck.

I've held it together for weeks now, and this is it.

I'm gone.

- Artists, you have one minute left.

Just one minute.

- The only thing I can think of now is just getting the flies off my canvas so I'm gonna do that.

Come on.

- Artists, that's it.

Your time is up.

- Put down your brushes and stand away from your work!

(all applauding) - [Jen] I'm so bloody glad that's over.

(Greg sighing) You've done an amazing painting.

- [Greg] Well done, well done.

(Alan laughing) - Wow.

That was hard.

- Wasn't it?

- Yeah.

(bright piano music) If I look inside, it's a happy emotion, but happy tired.

- Kind of relieved it's done.

It's finished now.

Then when I step back from it, I think okay, you know the dynamic's there that I wanted.

- Today was lots of highs and lots of lows.

Probably more lows than highs.

I found it really challenging all day.

- [Stephen Voiceover] It's now in the hands of the judges, who get to see the three commission works for the very first time.

- Oh wow.

Oh my goodness, this is-- - Oh my god.

- Gonna be difficult.

God, you can feel it already, can't you?

- [Kate] Wow.

- [Tai-Shan] No, they're really, yes.

- That's pretty impressive, isn't it?

Big.

- [Greg] I'd never been to Lincoln before, but the cathedral really dominates that cityscape.

I sat on this rooftop and the light dimmed.

There were two key moments, but the problem was I couldn't do it in one painting.

- [Kathleen] I think he has managed to capture the dominance that this place has over the city.

I also think Greg was really lucky, actually, that the scaffolding was there, because it's made it grittier, more urban, more real.

- It's a comment on the artificial light, but at different times of night, then he's investigating that.

So it's very interesting conceptually.

- [Kate] What about this painting today?

I mean, this is a bit more of an obvious composition.

- But a credit to him.

He painted the view that was in front of him.

You know?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- God forbid that someone should actually do that.

(Kate laughing) I think he's done really well on the colors that that white sky gave us today, with those lovely blues and mauves in the distance.

- [Tai-Shan] And the light is definitely London.

- [Kate] Yeah.

- [Tai-Shan] I'm still a bit upset that that house is smack in the middle.

It just seemed a bit obvious to me.

- The commission painting I selected was the view from underneath the pier, looking through the darkness, and you just see a hint of the bright lights.

- [Kate] I really love this painting.

I'm really transported there.

God, this color palette.

It's like a rusting painting.

- [Kathleen] Like all really good artists, what Jen has done is she's found a corner that might be ignored, that might not be looked at, and she's given it a grandeur, and given it an elegance.

- And the way that as the light falls in the evening, it sort of gathers on the horizon.

It's a very masterful piece of painting.

- [Kate] I like what she did today.

I think the color palette was great.

I think it was a good compositional choice.

I think the only thing that I feel is a bit unresolved is the house.

- [Tai-Shan] I mean, that tree on the right there is a miracle.

It's just, there's nothing there, and yet there's volume, there's light.

You get glimpses of this brilliant, so obviously the time ran out.

- When I first arrived in Happisburgh and saw the lighthouse, it was like a picture postcard, and I just thought, nightmare.

And then I had a discussion with one of the team that look after the lighthouse, and there were aspects of the coastal erosion.

There's coastal defenses.

And include them in the painting in some way.

- This foreboding black nothingness that stopped us entering the landscape, it has got something in a funny way very prehistoric.

- Yeah.

- [Tai-Shan] About it, and he's caught that very well.

I'm a bit worried about the colors.

I think what we've always liked about Alan's palette is its subdued-ness, and its moodiness.

- It's difficult, isn't it, because sunset's so problematic.

I think that is a beautifully painted sunset, though.

I love the way that he lets the light just fall really, really gently over the cliff face.

It's got a really kind of romantic, filmic quality to it.

This painting today, I think the way that he's captured the sense of this place, having been an important part of London for a long time, it feels like it's got a really good presence.

- [Kathleen] When you sit alongside the lighthouse, you can understand that it's the same approach.

- [Kate] You feel like this is a moving landscape.

It's got a real sense of the kind of landscape rushing past you.

(bright piano music) - I must say, I don't envy your job, because these are so diverse in their style, and so strong in their style.

I mean, look at Greg's.

This is sensational in its impact.

- He's showing us what he can do, and we saw that in Sudely, the way he split up the canvas into two and brought a conceptual edge to it.

And there's a finishedness to Lincoln Cathedral that he has there.

And then in Felixstowe, there was a paintedness of the scene in front of him, and he's showing us today that he can do all these things, with a conceptual edge.

- [Stephen] Now, Jen.

Totally different style.

- [Kathleen] And Jen's so much about mood, and she's very romantic.

She has a sort of wonderful timeless range that she finds.

I think there's a lot of emotional power in those works.

- [Kate] She'll show you something reduced, but it's not reduced of energy and time and place.

It speaks volumes in the absence of things, I think.

- I think the way Alan treats nature, it comes very naturally to him, and he's got a very beautiful language in portraying that.

- I think you'd say his paintings are enigmatic and filmic.

I can see they're the same artist, and I think they show that he's got a good range.

When you look at all these works, there's three really accomplished artists who know the kind of work that they make, and we've really fallen for all three of them, and so now we're in a really difficult position.

- All I can say is don't get it wrong.

- Thanks.

- Good luck.

(soft piano music) - Greg, Jen, Alan.

Thank you all enormously for making this a nail-biting final.

It's been absolutely thrilling to watch you work.

You are, each of you, an outstanding artist.

- But as you know, this is the final.

There can be only one winner.

Now the judges have finished their deliberation, and they have reached a decision.

The Landscape Artist of the Year is (tense exciting music) Jen Gash.

(crowd cheering) (all applauding) (bright inspiring music) - This is absolutely bonkers, and I can't tell you how chuffed I am, and so happy, and so grateful, and I don't know what else to say.

- Aw!

(Jen sniffling) - Today's there's been a really special thing that she's done in all the paintings we've seen, and that challenge.

I mean, it was like the ultimate magic trick.

It's just a beautiful, beautiful special painting.

- I think she paints in a very poetic way.

It's not just about storytelling.

There's a lot of room in her painting for contemplation, and interpretation.

- I love you!

- I love you.

- Jen has something else, and it's that thing that art has.

It's something unquantifiable.

It moves us in a way that we didn't know we could be moved, and it's opening up a whole new way of seeing the world.

And that is kind of quite remarkable for an artist to be able to do that.

- Jen, you are a really worthy winner of the 10,000 pound commission to create a painting to be displayed and set among the prestigious artworks and collections of the Imperial War Museum.

- Oh my god.

(audience applauding) That is amazing.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And another hug.

It's gonna take days and weeks to sink in.

Because it does mark a long-waited change.

So I'm just, I'm chuffed.

(bright uplifting music) - [Stephen Voiceover] Next time, Jen travels to the site of a First World War battle in Macedonia to complete her winners commission.

- [Jen] It's not the view that's in front of me I'm painting, it's the pasts of all the people, and all the stuff that's gone on.

- [Stephen Voiceover] And the commissioned artwork is unveiled at London's Imperial War Museum.

- Okay, here we go!

(bright inspiring music) (bright music)