(exciting classical music) - Hello, and welcome to West Wickham in Buckinghamshire, a Palladian pleasure palace built in the 18th century for Sir Francis Dashwood, aristocrat, rake, and organizer of Satanic orgies.

- No orgies today.

- No?

- As with just four hours, our fiendishly competitive artists will have to paint like the very devil himself to avoid a fate worse than death, the wrath of the judges.

- So will they create something devilishly good, or diabolically bad?

Hell's bells, it's Landscape Artist of the Year.

(exciting classical music) - [Stephen Voiceover] Thousands of artists applied for this year's competition.

Just 36 were selected to take part.

- What are the challenges of painting outside?

- My hair getting in my way.

(laughing) - [Joan Voiceover] Throughout the competition, they've been presented with a range of spectacular but challenging views.

From complex modern city scapes to historic stately homes.

Whether painting, drawing, or printing, their task is to create an original work of art in just four hours.

- I just need to concentrate, and I think we'll be fine.

Well, I hope we'll be fine.

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

Capturing the wild natural beauty of Snowdonia, their work will mark the anniversary of the Trust's first ever land donation, Dinas Oleu.

- [Joan Voiceover] And as always, following the artists' every move are our three eagle-eyed judges.

Art historian, Kate Bryan.

Award-winning artist, Tai Shen Schierenberg.

And independent curator, Kathleen Soriano.

- Ooh, I just love that.

I always just want to do it myself.

- [Stephen Voiceover] And joining our six contestants today are 50 wildcard artists, ready to do whatever it takes to catch the eye of the judges.

- [Kathleen] So you've been stealing bits of the landscape?

- Yeah.

Are you the art police?

- Yes.

- [Stephen Voiceover] As the artists whip themselves into a frenzy of creativity.

- Can you just give us an extra hour?

- [Stephen Voiceover] Join us in our search for the next Landscape Artist of the Year.

- They had orgies here, apparently.

- Ooh.

- I've been looking all day, but can't find any.

(bright inspiring music) (soft music) - [Joan Voiceover] Competing in today's heat are three amateur artists, Rory Brooke, Gary Ight, and Tilly Commons.

- Feel a bit sick, but overall pretty good.

Yeah.

It's exciting.

- [Stephen Voiceover] Joining them in the competition are three professionals.

Claire Lord, Eden Malaine, and Dawn Blatherwick.

- I can't wait to get going.

Which is kind of strange, because I've been panicking about it for a week.

(laughing) But yeah, now I'm ready.

(bright music) - [Joan Voiceover] Until now, the judges have only seen digital copies of the landscapes submitted to the competition.

So while our artists set up in their pods, the judges get a closer look at the genuine articles.

- A wall of landscapes, and yet only one is any way a typical landscape.

So let's consider them one by one.

Right, first of all.

Yellow sky.

(soft piano music) - I love this little drawing.

It's very dense, it's very compressed.

It's almost quite claustrophobic, this tiny little vignette of the shed at the back of the garden.

Then with this fantastic yellow to really make the whole thing pop.

- [Joan] Unconventional to have a yellow sky.

- It is, but funnily enough, I don't think oh, that's the wrong color sky.

All I'm thinking really about the yellow is the way it contains the drawing.

- [Joan] Then we go to a shed in blue, but what an interesting corner to have chosen.

- [Kathleen] Yeah, an interesting corner, but I also feel that we're looking at a tryptic.

It's almost got three parts.

It's quite filmic.

- It looks very exotic, like somebody's gone on a jungle trip and got lost, and then I suddenly realize that somebody lives in this place, and suddenly there's a whole other story coming through.

- Perhaps the most illusive of all is the next one.

Is that a landscape?

- [Kate] It's like a portrait of fly tipping.

They understand use of color to really lift it.

- What I love about this is the fact that we've got a whole series of barriers that stop us when we're trying to work our way through the painting.

First of all, we see this gate, then you've got the doorway, and then eventually, you've got the roof.

- This is a very small, highly-detailed watercolor.

- Yeah, it looks like a generator design for some dystopian science fiction comic strip.

I mean, the lighting is very dramatic.

It's all about the way the shadows and the diagonals create a rhythm throughout the drawing.

- [Joan] It is done by an interior designer.

- [Kate] I like the fact that it just feels like it's just being worked out.

You can see the text, and the scribbles, and the paint on the side.

I like having that insight into the artist.

- And we come to our traditional landscape.

- [Kate] Well, traditional color-wise, but this is a very reduced landscape, and then we have this fantastic hot pink running through it.

Presumably it's lino.

- [Joan] This is screen print.

- I just love the flatness of the colors, and the way the pigment goes down is very beautiful, and its graphicness is counted by the very organic way the foliage is rendered.

It's kind of quite magical.

- This is simply the view from someone's window in suburbia.

- [Kathleen] The way in which they've given us this window within a window to look through.

They've framed the view for us to make it more interesting, and to give it that focus.

- [Tai Shen] There's something about suburbia in the summer, there's something rather sad about it.

- [Kathleen] It's one of these works where you really feel the presence of the artist.

- So we've got a very varied wall, but what are artists of these works going to make of this traditional English countryside?

(inspiring music) - [Stephen Voiceover] It may be a traditional landscape, but today's artists will be tackling it with a wide range of non-traditional materials.

- Traditional bits of kit, probably set squares, because it sets up how I draw, and also a pencil.

Definitely a pencil.

- What I've set up here is my portable screen printing studio.

Normally I'd be working in that large space, with lots of different specialist facilities, so I need to scale that all down and fit this into this pod here.

- Colors are gorgeous.

The ochre.

Even though I brought a yellow ochre paint, that that's fine.

I didn't think I'd need one.

(laughing) - Artists, I hope you have everything you need to create a wonderful piece of art.

Possibly some yellow paint and a ruler.

- You have four hours to complete your landscape.

Good luck everyone.

Your time starts now.

(exciting classical music) - [Joan Voiceover] Today, we've brought our artists right up close and personal to the distinctive yellow facade and double colonnade of West Wickham House, which was inspired by the great villas of the Italian Renaissance.

- We've given our artists today a wonderfully classical piece of 18th century British architecture.

So they're gonna have to deal with all the proportions, and the mathematics that it puts in front of them.

But you know, this is a building that's lived in, and you sense that domesticity.

But it isn't just about that monumentality of the house.

We've given them a little slide of nature on the right-hand side.

If they want to take us there for their storytelling, they can also do that.

(bright music) - [Stephen Voiceover] With their pods lined up just meters away from the building, as well as its geometrically challenging dimensions, our artists will need to capture a sense of its scale.

- I've planned the composition, which is helped by using this, which is about the same proportions as that.

I like the way the pillars frame the view of the windows.

It's like each bit is a composition in its own right.

It's just how you decide, as the artist, how you're gonna frame its framing, if you see what I mean.

- [Stephen Voiceover] Claire Lord is a professional artist and art teacher from Stafford.

Her large scale submission, painted in oils, depicts a tumble-down, debris-strewn barn, centering on a rather unorthodox focal point.

- [Kathleen] Claire, you gave us the blue bin.

- [Claire] I did.

- [Kathleen] How are you gonna find a blue bin or similar today?

- I hope that the combination of the pillars, the windows, the dark ones with the light, that'll give me some brighter bits in the focal point.

- [Kathleen] It's about control, it's you as artists, isn't it?

- Yes.

- You're sort of forcing us-- - Controlling the eye, definitely.

- And what about scale?

- [Claire] Yeah, I do tend to work big.

It does stop me fiddling about.

- You feel confident, despite the fact you're covered in paint?

- Yeah, well that's par for the course.

- Okay, right.

Well I'll let you crack on with that.

- Yeah, thank you.

(bright music) - [Joan Voiceover] But proportion and perspective may be only half the battle.

For some artists, it's all about bringing a sense of mood to the scene, and reflecting their own interior landscape.

- To choose the composition, I guess it's how you respond to it emotionally.

What hits me first, what makes me want to paint it, I guess.

I'm quite happy today, which is quite nice.

Even though the day's quite dark, I'm hoping that it's gonna be quite a bright sing-y picture.

(bright inspiring music) - [Joan Voiceover] Dawn Blatherwick is a graphic illustrator from Wakefield in Yorkshire.

Her submission shows the view from her top floor window, looking over rooftops to the Yorkshire dales, painted while she was stuck at home during the 2020 lockdown.

- Dawn, in your submission what I got was I just remember as a child, suburbia in the summer.

There was something rather sad and melancholic about it.

- Yeah, that's the emotion I was having at the time.

It was literally about the lockdown and everything.

So I'd like to think I can put that kind of emotion into what I paint today.

- [Tai Shen] What feeling are we going for?

Or do you paint the painting to find out what that feeling is?

- I kind of paint it, and then it usually appears later.

- [Tai Shen] It's a great start, so I'm looking forward to how to it develops.

(bright inspiring music) - [Stephen Voiceover] While most of the artists are finding ways to tackle this closeup view, for one, it's not quite closeup enough.

- I'm just sketching a view that I think would work.

I'm looking at the perspective lines in the building, starting with the basic framework of the proportions, and then the perspective is added in later with all the depth to it.

I prefer to paint more gritty urban scenes.

This has a softness to it that is slightly different.

- [Stephen Voiceover] Gary Ight is a commercial interior designer from Kenilworth in Warwickshire.

His submission is a meticulous architectural drawing of an abandoned sub station behind his local supermarket.

Rendered in watercolor and marker pen.

- [Stephen] Thought we'd lost you earlier, Gary.

You made a run for it.

- Oh, absolutely.

- Where were you going?

- To try and get a better view of the building.

It's a little bit flat, in terms of perspective.

- [Stephen] So you've gone sort of lower and closer to one size?

- Yes.

- To get a bit more drama?

Or just so you can get to use that set square more?

- Yes, trusted friend.

- Oh really?

So you're quite happy with straight lines?

- Yes, yes very much so.

- [Stephen] Well hopefully the sun comes out, because at the moment it's a bit flat, isn't it?

The light.

- Some nice shadows would be good.

- Yes, it would.

I'll have a word.

- Thank you.

- [Joan Voiceover] Joining our six contenders in the landscaped grounds of West Wickham House are a further 50 artists who've come along to compete as wildcards.

- I'm debating whether to just stick my hand print on it, you know?

- Do you know how to do this?

- I think so.

- We do.

- Well, I thought I did.

- [Joan Voiceover] One of these artists will be selected by the judges as today's wildcard winner, with a chance of going through to the semifinal.

- This is a watercolor.

This is water from the lake.

Nearly fell in.

(bright inspiring music) - [Joan] How would you describe the character of the place?

- I actually think it's quite playful, but I don't think that anyone who takes themself too seriously would probably choose that color.

(bright inspiring music) - [Stephen Voiceover] For our six pod artists, it's the end of the first hour, and they're finding strategies to tackle today's complex landscape.

- My ambition is to get paint over the whole canvas in the next half an hour, and for the drawing to be right.

But I suppose there's gonna be a point at which I have to say come on, Claire.

Compromise.

- I am probably a little bit behind, but I've now got the bare bones in.

I'm happy with the perspective of it.

It always takes some time.

- It needs to look like a building, so that's my only concern that I get a little bit wobbly, or a little bit like it's falling down, but other than that, I think yeah.

I think I'll be all right.

(exciting music) (bright inspiring music) - [Joan Voiceover] Here in the rolling hills of Buckinghamshire, six artists are creating their own interpretations of West Wickham House.

The view the judges have given them combines the colonnaded facade, alongside a tantalizing sliver of the surrounding gardens.

- I wasn't actually expecting this view.

I did think that there would be perhaps some water, and a bit more foliage.

I'm definitely struggling with the details of the building, so I decided I'd do that first, and then I'll have fun with doing the foliage.

But the colors themselves are really beautiful.

- [Joan Voiceover] Eden Malaine runs her own interiors and textiles studio from her home in Norfolk.

Her submission captured in her signature medium of bright acrylics is a view from near her grandmother's family home in Jamaica.

- Your grandmother came here with the Windrush?

- Yes.

I'm really proud of it, yes.

- And how does that inform your work?

- A lot of my work is quite brightly colored, and I like to play around with tropical foliage, and I think because I'm from Norfolk, I felt like with art, I could explore the Caribbean culture, and that was my way of exploring the half of my identity.

- And what about today?

What do you make of a house like this?

- I'm loving playing around with the different yellows because it's a very new palette for me to explore, and it is quite different in terms of the foliage, so it's a bit of a challenge, but I'm enjoying it.

(soft classical music) - [Stephen Voiceover] Capturing the colors of the building and its surrounding landscape is made harder by the predictably unpredictable British weather.

And today's gray skies have prompted one artist to consider how to bring vibrancy into her artwork.

- I am definitely going to have some high contrasting color.

I'm thinking probably in neon or something, because it's a bit dull today, so I need to jazz it up a little bit.

(bright inspiring music) - [Stephen Voiceover] 19-year-old Tilly Commons is an amateur artist from Evesham in Worcestershire.

Her detailed line drawing, a closeup crop of her garden shed, was brought to life by its bright yellow background, completed in marker pen.

- Tilly, you have chosen a little slice of this view.

- Yes.

- Just like you did with your submission.

- Yeah.

I tend to quite like looking at little nooks and alleyways, so I kind of picked that left corner, because it's a nice mix of the classic house, and the round of lamps and stuff.

- [Kate] Tell me about your submission.

You put in this fantastic yellow background.

- I kind of like the idea of it, quite a mundane space, but when you've got that yellow, it adds that interest and really brings it out.

- [Kate] Have you thought about color today?

- Yeah, there'll be some bright color somewhere.

I'm kind of edging on neon a little bit today.

- [Kate] Okay.

- But I'm gonna see how it goes as the day progresses.

- We can take neon.

Don't worry about that.

(bright inspiring music) - Well there's no getting away from it.

They're in front of a building, quite close to a building.

Quite a big building.

- Can you guess what we wanted them to paint?

- [Stephen] Well, you've not been very subtle about it.

- I would run a mile.

I'd be looking for exit routes, and there are trees, a little bit of garden there, and try to mix it up.

Some of them are just going for it symmetrically as well, which for me is just bonkers.

- [Stephen] What, flat?

- Flat.

- Geometric?

- Yes.

But actually, they're finding a lot of stuff to paint.

Through their paintings, I'm seeing subtleties in the building I hadn't noticed myself.

There's a lived in-ness there, and I think that is a narrative that some of them are getting to, and it's got some stories.

- Stories?

Satanic orgies?

If that building could talk.

- Right, you see?

- Yeah.

- It's all there.

I think we're gonna have a few surprises today.

(soft music) - [Joan Voiceover] There are plenty of surprises in one of the pods, where one artist is ambitiously pioneering plein air printing.

- I love screen printing, because I love contrasting the blocks of color with the more intricate elements of the composition.

Normally I wouldn't do it all in four hours.

This is definitely a shotgun approach to my work.

(bright inspiring music) - [Joan Voiceover] Rory Brooke is a property economist from East London.

His submission is a nine color screen print of Chideock Valley in Dorset, which took him two months to complete.

- Rory, it looks like I've come in at a really exciting time.

Tell me what's going on.

- So I'm just about to print the first set of colors, which I have four colors.

- [Kathleen] Why four colors?

I thought you'd do one color at a time.

- Well, this is a way of speeding things up by dividing the screen up into sections so then that allows me to do more than one color at a go.

- Ooh, I just love that.

I always just want to do it myself, just sliding the paint along.

- Yeah, I'm gonna be doing this three times, to build up more colors.

- [Kathleen] Let's see.

I can't wait to see.

Oh my goodness.

The colors are just gorgeous.

- [Gary] Yeah.

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

I won't get in the way of this factory.

- [Gary] Great, okay thank you.

(bright inspiring music) - [Stephen Voiceover] Meanwhile, on the other side of the house overlooking the lake, our ever-creative wildcard artists are managing to find inspiration in the morning's lack of sunshine and leaden skies.

- [Tai Shen] Are you sad that its gray?

Would you have preferred, you know, when there's more sun you get more shadows?

- No, it's fine actually.

It's quite nice, because again, because it's raining, it kind of gives a different texture to the water, so I can incorporate that.

- There's no orange out there, but there's a lot of orange here, so what's going on?

- I've gone a little bit more abstract.

I can't just do a pretty picture, and I can't just draw what's in front of me.

- [Joan Voiceover] Whether they're painting the lake or tackling the house's north facade, as always, there's no end to the talents of our wildcards.

- I draw with my feet.

- You draw with your feet?

- Yeah.

- I've gotta see these feet.

- Yeah.

- I mean, maybe later in private.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I think this is a good site, because there are so many different views.

Some of them have taken the house, some of them taking the temple.

There's something for everybody.

- It's a well-designed landscape.

- It is indeed.

- I must say.

You've got the bridges, and then you've got this huge expansive water.

There's a lot to work from.

- I'm a bit worried about the light.

It's been so dull, and this afternoon, I think it's gonna come through, and that's gonna change everything.

- I spoke to a few of them.

Some of them are waiting for the sun to come out so they've got light and shade to work with.

But most of them seem to be just cracking on.

(bright inspiring music) - [Stephen Voiceover] On the other side of the house, and cracking on with their own landscapes, are our six pod artists.

They're already two hours into the four hour challenge, but one artist is no stranger to the strict landscape artist time limit.

- I was a wildcard.

- Where was that?

- Fountain's Abbey.

- [Stephen] As a wildcard, how aware are you of the pods?

- We called them the gods in the pods.

- The gods in the pods?

- The gods in the pods.

- And now you are a god in the pod.

- I am now a god, yes.

- How's it feel to be here?

- Quite amazing, yeah.

(bright inspiring music) - I don't think I'm gonna sketch all that, as soon as I've got the foundations down, I will be able to just get the ball rolling and hopefully get back on track for time.

Fingers crossed.

(exciting classical music) - Because I'm doing it quickly, its possible it might look a bit rushed, but hopefully not.

I'm behind schedule, so I'm running out of time.

It's the yellow problem.

(exciting classical music) (soft uplifting music) - [Stephen Voiceover] Six artists are halfway through their challenge to capture a view of West Wickham House in Buckinghamshire.

And after a morning of gray skies, finally a change in the weather.

- Big moment has occurred, in that I've got the whole canvas covered in paint, and the sun's come out.

- I'm a bit worried that I'm not getting the depth that I want to get, and the color, I mean every time the sun comes out, that's a change of color.

- [Stephen Voiceover] As always, the artists are working under the gaze of our three ever-observant judges.

- So halfway through the day, we're sitting in front of the lions of West Wickham, and they have quite anxious looking expressions on their faces.

Does that reflect how you guys are feeling?

- I feel very relaxed.

I think we've got a bunch of good artists today.

They're dealing with quite a tough challenge, having to negotiate this enormous building that they are right next to, and I think they're all doing something interesting with it.

- Rory is making me tired just looking at him.

He's so busy.

- I know, it's like hello Andy Warhol in your factory in the middle of Landscape Artist of the Year.

It's so impressive.

I'm worried there could be a bit too much going on.

We've got something that's extremely colorful, with a lot of detailed information in it.

- [Kathleen] I quite like that complexity, and it's partly to do with the amount of information he's got in the house itself.

I like the fact that it's busier already.

- Dawn, a former wildcard painter, who's now a god in a pod.

- [Tai Shen] I think Dawn, the house dominates her composition in a way that we're getting very much a slab of symmetrical country house.

- [Kathleen] I'm worried that the house in and of itself is just not interesting enough to hold that kind of spotlight.

- [Tai Shen] Tilly's got a lot riding on that color.

- [Kathleen] Tilly's all about contrast.

The monochrome and the color that she's going to choose.

Is she gonna give us the yellow?

I don't know, but it feels like she's conjuring up something else.

- [Kate] I like the little slice that she chose, I think to just kind of completely ignore the horizontality of the building, and to just focus on this little vertical slice.

Actually, the kind of grottiest corner.

- Is Eden's project wonky beyond repair?

- [Tai Shen] Yeah, I do agree that Eden's house is a bit shonky, but what was extraordinary was how she dealt with the vegetation.

First, it was a very sort of transparent splash of color, and it's just become better and better.

And she just really needs to now get the house as a counterpoint.

- [Kate] She added this fantastic little slice of the faraway land behind the trees.

It's got a really convincing sense of distance.

I hope she's got enough time, because she does need to put a lot more detail in the house.

- [Stephen] Claire is painting big, she said, in order to stay loose.

Is that working?

- Claire's got a gift with the building, in the way that she gave us all those barriers with her submission, she's also got vertical barriers here with the house, but what she hasn't got is the blue bucket.

I think it is more about finding something that pops out.

- She's trying to get to that state of her submission, and on that size painting, she needs to start getting detail in, and I'm worried about time for her.

- [Stephen] Has Gary entered architectural drawing of the year?

- [Kathleen] I love the way in which he's turned it and made it almost three dimensional, and as a result, it's got this fantastic thrust and energy.

- [Kate] I need to see more paint on there.

I think I need to see a bit more complexity.

The drawing in and of itself doesn't feel artful enough to me.

- It's very overcast this morning, now it's sunshine.

That's gonna cause some problems, or is it?

- It's a bit of a gamble, I think.

Is it worth throwing it all out and changing the shadows and the lights?

It's up to each artist.

(soft inspiring music) - [Joan Voiceover] As the skies continue to brighten, and the distinctive yellow of West Wickham House emerges, will color, rather than geometry, be key to our artists' success?

- [Kathleen] Do you have an intention at this point to put the color into certain areas, and not others?

- Yes, I don't think I'll have time to bleed it across the image, so I will crop it down.

- And you're giving us that lovely thing again where the drawing falls out of the color, like it did in your submission, so you have the work, and then the drawing sort of wandering out by the side.

- [Gary] Yes, I can't help myself with that.

- [Kathleen] I love that.

- [Gary] It's just seeing where the line would end up.

- Over there somewhere.

- Yes, indeed.

- Over the hill.

- Over there.

- If you're not careful.

(bright inspiring music) - [Rory] I love color, and I love big blocks of color, so now I'm using a different technique for the second print, so I'm painting direct onto the screen with block-out paint, so this will block out the areas that the color isn't going through.

- [Stephen] Tilly, you kept us all on tenterhooks.

- [Tilly] Yeah.

- We are all waiting to hear what color you've chosen.

Have you made a decision?

- I have.

- Wow.

(Tilly laughs) - It's a real day.

- Oh, I need a drum roll.

What's it gonna be?

- After much deliberation, I've decided to go with a neon orange.

- Neon orange?

- Yeah.

(bright inspiring music) - [Stephen Voiceover] Competing under pressure can be a nerveracking business, so it's good to have a loved one on hand for moral support.

- So Martin, you are?

- Tilly's dad.

- Tilly's dad.

- Yeah.

- And I believe you are the reason she's here.

Is that right?

- Maybe.

Well, she keeps telling everybody I tricked her, but it was a misunderstanding, really.

- [Stephen] Oh, I see.

- She wanted to enter, but was a bit nervous, so I said I'd do it with her.

And she believed me, so.

- So and you didn't enter?

- No.

- So you did trick her?

Martin.

- I don't think taking sides helps anybody.

(Stephen laughing) - That's sneaky.

Has she forgiven you?

- No.

- Right.

You proud of her?

- Yeah, always.

(bright inspiring music) - [Joan Voiceover] The vast grounds of West Wickham Park may be beautiful, but these idyllic green hills hide a dark secret.

In the late 1740s, its owner, Sir Francis Dashwood, second baronet, ordered his farm workers to dig a quarry under the estate to provide chalk for the construction of a new road.

But unbeknown to the workers, these tunnels were to serve another, more sinister, purpose.

- The farm workers never once questioned why this quarry site went 300 feet underground, quarter of a mile, and was dug out like a subterranean church.

And it was because Sir Francis was a notorious playboy, and he was the leader, the founder, of a very naughty secret society called the Hellfire Club, so named because each of the members would burn in hell for their deeds on earth.

(ominous music) - [Joan Voiceover] The members of the Hellfire Club included aristocrats, politicians, and even, as the story goes, America's founding father, Benjamin Franklin.

- Rumors say that this was more than just a swinger's club.

They say that they delved into devil worshiping, that they were messing with the occult.

We know that they used to dress up.

The men would come dressed as priests, and the ladies of a certain profession would come dressed as nuns.

Locals would see these women entering these caves.

The locals also said that some of these women never came back out.

- [Joan Voiceover] Despite multiple scandalous stories, the truth of what really took place here may never be known.

- All the handwritten evidence by Paul Whitehead, who was the secretary for the Hellfire Club.

Well he burnt all of those records on his deathbed, and they said that when he stared into the flames, his servants reported him saying, "Now history and society "will never be able to judge me."

(bright music) - [Stephen Voiceover] Facing a different kind of judgment, today our wildcard artists have been cooking up some mischief of their own.

- It's almost a sort of meditative quality, the way that this paint's going on.

- What I like to do is just work from the colors rather than the details.

- And you've wrapped round the edges, which is one of my favorite things on canvases.

- It's been quite an erratic day, because the weather has changed quite significantly.

I've had to move quite quickly with the color.

- This view captured me straightaway.

And when I went over there and took some trees to plant in the foreground.

- [Kathleen] So you've been stealing bits of the landscape?

- Are you the art police?

- Yes.

- [Stephen Voiceover] With the art police on patrol, our wildcards have been under close scrutiny all day.

- I really like the way so many of our wildcards have found lovely little spots today, little secret bridges that we hadn't seen, or lovely little streams, putting things together that shouldn't be together.

- A lot of good painters.

Two in particular right down at the front.

That's actually probably the most difficult view, I would say, with the water and the temple.

- [Tai Shen] It's the yummiest for a painting.

- [Kate] Yeah.

- [Tai Shen] There so many lovely things to tackle.

- Yeah, so it looks like it's definitely someone who went right down and faced the water.

(bright inspiring music) - You are our winner today!

(all applauding) - Thank you very much indeed.

- We really love the color, the sense of chalkiness.

That lovely view into the distance.

Congratulations.

- Elated.

How we will celebrate tonight, we'll have a drink.

It's only 20 minutes away from where I live.

Good opportunity to get out of the house, and spend the day painting.

What more could you ask for?

- [Joan Voiceover] Antony Perry from Oxfordshire will enter a pool of wildcard winners from all the heats, one of whom will be selected for a place in the semifinal.

(soft music) - [Stephen Voiceover] There's just one hour of the competition to go.

Our ambitious artists have all aimed high, but there's still a lot to do.

- I now have an hour left to paint the building, which I find a massive challenge.

I tried to get it over with at the start, but then just thought I want to just go into foliage, because I'm struggling with it, so yeah, I'm back to square one again.

- It does still need a lot of work.

My worry is I'm not getting enough depth in the shadows.

It's looking a little bit flat, which I don't want.

- Bit panic-stricken there.

I'm not gonna finish it, but I've got to get the important things done, and the important things are these pillars, you have to go (whistles) breathe out.

But yeah, we're getting there, I think.

Yeah.

(exciting music) (tense music) - [Stephen Voiceover] At West Wickham House in Buckinghamshire, our six landscape artists are nearing the end of their four hour challenge.

- [Rory] This will be the final print.

- Is this a heart stopping moment for you, or are you supremely confident this is all gonna work out?

- [Rory] I think it has worked out.

I was worried earlier on that it wasn't going to, but it's coming together fine.

- [Stephen] I've read a collection of short stories.

I wonder if you could print those for me as well at some point.

(Rory laughs) - I feel like I've finished, and if I carry on, it's gonna get too detailed.

I'd like it to dry, and then I would work over it again, but obviously I haven't got the time, so I think that's the best I can do today.

- I'm just gonna power through and get as much as I can done, but I don't want to rush it.

I'd rather make sure that what I do do, I'm happy with.

Just hope that that's enough.

- It's just capturing the final bits of the building, because the light's changed, so I'm moving a little bit quicker now.

- Artists, the end is nigh.

You have five minutes left.

- I've still got to do loads of stuff, really.

Don't panic.

- I'm just touching up the print where the colors are not quite right.

- My heartbeat is slightly elevated.

- Can you just give us an extra hour?

- Artists, your four hours are up.

- Please put down your equipment, and step away from your easels.

(bright inspiring music) (all applauding) (soft uplifting music) - [Joan Voiceover] As the artists enjoy a well-earned break, the judges examine the six finished artworks.

- I'm just a bit overwhelmed by how much house we're getting, but what a surprise, we gave them a house, but it is amazing how they've been able to adapt the language to this monolithic subject.

- I loved Rory's industriousness, and the fact that he was brave enough to come with all that kit, but there's almost too much texture here.

The way he's gone into the tiny detail with the plants and the planters.

- I think his color palette is great.

I particularly like these pinky-red accents that he brought out from the trees.

He's a very sophisticated artist.

- Dawn gave us the house full-frontal, symmetrical.

I thought she really would have problems creating tension, and of course she's found tension in the windows, and the way there's that slight shift, and it's a great painting.

- She's imbued the building with a personality that goes beyond the bricks and mortar, and I think that's partly to do with its wonky-shonkiness, but also to do with the fact that it's sort of uncompromisingly face on.

- That combination of the neon, and then the very, very, very heavy pen work gives Tilly's work a really strong sense of narrative.

- Tilly has basically given us this glorious gothic novel, and she's taken us to the East End of London and all the Georgian buildings, in which a murder might have just been committed.

- Is the color a bit too colorful?

Maybe, but I'm on board with it.

My problem is the fact that it feels quite illustrative.

- Ah, Eden.

I mean, at the halfway point today, the trees and the foliage was just so beautifully conjured up, and what we all were hoping for was that the house would then find its way to that sort of level of abstract completion.

- She really kept that vista, you know that beautiful sense of space on the right-hand side.

That, to me, is such a magical passage of painting.

And then her foliage is masterful.

So I feel like I love that bit of the painting, and the house lets it down for me.

- Claire.

She's raised this inconsequential section of the house into this sort of monolithic being, almost.

- She's chosen a larger canvas, and it was at the limits of what she could do, and there's something human-sized about it.

It's one of those paintings that's much better than its parts.

- [Kate] Gary's made some really good choices.

He turned the building on its side, he introduced all these diagonal axes.

I like the drawing spilling out of the painting.

I think maybe the color's too literal.

- I think that bit of mystery, which is missing today because the sky was pretty gray, is an element that is really important to make his kind of work sing on a more complex level.

- Yes, a drawing versus painting today.

Tricky to compare the two elements.

- [Stephen Voiceover] The judges must now select a shortlist of just three artists.

- I get a feeling with all these yellow houses, some exude an emotion, and there's three of them which really speak to my gut in a funny way.

- You're not gonna cry, are you?

- I'll try to hold it together.

- Okay, all right.

- It's only a house today.

- [Kathleen] I think my three won't be the same as your three.

- [Tai Shen] I've got a funny feeling they might be.

- Mm.

- Ah.

We shall have to see.

- Yeah.

(soft music) - Artists, thank you for joining us here in West Wickham today.

It's been a glorious day.

- But the hour of judgment is now upon us.

Just three artists have been selected for the shortlist.

The first artist on the shortlist is Rory Brooke.

(all applauding) - The second artist is Dawn Blatherwick.

- Oh my god.

(all applauding) - The third artist is Claire Lord.

(all applauding) - We hope the rest of you won't be too disappointed, because we really have enjoyed all the work that's been done today.

Thank you for that.

(all applauding) - I've had a brilliant day, and I'm very grateful to have even got to this stage in the competition, so I'm blessed for the experience and I can learn from it.

I'm happy.

- [Joan Voiceover] Only one artist can go through to the semifinal, so alongside today's works, the judges take a look at the artists' submissions to help them decide on a winner.

- Judges, when we considered the wall this morning, we remarked on how diverse the subject matter was.

In the event, they've all been rather conventional in their approach.

- Well, they've been well-behaved.

They've painted what we put in front of them, but they each of them have brought something of themselves and their own particular style to their interpretation.

- They all had their concepts in place.

You look at Rory's, he had this fantastic panoramic view in his submission, and today with less space, he's given us another dynamic composition, where he's given us half the house receding into this bush.

- The colors are harmonious, he's done things which are really zingy and attractive.

I love that flat green aspect at the front.

I think maybe there's a bit too much detail in it.

- Dawn looked shocked when her name was called out.

- I think what's good about Dawn's work is that we have a distinct sense of time and place in both works.

I like the wonkiness of the house, and now that I see it next to her submission, it feels like this view here in this window somehow feels echoed in the little windows at the top.

- Yeah, I think what Dawn was able to do, actually, was bring together the reality that we are here at a stately home, but it's still very domestic.

People still live there, and these tiny little planters like you might find in my back garden.

- I imagine you live in a house like that.

Don't you?

- Oh yeah, yeah.

(soft music) - Now Claire overwhelmed us with her submission.

She likes big pictures.

But she also likes the complexity of structure.

- I think Claire's strength lies in the way she puts paint down, also her choice of subject matter and how she frames it, of course, and this sort of rather claustrophobic submission of a junkyard, it's not the same today, but she has gone so close to the house that we got hardly any breathing space.

- Now that I see them side by side, my goodness, there are so many parallels.

We've got the same horizontal and vertical banding, and in this occasion, the tree at the bottom right hand corner at the green is the blue bucket.

- The blue pot.

- [Stephen] So we have the same building, but three entirely different buildings, because of the artist's vision.

- It's really exciting to meet three fantastic artists like this.

I'm really, really pleased.

- [Joan Voiceover] But which of these three fantastic artists will the judges choose as today's winner?

(soft music) - Rory, Dawn, Claire, do you know this is the bit that none of us like, because we do have to choose between the three of you, and we admire all of you, but only one can go through to the semifinal.

- The artist that the judges have chosen is (tense exciting music) Claire Lord.

(all applauding) (bright inspiring music) - I'd give you a hug, but I can't.

- Oh, thank you.

Wow.

I really don't have any words for once, which is surprising.

I'm absolutely thrilled, and on the edge of being a bit weepy.

Yeah, it's fantastic.

I'm thrilled to bits.

- Claire's winning painting was fantastic.

She's a worthy winner.

Lovely lady as well.

- Are you allowed to come see me?

Oh!

Hi!

- Absolutely delighted that Claire came good today.

And we realized we had an artist who was very idiosyncratic in the way she built landscapes, but also a master of her craft in the sense of how she put paint on.

And today, we gave Claire this monolithic subject matter that she tackled full on.

It was one of those magical moments where what she created was more than the marks on the canvas suggested.

- Well thank you all very much.

It's been a fantastic experience.

So I've won today, absolutely confirms that you've got to give yourself challenges, you've got to step up to whatever life has to offer, because you only live once.

(bright inspiring music) (uplifting classical music) (bright music)