(upbeat music) - Welcome to Chartwell, nestling in the gently rolling hills of the Kent countryside, delightfully known as The Garden of England.

- In the garden today, we've planted six budding artists, all hoping to cultivate some bloomin', marvelous art, but with just four hours to do so, they'll have to dig deep if they want to come up smelling of roses.

- You're laying it on with a trial.

I'm nipping it in the bud.

- All right petal.

- Welcome to Landscape Artist of the Year.

Over the course of the British summer, we are visiting some of the most spectacular and thrilling scenery our islands have to offer.

- It's so good for me, but hope I don't mess it up, because that's gonna be kind of embarrassing now.

- [John] 36 gifted artists selected from a long list of thousands, will be challenged to capture these magnificent views and reimagine them as their own landscape masterpieces.

- I've been training like Rocky.

- [John] From grand stately gardens through historic architecture to striking cityscapes, our artists have just four hours to create their works of art.

- I made a bit of a mess of the building, so I'm just trying to repair that.

- [Joan] They're competing for the prize of a lifetime, a 10,000 pound commission to create an artwork for The National Trust depicting the rugged beauty of Snowdonia to celebrate the anniversary of the Trust's first ever land donation nearby Dinas Oleu.

(dramatic music) - [John] To be in with a chance of winning though, they'll need to impress our three discerning judges.

Award-winning artists Tai Shan Schierenberg, art historian Kate Bryan, and independent curator Kathleen Soriano.

- So tell me about this palette.

I mean, I don't understand why it's really what three or four times the size of what you're actually painting.

- [Joan] Also under the watchful gaze of our judges at every heat, are our wild cards, just one of whom will make it to the semifinal.

- My husband's just got me a coffee, so I'm hoping I'm gonna speed up.

- [John] So sit back and join us as the search for landscape artist of the year, hots up.

- You're out here working in the full sun.

- Yeah.

I've burnt my back.

- Have you?

Is that why you're wearing a collar even?

It's about out 400 degrees out there.

- I know.

(upbeat music) (pleasant music) - [John] Vying for the painting plaudits today are four professional artists, Rachel Wright.

Imonighie Imoesi, Max Denison-Pender and Rosie Parmley.

- I've never won anything far.

I was at work and they said, "You know, you've got through."

And I'm like, "Oh my God, were it me?"

- [Joan] Joining them are two amateurs, Zoe Wilkinson and Ben McGregor.

- If I wasn't here today, I'd be on a building site right now.

So it'll be a unique experience being able to spend the day sort of away from work, doing something that I love.

(gentle music) - All six artists were selected on the strength of artwork they submitted online.

Today, the judges are getting to look at the genuine article for the first time.

Never was a wall bestowed with such sunlight.

Let's start with the furthest.

- It suggests somewhere very exotic and the figures in it, but I can't quite work out anything that's going on, but I get a mood and it's quite interesting not being able to read a painting, but definitely getting a feeling from it.

- Do you have a sense of the collage there?

I think there is collage underneath and certainly you can see with the number five, which only adds to my list of questions actually.

It'll be fascinating to see that technique today.

- The next painting, the bluebell wood I think it's just quite expressionistic.

I like the fact that you're looking at something in detail in the foreground and in the background, it opens out.

You go on a fantastic journey and I'm really interested by this work.

- I just noticed as a, it looks like, what looks like a dead squirrel in the bottom right hand corner.

- [Kate] It is a dead squirrel.

- It is a dead squirrel.

I think it's fascinating.

I dunno how the paint is put on.

It's got this very strange scraped organic application, which gives us the mood very clearly.

(gentle music) You can see the artists and what they're doing in that beautiful shadow that's right in the front of the painting, but it's done in such a color palette that I get a sense of foreboding.

- It's very strong narrative.

There's a little fire in the middle of the day.

There's someone sat on a, what looks like a kind of discarded red desk chair.

They're sort of hooded in white.

Yeah, they absolutely got us hook, line, and sinker with this work.

We're in.

Fantastic composition.

I think the way that road sort of allows us to fall down it and then has a sort of serpentine taking us up to the top of the canvas.

It's very thoughtfully and cleverly put together.

- You're immediately transported that, you know, you can hear the car horns, you get a real sense of the place.

- We often talk about portraits.

You know, we all go, "Well, that's a good, honest portrait."

And I think it's is a very good, honest portrait of a tree.

It really is sort of gnarly.

And the way the paint is put on gives us the feeling of the tree.

There's nothing to distract us except treeness really.

And that will do for me.

- Treeness is such a good word.

This is a painting of treeness.

- [Joan] Artists often complain about the amount of green that we give them on Landscape Artist of the Year.

I don't think we're gonna have any trouble with this one.

- I like the way that they've used the direction of the brush strokes to describe the trees and the lightest tones are really just sort of messy scratches on the surface.

And then there are drips, you know, they've used the application of the paint to actually create the form in quite unusual, lively ways.

- So overall varied.

What are your expectations?

- Good range.

A really good range of different styles and approaches, which means it's gonna be really exciting today actually to see how they deal with what we've given them.

(dramatic music) - Artists we hope you have everything you need to create a masterful work of art because the time has come.

- You have four hours to compete your landscape and your time starts now.

(upbeat music) Wrapping Chartwell house in 20 glorious acres, the gardens here were largely the creation of its most famous resident, Winston Churchill.

- [John] Today, our artists are overlooking the very Vista that convinced Churchill to purchase the estate in 1922.

The front lawn leading down to the lower lake with the Weald of Kent stretching out beyond.

- [Joan] We have given the artists the most incredible view today.

It is filled with opportunity, but it is also filled and fraught with danger.

How are they gonna deal with the fact that a lot of the view is in the distance?

Are they gonna sort of zoom themselves into it?

How are they gonna find definition?

Everything's very green.

Does that work for them tonally?

Are they going to introduce some artistic license?

Lot of questions.

(upbeat music) - I don't think you can really compete with nature.

So I like to kind of try and find something different to put on the canvas, something that's just a bit more abstract and strange.

- [Joan] One of only two amateurs competing today is builder Ben McGregor, who when he isn't painting walls, paints in oils, creating surreal expressionistic works.

His submission of woodland carpeted with blue bells, took 12 hours and was completed in his living room from photos he'd taken while on a walk close to his Essex home.

- Ben, you look like you're on holiday.

You got your flip flops on and some, a fabulous pair of shades.

Now I see most of your tools and now your submission makes sense.

You don't really use brushes.

- Yeah, yeah, I use brushes to fill in gaps, but I like to create the flow by spreading the paints kind of first and then building on top of it.

- And you spent the first section of today creating the grid on it, of sorts.

- It's the golden ratio.

So I divide the canvas up.

Just gives me a framework with where to place things.

- How strict do you adhere to that?

- Very Strict.

It's important to me because I think when you are messing with perspectives and what's there then the conversation has to really be right.

- So you've taken what's here and you sort of replaced it with- - That's what I did.

- Yeah, no, I could see it.

It feels very dense.

So I'm thinking here is rather, you know, you've got lots of lawns and- - No, I'm trying to, I've really closed that space up.

It's looking messy, but it should, it will emerge.

(upbeat music) - Well, I wanted to be a painter when I was five and I couldn't, so when I got the chance to leave school, I did and I became a painter.

So yeah, 22 now and cracking on.

- [John] London based Max Denison-Pender has recently become one of the official artists to Team GB for the Tokyo Olympics.

The first time a painter has been commissioned by the team since 1948.

His submission, a detailed oil study of a tree on wood panel was completed in just three and a half hours.

And he's been quick outta the starting blocks today, too.

- Max, you've gone in already with a little sketch on this gorgeous wood actually, fantastic color of the panel.

Yeah, really nice.

And you've just left the tiniest slice of the sky.

So you are mainly gonna confront this green.

- Yeah, I was thinking about the rule of thirds composition stuff.

I think I wanted to get all of this in.

I think if I was to have two thirds sky, it would just be a bit I'd be finished within 45 minutes.

- Exactly and so it's such a fine day.

There's not even much going on in the skies there.

So talk to me about working in such a small fashion.

I mean, your palette is like 10 times bigger than your painting.

- Well, it's four hours.

So four hours to me is a sketch.

I don't want to jeopardize the quality of the image because I want to go big.

Just best keeping it cool, calm, and collected.

Great well, it's very small, but I'm thinking it's gonna have a lot of energy.

It's gonna pack a punch.

- Hopefully.

Yeah.

(gentle music) - [Joan] Just one artist younger than Max is painting today.

And she too is relishing the scene in front of her.

- It's so good for me, but I hope I don't mess it up because that's gonna be kind of embarrassing now.

Yeah the only thing I'm actually worried about is that it's so similar to my submission.

- [Joan] The foliage certainly shouldn't foil 20-year-old philosophy student, Zoe Wilkinson.

Her painting of a pond at her local nature reserve bears a striking resemblance to today's view.

Rendered in her signature green acrylics, the painting form part of her A level art coursework.

- My goodness Zoe, we have given you a gift.

Someone who likes to painting green, it couldn't be greener.

- No, it's actually perfect for me.

So I'm really happy and I'm just trying to get my greens down so then I can start like bring it to low.

- [Kate] And the mix seems an important part of it for you.

- [Zoe] Yeah.

- Is that to get that particular acid yellow post apocalyptic tone that you're looking for?

- Yeah so I've put that color.

That's the bit there underneath.

So it kind of, you know, makes it really bright.

- You've done so much already.

It feels like you'll be able to give us another two before the end of today.

- Oh no, no.

So now it's really easy 'cause I just like get the lights, get darks and whack them on, but it's actually quite a slow process once I have a good background because I'm sort of picking out the shapes of the leaves.

Like that's what really interests me like the shapes of the leaves, how the Willow like flows.

Lots of different tonal values, which take a while to build up.

- So yeah I mustn't stop you getting all that in today, by the end of today.

- Hopefully, fingers crossed.

(gentle music) - [John] Our six competitors are the only ones braving Chartwell's wall of green.

Today's intrepid wildcard artists have taken root in the garden nearby.

(gentle music) - I thought I'd do something different.

Just got a book of maps from one of those cheap bookshops.

And yeah, I'm gonna have a go doing a painting on there.

(upbeat music) - Seems to be the place for painting trees.

- I said to myself before, I really hope it's not all greens.

I live in the city and only paint buildings.

- [John] If any of their landscapes impress the judges, they could land themselves a place in the semi-final.

- This is such a lovely atmosphere.

And it's such a beautiful place.

Just let you guys get on and just see what you are up to.

It's just gorgeous.

- Yeah it is.

(upbeat music) - [Joan] Back in the pods and with an hour of the challenge already up, the heat is on.

- The biggest problem is the sand on the paints.

It turns maybe a bit sort of battery.

(upbeat music) - I've just done the willow tree and I've got all the values in.

Overall, I'm happy with the colors so far.

So hit my bet.

(upbeat music) - Bit stressed.

I've got the base colors on there, but there's still a lot more shapes I have to pick out and normal tones I've gotta get in there and brush marks.

So yeah, I got a lot to do.

(upbeat music) - [Joan] In the Garden of England, our six Artists are one hour into their challenge to portray the verdant vista at Chartwell.

And one is having to dig deeper than the others.

- When I'm painting I like to get, you know, and then I have an emotional connection, 'cause it's not about creating a representational and I could take a photograph.

I don't wanna do that.

I want more than that.

I want an emotional connection so I'll be looking, you know, very hard to see things that connect with me.

- [Joan] For art tutor Rosie Parmley, painting is a deeply personal pursuit.

Working pastels, paint, and collage, she creates intermittent abstract works inspired by her family history, such as her submission of her late father sitting alone in his garden.

So Rosie, you made a start with pastels there across huge spread of paper.

What will you use on your actual canvas?

- I'm gonna start with some acrylic paint and then I might stick a little bit down of a little bit of dress making pattern that I used.

- Now tell me about these dressmaking patterns.

- Well, it started 'cause my mother's a dressmaker and I grew up with her at home surrounded by scissors and material and it was sort of autobiographical that there'd be something in the painting, you know, little hidden motif.

- So you'll use a shape from within those?

- [Rosie] Yes.

That's my collage.

- So it's a little secret between yourself and your mother, isn't it?

- Yeah it's a sort of homage to my mother yeah, definitely.

- Good luck.

- [Rosie] Thank you very much.

(gentle music) - So Tai, it's a cloudless, warm, beautiful summer's day.

Is that helpful to them?

- No, it's a nightmare I can imagine.

There is a blue sky, which takes up most of the view where nothing is happening.

There's no clouds to be working with, but interesting, the sun is casting rather dark, gloomy shadows.

There's something in there.

There's a narrative quality that they could mine.

- The grounds are open to the public and it's starting to fill up with people.

That's a dangerous thing for you isn't it?

- Yeah my phobias are- - [John] Starting to twitch.

- Yes the kids running joyfully across the lawn.

I mean, I suppose I want the figures to have some meaning rather than decoration, because then it does look like a tourist painting on a sunny day.

Am I sounding mad?

- I mean, no madder than normal.

- Thank you.

Well, sorry.

I should have used the word demanding.

- Demanding yeah.

- I'm being very demanding.

(both laughing) (upbeat music) - I color with my colors and yeah, I'm just gonna follow the painting.

I let the painting speak to me.

I let follow the way it goes.

That's how I paint.

- [John] Former artist in residence at the National Gallery of Art in Lagos, Nigerian Imonighie Imoesi moved to the UK nine years ago with his wife and daughters.

His submission, a vibrant depiction of a busy road in his hometown of Auchi was created with his signature piece of kit.

- I can see you're an aficionado of the pallet knife.

And I know from your submission, that means that you get this sort of impasto.

So paint on top of paint.

- Yeah, yeah, lucky because I want my painting to feed us that texture and the boldness on it.

I use those texture to like, keep you going and like a music you have rhythm, you break them, you put another one just to make the work move.

Not just to be a particular static.

- Well, it's very static here.

Does it sort of worry you that today we have something that's so still?

- No, no, not really.

I like nature.

I love to paint nature a lot as well.

- [Kate] So you used to painting outside?

- Yeah I used to when I was in Nigeria, but here, I've not.

- Well, it feels, it must feel a bit like Nigeria today with this weather.

- Yeah, it is.

- So you're at home.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Fantastic.

(gentle music) - I am fairly new to watercolor and I find that sometimes I am bustling with it in comparison to oil.

Oil I find easier but with watercolor, if I'm successful, it should have more sort of mystery to it.

- [Joan] Rachel Wright's submission, an ominous scene in pencil and watercolor was captured in her parents' Surrey garden.

In search of the atmosphere of that work, today, she's ignored the bucolic view directly in front of her, choosing instead a composition focused on the terrace wall.

- Is narrative important to you in your work and is it reliant on a figure in landscape?

- I hope that I'm gonna be able to achieve a mood without a figure.

Although I do actually have a couple of figures in here.

They happen to be in a photograph I took of the composition I was looking for.

And they were in quite strange stances as well.

- So we're getting a Rachel kind of narrative, I'm like that's great.

- I was thinking that they could be included.

- Now water color is quite a fast medium, but I got a feeling with your painting that actually you use it in a sort of very counterintuitive way and it's actually quite slow.

I mean, are you a slow worker?

- Very.

That's one of my main worries.

When I've been practicing, I have tried to change my approach a bit just to sort of capture the same feel, but with a different technique.

- Yes well look, I'm intrigued and I'm glad I've met somebody who uses watercolor in a completely different way.

So I'm really looking forward to seeing how that looks.

- I hope it'll be successful in my own eyes.

(gentle music) - [John] As well as our six artists toiling under the sun today, in another corner of Chartwell's grounds, the wild cards are competing for the chance of just one place in the semi-final.

- I feel like if I blink an awful lot, I will somehow be able to compose all of the scene together.

All these tiny little vignettes.

- [Artist] Yes so I'm doing thumbnails 140 thumbnails.

- [Kate] Why?

- I think it's almost like a journey through the landscape and I'm moving around.

So hopefully we'll get a view of the lakes and the ponds.

- So they don't actually join up with each other?

- No.

- It's not like one bit of the landscape leads into another.

It's all random.

- Yeah.

- [John] As ever, our wild cards are taking every advantage of today's location.

- It's kind of split.

We've got the lake ones and then quite a lot like the narrative, the door.

- [Kathleen] I was gonna ask you if you were here, what would you paint?

Because I am now realizing that some of the really interesting paintings are that little wall, because that's where you can sort of suspend reality and get a bit of narrative and a bit of grittiness but... - The thing about the garden wall, it always ends up looking like a book cover to the secret garden.

You know it's got that feel about it.

(upbeat music) - [Joan] Back in the pods on Chartwell's front lawn and with almost two hours of the four hour challenge now up, it's not just the view, that's our artists feeling green.

- I'm probably most worried about the time that my end piece is representative of what I want to portray as an artist.

- I'm using this to bring effect to bring light through the trees, but all the marks are blurring into water.

And I have to try really hard not to overwork it.

(upbeat music) - I'm trying to hold onto the water.

So I have to remember which bit is bit which, 'cause when it's abstract, you know, sometimes I go, oh no, put it in the wrong place.

It's a difficult balancing act could be disastrous.

(upbeat music) - [Joan] Our six competitors are halfway through their challenge to depict the gardens at Chartwell in Kent.

And with just two hours left to complete their paintings, the day's dazzling weather continues to test.

- The light is so strong over there.

It's silhouetting the painting.

And so it's quite hard to see what colors you're putting down.

So you can see it, but it's just not the same as normalizing when you bring it back inside.

- [Rachel] I'm just trying to get a lot of color down, so then I can work in more detail over the top.

Yeah it is the kind of nightmare stage because everything looks like a bit of a mess.

(gentle music) - Imonighie, you are finding lots of different greens in there and is that part of the joy of finding color in the landscape?

- Yeah, yeah because if you look at the gray, you can see the fresh shades.

So a lot to interpret them the way they are.

- Do you do that a lot?

So there's a mixing of you get a color that's quite close and then you mix it with another color over the top.

So you get that sort of visual mixing?

- [Imonighie] Yeah.

- I mean it looks great.

It's definitely there, so I'll let you get on with it.

It's looking good.

(gentle music) - Hi Ben.

- Hey.

- How's it going?

- It's going okay I think.

I'm just sort of slapping paint on at the moment.

- How do you get yourself ready for a day like this?

Do you have sort of a routine?

- I do like there's this thing called Wim Hof, which is like this breath, this Dutch guy that does these breathing exercises and then you have to have a cold shower.

- What?

- Yeah.

- So you have to do breathing exercise before the cold, is that to get ready for the cold shower?

- The cold shower comes after the breathing exercises.

- Okay 'cause in the cold shower, there's a lots of (fast breathing).

- Exactly.

- I've now got this image of you at home, your poor partner sitting there can hear you heavy breathing upstairs, screaming in the cold shower, then kicking the living room door open and going "I'm painting.

Get out."

- It's an insight into her world yeah.

(gentle music) - [John] Breathing down the artists' necks all morning have been our three judges.

So what do they make of progress so far?

(gentle music) The wall this morning was full of imagination and narrative.

Is that translating to what the artists are doing today?

- I think they're all trying to bring a little bit of who they are to the pictures today and staying quite true to their styles.

- [John] Rachel's working with watercolor.

She's quite new to it she says.

Is she handling it well?

- She's handling it well, but I'm a little bit disappointed that we haven't got more of that sort of grubby macabre.

And it feels a bit sort of sweet and pretty at the moment.

- What I think would be great is if she just is able to take a bit of a step back this afternoon and just introduce some sort of impending doom, just a little bit, just a little bit.

- What's wrong with us?

I dunno.

- I know you're sitting here on the most beautiful glorious summer day and you want impending doom.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Ben is obsessed it seems with the golden ratio.

- It's funny that he should be underpinning his rather organic claustrophobic way of painting with that.

But he say sometimes that painters goes through an ugly phase.

At the moment, his painting is looking ugly, man.

- Oh, I totally disagree.

- Me too.

Me too.

- I think that Ben's picture at the moment is just gorgeous.

And I think he's been really clever in the way he's composed it.

So you sort of know where you are, but it doesn't feel quite right, which I guess gives it that little bit of tension.

- [John] Imangichi is wielding a pallet knife.

Is he wielding it to good effect?

- Yeah, I think what's fantastic 'cause Imonighie is able to give us breathing space.

One of the issues sometimes when you have a painting using a pallet knife is that you kind of get all this painting on top of each other.

But for me it's a very convincing, light feel landscape.

It's not at all claustrophobic.

- [John] Max, given his name is painting a very small landscape.

- [Kate] And given his palette.

- Given the size of that palette, I mean the palette is max.

The canvas is mini.

- I'm nervous because Max is at this stage of the day already going in with this really, really tiny brush.

And it's early to be doing that.

It could just look overworked and a bit tight.

- It's wonderful.

I mean, really does, as we sit here, it captures the day perfectly, but we're quite demanding.

We do want something more or something slightly different.

- Yeah I mean, if capturing the day perfectly is not good enough for you, then... - It is.

- They've got an uphill struggle.

(upbeat music) - [Joan] Today's artists aren't the first to have been inspired by the visitors across the Kent countryside from Chartwell.

They were also amused none other than Winston Churchill himself.

Much of his time here was spent with family, talking politics and writing.

In the aftermath of the Dardanelles Disaster, a huge military defeat off the Turkish Coast during the First World War, for which he was largely blamed, Churchill discovered a pastime in which he came to find solace.

- He'd gone to Hoe Farm and was staying there with his sister-in-law and Winston, saw her painting and thought, "Gosh, that might be something that might be able to capture my attention."

And Churchill referenced this time as the muse of painting having come to his rescue.

It wasn't just a hobby.

It was something that he needed to cope with the pressures and strain of public life.

- [Joan] Churchill painted prolifically for almost the next 50 years, creating the vast majority of over 500 works after he purchased the house in 1922.

- Given that Churchill bought Chartwell because of the views and the landscape, it's unsurprising that he captured it on canvas many times.

And there's a few particular spots that we see coming up time and time again in his art.

- [Joan] Chartwell's Goldfish Pool is one such place, a secluded corner of the grounds that he'd return to time and time again, to paint and reflect.

- It's really interesting to look at how his technique was changing over time.

There's one done in the 1930s that said to be amongst the most accomplished of all his paintings.

It's an absolutely beautiful example and you can really see the detail and the reflection in the water, but compare that to the one taken in the 1960s.

We see a far more abstract style being used.

- [Joan] This latter depiction of the Goldfish Pool from 1962 takes on added significance as the final piece Churchill completed before his death three years later.

It's fitting that his last painting would focus on his favorite place, in the garden of his beloved Kent home.

(gentle music) - [John] Following on in the brush strokes of Churchill, our wild card artists are nearing the end of their challenge with the judges selecting only one to be in with a chance of a place in the semi-final.

- This place is so consistently beautiful all the way around.

How did you come to choose this particular spot?

- It was actually this tree, just the textures.

- The tree is the star of the day.

Am I seeing a bit of gold in there?

- Yep, yep, there's some gold dust in there.

You can't see it flat on, but if you come from the side, it just catches your eye.

It's a big sparkle.

- You don't strike me as somebody who wants to be all glittery and sparkly.

- I do a little bit of glitter.

- [John] So which of our wild cards have sparkled today?

- What a fabulous day had by all.

I mean, everyone's just reveling in it.

It truly is a festival.

- [Kathleen] Yeah.

It's lovely.

It's just glorious.

And we had a lot of actually really good artists in the wild card today.

- Yeah I mean, I think the variety of views and that, you know, the weather was playing ball and they could choose anything they wanted.

What was interesting about this woman here painting the green, when you can work with the different greens and give us a sense of light.

That is pretty good.

- [Joan] So who has triumphed in today's battle with the green of Chartwell?

- Hello but we just loved your light.

- Thank you very much.

- It is well done.

It's been a phenomenal day.

You found a way to bring life to each tree and just the sparkling light is really well caught.

So congratulations.

Well done.

(all clapping) - I can't believe it.

Bit wobbly, actually a bit gobsmacked as well, but yeah, really happy.

(audience applauding) I'm going to celebrate by sitting down at home and hopefully people will just bring me a drink and the family can look after me.

- [John] Louise Gillard from London will enter a pool of wild card winners from all the heats, One of whom will be selected for a place in the semi-final.

- [Joan] Overlooking Chartwell's glorious green vista, our six artists are into their final hour.

(upbeat music) - I still have quite a lot of detail to do in the foreground, which I'm just starting now.

I'm still certainly worried that I'm not gonna finish something in time.

(upbeat music) - I wouldn't normally choose to paint such an open landscape like this, but it still looks like me I hope.

- I'm trying to put little few people in there to spice up the image, 'cause right now it's sort of just green, green, and green.

I think I've just gotta be careful again, not to put too much paint on there and keep it clean and keep it fresh.

(upbeat music) - A lot could go wrong now, if I panic and just put loads of lines in there, it's gonna go wrong.

So yeah, I just need to concentrate and I think it'll be fine.

Well, I hope it'll be fine.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [John] In the gardens at Chartwell in Kent, our six artists are into the final few minutes of their landscape challenge, but there's still time to dig themselves into a hole.

- Feeling quite stressed because I managed to overwork it.

So now I'm just trying to save it.

But I think I've lost it.

So, but yeah, I'm just feeling stressed.

- Yeah, no, it's a bit overcomplicated at the moment.

There's too much in there.

So I'm just trying to empty out the picture really.

Is it finished?

I don't know.

- I'm putting the finishing touches now.

So I'll put the figure so that the tree, the couple, husband and wife.

So having a nice time, quiet time together.

- Artists, you have five minutes left, five minutes.

(upbeat music) - I'm pretty much done.

So I'm not gonna mess with it anymore.

I'm gonna leave it in the laps of the judges.

(gentle music) - A bit unfinished unfortunately.

I would've liked to get more done than I have.

- Artists, your time is up.

- Please put down your brushes and step away from your artwork.

(all clapping) - How was it?

- I really (faintly speaking) but yours looks great.

- Thank you.

- [Joan] Only one artist can make it through to the semifinal, so to help with their decision, the judges start by narrowing the selection down to a short list of three.

- It's been a glorious day hasn't it?

It's really beautiful here.

And I think the beauty in a funny way, was a bit overwhelming for a few of them.

- Yeah, it was tough.

It was a big view.

It was extremely green, probably the hottest day we've ever had.

I think all that combined was certainly challenging.

Well Rachel's is so different to her submission isn't it?

But I think the great decision that she made was to give us this slice downwards to focus on a lot of architecture.

- She has given us that same grubbiness and that sense of weirdness.

Not least of all with those rather abstracted buildings in the background.

I'm really glad she dirtied it up.

It was looking far too pretty early today.

I think Max is great.

He gave us something which was small.

It was focused.

Fantastic sense of light.

Have I seen painting like this before?

Yes.

Is it a good example?

Yes.

- He knows what he's doing and yes, I am allergic to figures, but funny enough, the two figures sitting under the tree kind of give the whole thing a narrative, whereas the two figures walking across the landscape that isn't too much for me.

- I mean, Zoe stayed really true to herself.

We've got the same acid green that post-nuclear view, but I'm glad we've got a little glimmer of sky here, somehow sort of weights the whole thing.

- Zoe's great because she's young and she's worked out, this is what she's interested in and she's really going for it.

I think it's Chartwell very much through Zoe's eyes, but definitely Chartwell.

- Ben's marks are unmistakable, the way he creates these rather organic shapes.

He's obviously edited the landscape in front of him very much to suit his own need.

- I really admire that inventiveness kind of a bit really wonker or, you know, I feel like the whole thing's quite edible so much good potential there.

- I love the fact that Imonighie's given us color and I feel the heat, it's so verdant and I can almost hear the crickets or the grasshoppers going as well.

It's hot.

- [Tai] I think Imonighie's a very good colorist and it's an interesting and exciting lesson in painting really.

- I think Rosie's work, there's such personal stories to her.

Even today, she's turned it into a personal story.

I'm not sure that I feel it's Chartwell, but it does enchant me.

It's gonna be quite difficult to wrestle them apart or get them down to three.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- [Joan] So which of today's artists will make it onto the judge's shortlist?

- I find that one, I think probably the most interesting in the sense of as potential, there's consideration from the artists, they're very thoughtful.

- Which one?

- That one there.

- For me, I'm really happy with these three actually, as they are.

(gentle music) - Artists, thank you for being with us here today.

It's been wonderful to spend the day watching your creativity at work.

- But as you know, only three artists can be shortlisted for consideration as the day's winner and the judges have made their selection.

The first artist on the shortlist is Max Denison-Pender.

(all clapping) - Thank you.

- The second artist on the short list is Ben McGregor.

(all clapping) - The third artist is Rachel Wright.

(all clapping) - Our commiseration to the rest of you.

And don't think it means that we don't admire your work.

We do.

Thank you.

(all clapping) (gentle music) - So I kind of felt towards the end that I'd kind of overworked it a bit.

So I sort of had an idea that I hadn't gone too well, so, but yeah, I had a really good day.

So that's what I wanted to do and I did that.

- [Joan] With the shortlist decided, the judges now have the unenviable task of selecting today's winner.

To give them a helping hand, they also take the selected artists' submitted works into account.

Well judges, it's been a scorcher of a day.

Were you looking for something that celebrated this bucolic event in the paintings?

- Well, we were looking for an artist who, you know, brought their personalities to bear on the landscape and found something that balanced both what we saw on the submission wall this morning and the landscape given to them.

- Actually now that we see their submissions alongside their work from today, it's really helping me understand the work a little bit better.

- Rachel's submission had a sense of narrative and a little bit of mystery about it.

We got a bit of that in her painting today didn't we?

- [Kathleen] I think it was quite a tall order today for Rachel to try and deliver something that was like the submission.

But actually I think she managed to pull it off.

She found a little slice of chart while that was hers and hers alone, she used artistic license.

You know, the little figures in the background, little bit of mystery.

- Rachel is calm, thoughtful, methodical, and you feel that in the way she uses the medium, I think.

Even in the way she deals with the tones, they're pushed right the way down.

It's really quiet.

- Well, there's nothing quiet about Ben's way of painting.

I mean, he explodes onto his canvases, doesn't he?

- [Kathleen] I like the strange quality of Ben's work.

And I like the fact that he let it go almost into another dimension today, showing us two views at once, compressed with this really weird sort of vortex of abstract painting in the foreground.

It's interesting, it's really artful and it's just absolutely Ben.

- In his submission, I am totally converted.

And I believe in his vision of this mysterious wood and the whole thing sits together very well.

In today's submission, I'm taken on a journey where I had this weird smeared sea cucumber with pink dots on it in the bottom and some very odd trees.

And I think those passages work very nicely.

He's unique.

I mean, as such, I suppose, you know, we want to see something new.

This is definitely new.

- Max towards the end of the four hours declared that he was gonna add some figures into his landscape.

And I thought "Uh-oh, they are not going to like that."

But you clearly did.

- Well.

I like the figures.

I think it's a really beautiful painting.

I think that he handles light and color so well, he's very methodical.

I feel like Max could see this painting this morning and he just, you know, fought his way to it.

- Well, there are two sets of people and I can live just about with one set of people.

The other two people I want to go up, I know the paint's wet, go on Joan, smudge them off.

- No, I rather like them because I believe in them.

And there have been people picnicking across this great land.

- So will Rachel's eerie mystery win the day?

Will it be Ben's sea cucumber or will Max's overpopulated oil painting triumph?

(gentle music) - Rachel, Ben, Max, let me tell you, it's never easy to choose when it comes to one of three and the same is true today.

As always, the judges have found it really tough, no exception.

- But they have made their decision and the artist they have selected is... (dramatic music) Ben McGregor.

(all clapping) - I'm feeling absolutely over the moon.

Like really, really buzzy.

(all clapping) It's such a personal thing that you're putting out there and to get the sort of the recognition on that level is, it just feels wonderful.

- Well done, great work.

Well done.

- We had a massive view.

We had a historic location.

We were looking for a bit of storytelling.

We didn't want it to be too literal.

Ben's the kind of artist that when you see one painting, you're like, "Oh, okay, what's going on here?"

Then you see a second painting and you'll think right, "Great.

I'm convinced, I'm sold."

Can't quite picture the third painting, but I know it'll be quirky, it'll be interesting.

And that's what I'm looking forward to in the semifinal.

(upbeat music) (peppy music) (dramatic music)