(adventurous music) - Welcome to Hackney's West Reservoir, an open-water sports center tucked away in North London.

- It's about to be sink or swim for today's six artists, who'll be capturing this watery scene, all attempting to make the biggest splash.

- Let's hope they can come up with something that floats our boat.

It's "Landscape Artist of the Year."

- [Stephen] Thousands of artists applied for just 36 places in this year's competition.

- You never really know how it's gonna come out.

Everything can go wrong at this point.

(chuckles) - [Joan] Presented with a range of breathtaking landscapes from the classical grandeur of Britain's historic houses to modern urban vistas.

- I love the view.

This is the drama that I've been waiting for.

- [Joan] The artist must complete an artwork showing the very best of their creative talent in just four hours.

- You better speed up, my friend, if you wanna go twice as big.

- Yeah, onwards and upwards.

- [Stephen] The winner will be awarded a prestigious 10,000-pound-prize commission to create an artwork for the National Trust.

Capturing the dramatic landscape of Snowdonia, the work will commemorate the anniversary of the trust's first ever land donation, Dinas Oleu.

- [Joan] And as always, the artist will be working under the scrutiny of our three demanding judges, independent curator Kathleen Soriano, art historian Kate Bryan, and award-winning artist Tai Shan Schierenberg.

- Put your music on, and let it flow, come on.

- Yeah.

- [Stephen] Also facing the discerning eye of the judges are a host of talented wild card artists.

- Oh my goodness, are you wild cards all just brilliant today?

- [Stephen] So, who can hold their nerve?

- I am feeling the pressure.

It is getting quite stressy.

(laughs) - [Stephen] As we prepare to be truly blown away by "Landscape Artist of the Year."

- The painting is coming about, but it's still evolving.

- It is.

(paper rustles) - Ooh, ooh, no.

(canvas clunks) (enchanting music) (mysterious music) - [Stephen] Competing at the West Reservoir today are three professional artists, Silviya Georgieva, Ophelia Redpath, and Julian Vilarubbi.

- I have been worrying little bits.

Few sleepless nights.

Producing something four hours could be a bit of a challenge.

- [Joan] Joining them are three amateurs, Judith McDonagh, Anil Patel, and Amanda Barrett.

- I've been looking forward to today for a long time.

I feel really good about it, but it doesn't mean things will necessarily go great.

(perky music) - Until now the judges have only seen the artists' work via their online submissions, so while our artists unpack their materials, the judges head inside to have a look at the real things.

Another day, another wall.

They're very diverse today, so let's start with the splashy one at the end.

(elegant music) - Splashy's a good word for it.

I love the color palette.

I think it's full of energy and vivacity.

- [Joan] It's a young artist.

And it shows, I think.

Don't you?

- [Tai] Yeah, I think, in its exuberance and the way they experimenting with mark-making.

And it's interesting how we project so much onto it when we've got this very loosely painted figure.

- [Kathleen] And there's much more composition in it than you imagine at a first glance.

It's very directed.

It's very focused.

- [Joan] Well, the next is a very delicately produced piece of work, isn't it?

- It's small and delicate, but it's weird and wonderful.

I (laughs) love this figure playing a guitar with a white owl in the moonlight amongst the pink mountains.

What a weird painting.

- [Tai] I presume the landscape's been made from their imagination, but in doing so, they have been able to make it believable.

- Now, there's nothing weird about this, because it's obviously a location in a particular city.

- [Kathleen] New York City?

Manhattan?

What I love about this is that collage can often feel a little bit mean and crafty, but this is bold collage, and it's confident.

- [Kate] This is so full of expression and character, particularly the way that they've put together the teaming body of skyscrapers using all these gray tones and newspapers.

I think it's cool.

- [Joan] Okay, a different story, a different city.

- Yeah, a desolate supermarket in the morning, it's a really unprepossessing subject to pick quite grounded in the dullness of real life but also quite enigmatic.

- [Kathleen] I love the way in which they've worked with light and shadow.

You see the shadow of the roof falling on the tarmac there, but they've given us a tension in the way in which they've constructed everything slightly on the off.

- This has been sought out as a location obviously.

Quite different.

- [Tai] What I love about this is the mark-making, the inventiveness of producing a craggy vegetation-filled side of a mountain.

You can get lost in the weird marks and bits of paint in there.

- I'm desperate to see them actually painting today.

I want to know how they do it.

It's something about the way in which the green area's so fragmented.

I find it intriguing.

- And this is full of stories.

Road works, they're everywhere.

- [Kathleen] I'm really interested in the thrust that the artist has given us, that sense of perspective that they've got by standing in this position and also channeling us as the viewer with the barricades as well.

- The overall impression of the painting underscores the subject, which is dark intense brooding, these really, really dark colors in the background and then have all these neons sitting on the top.

(hopeful music) - Artists, it's time to dive into your challenge.

- You have four hours to complete your painting, and your time starts now.

(hopeful music continues) (paint tube squelches) - [Stephen] Today, our artists are perched on the edge of Hackney's West Reservoir.

Now an outdoor sports center, this manmade lake with its reed beds and tree-lined banks sits in a part of the city undergoing rapid transformation.

And the scene today is a hive of activity.

- Today, we brought our artists to this oasis of calm in the middle of the metropolis, except it's not calm.

It's very, very animated.

We've got swimmers.

We've got dinghies.

We've got colored buoys in the middle of this lake, which is actually constantly moving.

We're asking the artists, really, to bring together that sense of the urban and that sense of the rural and nature, together in one work.

So let's see how they deal with those.

(delicate music) - [Stephen] Each artist has their own individual technique for capturing the view, whether creating detailed sketches to establish a composition or diving straight into color.

- I always start with my base color, whether it features predominantly as the painting goes along, I'll decide that by just visually looking at it, but I'd like it to come through, 'cause it warms everything up.

So it might add a bit bling to it.

- [Stephen] Amateur artist Anil Patel runs his own print-and-design business in his hometown of Leicester.

His submission, an urban scene of roadworks, was painted in a dark brooding pallet with accents of neon.

- Anil, I'm getting the sense this is gonna be more vibrant than your submission, 'cause his submission had a dark quality to it.

This looks like it might be a bit of a brighter painting.

- Yeah, my submission piece, it just caught my eye, the workmen in the high-vis, in the bright orange and the bright green, and bright orange must be my subconscious somewhere as well, 'cause I've bought it with me today.

But my submission was the smallish road with lots of trees, but this is vast.

And I might go panoramic.

I might add another canvas to that as well.

- All right, well, then my advice to you is you better speed up, my friend, if you wanna go twice as big.

- Yep, onwards and upwards.

(lulling music) - [Joan] Whilst today's dynamic landscape is brimming with options when it comes to composition, for one artist, the view in front of her may be just the starting point for a flight of fantasy.

- Normally, I paint slightly from my imagination, so I'm looking at this landscape here and trying to imagine a story.

I haven't actually yet found one, 'cause there's so much to take in, but I think something will appear.

(laughs) (lulling music continues) - Ophelia Redpath is a professional artist from Royston in Hertfordshire.

She applied to the competition with an oil painting showing a whimsical nighttime scene incorporating some unusual characters.

Ophelia, we're all intrigued by your submission.

Is it your own imagination?

- I think it just popped into my head in an odd way.

I was wanting to get a feeling of peace and quiet and an elderly gentleman who's slightly mysterious character that could have come from, yeah, anywhere, I suppose.

- That combination of landscape and the fantasy figure, are you going to do that here?

- Coming here, you see the very, very modern blocks of flats.

You see the reflections in the water.

You see wilderness around it.

I've seen some herons coming across, ducks, people swimming.

So I like the idea of juxtaposing them all to make a bit of a composite.

It's a challenge, and it's a lovely day, so I'm very happy.

(laughs) (fretful music) - [Stephen] Composition isn't the only challenge facing our artists today.

Creating a work in just four hours also presents practical issues, depending on their choice of technique and materials.

- I tend to work quite quickly in bursts, which means that I can give the painting time to dry.

I can come back to it and then put another layer on top.

I like to work in layers.

When you're up against it with time, it's never gonna dry as quickly as you wanted.

So we'll see how many layers I can get onto the surface.

(fretful music) - [Stephen] Julian Vilarubbi is a professional artist from Brighton.

His submission painting of a mountain top monastery in Greece was created over the course of two years, building up layers of paint to create detailed texture.

- Julian, it's all happening really quickly at the moment.

Paint's going on all over the place, moving from one color to another.

But with that type of paint, can you make changes later?

- Yeah, well, this is acrylic, so it should be dry 10 or 15 minutes.

And then, I usually work over the top in oil.

- [Kathleen] I can see impasto as well.

- [Julian] I love the texture, you see.

- [Kathleen] And my goodness, what a great way to deal with the choppiness of the water.

- It's a shorthand.

Hopefully, it'll work.

There'll be another layer over the top of that.

Somehow, I'll dig out some of the previous layers.

- [Kathleen] Okay, I'll let you crack on.

(scampering music) - [Joan] Also at the West Reservoir today are our wild cards, who've come armed with everything they could possibly need for a day of painting.

- This is what your studio looks like.

It's great.

It's just covered in stuff.

- Absolutely, be careful.

- It's been busy just trying to be prepared for today.

(easel clatters) (canvas thuds) Ooh.

- How long are you intending to stay?

(woman laughs) Looks like you're here for the month.

One of these artists will be selected by the judges as today's wild card winner with a chance of a place in the semi-final.

- I'm just intrigued.

That's how it used to be made, but I suppose as a master painter, you had an apprentice grinding your paints away.

- My boats have moved.

- Yeah, they'll do that.

(spray can rattles) (spray can hisses) - The spray, I can actually smell it in the air.

I'm feeling quite heady just being downwind of it.

(blows) It's gonna be a good day.

(artist laughs) (cheerful music) Happily working upwind of the wild cards, our six main artists are one hour into their challenge, each finding ways to capture the scene in their own unique style.

- I'm semi-pleased the way it's going.

Just need to not get bogged down in too much detail still and just keep it loose and open, basically.

- Took me a while to decide what view to do.

I'm homing in on a block of flats, which sends interesting reflections into the water.

I'll probably invent some details as well.

- I wanna reflect the scene.

I've got an idea in my head, but whether I can get the paint to do it is another thing.

So could be interesting.

I've made the major decisions.

I can't go back.

(bright music) (perky music) - [Joan] Here in North London, six artists are working on their landscapes of Hackney's large open-water West Reservoir.

Despite already being an hour into their challenge, for one artist, it's back to the drawing board.

- I don't like my painting.

(laughs) I am discarding this one.

It's too predictable.

I have changed completely, and I am going with a tiny little gem of a view over there.

(bittersweet music) - [Joan] Amateur artist Amanda Barrett is a graphic designer from Suffolk.

Her submission, painted in acrylics, shows an everyday scene of her local supermarket and was created from a sketch she made in the car park during her weekly shop.

- Amanda, this is not the painting I saw earlier on when I walked past.

What's this?

- This is a lovely little thing I spotted right across the water over there where there's a blue and a green Portakabin.

And then, above the Portakabin, there's a red lift shaft and a building being built.

- [Kate] What is it particularly that really appeals to you about this half-finished building?

'Cause other people might be painting that out on purpose.

- I love it.

I like the geometric shapes.

Also, it sums up what's going on around here.

They're building all these skyscrapers.

If you looked at the lake, you'd think you were in Sussex or somewhere.

And then, you look up and you think, "Oh my goodness, I'm in the city."

- You might just have to go a bit fast.

- I think I'm gonna have to motor, aren't I?

(scampering music) - [Stephen] While Amanda motors on with her second painting, she's not the only artist today who's unhappy with their initial efforts.

- I tried to paint a building, but I painted over it.

It looked like a milk box.

Yeah, I'm just gonna wait till this drys and then (gentle music) attempt it again.

- 18-year-old Judith McDonagh is a student from Oxford.

Her submission, a sparse semi-abstract work with one lone figure striding through the landscape, took three hours to complete and is painted in her signature style of heavy bold acrylics.

- Judith, there's some initial mark-making on the canvas, and now it's stopped.

- Yeah, I attempted the building, but it's quite difficult 'cause I wanna keep my brush marks quite consistent.

And then, because they're so vast and bare, it's difficult to work in a building.

- I get the feeling with your painting, it happens quite quickly.

- When it happens well, it will happen very quickly.

- But you've gotta paint to have things happen.

Sometimes, you just need to get on with it.

- [Judith] Yeah.

- Get into the zone.

(anxious music) - [Joan] Not all today's artists have chosen to depict this urban scene in paint.

One is creating a composite landscape in a very literal sense.

- My media is collage, so I normally use a different variety of paper, different textures, different patterns.

I love urban landscapes, so I'm really happy about the view.

And I like the variety with the water, nature, swimmers as well.

(ethereal music) - [Joan] Originally from Bulgaria, Silviya Georgieva is a graphic designer now living in London.

Her landscape depicting the Brooklyn Bridge was created in collage incorporating paper from the "New York Times" with charcoal and paint applied over the top.

- Silviya, I'm quite surprised that you are not sticking things down one at a time.

You are actually laying things on top and then working out where they need to go.

- I make all the shapes before I start and start moving to see which composition is good for me.

But now it's quite tricky with the wind.

- When you are looking at this view today, what do you immediately think of?

- I really like the building, which is still under construction.

So I try to bring all of the materials there, like a concrete, metal.

And also, the contrast between the water and the people which are moving, it's like a puzzle.

- Painful, though.

Presumably always on the floor.

- Oh no, it's not painful.

I can do yoga after that.

(laughs) (tender music) - Water, sky, buildings, trees, swimmers, empty boats, there's a lot to choose from.

- It's a phenomenal view.

And as a subject matter, I must say it's quite idiosyncratic because you do have this building site on the other side where everything is in the middle of coming into being, and this reservoir is actually being used by swimmers.

They got weird orange flotation devices.

So here's a lot to pick from.

And if the artists are smart at editing, there are good paintings in there.

- [Stephen] What would you zero in on?

What's your strength in this landscape?

(Tai laughs) - Oh dear, not the boats.

- Oh, really?

- You know I've got a boat phobia.

- Twee alert?

- Yeah, and I think my allergy to tweeness comes from an overused cliche to paint that sort of painting.

- Is it not interesting because artists are not really looking at what's out there.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- They're just taking it and repackaging it into something that feels familiar and warm.

- (tuts) I wish I'd said that.

(chuckles) - Too late.

- That is it.

What I want the artists to do is show me a different experience so when I look at the scene again, I go, "Wow, I didn't see that.

I didn't feel that."

A few of them, they've certainly approached this view and done something already interesting with the composition.

But it's early days.

(bustling music) - [Stephen] Meanwhile, on the other side of the reservoir, our wild card artists are forging ahead with their own landscape masterpieces.

- I love the colors that you are using, and you've nearly finished.

What's this here?

Is that gonna be number two?

Yeah, I'm gonna do number two.

- Will number two be a tighter version of that.

- No, it'll be looser.

- Looser?

- Cor, you're fast.

- I know.

- [Kate] Speedy Gonzales over here.

- I always work quite quickly.

I'm working even more quickly 'cause I'm using acrylic, so I'm a bit panicky about it drying in the wind and the heat.

- Why is it you choose such tiny canvas?

- I'm a bit lazy, really.

And the detail's a lot easier to get with fewer brush strokes when you're on a small canvas.

- Everybody else's suddenly look gigantic in comparison.

- I know.

- Our wild cards are having a great day.

It's like a family.

- It's like a family of very good artists.

This really surreal landscape is providing no end of inspiration.

They're all finding some little corner that appeals to them, be it the water, be it these Victorian houses.

They're composing these beautiful pieces.

- And actually, the ones that touch me somehow are the ones who've used different palettes and taken the landscape somewhere else.

More and more so, when I spend time with the wild cards, I really wanna paint with them.

I miss that, and I think- - That I would watch.

(apprehensive music) - [Joan] Back in the pods, our artists have been working for two hours and have reached the midway point of their challenge.

- I'm halfway through the time, and I'm about a quarter of the way through the painting.

So we shall see whether I get it done.

- The water's quite chaotic, and it's always moving.

I wanna try and capture that.

I want to do more to it, and I'd quite like to put some swimmers in, but it's quite muddy.

So I dunno if it'll work.

(apprehensive music continues) - Because I like the view so much, to encompass all of it, I might go for diptych.

so I've prepared another canvas.

Got a couple of hours.

If it works, great.

If it doesn't, it's gonna be crash and burn.

(bright music) (idyllic music) - [Stephen] Six artists are two hours into their challenge to depict the busy West Reservoir in North London.

As well as the pressure of time, working en plein air is presenting its own artistic problems.

(wind murmurs) - I got the composition in my head, so I tried to stick all of the parts of the paper now.

the wind is a massive problem for me because all of my pieces of paper start flying everywhere.

- I'm going to do a little bit of the reservoir bank and some trees, let those dry, and then, I'm thinking, bringing some birds in in the sky.

- Trying to decide which tone to go for with the water.

Obviously, it's a steely blue, but it changes.

It goes light and then dark, depending on what's happening with the clouds.

- But halfway through the day, which artists are on an even keel?

And who may be sailing a bit close to the wind?

It's warmish.

It's breezy.

Difficult conditions?

- Yeah, breezy's difficult for a collage artist, for sure.

But the others, I think, are finding it quite dynamic.

It's adding movement to the lake, and that's all helping.

- [Stephen] Silviya is working with lots of little bits of card/paper.

That's tricky, just technically to hang onto (chuckles) your gear.

- [Kathleen] Super tricky.

She's down on her hands and knees.

She's got weights everywhere that she can put them, but she's still managing to create something that actually feels quite sculptural at the moment.

I know she hasn't got into the drawing and the painting on it, but it's very pretty.

- [Kate] I think Silviya has done something, which is an interesting foundation, but I'm looking for the expressionistic qualities and the liveliness that was in his submission.

- Julian's painting has a lotta texture to it.

Is he impressing you?

- [Kate] Yeah, I'm amazed at Julian's work.

He builds up so many layers to achieve that tactile quality.

- [Kathleen] Yeah, I love Julian's color palette.

Most of it seems to be about dabbing things and taking things away.

And it starts to give us some of that luscious separateness that we had in his submission.

- The word on the street is that Anil is doing a diptych.

- [Kathleen] I think the problem he's struggling with is that he feels something is missing, so I'm hoping that he does deliver to that frustration and actually gets painting.

Whether or not it forms a diptych at the end doesn't matter.

- [Kate] He's given the water such pride of place that, I think, he's got lot more work to do to bring it to life.

That orange ground, I think in the water, he's fighting against it.

I think it's not very good-looking so far.

- Judith, I was worried about her.

There seemed to be a lack of impetus, but suddenly, a lot of blue paint has arrived.

Is she doing well?

- I like the jeopardy with Judith.

What is this painting?

Who is she as an artist?

Are we gonna have anything recognizable?

Her colors are great, but is it enough?

I have no idea where this painting is headed, none whatsoever.

I'm totally stumped.

- What is interesting is once it starts flowing, her marks go on fast and there's a vigor to them.

So I think once she gets her mind into the right zone, it could happen quite quickly.

- Next to Judith, we have someone responding in a completely different way, Ophelia.

- [Kathleen] Yeah, it's so full of narrative.

I think it's the way she's got this really dark ground.

You just feel that there's a film noir or a crime scene or something that's going to emerge over the course of the day.

- I don't know how it works, because she started in great detail.

And you thought, "You can only do that if you've drawn the whole thing out in your mind."

- Amanda zoomed in on the Portakabin.

She's given us a very industrial scene.

- [Tai] I just loved Amanda's courage, really, to come to a scene, to realize it's not working.

And she just thought, "Well, to hell with this.

I'm gonna start again."

And I think throwing the shackles off has liberated her.

- Instead of this traditional Panorama, thought, "Okay, lift, Portakabins, bit grotty."

That was more interesting to her.

I was worried about her because she lost a good hour or more, but now she actually likes what she's painting, she's super quick.

- Well, water, water everywhere but not a drop of ink, nobody's using ink.

- Very cute.

- That's all I've got.

(judges laugh) - It's gonna be a look afternoon.

(tranquil music) - [Stephen] Back in the pods, time is ticking on.

Anil has decided on his diptych, but there may be problems with the second painting.

What's happening?

Is the world catching fire?

(Anil laughs) - No, I wanted to capture the whole panoramic view if I could.

So I've attempted to paint the orange background, but it's not quite dried, so it's just sliding.

The paint's sliding, and it's not sitting.

So whether I submit it or not is going to be another question, really.

- Oh, well, I'll let you make that decision.

I'll leave you to it.

- I just want to be sure if it's not too busy, the whole composition.

When you put a lot of details, it's getting really, really busy.

So I try to be more clean and fresh and more monochromic as well.

- My Portakabins are nearly finished.

The trees have got to go in, and all the little fine lines have got to go in.

So it's a little bit lurid.

I'm thinking I'm gonna have to knock it back somehow a little bit.

- Sitting back relaxed in the chair, does this mean you've finished, even though I can still see huge amounts of ground there?

- [Judith] I'm not very happy with it, but I think it's muddy, and I don't wanna overwork it.

- [Kathleen] Do you go through this with all of your pictures?

- [Judith] Definitely, I- - So how do you get over that hump?

- Well, usually I'll not look at it for three days or something.

- Yeah, but unfortunately we do not have that luxury today.

- [Judith] Yeah, okay, I'll do it.

- [Kathleen] Okay.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Our artists painting here at the West Reservoir today are part of a tradition which dates back over 100 years.

Painting en plein air, or in the open air, was virtually unheard of until a group of pioneering artists adopted a radical new approach to capturing the landscape.

- There's a complete transformation in the 19th century, and artists go outside.

They wanna get into nature, and they wanna be painting what they see right in front of them at that moment, engaging with landscape in a very raw and direct way.

And it's the impressionist that really take that first step into uncharted territory.

- [Joan] Impressionists were a group of young predominantly French painters, but the term impressionism itself was born right here in London.

- Monet painted "Impression, Sunrise."

It was a view of this burning hot sun rising over the Thames.

And you really get a sense of the fleeting nature of that sunrise.

And that's why he called it "Impression."

That became the word known to describe this new way of painting.

The impressionists really give us a sense of what it feels like to be outside, to be walking through a landscape, to be looking at the play of light on water.

Photography's been invented, so the impressionists are saying, "Why have I gotta paint it exactly like it looks?

A camera can do that now."

(bewitched music continues) - [Joan] But it isn't just Monet's Thames that binds this city to the history of the impressionist.

In 1841, John Rand, an American artist living in London, had designed the biggest technological breakthrough in modern painting, the paint tube.

- Paints going into tubes gave it a functionality that it hadn't had before.

Before, artists actually had to grind their own pigments.

They had to mix the whole thing up.

Paint went off very quickly.

It didn't last very long.

You absolutely couldn't transport it.

- [Joan] The humble paint tube meant that artists could go outside and paint the contemporary landscape as they experienced it.

- What the impressionists were painting was the new modern world they found themselves in.

They were painting leisure time, boating lakes, parks, cafes, restaurants.

This is all new.

So I think it's really thrilling for me to see everyone out here plein air painting, doing what the impressionist did, which was actually look at nature but through the prism of modern life.

(cheery music) - [Stephen] Back in present day Hackney, our own hardy plein air wild cards have been making themselves at home on the banks of the reservoir.

- Oh my goodness, are you wild cards all just brilliant today?

How are we gonna pick one winner?

- This is an unusual technique because you use a credit card.

- Yes, this is a Tesco Clubcard.

Other cards are available.

- You use it like a pallet knife, do you?

- Yeah, you can scrape it.

- [Joan] That's great.

- [Tai] Who's that painting up there?

- That's my late father.

- [Tai] Ah.

- [Painter] Myself and my sister and father and mother, we're all painters.

- All painters?

My father is a painter.

- What a good day.

So many good painters.

I think they've all done really nice work.

- [Tai] And some so inspired that they didn't only do one but another one and another one.

- Yeah, show-offs.

- And I'm thinking- - I like the man at the very, very end who's done two.

- Very similar to one of my favorite artists, Mr. Tai Shan Schierenberg.

- Oh, really?

- Yeah, all right, okay.

What's great about his work- - D'you like it?

- [Tai] He's got this nice luscious way of painting, and the use of the pink ground works very well as well.

- [Kathleen] What about the guy with the white hat?

I like his.

He said the far end.

- [Tai] Odd palette, but it works.

- [Kate] There's the guy with the red neck scarf, who painted the houses beautifully, which I thought was great.

- Do we agree on- - Yeah, I think- - A really beautiful wristy abstract- - Honest bit of painting?

- Yeah, go.

- Yeah, I'll go tell them.

You're our wild card winner today, congratulations.

(wild cards applaud) - [Stephen] Thank you very much.

- I think it was so good that you went and had a go at doing the little one with the brevity.

It was just a juicy fresh honest bit of painting.

And you managed to get a little bit magic.

Well done.

- Delighted, really touched that they chose my work.

To actually be acknowledged from those guys was special.

Absolutely thrilled.

- [Stephen] Stephen Kinder from Godalming will enter a pool of wild card winners from all the heats, from which one will be selected for a place in the semi-final.

(persevering music) - [Joan] Our six selected artists have been working on their landscapes all day and now have less than an hour left to complete their artworks.

- I'm doing a heron.

It's like adding characters to the stage in a way.

Do that as quick as I can.

Suddenly realized I've got to get my skates on.

- I'm going to try and put a glaze on to knock back some of the intensity of color.

And then, I'm going to put in the fine detail.

I think I'm about three quarters of the way, so it'll be a last minute finish, I should imagine.

- I'm feeling under pressure, so it's just a matter of pushing it and pushing it and pushing it.

And if I push it too much, then it'll just go dead.

- I don't know if I should do another one very quickly and hope I like it more than the first.

(sobs) I don't know.

(bright music) (jittery music) - [Joan] At the West Reservoir in Hackney, our six artists are nearing the end of their landscape challenge.

- Anil, has the second panel won the battle?

Is it gonna stay here?

- I don't think so.

- [Kathleen] So what have you got to do more on your actual panel?

- [Anil] Bit more on the highlights, and I think I'm nearly there.

- Okay, chop-chop.

- I try to put more details and more outlines.

(sighs) I hope to finish it on time.

(laughs) - I am feeling the pressure.

It is getting quite stressy.

(laughs) I think it's just the tones.

I can't do anything at this stage, so I'm just ticking in the last final pieces of the picture.

- I'm just trying to work out what I can do for the last few minutes.

A little bit of highlighting on the water, and that's it.

That's all I've got time for.

- Artists, you have one minute left.

- My God.

(sighs) (momentous music continues) - I probably should stop now, I think, probably.

- Little bit stressed out.

I'll be pleased when it's finished.

- Artists, your four hours are up.

- Please, put down your brushes, and stand away from your easels.

(artists applaud) (kindly music) (mysterious music) - As the artists finally get a break, the judges examine the six finished artworks.

- [Kathleen] I'm really pleased with the sense of today that all of our artists caught.

- [Tai] It's incredibly varied.

Every one of these is completely from a different school of image-making.

- That's what makes it exciting though, isn't it?

- [Tai] Yeah.

- Silviya's work got better looking as the day progressed.

She did add those expressionistic elements that I was looking for, maybe not enough for me, but I really love the choice in materials to create the building, especially with those crazy zigzag lines.

- It was impressive the speed with which she had to work in order to still stay true to her medium, but I do miss the brutality that was in her submission.

It felt that there was more drawing and painting into it.

- Julian did really well, because I thought he was gonna really struggle to give us a sense of that fabulous textured quality that we got in the submission, but he found a quick way of doing it.

And this feels much more fun/lively, real sense of activity.

- There are moments of real genius.

That water is totally believable, even though a lot of the rest of the representation is stylized.

A beautiful painting.

Anil made a lot of right decisions today.

It was a right decision not to include that second panel.

And I like his composition.

I think the barrier at the front works really, really effectively.

- Anil's sky's beautiful.

And the tower blocks are really sensitively handled.

Unfortunately, the ground that he chose, it worked in the buildings, and it didn't work in the water.

- I'm upset with Judith that she didn't have more confidence.

I think maybe the pressure got to her, but in very few marks, she created something very visceral and interesting and ugly like the building's out there.

I don't know what happened.

- It's like angry dad.

- Sorry, it's got bits that are good, and it's just she gave up.

- She's 18.

She's only just finished school.

Her use of color or choice of color is still showing promise.

- Now, Ophelia, I think this is an extraordinary finished work of art.

The heron, the clock, and the three Victorian buildings that have been stylized into sheds create a very strange atmosphere.

She knew where the painting was going, and it was all in her head.

- I like the way that she's painted it, because it feels very polished and finished with that slickness.

And yet it's quite weird and quite strange.

It's not exactly what was in front of her.

- Amanda's a very good colorist in a very subtle way.

The orange Stripe on that large buoy leads us into the painting.

And then, you got the beautiful greens and the blues of the Portakabin.

And in a funny way, out of this huge monstrous building site, she's created something that's very personable.

- I think Amanda's just fantastic at finding beauty where others see ugliness.

She does something which is very honest.

And how brilliant that she got rid of something she wasn't enjoying.

- [Joan] Before deciding on the day's winner, the judges narrowed down the selection to a short list of three artists.

- I've got three.

They're all very good, so it's a problem.

- I've got 2 1/2.

- Yeah, I've got three.

We'll have to see who gets through.

(gentle music) - Artists, it's been a brilliant day, and thank you for sharing it with us.

But as you know, only three of you can go onto the short list to be considered as today's winner.

- The first artist on the short list is Julian Vilarubbi.

(artists applaud) - And the second artist is Ophelia Redpath.

(artists applaud) - The third artist is Amanda Barrett.

(artists applaud) - Our commiseration with those of you who didn't quite make it, but don't think we didn't really appreciate your work you did, thank you.

(everyone applauds) - Thank you.

- I'm a little bit disappointed but take a lot of positives from the experience today.

Thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I'll keep going, and I'll keep painting.

That's what I love doing anyway, so can't stop me.

- Only one artist can go through to the semi-final.

To help the judges in their decision, they also take into consideration the short-listed artists' submission paintings.

What a great day.

We've been here in this old Victorian reservoir and this slightly unprepossessing part of London, and we've got these paintings that seem to be full of mystery and story and narrative.

- [Kate] The artists have really delivered.

We've got so much going on, and they've all taken their own unique path through the landscape.

They're great.

- Amanda's submission zeroed in on a slice of urban life.

She zeroed in on the urban today as well, didn't she?

- Yeah, she found a really good equivalent for what she was doing in her submission, although she treated it slightly differently.

This has got a pastel sweet otherworldly quality to it, whereas today feels fresh and lively and full of the activity that was on the reservoir.

- Now that I look at Amanda's submission and the work today, I realize that she's chopped everything up at the top.

She's brought us right up into it.

And those sorts of subtle introductions add a dynamism and a tension to the work.

- Now, Ophelia has introduced a kind of painting we've never had before.

We've not had surrealism before.

- She takes the elements of the landscape in front of her, and she uses it to tell her own stories.

Today's painting is as much a piece from her imagination as her submission in a funny way.

- I think for me, Ophelia walks a really fine line between something that's very serious and, actually, that's really playful and fun.

The way that she puts paint down, the way that she conjures an atmosphere, it's a great narrative bit of landscape.

- [Stephen] Now, Julian gave us a mythic monastery on a hill and, today, a landscape full of activity.

- And in both cases, he's very innovative in the way he finds marks and alternatives to recreate surfaces.

That overgrown rocky mountain site up to the monastery is absolute believable.

And in a funny way, he's done that again today with the water.

- Yeah, I think that Julian was very precise in the sense that both of his paintings have the same compositional devices where in the foreground you've got either the pathway for the pilgrims or the jetty that we had in front of us today.

- I think today's work demonstrates how much their paintings exude their different personalities.

Hard to choose one.

- Very.

- Very difficult.

- But which of these very different personalities will be chosen as today's winner?

(epic music) Julian, Ophelia, Amanda, we applaud all of you for the work you've done today.

But as you know, only one of you can go forward into the semi-final.

- And the judges have decided that that artist is (epic music continues) Ophelia Redpath.

(everyone applauds) - Yeah!

- Whoo!

- Whoo!

(blissful music) - I'm thrilled, really, really pleased.

I didn't expect to win.

It's a really lovely surprise.

And it's been a confidence boost for me.

- Thanks, Amanda.

- Ophelia piece was brilliant, and the whole experience has been great, really great.

- I'm so chuffed.

It's brilliant.

- I'm delighted we discovered an artist like Ophelia.

She works in a way that we haven't seen before.

I would call it magical where the surreal qualities and magical realism come together to produce an atmosphere that was related to here but existed in a parallel imagined universe.

(everyone applauds) - Bowled us all over.

- Thank you.

- [Kathleen] Looking forward to seeing you at the next round.

- Now I'm gonna go home and see my daughter, have a cup of hot chocolate.

I need time to take all of this in, really, yeah.

(blissful music continues) (enchanting music) (gleaming music)