Six Artists Paint the Iconic Forth Bridge | Landscape Artist of the Year

Hello from North Queensferry in Fife, on the edge of the Firth of Forth. We've invited our six talented semifinalists here today to paint an icon of engineering excellence. It's huge, it's red, it's the Forth Bridge. Welcome to the semifinal of Landscape Artist of the Year. Over a single glorious summer, we visited some of the most spectacular corners of our country. It's bloody green, but, you know, England is bloody green. From bustling seaside harbours to surreal modern vistas, over a series of demanding heats, we've challenged our artists to depict these magnificent views as their own works of art. I haven't tried painting bubble wrap, but I imagine it's quite similar. From the thousands that applied for this year's competition, just 40 artists were chosen, each tasked with completing their landscape in just four hours. I have a sense of urgency about the way you're working, not panic. Um, actually, you could describe it as panic. The artists have toiled under pressure in their chosen mediums. It's the nightmare bit. Ink everywhere. Now only the winners of the five heats remain, ready to battle it out for a place in this year's final. Awaiting the eventual winner is a prestigious prize, a £10,000 commission from Manchester Art Gallery, to create a piece that celebrates both the natural beauty and the industrial heritage of the North West. To claim that coveted prize and this year's title, the artists will need to impress our three ever-watchful judges. I feel as if I've fallen into some sort of mathematical nightmare. I mean, what is going on? Just three of today's semi-finalists will go through to the final, but to prevail, they'll need to push themselves to their limits. What are you working on? Aluminium panel. Mm! Have you done it much? Once. Once? Yeah. Once, OK. And we're in the semi-final. Yes. Of the artists who triumphed in their heats and will today compete for a place in this year's final, three are professionals. Alicia Enfield, Rebecca Noel-Pervis and Thomas McGregor. I'm still a little bit shocked about making it to the semi-final. Ultimately, what I really want to do is just not embarrass myself on national television and just do something that's a possible painting, really. Painting alongside them are two amateur artists, Afshin Nazir and Desmond Downs. Semi-finals, this is crazy. I don't believe it's happening, you know. The heats was more about the fun. It's getting more serious now. Got this far, I've got to try and do better, right? At each of the heats, a further 50 wildcards also took part, employing a broad range of approaches. Cutting-edge technology. For the prize of just a single place in today's semi-final. You are our wildcard winner today. APPLAUSE Congratulations! Well done. Thank you so much. 250 wildcards took part, and as their overall winner... Well done. ..the judges chose Helen MacDonald-Mathey... We loved the way you put paint on, the colours you're using. ..for her diptych of the lake at Compton Verney in Warwickshire. I'm feeling quite emotional, actually, but I'm delighted. Helen was a clear choice for us judges. I think she was really ambitious, and there was a wonderful painterly, elegiac quality to the paintings that she gave us. She's got a really beautiful palette, a really gorgeous touch. It gives a strong sense of place, and that's what we're going to be looking for today from her. Being a wildcard was fun, but this is a step up. It feels a little bit more, like, more pressure, but also I remember that they did like my work. Once we get going, I'll start to relax a bit more. Artists, painting the Forth Bridge is famously a never-ending task, but not for you. You have just four hours to complete your painting. And because it's the semi-final, we're expecting a truly outstanding work of art from each of you. May the Forth be with you. Your semi-final challenge starts now. Today, our artists are on the north bank of the Firth of Forth, the estuary that separates the Scottish regions of Fife and Lothian. One of Scotland's truly iconic landmarks, the Forth Rail Bridge dominates their view, stretching across the water for 1.5 miles to the far shore, with the distant Lothian Hills in the background. What an incredible view we have given our artists. The Forth Bridge in all of its glory, it's graceful, it's this emblem of Scotland, it's this fantastically strange red colour. It's a casual 50,000 tonnes of steel. And it's actually quite far away, so the artists have to think so carefully about their compositions, about scale, about storytelling, and actually about detail. You know, are they going to go for this detail, are they going to leave it out? And they've got to do it on what looks like a pretty grey, gloomy day with no contrast or shadows. I mean, it's the semi-final, we have to give them a challenge. Confronted with such a titanic structure emerging from the murky Scottish morning, our six semi-finalists are steeling themselves for the challenge ahead. It's a big red bridge, so there's no getting away from it. It's very, very grey and misty, so I'm hoping that that'll lift because the red will go really well against the blue sky. I think it's going to be a bit tricky today because it is a flat morning starting off, and there is so much architecture. I think I have to pinpoint it down just a little bit because otherwise I'll just be drawing forever. I'm kind of trying not to look at the scene because the sun's going to be out soon, I think. I'm gambling. And that's going to change everything, you know. It's a train. It's all about scale, that huge bridge. It's got to feel big. Amateur artist Desmond Downes lives on the rugged west coast of Ireland, a landscape that inspires much of his work. In his heat at Whitstable Harbour, he chose to tackle the asphalt factory looming over the quayside. And given the scale of the view today, he has yet another surprise up his sleeve. Desmond, you've gone wee. I've gone wee. How come? I'm in Scotland. We've got a big thing here, though, and you've gone tiny. I know. For me, actually, painting outdoors, this is as big as I would go. OK. But when you're confronted with a structure that's this monumental, how do you sort of translate that into a smaller space? I'm going to just do a section of it. I'm settled on the little caravans at the bottom and the builders' huts there. They are sort of in the shade of this massive bridge. OK, but you're looking to fill the board... Yeah. ..with that looming presence, in a way. Yeah, try and make it look as big and as intimidating as possible. Most important thing now is to get the scale of it right. Well, it's a beautiful start and I think the crop is gorgeous. Thank you very much. One of our other artists has decided on a more expansive approach to today's view. I decided to have the whole bridge in. I just need to be happy with the positioning of that and then the sense of distance and space will come in. It's really just about getting some good strokes down. I've got a steady hand. That's the biggest challenge. Thomas McGregor is a professional artist and horticultural therapist from London. His bold use of green and red and thickly applied oil paint in his rendering of the gardens at the Eden Project earned him his place in this year's semi-final. Do you know this part of the world? I do know this part of the world. I lived in Edinburgh for 12 or so years, so I crossed the bridge many times. OK. Painted it before? Never painted it before, no. And how do you feel about it as a challenge? Challenging as a challenge. It's a little bit daunting because it's such an iconic image. The challenge is just getting that right and trying to make it your own. You're working on quite a big canvas there. Yeah, I just want to do justice to the bridge but the sky as well, which there's not much to speak of. I'm confident that I've at least got something in that is definitely the Forth Rail Bridge. Yeah, no, it definitely is. Well, it's a big bridge. It is. And you've got a big canvas. A lot of girders. And I'm expecting big things. Though the morning's flat sky is giving some of our semi-finalists cause for concern, one artist in particular is relishing it. There's quite a nice kind of gloomy Scottish atmosphere at the moment. The atmosphere has always been important to me in my work, so if I can get a sense of what it's like being here, which is pretty overwhelming, actually, then I'll be happy with that. Alicia Enfield from High Wycombe is a professional artist who looks for otherworldly elements in her landscapes. Her approach captivated the judges at the Eden Project, where she sidestepped the biome's bewildering geometry for something altogether more ethereal. And today she's upping the ante. Alicia, I recognise this format, landscape, small, potent, but I don't recognise the surface. What are you working on? This time I'm working on aluminium panel. Ooh! Which is, yeah, new to me. Have you done it much? Once. Once? Yeah. Once, OK. And we're in the semi-final. Yeah. So let's tick that risk-taking box. I mean, it obviously is not going to absorb paint, so what you're doing effectively is very surface-orientated. Yeah, yeah, no, the absorbency is actually something that drew me to it. It's incredibly smooth. Yeah. You definitely have a kind of lustrous, enigmatic quality to your painting. And as always, you're taking me to a very kind of filmic place. I mean, it's this kind of ghostly apparition. Are you trying to dissect this through your particular lens? Yeah, I guess so. To me, it felt like something from a post-apocalyptic movie when I turned up, especially, it's so quiet today and the kind of gloomy weather. Mm-hm. Hopefully it will come together. With an hour of the semi-final gone, for our artists, there's now no turning back on the decisions they've made, whether they like it or not. I've painted in red lines to represent the various girders. I mean, it's such a huge scale, the bridge. I've now, I think, reached the point of no return anyway, so there's no point in thinking about whether it's a good or bad decision. I'm working with what I've got. There's this kind of weird silvery quality to the light, but I think that's really coming through with the shiny steeliness of the surface. It doesn't feel like it's anywhere near enough yet to get me any further, but we'll see how we go. I'm trying to get a big bridge into a small canvas. I decided to focus on these little builders' huts and they're in the shadow of this humongous bridge. Hopefully the bridge feels as big as it is, you know. That's kind of the illusion I'm trying to create. I think it's working. In the shadow of Scotland's iconic Forth Bridge, our six semi-finalists, competing for just three places in this year's final, are into the second hour of their challenge. And though the morning mist is gradually starting to lift, it's not happening quickly enough for one of our artists. There are no clouds today, absolutely no clouds. The sky is grey. It is very much out of my comfort zone, but in some ways I'm taking that as a sort of challenge and a good thing. I'm hoping I can show the judges I can handle any sort of landscape. Drawn to pastoral scenes with dramatic skies, civil servant Afshin Nazir's heat at Warwickshire's Compton Verney was her very first time painting en plein air. Her evocative oil depiction of the gardens and lake enchanted the judges, earning her a place in today's semi-final. Now, Afshin, I think of you as loving clouds, so what do you make of today? There's just one big cloud. I was hoping for a really warm, sunny day, but so far it doesn't look like that's going to happen. You couldn't just invent it? I could do, but the way I've composed my painting today anyway, I'm trying to show my different sort of styles and what I do if I'm faced with something like this, so hopefully the reflections in the water will make up for the clouds. So you've done quite a complicated sketch. So what I've tried to do is zoom in to just one part of the bridge and the landscape, because I really like the way the landscape is under the arch, and then bring it back to the reflections in the water, hopefully. So I'm just trying to grid out the canvas in a way that speaks to that composition. So we're going to be watching for the reflections, aren't we? Yes. Hopefully they'll come through. Good luck. Thank you. I think it's my favourite location ever, ever, ever. Really? Yes. Why? Because it's a really good bridge, but there's also all this other stuff around it. I think we could do a whole series here. Right. We've got the beautiful harbour with the reflections, we've got boats. I know I usually hate boats, I love these boats. It's just fantastic. It feels almost as if there's something for everyone here, you know, whatever you're into. If you're into water, if you're into grimy, industrial. Yeah. So there's a good set of ingredients here for our artists. Absolutely. And so many ways of tackling it, and actually all of them are slicing it in different ways. So an iconic structure that we've seen in hundreds of photos and on banknotes, is that a trap for our artists? Yes, I think it's always difficult to reinvent something that is so well-known. But actually, being here, I don't feel that issue at all. Because as the trains are trundling across and the birds are screaming and the light is changing, it's like I'm here for the first time. And I think they've got to paint what they see and not what they know. And I trust them all to find something new here. So it's the best location ever, as I said. Excellent. Well, I look forward to seeing the Tyshantyrenburg School of Painting set up here, just in one of those little quarter cabins. I've painted a few of the Glasgow bridges, but in a very different manner. This is more monumental. But what I'm going to try and get is the imposing structure. You don't want it looking twee and fussy. That's the danger. Helena MacDonald-Matthew is a retired art teacher who's lived in Scotland for almost 30 years. Competing as one of the 50 wildcards at Compton Verney, her ambitious oil and acrylic diptych of the lake saw her through top of the class as this year's winner. Helen, another lovely big landscape piece. Thank you. Really getting the distance, and then you put the bridge on top. Yes, it is just such a powerful piece of engineering. So I'm hoping to recreate some of that majestic presence. OK. But also get the reflections and conjure up some of the spirit of the life going on around it. The bridge is this fantastic skeleton at the moment. Are you going to bulk her out this afternoon? Yes, I am, because I think that would do justice to the structure, because it's not a light structure. And are you worried about over-rendering the bridge? Because, of course, if you put all of that detail in, you'll lose something of this gracefulness. No, no, no. I'm hoping to accentuate the solidity by having deeper tones at the bottom and then getting paler to give that sense of height. But there's a reason I'm not an architectural engineer. I think the key is to make it look as if there's a lot of detail, but there isn't, so I'm going to try and keep it loose. Well, I'm curious to see this bridge emerge. Though all today's artists are faced with the same colossal structure, they're approaching the task in very different ways. I've chosen to focus on one section of the bridge. I really like doing the nature with the architecture. There aren't any prominent trees, but the bridge, if I just think of it as a giant tree, we'll see how it goes. Originally from Pennsylvania, mixed-media artist Rebecca Noel Purvis now lives in Northumberland. Her approach, pastel, charcoal and gouache paint on brown paper, was put to great effect in her heat-winning work of the trees in the grounds at Compton Verney. Rebecca, usually in your drawing, nature dominates. Yes. Here, nature is rather not dominating. It's not dominating at all. I do quite like, though, the subtle hillside behind the bridge. Yes. So I'm going to try to play on those slough colours behind with the dominant red in front. And then you have the reflections in the water as well. Ah. Now, you've gone vertical. This looks very much like you're going to take a slice out. Is it because you want to get into the water? It is. I'm quite interested in the way the water is moving as opposed to the structure of the bridge. So that's another organic shape, of course, you can use. I'm intrigued. I've always loved the way you start thinking through the problem and there's quite a big problem to work with. The artists are now halfway through their challenge and at this stage, given the scale of the bridge and testing conditions, it's all about maintaining focus. Or not, as the case may be. I'm taking my glasses off so I can't get any details now. I'm not sure I've got the struts of the bridge right. When my glasses are off, it focuses on the bolder, broader brushstrokes to make sure the bridge looks magnificent rather than flimsy. When I saw the reflections in the water, I knew I wanted to do it on this brown paper, but with the light changing and the reflections, you kind of lose your place very easily. So I'm trying to hold the image that I saw first thing in my head, but it's not going very well. My plan at the moment is to just work more on the reflections in the water. The next couple of hours are really going to be crucial to get this, bring this all together, because at the moment it's just a little bit of a mess. On the 4th of 4th, our six semi-finalists are into the third hour of their landscape challenge. And to add to their headaches, the light continues to change, with the morning scotch mist finally burning off. Desmond, the sun is starting to appear for the first time really today. Yep. The plan was the sun was to come out an hour ago, two hours ago. OK, so you've built that in. You've got a blue sky there. Yeah. I'm OK. I kept sort of middle ground. I mean, an iconic bridge. What are the challenges of painting that? It's very technical, so it has to be sort of architecturally correct. If I have anything out of whack, it's going to jump off the canvas. Yeah. So try and keep the proportions right. Those little buildings at the bottom certainly give you a sense. They will. A nice little bit of detail in those now towards the end. That's where all the contrast will be and the focal point. I think that will help make that bridge look ominous. OK, well, I'd better let you get on with it, then. You'd better had. I'd better, yeah. Thomas, my goodness, these colours are just a gift with your palette. I mean, you must have thought, I've arrived. I was very pleased with the red and green. I think I've deeply exaggerated, I think, but then a lot of it was painted when everything was still clouded in mist, so there was a lot of anticipation of what was going to happen. You're doing something that none of the other artists are doing in the composition. What made you decide to choose the whole view? It felt like it had to be one thing or the other. What is so impressive is the scale. I haven't achieved it yet. But what I think you've managed to capture is a sense of movement and the fact that it is about travel. Because of the angle, I get a sense of propulsion. Will we see a train on it, for example? I don't know. I've got an image in mind of the Flying Scotsman going over the top with plumes, which I think would almost be too obvious to try and put in. Well, it's looking great. Better get on with it. So, Rebecca, we have given you something quite spectacularly horizontal. Yes. Very horizontal. And you've gone vertical, which I salute you for. So the water's going to be a huge proportion of this work. It is. If I carry it all the way down, I'm contemplating not, but we'll see what happens. You're thinking of cutting it? I'm contemplating doing something more square. Ooh! Well, I'll see. So I guess if you go square, you're going to have a very contained energy. It would be very contained energy. Total change of format, potentially. We'll see what the day brings. OK.