MAKING A MARK

A purist approach to media art societies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 08:05:00 +0000

Every now and again I have a bit of a rant about one of my pet topics - media creep. This is one of them.

An art society is set up to serve a very particular group of artists - including specific media. Media Creep sets in as it the media eligible for use in a society exhibitions starts to become more broad and extended so that definitions of media become "more inclusive".

I've often thought it's another way of avoiding setting up a society to tackle their particular preferred media.

Here's an example of my previous words on this topic - Acrylic Painting, Art Societies and Education (2022). Plus an extract which just about sums it up

In the UK we have acrylic crossing the oil and watercolour divide - and sometimes forgetting that
those on the water side should NOT look like oils and
those on the oil side should NOT look like watercolours.
Maybe it's a question of acrylic painters needing to achieve a much higher profile - in terms of an art society with a very clear focus and its own membership and exhibitions?

As I stated yesterday about the current RI Annual Exhibition

Virtually everybody in this exhibition is using either watercolour or (normal or acrylic) inks.
However 53 artworks are in acrylic. That's 11.5% of the artworks.

First up - I'm very much a "do what it says on the tin" sort of person. So please read this section with this in mind.

My one big gripe about media is that I think every artwork I see in the RI exhibition should demonstrate evidence of WATER. After all, this is a conglomeration of artists who create artwork in WATER COLOURS. The word water is important.
There are a number of artworks in the exhibition whose media description is as follows

Fluid acrylics and heavy body acrylic on wood panel
That to me is a very very long way from being a water colour painting.

A review of other FBA Art Societies

Let's look at some comparisons re FBA Societies - and how they have chosen to address media creep.

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI)

In the past, a few too many artworks in acrylic hung in the annual ROI exhibition - in my opinion.

Or rather they could have done until the ROI finally outlawed acrylic (after I had a go at the ROI about its name and the media used in its exhibition - and kept repeating it in every review).

I'm not quite sure when the ROI started to let people submit work in acrylics but I do wish they'd:
either change their name
or stick rigidly to this being an exhibition of oil paintings.
I think it's misleading to do otherwise... It needs to be one or the other. I was pleased to see the extremely high percentage of the exhibited work is in oils. Hopefully this is an aspect of the society that can be addressed over time. Review - Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2017

The acrylic painters then started using oils. Which is interesting.

The Pastel Society

The Pastel Society developed a great approach to acrylic.

Review: Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 214th Annual Exhibition (2026)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:12:00 +0000

I think the 214th Annual Exhibition by the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours is probably the best RI exhibition I've seen by them at the Mall Galleries on two counts:

excellent artwork
extremely well hung - it reads very well throughout both the West and East Galleries and most of the North Gallery.

It also has the unique distinction of:

a VERY colourful title wall in the West Gallery
a monochrome title wall in the East Gallery

RI Annual Exhibition 2026: Very colourful end wall in West Gallery

RI Annual Exhibition 2026: Monochrome end wall in the East Gallery

Also, given there are 462 artworks hung in the show, I can also say it's one of the very best hung exhibitions - of LOTS of artwork - that I've seen of the different FBA societies who exhibit at the Mall Galleries.

Too often, I've found exhibitions with lots of artwork to be very difficult to look at because too little thought has been applied to how the works should hang. Indeed, I think maybe there should be a rule "don't come to the hanging if you haven't worked out what goes where if you are hanging in excess of 300".

I gather that the hang of this exhibition was planned in enormous detail by the new President Juliette Losq in her first year - and the effort has well and truly paid off.

It is certainly getting lots of visitors!

This blog post tells you:

how to see the exhibition - whether or not you can visit it at the Mall Galleries
how to check out the events during the exhibition
how to check out the standard of work by artists applying to become a member
observations about artwork in the exhibition
what can be improved for next year

Plus an extra post tomorrow - about the name and the importance of water.

How to see the RI Exhibition

You can visit the RI 214th Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries until 11th April (however it is closed in Easter Sunday and Easter Monday).

Venue: Mall Galleries, the Mall, London - North, East & West Galleries
Hours: 10am - 5pm every day except Easter Sunday and Easter Monday when the Galleries are closed
Dates: 25 Mar 2026 - 11 Apr 2026
Entry: Admission £7, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries and under 25s. Concessions available. No booking required.

You can also SEE ALL THE ARTWORK ONLINE

via this Mall Galleries website - which also allows purchases online
via my Making A Mark Facebook Page where I have created four separate albums for

One of my photos of two colourful walls in the North Gallery

A FREE Plein Air Painting Handout

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 11:48:00 +0000

This is about a FREE Plein Air Painting Handout by Michael Chesley Johnson - a very experienced American plein air painter and instructor in oils and soft pastels of repute.

His CV is impressive - see below to check out the credentials of the chap who is providing this handout for free.

He says

This is the handout I give to my all-level plein air painting workshops. Although it covers only oil and pastel, the methods and information apply to all media. (Watercolor is a bit different, though!)

I'm not going to include the link to it here - however I will include

the link to the page that the handout is on - on his website
the link to his Substack - which also includes a link which takes you to the website link above!

Content of the Plein Air Painting Handout

The headings and subheadings are:

MATERIALS

Pastel: Basic materials and Procedures
Oils: Basic materials and Procedures
Note for acrylic painters

You’d think that, over 25 years, the handout would need updating, but I’ve found “how to paint” consists of some basic principles that, like the laws of phyics, don’t change. The only thing that might change are some of the products listed (which I have updated for this release.)

PLEIN AIR METHODS, TECHNIQUES & TIPS

Purpose in Plein Air
Principals to Capturing the Landscape Quickly & Accurately
How to Paint - Not Draw
Plein Air Tips (which are excellent! KT)
Different Approaches to Interpreting Landscape Values
Dominance & Contrasting Pairs
Finding Color Harmony
Color Harmonies
To Match Any Color
About Black
Useful Resources for the Plein Air Painter

You can find his handout here

Paintings in the South West Gallery on Michael Chesley Johnson's website
- the application of media and techniques to landscape
Note how they all "read" really well even in a thumbnail version

About Michael Chesley Johnson AIS PAPNM

I'm going to use the words from his "about" page and will add a few bullet points and a few extra words!

Basically he is an all round "good guy" in terms of being a plein air painter and helping others to become one too - through a variety of channels.

What does he do?

He paints primarily outdoors in oil, pastel or gouache, choosing locations from the American Southwest, Downeast Maine and the Canadian Maritimes.
He has been invited repeatedly to national plein air events:

most recently was on the distinguished faculty of the annual Plein Air Convention & Expo in Denver, Colorado.

He delivers plein air painting workshops across the U.S.
He is a frequent writer for

The Artist’s Magazine,
Pastel Journal,
Watercolor Artist and
PleinAir Magazine,

He is also the author of several books, including Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air.

Recognition and Awards

Awarded Master Pastellist status by Pastel Artists Canada in 2008
Signature Member of

the American Impressionist Society and
Plein Air Painters of New Mexico

plus a past signature member of several national organizations. (Read here to learn why I let these memberships lapse.)
Featured in The Artist’s Magazine in September 2013.
His paintings

have appeared in many magazines
are in both corporate and private collections.

Website: https://www.mchesleyjohnson.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mchesleyjohnsonstudio

Substack: https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/

you can subscribe on this page https://mchesleyjohnson.substack.com/about

Making A Mark still in Top 10 Art Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:50:00 +0000

I recently found out that Making A Mark is still in the top 10 of a list of art blogs from all over the world

Specifically they are #5 in the 60 Best UK Art Blogs and#10 in the 100 Top Art Blogs according to Feedspot.

Not quite sure how they work out the rankings either and not quite sure how this happened but I'm happy that it did.

Although I was #5 in the Vuelio's Art Blogs UK Top 10 in 2022

60 Best UK Art Blogs - according to Feedspot

The best UK Art blogs curated and ranked based on multiple factors, including content relevancy, subject expertise, posting frequency, and freshness of content. Blogs with highest credibility within the UK Art space are ranked higher. This list is updated regularly to ensure it reflects the most active, influential, and valuable UK Art blogs on the internet today.
In the 60 Best UK Art Blogs to Follow in 2026, Making A Mark ranks 5th!

5. Making a Mark

+ Follow Blog
Description A top art blog for artists and art lovers: news about major art competitions and exhibitions, interviews with artists, techniques and tips for art and business
Email ****@gmail.com
Location London, England, United Kingdom
Facebook 12.5KTwitter 3K Domain Authority 46

100 Best Art Blogs- according to Feedspot

The same principles apply in relation to how different sites rank within the 100 Best Art Blogs to Follow in 2026 - where Making A Mark is ranked 10th.

10. Making a Mark

This is despite a reduced level of posting in recent times due to the facts that:

I got to 70 and decided if I was ever to retire I needed to make more time for me. This is despite the fact I took early retirement (knowing that severe osteoarthritis was a racing certainty for me) back in 2005 and started this blog a few months later
I now need to walk a decent amount every single day to stop me from seizing up. I average between 5,000-6,000 steps
Periodically I have to get ready for and recover from surgery. Like I said I always knew osteoarthritis was in my future. I didn't quite factor in the time needed for surgery!
Not to mention other health hiccups. I was told I need an urgent MRI this morning! They're going to see if they can fit it in before surgery next month.

Although I do fewer posts now I do seem to get better audiences for the ones I do.

For the record, other art blogs "from the old days" also ranked as follows in all Art Blogs

1. Artsy

3. ARTnews

13. Artwork Archive Blog

14. Jackson's Art Blog

16. Artnet

23. Lines and Colors

24. Parka Blogs

26. Gurney Journey

38. Art Biz Blog

39. Art Marketing News Blog

40. Xanadu Gallery - Red Dot Blog

41. Artsy Shark

Note: I do find these inventories of blogs to be very useful. If you look at the Feedspot Instagram, you can see all the other categories which are ranked.

Landscape Artist of the Year: A Celebrity Twist!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 17:37:00 +0000

The Sky Arts website recently announced innovations for the next round of Landscape Artist of the Year.

At the weekend we heard - via the main Sky Arts website only - that:

Fearne Cotton is to join as a new celebrity Co-Host
More Celebrities will be involved in every episode - talking about their landscape
Still no announcement about the Judges for LAOTY although we now know who two are.

Image for Series 12 - using submissions from Series 11

However, what is very weird is that

they have added text to the page,
without removing images and text associated with previous incarnations.
Hence we have two lots of text describing the format of one programme in two different ways!

A New Co-Host

Fearne Cotton is to be a new Co-Host for Series 12 which will be filmed this summer.

She a long-standing British TV presenter - mainly associated with the "popular tv" end of the market with mainstream broadcasters.

She also describes herself as Mother, Broadcaster, Writer, Founder.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sky Arts Artist Of The Year (@artistoftheyear)

Since finishing The Fearne Cotton Show (2009-2015) for BBC Radio1 she has branched out on her own and now hosts an award-winning podcast Happy Place (on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Her Happy Place Brand has since expanded into:

a wellbeing brand including
a book club,
an annual festival and
a marketplace that champions small businesses that are female-led, minority-owned, and/or based in the UK.

In other words, treading the well trodden path of celebrities who now need to differentiate themselves - while remaining popular - and generate their own audiences in the new social media world.

“I am thrilled to be joining Landscape Artist of the Year as part of the presenting team at Sky Arts. Art is such an important, emotive and expressive medium for me and I know that the audience is just going to be absolutely blown away by the level of enthusiasm and passion that we see from the artists taking part in the show. I can’t wait to be part of that journey and to help them tell their stories.”

She also comes with:

1.1 million followers on Facebook
3.9 million followers on Instagram
113k subscribers on YouTube

Which makes her very good fit with lots and lots of women over the age of 30 who like watching Landscape Artist of the Year.

I can see why she could be attracted to LAOTY and why Sky Arts might be attracted to her.

Casting now depends on social media following - as well as the ability to do the job!

Plus - and this makes her sound a very positive addition - she's a celebrity who can paint!!!

Review: UKCPS Silver Anniversary Annual Open Exhibition 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:20:00 +0000

After 25 years, the UKCPS is celebrating its Silver Anniversary with its first exhibition at the Mall Galleries.

It's always been an ambition of the UK Coloured Pencil Society (UKCPS) to hold its Open Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. Making it to its 25th Birthday seemed like an opportune time to spend some money and celebrate in style.

UKCPS Annual Open Exhibition
Part of the Hang in the West Gallery

For those UKCPS people not familiar with me or my blog (although I gathered from the PV on Tuesday night that a lot were), I am

a coloured pencil addict and a past signature member of UKCPS. I've written about its exhibitions a lot over the years (see the list of blog posts at the end which also give an insight into artwork in past exhibitions)
somebody who reviews ALL the national art societies which exhibit at the Mall Galleries - and has done so for nearly 20 years. So I've got a very good basis for saying how this exhibition compares with the norm at the Mall Galleries.

History of the UKCPS Society

The Society was founded in 2001 by Bob Ebdon and Pat Heffer.

The UK Colour Pencil Society (UKCPS) was founded in 2001 by Bob Ebdon, spurred by a letter in A&I magazine from Pat Heffer (who became a founder member, enthusiastic supporter and finally President). A few people sharing their interest of colour pencil art, who had never met except via the Internet, started the Society and it was launched at Patchings Art Centre in Nottinghamshire. The Society has grown over the years: the second issue of the quarterly magazine (September 2001) reported they had just reached the 100 member mark, and now there are just over 750 members.
I was also a coloured pencil fan and found them online a little later and subsequently became a member and exhibited with them between 2007-2010. After that I gradually withdrew as a member from all national art societies I belonged to so as to be able to do better reviews of their exhibitions!

The society is different in some ways from other national art societies.

anybody can become a member
recognition of expertise and contribution is made through

becoming a Signature Member (which I became in 2009 - see my blog post Signature membership)
progressing to Silver Signature status (pictures accepted into 5 exhibitions within 10 years) and Gold status (pictures accepted into 10 exhibitions within 15 years.)

it holds three exhibitions each year

an open exhibition for all artists using coloured pencils - which is competitive
an online exhibition for all members
members only exhibition held at the Derwent Pencil Museum, Keswick. (This year it will be 31st August to 30th October 2026)

In June 2018 it was granted charitable status - with an objective of:

promoting the art of drawing for the public benefit through the use of colour pencils
holding a public exhibition at least once a year to showcase work and provide tuition
help educate the public how to use colour pencils

The definition of a coloured pencil for the purposes of the exhibition is

"wood-cased, wax- or oil-based colour pencil"
i.e. pastel pencils are excluded.

The 25th Annual Exhibition of the UK Coloured Pencil Society

Venue: Mall Galleries - West and North Galleries
Dates: Open from Tuesday 17 March 2026 - Saturday 21 March 2026,
Hours: 10am to 5pm

Workshops: click for more information

How the work was judged

One member and two independent artists selected the artwork for the open exhibition.
Another artist judges the selected artwork for awards. This year it was Curtis Holder - a leading exponent of coloured pencil artwork.

You can see all the artwork in the exhibition in two ways:

In the albums of my pics that I've uploaded to Facebook - just click the link in the listing below. BTW, if I like a work I tend to take a photo of it on its own.

Via the UKCPS website where all images of all the artwork are now uploaded

BEST PICTURE IN SHOW

Where Time Rests by Pauline Stuart

(which I had spotted as a "go back and look again" pic!)

Facebook now only allows 63 characters for visible description

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:54:00 +0000

Facebook has made a terrible decision to limit the number of visible characters on posts of pics or links to a Facebook Page (124 characters with spaces in this sentence)

That includes spaces!

So the opening sentence of this blog post would be halved on Facebook. (this sentence is 69 characters with spaces - so you wouldn't see all of this short sentence)

Why is this happening?

Here's Google AI's explanation of what Facebook if trying to do.

But you do agree with their reasoning? Read on to find out some of my thoughts on the imploications....

Is Facebook trying to behave exactly like an Advertiser?

In effect it is treating every post by all normal Facebook subscribers as if it was an advert.

It seems to want to get us to write ADVERT TITLES for each FB post!

Is it possible that is so they can sneak in more advert content and we won't notice.

Is it possible that it is trying to create more clicks to its site so it can show advertisers a click heavy profile?

Compare Facebook with Instagram

It's very similar to the truncated text associated with an Instagram pic. (73 characters including spaces)

Maybe Facebook is trying to be more like Instagram?

Thing is they are demographically quite different. The big difference being that users of Facebook tend to be older and don't skip or skim text the way those under 40 do.

Older users are readers - and they like to see text.

So maybe Facebook is trying to win back younger users?

However maybe Facebook is also alienating its older users (like me) at the same time?

Compare Facebook with Google

Title Links (Blue Links): Approximately 50–60 characters (or around 600 pixels).

Google AI tells me that the character limit allowed for the title associated with a weblink is 50-60 characters

Hence, one might conclude that Facebook wants us to write titles as the text for the first 63 characters of the description of what a pic is or where a website link leads

Conclusion: we need to get a lot smarter about writing text TITLES for our links or pics on Facebook Pages.

However Google has the advantage that it also shows text AFTER THE TITLE - with no "read more" prompt. i.e. we get to see more text when viewing a link in the Google Search Engine

These are called snippets and there has always been a limit on how many characters get displayed

So what does Google have to say about the ideal length of descriptions (snippets) after the title of a website link?

Something completely different from Facebook!

Guess who's more experienced in the search engine aspects of what gets people to open posts?

Bottom line - Google Search allows at least TWICE THE NUMBER OF CHARACTERS ALLOWED BY FACEBOOK.

Which is WHY the search description for this blog post reads

Facebook wants titles not text for posts on Pages. Check out the changes re text length and compare to what Google thinks is best.

Who do you think understands responsiveness to search engine links better?

Google or Facebook?

FINAL Call for Entries: New England Art Club Annual Exhibition 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 17:53:00 +0000

You have until 12 noon on Friday 20th March to submit your entries for the New England Art Club Annual Exhibition.

While the seriously committed will have submitted their entries already, there's still time to submit that work which you are pleased with.

Historically, the New English Art Club was founded by a group of artists dissatisfied with the entrenched attitudes of the Royal Academy

Today, its intent is spelt out by its President Patrick Cullen

At the heart of the NEAC is the search and propagation of meaningful, resonant art. It is committed to authenticity through the observation of life, as well as the task of articulating and communicating ideas with the beauty of skilful language.

FINAL Call for Entries: NEAC Annual Exhibition 2026

Entries from open artists are welcomed.

The NEAC Annual Exhibition is a showcase not only for its members but also for aspiring artists: with a history going back more than a hundred years, it is an opportunity for work to be seen alongside some of the best artists today.

I describe the process below. Here are the links to all relevant pages

This is the official call for entries https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/open-calls/new-english-art-club
This is the official entry portal https://mallgalleries22.oess1.uk/

you need to locate the correct exhibition as this is the entry portal for all FBA Exhibitions at the Mall Galleries
UNFORTUNATELY the Full Details, Entry Terms & Conditions is a pop-up page and is NOT a downloadable PDF. Which means if you want to make a record for your files / notes - you have to copy and paste into Word - and then you can print it.

NEAC is not an art society which is afraid of colour!
(NEAC Annual Exhibition 2025: End of West Gallery)

If you want to know what NEAC is about, take a look at my pics of the 2025 Annual Exhibition

Last year, the exhibition 389 artworks which included a lot which were big to very big - which made the hang look very crowded to me

Guidelines re Sales and Pricing

You can see the nature and price of the artworks which sold in 2025 by right clicking HERE and opening in a new tab

60% were painted in oils
just over 20% were landscapes and cityscapes
just over 10% were portraits
just over 10% were still life
the remainder covered marine and coastal (4), other (1) and abstract (2)

In terms of sales, 17 of the 50 sales were by open artists - and the majority were by women. I think it not unlikely that most of the sales were heavily influenced by women too.

For the record, although I've not crunched the numbers for 2025, there are some guidelines for open artists if you want to achieve a sale

sales drop off once you breach £1,500 which I've identified for a long time as an important threshold for sales (i.e. not a lot above this, and these are mostly by members)
OPEN ARTISTS tend to do better in the £500-£1000 price range and pricing - and this is consistent across a number of the art societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries

SGFA 105th Annual Exhibition + scope for a VERY BIG exhibition about Drawing at the Mall Galleries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 12:07:00 +0000

It's interesting to see how many of the national art societies who are not members of the Federation of British Artists are now holding their annual exhibitions at the Mall Galleries.

To date we have:

SBA - Society of Botanical Artists - regular exhibitor in the whole gallery on a biennial basis (next exhibition in 2027)
SGFA - Society of Graphic Fine Art - regular exhibitor West and North Gallery (exhibition on at present - until 14 March
SWA - Society of Women Artists - long term regular exhibitor on annual basis - next exhibition 23-27 June 2026
UKCPS - UK Colour Pencil Society (for their 25th anniversary show only - next week 17 -25 March 2026

One wonders whether - at some point - some might become additional members of the Federation of British Artists.

The Society of Graphic Fine Art - currently exhibiting this week - are a case in point.

The Society of Graphic Fine Art

It's other colloquial name is "The Drawing Society"although I think its lost sight of its drawing purpose in the narrative at the beginning of the current exhibition page on the Mall Galleries website (i.e. the word drawing is absent)

The Society of Graphic Fine Art ...exists to promote and exhibit original works of high quality in colour or black or white. This includes both traditional and contemporary media, which includes pencil, pen, watercolour, oils, charcoal, pastel and any of the forms of original printmaking.
I suggest the second paragraph needs to come first

A national society based in the UK, the Society of Graphic Fine Art is the only society dedicated to excellence in drawing and draughtsmanship, demonstrated by hand.

This art society was founded over 100 years ago in 1919 and now has 160 elected members who are professional standard artists from all areas of the art world who work in all drawing and printmaking media. (I used to be one of them until I decided to not belong to any society while writing reviews of exhibitions.)

The Society was formed by students and teachers in the etching class at the London Central School of Arts. They wanted to establish a society that would
‘uphold and maintain the interests of all those forms of art that do not use colour as a form of expression’

which was another way of saying that drawing counts and, in one form or another, always will.

Their first exhibition in 1921 was supported by the RA and their first President was Sir Frank Brangwyn RA RE, the renowned muralist, painter, architect, illustrator and designer,

Current focus

Drawing excellence and draughtsmanship is still the focus of the society and its exhibition
The main criterion of membership, regardless of media discipline, is drawing excellence.
Nowadays, in addition to black and white work and traditional drawing skills, the society encourages the use of colour and non-figurative art.

105th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Graphic Fine Art

The entrance to the exhibition at the Mall Galleries

I visited the annual exhibition on Monday.

SGFA Exhibition: West and North Galleries of the Mall Galleries

Dates: 9 Mar 2026 - 14 Mar 2026
Hours:

Admission: FREE

I've uploaded my photographs of the artwork I saw to Facebook Albums

The Pileon = Facebook Comments now restricted to Followers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:49:00 +0000

This is about a change of policy for Comments on my Making A Mark Facebook Page. It's also a reminder about what is and is not OK when commenting on my Facebook posts.

Last night at 6pm I published my review of the Commission episode called "The Winner's Programme" at the end of the current series of Landscape Artist of the Year.

Before I went to bed last night, I had to add a comment to the post because of the incessant negative comments on my review made by people who, it appeared to me had:

neither watched the programme
nor read my review
nor explained the reasons for their negativity.

I remember names. I know when people have commented before. Having written on social media for the last 20 years, I also know when people have no interest in art and/or are just trolling.

In short, my post was experiencing "a pileon" and I was starting my response....

This is the comment on my Facebook Post about the Commission

It then occurred to me, I'd also received more ignorant comments than usual on my review of the Final Kim Day wins Landscape Artist of Year 2026 as well.....

What is a "pileon"?

I checked out definitions for Pileons on Google. It's not a recognised word in the Oxford English Dictionary. I'm not even sure I'm spelling it right however Google AI recognised the colloquial term and was able to provide some informative context.

Review: £10,000 Commission for Landscape Artist of the Year 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 18:05:00 +0000

The Commission Prize comes right after the we find out who won Landscape Artist of the Year for 2026 - see my post Kim Day wins Landscape Artist of Year 2026

This post is about the Commission:

the brief for the Landscape Artist of the Year commission
the Commission Programme - what's involved in understanding the brief and the constraints on the artist
the Commission Painting produced by the winner of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023.

Before the Unveiling of the Commissioned Painting of Croagh Patrick

The Commission

It's probably worth saying that this is not a prize in the sense that a nice tidy sum of £10,000 lands in your bank account.

First you have to work for it!

What you get in effect as a prize is an opportunity to EARN £10K through creating a painting - which everybody will want to comment on (and have done!)

The Challenge

The Commission is both like and unlike a commission an artist usually receives.

Usually it's only illustrators who get a tight brief and an absolute deadline for delivery - and given her day job is being a scenic artist for film and television Kim will have been very used to working on commission.

However most artists have some flexibility about deadlines (i.e. you say whether to accept it or not and when you can do it / deliver it) and briefs when doing a commission. This one you have

a very specific subject - it has to be a painting about Croagh Patrick, the holy mountain associated with St Patrick in County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland
a very specific deadline - for delivery to the National Gallery of Ireland and the filming of the Winner's Commission programme
considerable latitude as to what you do and how you do it - within the context of media allowed in the competition - and the constraints of being followed around by a film crew the whole time

The winner will receive a taxable fee of £10,000 (ten thousand pounds) (“the Winner’s Prize Fee”) for creation, completion, and delivery of an artwork (“the Winner’s Prize Artwork”) of a landscape (“Winner’s Prize Location”) on dates and times and locations to be determined by the Producer at its absolute discretion. Extract from the Series 11 Terms and Conditions

The Brief

The first part of the Commission is a visit to the National Gallery of Ireland to meet Dr Brendan Rooney, Head Curator and Curator of Irish Art to:

get the brief
ask questions

Kim Day wins Landscape Artist of Year 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 09:45:00 +0000

This review is about the Final of Series 11 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2026 which was won by Kim Day.

The Pods next to Falkirk Wheel

The Final of Series 11 of Landscape Artist of the Year (2026) was held at The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland last summer - and was broadcast on Sky Arts on Wednesday evening (followed straight afterwards by the programme about the commission for those wondering when that's on. My review of that will follow by Sunday).

Following this review of the Final, there are two more posts to go

Review of the Commission
Review of the Series as a whole.

About this post

As always the programme about the Final is always something of a bit of an odd show since

5 other participants are missing
there is the need to recap the journey to the Final
plus a more indepth profile of each artist AND
the story of the three artists doing a commission between the semi-finals and the Final

Below you can read about

Artists in the Final
Venue: Where/when the Final was held plus observations about the subject
Observations, Themes and Tips
The Commissions
The Final Painting
The Winner

At the end you can find

all my reviews of previous programmes in this series at the end of this post.
how to read reviews of past series
Plus how to apply for the NEXT series which will be filmed this summer in six heats in three places around the UK.

But before I begin.....

There's an aspect of this competition which is not explained well in the programme. I'm writing this now because I've noted a LOT of comments complaining about who won on FB.

A lot of people appear to THINK that the winner is determined by the artwork they paint in the final (i.e. 4 hours).
This is not the case.
Unfortunately, what really happens seems to be spelt out less clearly than it needs to be given the number of people who think this.

To go back to the beginning, who wins a heat depends on:

the submission AND
the heat painting i.e. it is NEVER just about the heat painting.

Who wins the whole series depends on:

the submission AND
the heat painting AND
the semi final painting AND
the commission AND
the painting in the Final i.e. it is NEVER just about the 4 hour painting in the Final.

Let me put it another way. WHY would they ask them to paint a commission - of what ever size they like - in however long they want to spend on it (within the time constraint of a week - I think) if it did not matter a LOT?!

Bottom line, the portfolio of paintings build up over the course of the series - from the application to the Final and provide a good insight into who an artist is and what they can do.

One might characterise the programme as a long-running audition.

Almost without fail, I have observed almost all winners across many series as having a very clear style and proficiency in specific techniques and a range in terms of what they like to paint and how they like to paint - and a very stong portfolio built up over the course of the competition.

It's my strong belief that it is the OVERALL PORTFOLIO - with a particular emphasis on BOTH the commission and the heat painting which tells the Judges who is the best artist for the commission.

It's the most logical and best way to judge the overall competition.

I stand to be corrected, but that will involve the programme makers in providing a very simple and explicit explanation of the process that is used to judge the competition - and restate this in every episode for ALL the viewers as well as the participants.

It's just very sad that this is not communicated and explained simply and clearly to viewers.

This approach is one of the principle reasons why I bang on and on and on about the importance of the submission.

Ditto same applies to the commission for the Final. An outstanding commission will tip the balance and win the Final. I've seen it happen across both PAOTY and LAOTY a few times.

NOTE: My personal preference would be to skip the final painting of "something" which they all do together and make it a programme about three different commissions of a significant landscape similar to the commission - with no pod - as an audition. That way you can also keep the winner secret!

So - now we've got that straight - on with my review of THE FINAL AUDITION FOR THE COMMISSION and TWO ARTWORKS!

Artists in the Final

As if you need reminding, however this is relevant to all those think they know better than these artists

Review: Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 09:49:00 +0000

Last year I was rather tough on the Annual Exhibition 2026 of the Royal Society of British Artists. Principally because I thought they had hung far too many artworks and consequently it was difficult to "see" the art.

As a result I sent a four page critique of the exhibition to the President highlighting various aspects of the exhibition I thought needed addressing and suggestions as to how. I gathered from last week that he had used it as a checklist to review all the aspects I suggested could do with attention.

This year I'm very pleased to say that this year we have a much improved exhibition to view with fewer artworks hung. Plus a much nicer experience at the TWO PVs. The "payoff" seems to be that more artwork is selling.

The West Gallery on Monday

I've now visited it three times:

at the NEW Private View for Art Collectors - which was very pleasant. We could all see the art properly and the red spots started appearing!
at the Artists' Private View last Thursday evening when I got to meet a brand new first time exhibitor who I first met 11 years ago. She was so very pleased that her abstracted artwork had sold before the exhibition had even opened!
Monday afternoon when I was able to get round the West Gallery and view all the artwork in more detail. Plus sat and chatted for ages with former President Mick Davies and printmaker Austin Cole about "exhibitions" which was again very enjoyable.

You can visit the exhibition

at the Mall Galleries
until Saturday 7th March (10am to 5pm)

You can view the artworks online - and buy - via the online exhibition

You can view the e-catalogue online

BOTH give you an idea about media, size and price of artwork on display

RBA Annual Exhibition 2026 - view in the East Gallery

You can also see artworks hung on the walls in the three galleries in my Facebook Albums (after yesterdays' hiatus!)

Facts about the Exhibition

Artwork comprises paintings, fine art prints, drawings, sculpture, ceramics and other 3D work in all kinds of media and but mainly (but not exclusively) a figurative / representative style - and you can see them at the Mall Galleries until Saturday 7th March.

The Mall Wall in the East Gallery

There are 438 artworks hung in the show (compared to 554 last year) - which is still more than I would like to see (c.400 is the optimum number for me) split between:

244 artworks by members - nearly 60% (compared to 275 in 2025)
194 artworks by open entry artists - just over 40% (compared to 279 in 2025)

Consequently

a marginal reduction in members' artwork but a major reduction in the number of artworks selected from the open entry.
Open artists might like to note that they had 2351 open entries so those selected represented about 8% of the open entry. Hence you need your very best artwork to get selected!

As a result, this year it's an exhibition which is much easier to view. There is more space between artworks which enhances the individual artworks as well as preventing eye fatigue when viewing art - as happened to me last year.

As a result, they are selling more artwork. Just over half way through, they are one short of the sales for the whole exhibition last year.

Call for Entries: Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 14:08:00 +0000

This is about the CALL FOR ENTRIES for the NEW FORMAT for Series 12 of Landscape Artist of the Year see

SEE my previous blog post announcing the change in the way it works BRAND NEW FORMAT for Landscape Artist of the Year Series 12 (2027) announced!
the deadline for submissions is Monday 23rd March 2026 - so basically you've got three more weeks.

There are lots of pros and cons below. I suggest that, in my opinion, you need to be both experienced and committed to landscape art and camera happy to do well.

Given the MAJOR change in the way the programme will be delivered, you can expect that scrutiny of entries will become MUCH more intensive.

In summary, the changes are as follows:

10 artists will be chosen for the whole series (rather than the 8 different artists for each heat episode - so 10 artists NOT 48 artists). Similar to number chosen for other competitions such as Throwdown or Bakeoff.
One artist leaves each week (similar to the format used by the BBC ten years ago for The Big Painting Challenge - but this time with a focus solely on landscape and apparently without any small challenges or learning activities)

This televised art competition gives artists four hours to paint a UK landscape. One artist is eliminated each episode, and one finalist is ultimately crowned the winner. Landscape Artist of the Year website

ALL the (remaining) artists create artworks at ALL the locations - which means every artist needs to be able to guarantee that they can make themselves available for filming. (Don't forget locations far from home may involve two travel says as well either side). This of itself will rule out a lot of artists. More comments below

If you want to take part in the show, you’ll need to confirm that you are available for seven filming dates on weekdays in June and July, plus one in September.

More scope for:

showing what you can do in terms of range and consistency
getting used to being filmed so you perform better (that's not what they say but it is what will happen)

Artists can still turn up to paint as "Wildcards" BUT there is NO Wildcard competition
If you apply, your work will be reviewed by prominent judges from the art world - BUT no word as yet as to who Judges will be. (I'm doubtful as to whether they are experienced landscape artists)
Appearance Money! If selected for the show, you will receive

£500 for each episode you take part in,
plus reimbursement for travel, accommodation, and meal expenses.

Commission: An additional £10,000 commission will be awarded to the winner.
The deadline for entries has been brought forward to Monday 23rd March 2026. (It was originally advertised as a date in the middle of May)

At the end of the series, the Judges will determine who becomes Landscape Artist of the Year on a MUCH larger group of paintings produced in all the different locations before the Final. i.e.

three to apply
six in the heats
one in the semifinal
= 10 paintings BEFORE THE FINAL!

Which can only be positive for the programme, the artists and the viewers.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sky Arts Artist Of The Year (@artistoftheyear)

More information

This is the page about the change
This is the CASTING PAGE page which sets out how it all works in 2026 - in more detail.

Frankly, I think the information provided is less than is needed. Hence why this blog post continues as it does.

What sort of artist are they trying to recruit for the PODS?

Having just ten artists for the entire series would, I expect, mean a different approach to selection.

Review: Semi Finals of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 11 (2026) - Ouse Valley Viaduct

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:08:00 +0000

This is a formal Review of the Semi Finals of Landscape Artist of the Year 2026 (Series 11) which took place and was filmed at the Ouse Valley Viaduct in July 2024.

It starts with a preamble about past semi finals and their locations - and some tips which artists might like to bear in mind if they are participating.

Which artists reached the final of Landscape Artist of the Year 2026?

Location and Weather

The very weird semi-finals locations to date

I will repeat what I said last year

All that the semi final location choices do is

(typically) provide big structures - which won't be present in the commission locations

provoke difficulty

generate disappointing paintings

guarantee that a talented artist(s) will mess up - and not make the final

In this instance, it also bears no relation whatsoever to the Commission and likely locations that the winning artist will visit

If you think "this can't be right", you can check it out below.

LAOTY Semi Final Locations

I started my reviews in Series 4 and the links in the list below are to my reviews of each semi-final - where you can see pics of all the structures.

YET AGAIN we got a BIG STRUCTURE for the Semi Final

2015 - Potters Fields Park in central London - painting Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and the City of London
2016 - Margate Harbour - painting views of the harbour
2017 - Castle Farm in Kent (the exception which proves the rule - given what happened the next year) - painting enormous fields of lavender
2018 - Felixstowe Docks - a container port with very big cranes and ships and stacks of containers - complete with an ocean going container ship turning up halfway through. (The eventual winner of the series knew it was coming as given a vague idea of where the semi finals were she'd had the foresight to look up both tide tables and arrivals and departures!)
2019 - Oil Rigs in the Cromarty Firth - extremely peculiar vertical structures sat in the middle of the Firth?
2020 - change of timing of broadcast (the year of two PAOTYs)
2021 - the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at Stratford in East London (filmed under Covid constraints in 2020 and broadcast changed to Jan-March slot in 2021) - looking south down the River Lee - towards the Olympic Stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbit in the distance.
2022 - Forth Bridge - a VERY meccano set over the Firth of Forth
2023 - Thames Barrier- next to the River Thames!
2024 - Bucklers Hard - in Hampshire
2025 - Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - with a view of the 19th century warship HMS Warrior

I think the theory might be, if you can make an attractive artwork from what are very typically unappealing big structures, you're probably going to be capable of portraying the commission subject.

Except they will keep choosing natural landscape for the latter! e.g. Croagh Patrick - a very large holy mountain in Ireland - for this current series 11.

I absolutely disagree with my postulated theory. I can't think of a worse test.

Natural landscape painters do not tend to respond well to big structures. In general, they're trying to get back to nature and away from big structures. I'm not quite sure why this thought has never occurred to whoever procures the locations.

TIPS For LAOTY Semi Finalists (and Pod artists)

Again I can do no better than repeat my previous advice for semi-finalists

Expect a big structure at some point
polish your perspective chops
A panoramic format might be a very useful option for your support
Take suitable tools for drawing/painting structures e.g. take a ruler (for measuring)
large pieces of stiff card (for very fast delivery of sharp edges)
flexi curve or french curve for bends
Binoculars - because sometimes the structure is a VERY long way away!
Make sure you know how to paint effective water quickly and easily

The 2026 Semi Final Location

The location for the Semi Final is the Ouse Valley Viaduct on the Balcombe Estate in in the High Weald AONB of West Sussex. The viaduct opened in 1841 and is used by the trains which travel between London and Brighton. It has:

got 37 arches and was built using 11 million bricks
been described as the most elegant viaduct in Britain.
has an iconic infinity view when seen from inside the arches.

I can't help feeling the pods were the wrong side of the viaduct for capturing the shadows of the viaduct on the land. There again that would have meant looking into the sun.

The artists initially seemed to spend some time pondering what the sun might do - along with working out a composition and either drawing or blocking in.

Then it was down to the serious business of interpreting how to set about (what the Judges called) a "monolith".

View of the pods side on to the Viaduct.

The Weather

In a series of endless sunny days and hot weather, this was a semi-final on "an incredibly baking hot day on location" with absolutely no shadow.

I keep wondering how the pod artists cope in terms of being baked alive! I know I absolutely couldn't do it - I'd go all woozy and pass out! I "think" (as in "I'm not sure") that they had some sort of cover for the pods which maybe deflected the rays.

The Artists in the Semi Final

The artists after they finished painting - in a nice shady spot

We had two surprises not one! There were eight artists in the Pods and they were:

all the Heat Winners - as summarised in Tuesday's blog post LAOTY Semi Final 2026 - The Heat Winners
PLUS the chosen wildcard from the Wildcard Winners in each heat. They chose Deborah Frank from Episode 3 at Dover Ferry Port (See Review and her Instagram post). She was rone who did the very impressive close cropped pic in oul paint of just one part of the harbour walls.

Deborah Frank is a practicing artist living in West Essex, England. Currently completing a BA in contemporary portraiture, at The Art Academy London (her website)

PLUS the best of the rest - in terms of pod artists - which actually makes some sense, because some heats definitely had more good artists than others.. The selected "best of the rest" was Tom Winter from Episode 5 on the Thames (see Review: Episode 5 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 11 (2026) - HMS Wellington & the South Bank). He's the chap who is a whiz at buildings and perspective.

NOTE: from the comments on my Facebook Page there seem to be quite a lot of people who think there is an episode which is the showdown between the wildcard artists to select the best for the Semi Final. This is NOT the case. The Judges choose a Wildcard at their own discretion - on the basis of their wildcard painting on the day. I'm assuming they've probably got access to the digital version of their submission as well.

The Semi Final Paintings

Here they all are at the end of the day. As you can see there are:

3 x panoramic
3 x portrait
2 x landscape

The only two people who "went big" were "the wildcard" and "the best of the rest". Those who get a lucky break do tend to come out fighting to justify that decision!

At the end of the semi-final, they had eight similar paintings of the same subject, which were all different. I think the good ones stood out.

LAOTY Semi Final 2026 - The Heat Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 10:00:00 +0000

This is about all the Heat Winners who will be participating in the Semi Finals of Series 11 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2026 - to be broadcast on Wednesday.

Which basically cuts down on what I need to write in the review of the Semi Finals - plus gives you a bit of a challenge to try and work out who might be the Finalists!

The focus for the semi-finals is The Ouse Valley Viaduct, West Sussex - see below. So reminiscent of a mountain in Ireland!

The Ouse Valley Viaduct

Who's Who in the LAOTY Semi Finals 2026

Below is a reminder of the pod artists in the Semi Finals

all the heat winners + their profiles
all their submissions + heat paintings

Who do you think will be in the Final of Landscape Artist of the Year 2026?

See if you can work out in advance who might advance to the Finals.

Heat 1: Derwent Water, Lake District

Kim Day was the winner. I think she's got to be one of the favourites for the Final - but it all essentially depends on how good she is at making something out a boring large brick viaduct!

Kim Day with her submission

My profile of her was as follows

Kim Day (Instagram) - She lives on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset and works as a freelance concept artist for the film and television industry. She has a BA Hons Fine Arts painting degree and a Masters from the NFTS | Royal College of Art in Design for Film. She works on Saunders Waterford 638gsm papers or stretched Linen with Acrylics, compressed charcoals and pastels pencils and pens, combining each medium to add variation to her mark making and colour quality.

My review commented as follows:

In essence, she starts with the big shapes as tonal colours and then adds smaller marks (using I think acrylic markers) which lend and suggest detail

Tai was very impressed by her artwork seen together. He thought it was brilliant.

Eva liked the overall harmonious colour palettes of both artworks. She also picked up on the fact that Kim had identified and used the purple and pink undertones on the fells.

Generally they were all very impressed by her use of colour and the way she filled her paper with landscape. Her subject didn't drop off or peter out.

Submission and Heat Art work by Kim Day

Her artworks were described as

having a delicious sense of colour.

providing a sense of place

responded to the majesty and statute of the place while interpreting it according to her own way of seeing things

Which to me sounds like a very likely candidate for the Final - but we are, of course, at a very early stage if we think what the commission is about.

This was my Review: Episode 1 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 11 (2026)

I find it useful to see what she has said - in a guarded limited way - on Instagram. You can often find a bit of a hint. See what you think.....

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kimberley Day (@day.finearts)

Episode 2: St James Park, London

Nigel Glaze was the winner of the heat located in St James Park - looking at Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial across the lake.

UPDATED: Michael Chesley Johnson FREE Plein Air Primer

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 17:57:00 +0000

Michael Chesley Johnson is a landscape painter ( in oils and pastels) and an author. He's been painting and blogging two months longer than me - having started in Autumn 2025.

He also writes for magazines like Artists Magazine and Pastel Journal. He's the author of some books, including Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air

I'm very happy to recommend Michael as an artist worth reading on the topic of plein air painting. He's very experienced and he produces good plein air artwork.

However, the purpose of this blog post changed half way through writing. It's about

making you aware you can read his Plein Air Primer for free
~~making sure you read the conditions VERY CAREFULLY.~~

EXCEPT that Michael has now worked out what went wrong - and everything is now OK. So this blog post now reads

Primer for Plein Air - just click a link and read the whole post for FREE
The UPDATED VERSION (what went wrong)
the ORIGINAL VERSION - kept as a salutary reminder that these platforms can catch out even the best of intentions

Primer for Plein Air by Michael Chesley Johnson

Michael has made his Plein Air Primer available for free on his Substack - and this post tells you how to access it! Which means a bit of unpacking of what exactly "free" means.

In these articles, I’ve distilled much of my plein air practice. With plein air painting season just around the corner, I hope you find them useful—whether you’re a beginner or an old pro
Strictly speaking, this is a FREE with "a 7 day free trial". Which should be sufficient to get through all 7 articles - listed below.

Part 1: Gear - What do you need for an easel or a paint box?
Part 2: Tools and Stuff - What should I take?
Part 3: Paints, Pastels and Papers - You don't need more than a few colors.
Part 4: Setting a Goal - Don't go out without one!
Part 5: Location and Picking a Subject - Location is everything.
Part 6: Making a Proper Value Sketch - Making a preliminary value sketch is waste of time, right? Wrong.
Part 7: Making a Painting - The final installment of the series

THE UPDATED VERSION

You can now read the entire post for free just by clicking the links above.

This is the email I got from Michael explaining what had gone wrong - which means it's now OK to click any of the links above and you will automatically

This is Michael's explanation of what went wrong

First of all, thanks so much for the review in your Making a Mark blog—and also for pointing out that my “free” plein air primer posts are free for only 7 days and that they require you to provide an email address! That was not my intention at all.

I originally had set those posts for paid subscribers only, but had a change of heart and decided to make them free. I made the change and tested it by logging out; I was then able to view them in their entirety without having to provide an email address.

What changed things, however, was another setting lurking in the background. This setting lets you turn all free posts older than a month into “paid” posts—and because the plein air primer posts are over a month old, Substack reset them to paid-only. Yikes!

I have now turned off that particular setting and have tested it again, and everything looks fine, working as I planned. No one should have to give an email address to read these for free.

As for the GDPR law, Substack, unfortunately, doesn’t have a setting for this. However, this morning I’ve put in place a TOS/Privacy Policy and have also set the system so that new subscribers will need to go through a double-opt-in, confirming their email address.

Thanks again for the review and pointing out the problem.

THE ORIGINAL VERSION: What you need to do

UPDATE (23 Feb 2026): Apparently I have spotted an unintended problem with the posts ( as identified above)

You have to

set up an account in Substack (which is always a good idea) and
then subscribe to his Substack. Over on the right is the option to subscribe for free. HOWEVER.......

WHAT IT USED TO SAY: NO LONGER APPLICABLE - BUT WORK KEEPING FOR OTHER SUBSTACK USERS WHO MIGHT ALSO BE CAUGHT OUT!

The thing is I'm not a big fan of things that promise stuff for free - with a catch - i.e. you then find out

you have to subscribe for free and sign up to a subscription which is going to charge you £41 for an annual subscription every year (which it doesn't tell you on the blue advert)
unless you cancel - which you can at any time.

That's because I'm one of those people who has to cancel straight away, because I know I'll forget to cancel in 7 days and I don't EVER give my credit card data away for free.

Plus I don't mind giving my email away - just so long as I can also refuse further communications and am not going to have to pay for anything.

Strictly speaking, I think of he had an advert like that in the UK Michael might get stitched up by

if anybody complained to them. That's because they who prefer people to say exactly what they mean - with no qualifications in the small print a long way in.

I get the impression that maybe things are done differently in the US? Or the regulations are not as tight as the UK's.

It really depends what you want to do. If you're serious about plein air painting, I'd recommend it. He writes informative posts (but the books are cheaper!)

NOTE: Michael also appears to have worked out the way to keep his Blogger blog going while having transferred all new content to his Substack Painting to See. So I'll be having a think about that.

Review: Episode 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 11 (2026) - Dover Castle

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:14:00 +0000

This is my sixth and final review of the Heats in Series 11 of Landscape Artist of the Year. This episode apparently was the first heat of the series - and the view was of Dover Castle and its ramparts

Drone View of the location with LAOTY Pods, wildcard artists and Dover castle

As always my review provides:

more detail than the programme about each of the artists
overview of the location for the day and how this worked for the artists and programme
comments on themes which cropped during the programme
details of the artists who were shortlisted and who won the Wildcard and this heat.

My next review will be about the semi final - which is in Sussex (see end).

Episode 6: Dover Castle

Location and Weather

The location for this heat was an exposed hill across a wooded valley opposite Dover Castle. The pods were set up at the top of the slop and the wildcards were located further down the slope - in the eyeline of the pod artists.

DOVER CASTLE

Dover Castle:
a classic 11th century motte and bailey castle built by William the Conqueror
transformed by Henry II in the 12th century with a massive stone keep and curtain walls

Dover Castle is cared for by English Heritage and is VERY important in UK History.

It was originally built to overlook the shortest passage between the south east of England and the continent. As such it has played a crucial role in the "defence of the realm" for over nine centuries. As such it ranks alongside the Tower of London and Windsor Castle.

The history of the castle includes:

The massive earth ramparts and ditches surrounding the castle were thought to have been originally constructed about 800 years BC!
The Romans constructed a lighthouse (Pharos) to guide ships into the harbour
Churches were built in the 7th and 10-11th centuries
1066: William the Conqueror builds a castle there after he has defeated King Harold
1180-89: King Henry II rebuilds the Castle and constructs a huge Keep. This was the most expensive castle building project in England ever!
1215: King John constructs the important outer defences which hold when the castle is besieged the following year by the Prince of France
1217-56: over the next 30 years, enormous sums are spent strengthening Dover, making it one of the largest and most strategically important castles in England.
1793-1815: huge sums are spent during the French Revolution and the Napoelanic wars to make the castle safe
1939-45: The naval and later combined services headquarters were located in the Napoleonic tunnels and masterminded the invasion of France.
1956: the gun batteries were removed.

I didn't have the sense from the programme that ANY of this was explained to the artists before they started their paintings. I don't know any serious landscape painters of major important structures who wouldn't do a bit of research before they started painting - so they can make sure they include critical bits or because they need to know what they're painting - and which bits are where!

From a painting perspective, the earth ramparts (which are entirely artificial) are at least as important as the stone structure - and yet few really showed what they were there for or what they looked like.

One artist - the winner - did. Hence why I've explained the location in so much detail.

NOTE: Incidentally, I know that drones are fabulous things that allow filmmakers to get views they could never get before.

For me they are good for locating the venue and the nature of its vicinity.
However, the film-making of this series seems to have fallen prey to using the drone as much as possible.
what WE DO NOT SEE ENOUGH OF is what the view looks like from each artist's pod.

That view is the only one we need to know about to do an armchair judgement of whether or not an artist has captured a good likeness of what a place looks like.

All we got a was a very few seconds near the beginning as the artists began to prep their artwork.

All we needed was for Stephen and Tai to do their double act explaining the view from inside a pod - BEFORE the artists got into them. How difficult is that. Instead they talked about it from a place where all we saw was them talking rather than the view!

The (very) quick view from an Artist's Pod

Bottom line, it's exactly the same as portraiture - if you choose to make a portrait of a place then it must look like the place as well as being interesting as a painting.

i.e. what it looks like is the view from the pod - NOT the view from the sky!

Weather

Yet another very warm and sunny day - but apparently a great deal of gusty wind from time to time also. Easels, artwork, paint, water - all went flying! I'm not surprised there was a wind because I think the location for the pods was absolutely crackers!

Wind is normal. Artists normally avoid windy spots for all sorts of very practical reasons - the main one being lightweight plein air easels falling over. Which means Storyvault Films MUST project manage the set up for wind - and that might include (VERY serious suggestion):

having a VERY big think about the wisdom of some locations

where wind is VERY predictable
eg near the coast, on top of a hill!!

thinking about / finding out what the PREVAILING WIND DIRECTION is likely to be and how this might affect the pods i.e.

it looked to me like they'd pitched the pods right in the path of every (PREVAILING) south west wind coming up the channel!
I then checked on Google Maps and that is precisely what they had done!
HOW can a Location Manager not understand about prevailing winds - and hence why some locations are NOT a good idea? I am just gobsmacked.

The prevailing wind direction in Dover is primarily from the west and south-west for most of the year, particularly from mid-May to mid-April.

Strong winds (force 5 or greater) occur frequently, with higher, more dangerous gusts often coming from the South-South-West (SSW) to West-South-West (WSW) directions, affecting the port's operating safety limits. (Google)

The Artists in the Pods

Episode 5 artists are listed BELOW in the alphabetical order of their surnames.

including a synopsis of their background
Links to their websites (if they have one) are embedded in their names.
Social media platforms are also referenced - but typically only one

Portraiture and Portrait Painting: Reflections on a Discussion by three Expert Portrait Artists

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 19:03:00 +0000

On Saturday afternoon, I went along to the Mall Galleries to hear Miriam Escofet RP, Antony Williams RP, NEAC PS and Frances Bell RP ROI CBPP participating in the Expert Artist Panel Discussion.

The subject was Portraiture.

The Expert Panel
(left to rght: Frances Bell; Antony Williams, Dr Alison Smith and Miriam Escofet)

I know all three artists well having seen their work in various exhibitions and award competitions in the last few years - at least a decade and maybe nearer two! I have lots of photos of them with their work! You'll see some of the pics I took below.

It was interesting to hear their take on questions posed by the host who was Dr Alison Smith, who was formerly the Chief Curator at the National Portrait Gallery (2017-2024) and is curently the Director of Collections and Research at the Wallace Collection.

Below are some notes and some quotes.

I'm not going to attribute them to individuals as, for the most part, they were all in agreement. Plus while I've got notes for some, I've not got notes for all!

You can see examples of their portraits on their websites - but they've completed very many more portraits than are typically included on a website.

(Left to right) Miriam Escofet, Frances Bell, Antony Williams

What is a portrait?

Which comes first, the person or the painting?

"Portraits are first and foremost a likeness"

The audience for a portrait expect a good likeness.

However:

a portrait is also a painting
there is also the issue of the difference between personal work and a commissioned artwork
artists are always fascinated about the possibilities of their media and what they can do
there's a tension between getting the likeness and creating a satisfactory painting

If there's no likeness a portrait isn't working BUT it's not a good painting just because it is a good likeness.

To this end

portrait artists also like to paint personal work which allows them to explore the possibilities of their media and what they can do

What's different about Portrait Painting?

Review: Episode 5 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 11 (2026) - HMS Wellington & the South Bank

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 17:28:00 +0000

There are no pods in this week's episode 5 of Landscape Artist of the Year - because all the artists are created their art while rocking and swaying to the waves of the River Thames with their easels on the decks of HMS Wellington.

LAOTY 2025 - Episode 5 Artists with their paintings

This review follows the same format of my other reviews and considers.

the location and weather
the artists' profiles
themes arising during the episode
who was shortlisted and who won

See my review of Episode 1 for how these reviews and my commentary works.

At the end, in the Reference Section, you can see listings for all previous reviews of this series and most of the previous LAOTY series - which ALL have lots of tips on my Art on Television page.

Episode 5: HMS Wellington and the South Bank

Location and Weather

A drone image of HMS Wellington - on the right
and the brutalist architecture of the South Bank Centre (National Theatre etc) on the left

The artists were based for the day on HMS Wellington which is a historic Royal Navy Grimsby Class Sloop moored on the Victoria Embankment - which runs between the Palace of Westminster and Blackfriars Bridge - near Temple Tube Station.

An iconic feature on the River Thames since 1948, HMS WELLINGTON provides a unique and charming venue with unrivalled views of the Thames riverscape that includes Big Ben and the London Eye to the West, and the Shard and the City of London to the East.

Group #1 seemed to be around about the middle of the ship

Group #2 seemed to be a slightly different place - towards the bow

HMS Wellington can be hired out in part or as a whole for the day.

HMS Wellington - moored at the Victoria Embankment

The location is one I know extremely well - having spent

three years working for KPMG at Puddle Dock (next to Blackfriars Bridge) and
four years working for my professional institute which used to be located nearby, adjacent to Embankment Gardens.
This stretch of the Thames is in between the two.

Plus I have walked along the South Bank - from Embankment to Tate Modern - at least twice a year for the last 20 years.

The set-up minus pods on the deck of HMS Wellington
The only people with shelter are those who brought their own umbrellas

The view of the South Bank across the River Thames included everything from the Shard to the East (left) to the London Eye to the west (right).

It's probably the most panoramic landscape they've ever had in an urban environment. That is a genuine first.

Interestingly, you normally find the artists on the other side of the river painting the City of London - as I have done. This is also because, if you locate on the North bank of the Thames you're looking into the sun all day - which can be very wearing. I'd be interested to hear how the artists found it on the day. I was surprised not to see more sunglasses! (of which more later).

The weather was dry and very sunny in the morning, lots of high cloud in the afternoon and VERY windy rather a lot of the time. (At least they didn't have a rain problem)

On HMS Wellington

the artists were located along the side of the ship - on the fore deck - at the mercy of the wind and experiencing wash from the other boats and the rising tide
the wildcards were all under an awning in "steerage"!

We were on a boat! Out in the elements, buffeted by the wind, swaying with the rising tide, we emerged after a long day ruddy-cheeked & still smiling thanks to the team @storyvaultfilms Nicola Tremain

"Isn't TV Art Mad" Tai Shan Shierenberg

The Artists on HMS Wellington

Episode 5 artists are listed BELOW in the alphabetical order of their surnames.

including a synopsis of their background
Links to their websites (if they have one) are embedded in their names.
Social media platforms are also referenced - but typically only one

Katherine Tyrrell: Ten Artistic Tips Learnt From The Big Painting Challenge (11 years later!)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 10:27:00 +0000

Some of those contemplating entering one of the Artist of the Year competitions might find the tips below to be useful.

This is a reproduction of an article I wrote for the WH Smith Blog eleven years ago following (a) the Final of the The Big Painting Challenge and (b) the publication of my book Sketching 365.

I found it by accident while searching for something else and realised I had completely forgotten about it! It also seemed very timely for a repost!

So here is Katherine Tyrrell: Ten Artistic Tips Learnt From The Big Painting Challenge

________________________________

Last Sunday was the final episode of The Big Painting Challenge. The series has offered a lot to opportunities to learn over the last 6 weeks – from the amateur painters as well as from the Judges Daphne Todd and Lachlan Goudie.

I’ve been following the series on my blog Making A Mark and have been writing a series of posts – one for each episode. These comment on the challenges and highlight tips as the series has progressed.

Below I’ve summarised some important tips which I’ve derived from the programme content and the comments of both judges and the amateur artists.

TOP TEN TIPS

Check out these tips if you’re thinking of entering an art competition on television – or just improving how you paint.

TIP 1: Observation is key.

It’s really important to look carefully whether you are painting a person, a still life, a landscape – or things which move and dance about and change while you watch! You will reap the benefits if you spend as much time looking as you do drawing and painting. Find the big shapes, the verticals, horizontals and angles and don’t forget to measure and check the size and relative proportions of what you can see.

TIP 2: Good drawing underpins sound construction.

When a drawing or painting does not look quite right it’s often down to a problem with the drawing. Problems with drawing often lie either in:

A failure to observe carefully (see Tip 1)
A tendency to simplify so as to ignore the difficult bits
Unfamiliarity with a range of normal drawing media and the scope for making different marks (see Tip 3)
Difficulties in placing an object on a page – leading to bits missing which you intended to include (see Tip 6)
Difficulties in handling and mixing colour when using dry media rather than paint (Tip 8)

Identifying the nature of the problem with your drawing is your first step to learning how to correct it. Example: My major problem is my verticals often lean if I draw without thinking. My solution is to check how a major vertical lines up with the edge of the page as I draw it.

My book "Sketching 365" published internationally in 2015

TIP 3: Practice drawing quickly using different types of dry media.

Dry media was usually used for the quick draw exercises in The Big Painting Challenge but was not limited to pencils or charcoal. There was also little time for slow careful drawings! Moving on from graphite to use different types of dry media – and colour – challenged a few of the artists! Dry media are great for drawing and sketching. Try becoming more familiar with the properties of different types of dry media and also how they can be used intelligently to produce quick drawings. Not everything is drawn using a tip – you can also use the side and cover more paper faster! Drawing quickly is something that can be learned – but it takes practice

TIP 4: Become comfortable in working from life – as part of your daily life.

The NEW Portrait Artist of the Year Judges

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:56:00 +0000

The announcement of the NEW Judges for Portrait Artist of the Year was rather weird in terms of timing and what appeared when.

So I decided to defer comment until sure everything that was being published had been published. So below is:

An Overview of "What Happened?"
The NEW Judges of Portrait Artist of the Year
The Major Disconnect around Portraiture re. PAOTY
New Judges for Landscape Artist of the Year?

The New Judges for PAOTY in 2026

Commentary on the new format of LAOTY - which has also been announced (on 20th January by Artist of the Year, Tai-Shan Shierenberg and Stephen Mangan) - and what happens re the Judges for that will follow.

What Happened?

There has been a lot of clamour on social media for the Judges to be changed - for various reasons - for quite a while (that's years!). So it's now happening - but the media roll-out could have been better organised. It has the feel of something which had a few hiccups along the way

My timeline of info (coming and going out) went something like this

On 9th January, we had the announcement from Kate Bryan on Instagram that she was longer participating in Artist of the Year.

This appeared on her Instagram Account but NOT the Artist of the Year Accounts.
Which is very unusual, media teams usually arrange to sync re the announcement of any change when this has been a negotiated and amicably agreed.
It also didn't appear on the accounts of the other two Judges. Make of that what you will.

Normally any well planned announcement goes live contemporaneously. (my blog post)

The explanation for no announcement from Storyvault Films was probably because they were in the throes of the media publicity run-up to the new series of Landscape Artist of the Year - and you do NOT run two big stories at the same time! I kept looking - in the days afterwards - but the LAOTY news continued to predominate (as one would expect)

on 12th January, Artist of the Year announced details about Eva Langret, the new Judge for LAOTY on Instagram

On 15th January I published that Kate Bryan is no longer a Judge for Artist of the Year referencing her Instagram post and highlighting that

it had previously been announced that she was stepping down from Landscape Artist of the Year - but would carry on with PAOTY
but it now included to Portrait Artist of the Year too!

On 20th January - once LAOTY was underway, we got another major change announced completely out of the blue - about a major change to Landscape Artist of the Year

see my post BRAND NEW FORMAT for Landscape Artist of the Year Series 12 (2027) announced!

Then 0n 29th January an announcement about a refresh and a change in Judges for Portrait Artist of the Year dropped - on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sky Arts Artist Of The Year (@artistoftheyear)

Followed by my post on 30th January Goodbye - ALL THREE Artist of the Year Judges (which I had drafted late the previous evening and set up to publish at 9:30am.
Followed 30 minutes later at 10am on 30th January, by the announcement of the NEW Portrait of the Year Judges. Here's the Facebook Announcement

By which point I'd decided to give Artist of the Year a bit of a break re announcing changes on my blog - just in case there were any more!!

The NEW JUDGES for Portrait Artist of the Year

There are three new Judges for Portrait Artists of the Year. Below I will

summarise the three new Judges below with links to their websites and social media.
followed by a commentary by me re the type of Judge that has been chosen and what I'm calling "The major disconnect around Portraiture"

I think Storyvault Films have basically gone with a "more of the same" BUT "bigger and better" than the three existing Judges. They have certainly updated with new younger models.

However they have not introduced more artists and I think the ratio is the wrong way round. Two well established and reputable portrait artists plus a heavyweight in the curatorial/commercial world would be a better balance in my view.

Call for Entries: Portrait Artist of the Year 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:01:00 +0000

The deadline for entries for Series 13 of the televised art competition "Portrait Artist of the Year" is Friday 20th February 2026.

Good job I didn't write this any earlier - they've changed all the Judges since I did! More about the new Judges tomorrow.

This post is about:

The nature of this art competition
WHO can enter
HOW to enter
What the day of filming is like - and how long it lasts!
Plus TIPS about this art competition
AND TIPS about juried art exhibitions and art competitions generally (at the end).

Quotations below are from the Terms and Conditions of the competition or as indicated.

This is a televised competition. Artists enter with a self-portrait created within the last 5 years. They are selected on merit by our panel of expert judges. At the heats they are given four hours to paint a surprise celebrity sitter. The heat winners get to compete at the Semi-Final. Three of the Semi-Finalists go through to the Final but only one is selected as the overall winner.

Filming of Portrait Artist of the Year is planned to take place at Battersea Arts Centre in April 2026.

How this art competition works

This is an art competition as a television show.

Entries for the competition closes at 12:00pm (midday) on Friday 20th February 2026 (“the Closing Date”). Entries received after this date and time will not be considered.

These are the Terms and Conditions

Filming of Series 13 of Portrait Artist of the Year is planned to take place at the Battersea Arts Centre in April 2026. (see below for dates in April)

In effect this is a 'reality' show (i.e. real people/artists) as a knock-out competition for portrait artists.
Nine artists compete in each heat - which are held between 14th and 23rd April

You agree to use Your best endeavors to be available for any alternative and/or additional dates requested in March, April, May, June, July, and August 2026.

there are three surprise "celebrity" sitters (some you will know/ some you won't!)
each sitter has three artists drawing / painting / printing their portrait - in various 2D media
you have just four hours to complete a portrait - which is essentially 2 hours before the lunch break and 2 hours afterwards. (However artists can and do continue painting throughout the lunch break - when there is no sitter in front of them)

The Shortlisted Artists will have a maximum of 4 hours over a 5-6 hour period (or such other period as the Producer at its discretion may determine) to complete their Heat Artwork.

The panel of Judges may take the Shortlisted Artists’ Portrait Entry(s) and their Additional Works of Art into consideration during this judging process, and all of the criteria for judging and the decisions of the Judges shall be at the discretion of the Judges and the Producer and shall not be not open to dispute or discussion

- except by me "after the event"

The Sitter gets to choose a portrait - and if it's your portrait this is gifted to the sitter. (Make sure you get a photo of yourself with the sitter and the portrait!)
The Heat Winner - from a shortlist of three - goes through to the Semi-Finals

TIPS: Artists have just four hours to complete their portrait. HOWEVER:

you will be interrupted by presenters and/or or Judges who will talk to you during the four hours
people with cameras and sound recording equipment will be filming around you ALL THE TIME and sometimes you won't be able to see the sitter - or will need to move (see below)
You will be at some distance from the sitter - much further than with normal portraits - and you can't move your setup in to get closer. (check the distance between artist and the sitter when you watch the programmes)
It's a good idea to bring a digital device to take a photograph for when you can't see the sitter properly - or you can't see the details of the face clearly enough.

Filming of Series 9 Heat 1

Eight heat winners get to compete at the Semi-Final on Wednesday 29th April 2026

If You are chosen as a Semi Finalist or Finalist and are asked to travel away from home or are invited to 8 attend the Final, the Producer shall supply and pay for Your reasonable and pre-agreed travel and hotel costs. (T&Cs para 41)

Three people from the semi-finals are selected for the Final on Tuesday 19th May 2026 at a location in London (which may or may not be Battersea Arts Centre) which involves:

a commission to be completed between the semi final and the final. (essentially in about two weeks)

A space of the contributor’s choice in which to complete this artwork, where a timelapse camera can be rigged, must be provided free of charge by the contributor to film any or all of this process.

four hours to complete the portrait of the celebrity sitter in the final. I think the condition below is new. The second option has never been used before.

The Producer may ask
all of the Finalists to depict the same Portrait of a Sitter at the Final Location,
or each Finalist may be required to depict different Sitters at the Final Location.

The Prize

The winner is awarded a commission - worth a taxable fee of £10,000 - to create, complete and deliver a portrait of a notable person for a (usually) prestigious organisation - selected by the Producer - by a specified date.

If you want to know why the prize money is taxable see my page on my website Art Business Info for Artists about Tax on art awards and prize money

If You are chosen as the Winner, You must be available between the Final Date and the end of July 2026 to produce the Winner’s Prize Artwork on exact dates to be determined by the Producer.

Who / how / what to enter

LAST CALL FOR ENTRIES: Jackson's Art Prize 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 17:41:00 +0000

The deadline for entries for Jackson's Art Prize 2026 is 2nd March 2020 (5pm).

This post looks at Jackson’s Painting Prize 2026 and, in summary

who can enter
what you can enter
why enter
how to enter (registration / timeline / digital images etc)

Call for Entries: Jackson's Art Prize 2026

The intentions behind the Jackson's Art Prize are:

to bring together a global community of creatives and
showcase the work of artists of all ages and abilities.

The annual award welcomes

entries in all two-dimensional media including painting, drawing, and original printmaking
from amateur to professional artists.

There are lots of prizes - which are mainly art materials, although there is a £6,000 cash first prize.

Who can enter

Open internationally to artists of all ages and abilities

What type of artwork can you enter?

Artworks created in two-dimensional mediums eg painting, drawing, printmaking
About any theme or subject matter
Artworks for the competition must be submitted by the artist who created it.
All work must be your own intellectual property.

This is what the competition does not accept

Three-dimensional or sculptural work
Digital, computer manipulated, or AI art
Pure photography
Digital prints e.g. giclée
Artworks of an inappropriate or offensive subject matter will be removed from the competition.
artworks that directly copy other people’s work (this does not include artistic interpretations) or works that are made from a tutorial.

There will, of course, be some silly idiot who will think it's OK to try and smuggle some AI artwork in. Personally I'd award a "Great Big Wally" Award to anybody who did so and name and shame on social media.

You can see past entries and winners on the Jackson's Art Prize Instagram account

The quality of the photograph of the artwork

Review: Episode 4 of Landscape Artist of the Year Series 11 (2026) - Skiddaw

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:59:00 +0000

This week, for the fourth episode of Landscape Artist of the Year the artists are back in the Lake District to paint Skiddaw which lies just north of Keswick.

This is my review, which covers the location, artists, wildcards, heat paintings, who got shortlisted and who won the heat. Plus the themes I found cropped up throughout the programme.

WARNING: Go and get a cup of tea or coffee and sit down. This is a very long one!

I got half way through this post and decided to call it THE MEGA WHINEY post. I really, really, really want to stop whining and complaining. Please!

There will be yet more screaming - for various reasons....

If you anticipate wanting to enter for next year

At the bottom of this post you will also find links to my REVIEWS of all previous episodes in Series 11.
Plus you can find all my REVIEWS of previous LAOTY Series from Series 4 (2018) TO Series 10 (2025) - which ALL have lots of tips - on my Art on Television page.

Episode 4: Skiddaw

LAOTY 2026: Episode 4 - Skiddaw Fell
The wildcards arriving - with Skiddaw in the background
aka "Look no houses!"

Location and Weather

The 931-metre (3,054 ft) summit of Skiddaw is traditionally considered to be the fourth-highest peak and the sixth highest in the UK. Its slopes are grassy towards the bottom and the ridges are covered in ice-shattered scree and stones towards the top. It's located in what are called the Northern Fells

Up until the middle ages, its slopes were covered with a temperate rain forest. The Cumbria Wildlife Trust has an appeal for a 100 year project to help restore the Skiddaw Forest to its slopes

I think they relocated the LAOTY Pods from the edge of Derwent Water to the other side of Crow Park and then turned them around so they were facing the view of Skiddaw above the town of Keswick.

Interestingly Skiddaw actually looks very like Croagh Patrick (to be painted for the Commission) - so this was "the ideal audition". Except it wasn't.....

I'm guessing the pods were located where it was flattest. That's because I was somewhat surprised at the angle of the location. I was expecting them to be more turned towards Skiddaw - on the extreme left in the pic below - instead of being lined up in front of the town of Keswick.

Wildcards and Pods
trees in the foreground, Keswick in the middle ground
and then Skiddaw in the background

This was another very hot day - as happened for the first episode at Derwent Water. I'm not going to repeat all the hot weather recommendations from previous episodes of this series.

Episode 4: The Artists in the Pods

Episode 4: The Heat 4 Artists - out of their Pods and waiting to be shortlisted

Episode 4 pod artists are listed BELOW in the alphabetical order of their surnames.

Including a synopsis of their background
Links to their websites (if they have one) are embedded in their names.
Social media platforms are also referenced - but typically only one

The artists are:

Ian Dowding - a former chef / restaurateur from East Sussex who is a self taught artist, painting in acrylics. (no social media relating to art that I can find)
Stephanie Euphemia (Instagram) - a professional artist from Shropshire. She's a landscape artist who specialises in oil painting en plein air - and has exhibited in various art galleries in England. She's also a former tennis player who gave up a corporate career to become an artist. She brought her daughter to the heat.

Stephanie and her mini-me

I had such an incredible experience meeting the judges, painting alongside the other artists (and my miniature artist who decided she wanted to get in on the action) and loved seeing all of the different artistic interpretations of the Skiddaw Mountains.

Amelia Hemmings (Instagram) - From Oxfordshire, she is a linocut printmaker who mainly demonstrates (outdoors!) and exhibits in the border country between the west Midlands and Wales. She produces linocut, monotype & monoprint exploring landscape & memory. She works from direct experience of landscape. Walking in remote places is central to her practice, shaping both the subject matter and the way the work is made. As a result of being selected, Amelia very sensibly got herself some decent PR coverage in Oswestry Life (page 38). Plus this is her blog post about her day spent filming LAOTY. Kathleen thought her outdoor studio to be very well organised!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amelia Hemmings Art (@amelia_hemmings_art)

Alison Paterson Mars - a local farmer, Alison lives and works in the rural, rolling, windswept and little known farming country of the Solway, between the high hills of the northern Lake District and the enclosing Cumbrian coast. She produces expressionistic paintings using dramatic colours. She exhibits in and around the Lake District/Cumbria. She comments on her website as follows...

It was the hottest day of the year. There were 8 of us artists who were given a pod to work in, there were also 50 others -‘ the wildcards’ who had to fend for themselves, and sit out in the sun, We’d to be there for 7am and it was after 7pm when I left, so it was a long day. Everyone had a brilliant time and we were well looked after.

Cathy Pearce (Instagram) -a professional landscape painter from Wiltshire. She has been working in pastels for the last 13 years. As she says, there can be more pure pigment in a pastel than in oil paint. She had an article about Achieving Vibrancy in Pastels in The Artist magazine last year. I was very pleasued to have it confirmed that she was using Unison Pastels - which are made in Northumberland and are my pastel of choice too! I bought my first sets in the Lake District! Plus Clairefontaine Pastelmat. I've had my eye on her very striking submission (in the introduction image) from the beginning of this series. I'd wondered if it was pastels and if they were Unison! She has artwork currently exhibited in The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries (link is to the photo in the FB Album of her artwork!) Plus this is her explanation as to how.

Yay - I found a pic of the Unison Pastels!!
I've got all those boxes too!

Scott Simpson (Instagram) He was born in Aberdeen and has Scots Singaporean heritage. He graduated from Grays School of Art at Robert Gordon University. He is an award-winning painter now based in Alloa, Scotland. His drawings and paintings are, at the fundamental level, based on nature and seeing the world at a walking pace. He has exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, Society of Scottish Artists and Aberdeen Artist Society on several occasions. This is an interview with him.
Dan West (Instagram) - Dan, age 24, is an emerging artist from Teddington who currently works full time in the marketing, branding and graphic design of events. He attended Esher College before studying marketing at the University of Portsmouth. He first appeared on LAOTY as a wildcard when he was 22. He works in graphite and coloured pencils. His artwork is a leisure time activity but goes way beyond the normal standard of leisure artists - particularly in relation to composition which is very good. He also does album cover designs for musicians.

His main body of work focuses on the relationship between people and their environment, finding stories in every day life. Dan's work varies in size and material, with a consistent eye for narrative. (his website)

Chris Wright (Instagram) - He's an art teacher who has spent the last 25 years teaching art. He likes American Realism and uses strong shadows. He partocularly likes painting caravans! His artwork has been exhibited around the country. In 2025, it was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, The Royal Academy and The Royal West of England. There's a very good interview / explanation by Chris of this time on the show on his website

This was one of the most surreal experiences of my life and it is quite the memory to look back on. I’ve watched the show with my family for years and to have the opportunity to compete on it alongside a group of passionate and inspiring artists was amazing.

Episode 4: Submissions