Three Artists Shortlisted After Brutal Judging | Landscape Artist of the Year UK

As the artists head off to relax, the finished works are sheltered from the weather for the judges to view. I love this low horizon line and his sort of, you know, Instagram generation perfect square which really condenses all of that activity. And these subtly different grays are very beautiful and it gives the water a watery feel. You know, it does evoke the place and the day. It's grown on me, surprisingly. I didn't think he would get it together. The game plan was just to make as good a painting as possible within the time, so it does feel to me like it looks very unfinished. She was such a brilliant artist to watch. She was so confident. She knew exactly what she was doing. I like the way that she was really aggressively mark-making but then aggressively undoing all her mark-making. But I just don't like the messiness that she's got. And it looks, I think it looks more sophisticated than it actually is. Everything happened quite quickly. It felt like I'd only been painting for like an hour. When usually, if I've been painting for four hours, it feels like I've been painting for four hours. It's difficult, isn't it? Because you've got this extraordinary landscape in front of you and so much happening and all this amazing weather and yet she chose to just focus on this one tree. And it was, I think, quite a tortured process. I wonder whether there isn't an issue with the scale. She's suggesting monumentality without it feeling like it. Can someone explain to me what happened? I feel like I didn't read a chapter of the book. I'm completely confused. Well, he was never happy with the larger piece. Right from the very, very start, he was experimenting and he was looking to create an abstraction of this landscape. We all loved that dirty lake sea that he was creating and all the textures in it. So I think he took from that, he said, I'm just going back to what I know. I think that it's probably one of the works that's not quite so recognisably landscape as some of the others. So it might be challenging, but it also might be good. I don't know. He's a fast painter. This happened all very quickly. And then I was wondering what he was looking for. And there are beautiful paint passages. And we were suggesting that the water was impossible to make look like water because of the light, but he's done it very successfully and very inventively. And I like these clouds. What we're seeing about four or five different styles in that one painting, he hasn't quite got that comfort with himself yet. The day's dead enjoyable, but you feel at this point, you feel sick. You just, it's exhausting. I think reaching the end of it is absolutely exhausting. You're working to that finish point and that's, it's down to the judges now, so. To help them select a winner, first, the judges shortlist three artists. And the first artist is Benedict Doonan. The second artist is Sharon Agnew. And the third artist to be shortlisted is Sam Taylor. Commiserations to our other artists. Thank you so much. And I'm sorry you didn't get through. I'm absolutely gutted. I was hoping for the final three. If I'd have gotten the final three, I would have been over the moon, but yeah. I feel a little bit disappointed today because not being selected, but I quite enjoying today's experience because I do try my best. Before they decide who will claim a place in the semi-final, the judges talk to Benedict, Sharon and Sam. It's really nice seeing them together, particularly the light. Now I understand the Florence painting, I can imagine you had some light to work with. Today, there was not that much light, especially in the foreground. How did you, did you invent this or did you remember it from early in the day, the light? I was trying to keep my kind of visual memory going about what was going on at about 10 o'clock. So I was just trying to hang on to that. There are elements of it I think just about got there and other parts not. In retrospect, I think I should have painted it more in shadow, but we make these decisions and we have to live by them. Did you wrestle with the specificness of the landscape in here? Because what you've achieved here in the submission is sort of almost an impression of something that's there and it feels much looser, whereas here it's almost like you've had the landscape imposed on you. Kind of, yeah, I feel like it's more literal than other paintings that I've done, but then the first painting that's done from sketches that I've used, so it's mainly from marks that I've made and whereas this is from, it was right in front of me. I have no idea what my chances are. I don't really mind either way. I think being shortlisted is really cool. Okay, so we want some chapter and verse on why you abandoned the earlier painting. I started to notice what I started to enjoy looking at. I decided that remake the work and kind of isolate out the shapes of the lake and just go first. It's exciting to see you feel your way and come up with really surprising things. Yes, there'll be a lot of sort of dead ends, but it's been exciting watching you work. It was really good to be shortlisted. I'm still a bit jittery from here, but yeah, it should be good. There is an issue between the conventional, a landscape that everyone would say, I want a birthday card with a landscape on the front and everyone knows what that would be, and the unconventional, which is, is that really a landscape? I've stopped worrying about defining them as traditional or non-traditional or conventional or not. Particularly with landscape, I feel very emancipated to just respond to them in a kind of very instinctual way. And I think what I'm responding to primarily is atmosphere and mood. And so I'm not really bothered whether they're traditional or not. I need that conjuring. There are ways of getting that feeling across without being literal. And I think that's what we're looking for. And that's maybe where that traditional and more sort of experimental thing is happening, where the language used to get to the essence of the landscape isn't necessarily a literal translation, but finding a sort of a surprising new route. I think probably the most exciting thing about art and going to art galleries and stuff, if you don't know that much, is openness of mind and finding things that you think, this is a bit weird, but actually it's touching me in some way. It's easier to be more traditional with portraiture than it is with landscape. And in looking at landscape, we're trying to find something that's fresh and that's full of promise. Do you feel you now have your winner in your head? Yes. In my head. I would say in my heart. In your heart. Interesting. I'm not sure mine's the same, but we'll arm wrestle. Okay. Look forward to watching that. Benedict, Sharon, Sam, congratulations on being shortlisted. Your work really impressed the judges, but they have had a very difficult decision to make and they have made it. Yes, they have decided. The judges felt that the artist they have chosen to go through to the semifinal has intrigued them with their potential and left them keen to see where they might go next. And that person is Sam Taylor. That was really amazing to have won that. Congratulations, Sam. Just straight away thinking about what I've got to do next. The trouble continues. I thought Sam's work was fantastic. I thought his first painting that he abandoned was really good. And when the little one appeared, I thought, oh blimey, I'd buy that. So yeah, I thought it was very good. I'm feeling quite good, yeah. Made it to the shortlist of three. Just pretty impressive. Pretty tired. It's been a really long day, but I guess definitely can go out and celebrate a little bit, yeah.