The Semi-Finals of Landscape Artist of the Year: Bucklers Hard

Practice Practice Practice

After winning my heat in Liverpool, I had roughly 4 weeks until the semi-final. My grand plan was to practice as much as possible as I knew I was already at a disadvantage as Bucklers Hard was not a landscape I was comfortable painting. Unfortunately, time slipped away and I only managed to complete several sketches and one painting. I was mainly focussing on water, greenery and the dreaded boats…

I was happy with the final piece. I had recently completed a large commission where I had to paint a large area of water so I was quietly confident I could capture the landscape after this practice.

I went into the semi-finals wanting to prove that I could do more than extremely cropped landscapes and paint a scene outside of my comfort zone. At this point in the competition, we have no idea the location of the commission but I knew if I wanted to progress to the finals I had to prove that I had more flexibility as an artist.

I also went into the semi-finals confident that I was not going to be painting boats after my practice piece. The main reason being I was not 100% confident painting them and I did not want to risk it for the semi-final. Plus, we all know what the judges think of boats…

In the Pod

The problem with going into the pod with a plan is that the majority of the time, you are thrown off by the placement of the pods, the crowds or even the weather. When we saw the pods for the first time, I knew straight away that I wanted to include the red buildings, whereas in my original plan I was going to focus on the water and greenery (similar to my practice). I had not expected the pods to be so far up the hill.

I definitely noticed the amount of interviews and camera time had increased from the heats which makes sense as there are no wildcards in this round. So if you are preparing for a semi-final, keep that in mind!

The First Hour

In the first hour we had beautiful sunlight and great shadows on the buildings. The perspective was really difficult as we were on such a steep hill and the placement of those red houses was hard to recreate. Once I had my drawing, I blocked in the colour using my acrylics and began to focusing on the foliage in the background.

When I paint trees and bushes, I like to build up the colours. I start with dark greens and purples and slowly add lighter colours such as yellows, browns and oranges. I definitely spent more time on the greenery than I did on the buildings which was a concern towards the end of the day.

Time Management

One of the hardest things about the competition is managing your time. Although you have around 6 hours (as you can paint during lunch), it goes past so quickly. It is difficult to not get lost on perfecting areas and you must keep reminding yourself of the strict timeframe. I ran into this problem in the third hour as the trees took up most of my morning whilst I was trying to perfect light.

Once the second hour had passed, I moved onto the sky which had turned very grey and moody. As most of my paintings are of Gibraltar and the Med, a grey sky was something I wasn’t used to painting! I used lots of purples and murky blues and kept a slither of orange from my base coat where the trees met the sky. I found it helpful to avoid finishing the area you’re focussing on and instead wait until the painting is around 80% completed before you start working on the final details and highlights.

The Last Hour

By the last hour the crowds had tripled and it was so difficult to see parts of the landscape as it was covered in people and camping chairs. I had to send Jack off to find out the shape of the path as I couldn’t make it out!

At this point, the bottom half of my painting felt really underworked so I was trying to add some depth to the grass by adding different shades of green and brown. I was also worried that the buildings were blending into one long, red house so I made sure to focus my efforts on both of these areas.

The Announcement

As the episodes are so quick, I think it’s really hard to gauge just how long and taxing the day is. When Stephen announced we had 5 minutes left, I have never felt so stressed and simultaneously relieved that we were nearing the end of a very long day.

As with the heat, one of the highlights from the day was chatting to the other artists and finding out how their heat had gone. It was strange going into the semi-finals with no idea who you were going to be painting alongside!

The location was incredibly tricky but I think everyone managed to capture Bucklers Hard in their own unique way. A big congrats to Denise and Kristina for getting through to the final, I can’t wait to watch the night back!

Tune in on the 21st of February on Sky Arts at 8pm for the final of Landscape Artist of the Year.