(gentle orchestral music) - Hello and welcome to the stunning Trelissick in Cornwall, perched on its own peninsula looking out on the River Fal Estuary, today it hosts the next heat of our special competition to find some of Britain and Ireland's finest artistic talent.

- Chosen by our exacting judges, eight artists will have just four hours to complete a painting of one of Trelissick's most spectacular views.

- But with only one place in the semi-final available, who will take it?

This is Sky Art's "Landscape Artist of the Year."

- [Joan] Over the past few weeks, we've been traveling around the country, setting out our stall at some of the National Trust's most beautiful properties as we search for an outstanding landscape artist.

- [Frank] Over 1000 applied, but only the most talented have been invited to the heats.

- I'm a bit daunted by the view, it's not what I normally do.

- [Joan] All of them competing for a 10,000 pound commission to paint a landscape made famous by Constable, Flatford in Suffolk, a painting that will become part of the permanent collection there.

- Could do with another four hours.

Just trying to get the paint on as quickly as possible now.

- Today, eight new artists are here to make an impression.

I mean, I like this view, but it's a bit neat and tidy, isn't it?

- No, I'll mess up.

- Yeah, that's what it needs.

- [Joan] And it's not just the judges they'll have to win over, Head Ranger, Neil Stevenson has worked for Trelissick for 16 years and to celebrate his dedication, he will be able to choose his favorite painting for himself.

- I like the palette in this one, I like the colors.

- [Frank] But up to 50 more artists are also vying for the judges' attention by taking their chance as a wildcard.

- Let me look at your hands.

You paint with your hands, don't you?

- I do.

(laughing) - [Joan] But it's up to the judges, Kathleen Soriano, Tai Shan Schierenberg and Kate Bryan.

- It's really good today already, don't you think?

- Yeah, I'm terrified.

- [Frank] To choose who will go through to the semi-final of Sky Art's "Landscape Artist of the Year."

- That was a fly and when I picked it off, it looked like a boat, so I left it.

- Brilliant!

(both laughing) (melodic orchestral music) (melodic piano music) - [Joan] In today's heat, there are five professional artists, Jo Peel, Chi Zhang, Susan McFarlane, Lynton Hemsley and Sharyn Agnew.

- I've never compared myself to anybody else, so I'm quite interested to see how I feel about that.

- [Frank] They are joined by three amateur artists, Roger Griffiths, Sam Taylor and Benedict Doonan.

- I'm excited about making a good painting, but nervous about doing it in front of lots of people.

(gentle orchestral music) - [Joan] To enter the competition, the artists submitted their work online, but today the originals are here to be examined.

- Fantastic composition, you know, sort of more than two-thirds of the picture being sky.

Very bold, you feel as if you're in Tuscany somewhere enjoying that bright sunlight.

- All the tones have been turned right down, so the shadows are very, very dense, which gives you a very early morning feel, where things haven't quite lit up yet, but it's got a great atmosphere.

- [Joan] Lots of mood.

- Loads of mood and all those wonderful squiggles, that she's put in as well, you've got a real sense of being in that landscape, feeling that landscape.

- [Kate] I think this is a really self-confident painter and I think they're gonna be really fun to watch in the last half an hour, when they get going.

- We talk about atmosphere and the immersiveness of atmospheric paintings, this must be the smallest atmospheric painting we've ever seen and it actually draws you in.

- I think this is sort of one of the most wonderful four inches by four inches I've ever seen, it's great.

What I like about it is it's so confident in how small it is.

- And here we are in a vast landscape out there and this artist has got to transfer their vision and manage to absorb what they see around them.

- And it could become a really concentrated version of the huge view that we've got.

It'd be great to see the artists find the essence and bring it down to that side.

- [Joan] And finally urban landscape again, how terrific.

In a distance, I thought it was photorealism, but of course it's very effective.

- I think the perspective is fantastic, it's really, really impressive and there's that real sense of movement and it's partly because, you know, are they really standing in the middle of the road?

- You can't neglect the two arrows, which are tremendously engaging.

(soft orchestral music) - [Frank] Set amongst the tropical gardens, Trelissick House was built in 1750 with this elegant portico facing out towards the Fal Estuary.

Today the judges have placed the artists on the terrace in front of the house, looking out across the grounds towards the water and some are being meticulous about the way they set up.

- I have the traditional Chinese brush like this Chinese brush on this brush hanger, I've had to tape the brush vertically to keep it a good point.

(birds chirping) - I'm organizing my crap.

These are brushes that I forget to clean, so they kind of still work, but they're quite stiff.

(melodic orchestral music) - Artists, we hope the view is to your liking as the challenge is about to begin.

- You've just four hours to complete your work, so good luck and your time starts now.

(soft orchestral music) - I'm a bit daunted by the view, it's not what I normally do.

I'm just sort of starting out in the way that I'd approach an urban landscape and just seeing what happens.

- Originally from Sheffield, Jo Peel studied illustration at Falmouth Art College.

Her submission of Commercial Street, East London is a mix of collage, pen and ink on a brown paper wrapped canvas.

What's the unique problem, which a landscape presents for you compared to the cityscape?

- There's sort of nothing there to draw, because I use lines and pick out details and so when I look at the landscape, it's sort of vast and these sort of expanses of color and it's not really got- - No lines.

- No lines.

- No details.

- So no details.

(laughing) - [Joan] Right, well, this is a real challenge for you.

- [Jo] Yes.

(laughing) (soft orchestral music) - You're not a full time painter?

- No, so I work in IT, yeah.

- So it's a nice change from that.

- It's lovely, yeah.

- [Frank] And what else, you're an actor, aren't you?

- [Benedict] I've done bits and bobs, yeah.

- Oh, come on, don't be- - No, bit of Am Dram.

- Yeah, I like that your creativity is oozing out in all sorts of different ways and you're in a band as well?

- Oh, we used to be, yeah, not anymore.

No, that was stopped for reasons of public health.

- Benedict Doonan lives in Somerset.

He's recently got back into painting as a hobby after giving it up as a teen for the guitar.

His submission landscape is at the Ponte alle Grazie over the River Arno in Florence.

One of the problems for this competition is people arrive and then they have to decide what their composition is gonna be.

But it just seems like this is your natural thing is putting everything.

- Which is perfect.

- The low.

- I know, I kind of looked and went, oh yeah, okay, that's lovely.

- [Frank] You sound like a man, who feels like everything is going good?

- Yeah, come and talk to me in an hour and I expect I'll be just crying in the corner.

- Well, if I see tears, you can bet I'll be over it like a shot, 'cause that's what we're after, that's great television.

(soft orchestral music) - If anything's gonna go wrong for me today, it's that I'm gonna be too tentative and timid with my paint.

I've gotta really go for it and just have fun.

- [Joan] Lynton Hemsley is from Cheshire.

He made it through to the heats of "Portrait Artist of the Year," 2013 and 2014.

He prefers to paint cityscapes, such as his submission landscape depicting Glasgow city center, rather than more traditional pastoral views.

- You're back, Lynton.

- Back.

- We're pleased to see you.

This is a very different kind of painting, isn't it?

- [Lynton] It is, yeah.

- So when you arrived this morning and you saw what task lay ahead of you with the landscape, how did you feel?

- I was terrified.

- Oh no.

(laughing) - Yeah, I much would've preferred to paint the house.

- Okay.

- What I struggled with when I looked at it, I couldn't see any definite verticals, I could see a lot of horizontals, so I've tried to get a strong diagonal going through the composition.

- I can see that, yeah.

I think you're rising to the challenge, - I hope so.

- and it's brilliant to watch.

Thanks for coming back.

- Yeah, it's good to be back.

- It's brilliant to see how your painting's changed.

(soft orchestral music) - Sam, you've got plenty of paint on the board, it's none of the colors I expected.

- Yeah, I've got a pretty big aversion to blue skies and green grass.

- Okay, now a cynic might say that could be a problem in a landscape or show.

- [Sam] Or kind of a breath of fresh air.

- Ah, exactly, exactly, which of course is the perfect phrase to use today.

Sam Taylor from Yorkshire is in the second year of a Fine Art degree at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.

For his submission, he distilled a view of the vast North Yorkshire Moors into a four by four inch square.

What are you promising me, Sam, a rugged version of this, a kind of an honest version of this, that you're doing grudgingly or a sort of a high vis version with plenty of that bright orange in it?

- I kind of got a bit bored of the blue sky, green grass kind of thing, you know, yeah, it's just I think you need to inject a bit of something else into it.

- Well, you're wearing a cap, you represent the young maverick today.

- (laughing) It's all rock and roll here.

- Yeah, we're looking for something new and fresh from you.

So, so far I'm definitely intrigued.

(soft upbeat music) - [Joan] As well as our main eight, some 50 more artists have traveled to Trelissick to compete as wildcards.

If one of them can impress, they could gain a place in the semi-final.

(soft upbeat music) - I'm enjoying the calm weather, the big vista.

- I think it's really inspirational actually.

You kind of feel that everyone else is on the same space and journey and it's really exciting.

- [Joan] It's looking terrific and you're professional?

- Yeah.

- Working life in Ireland.

- Yeah, yes.

- But you came over for it especially?

- I did.

(laughing) I don't think we realized how far it was, it took me seven hours of ferries, so.

(both laughing) - This is fantastic, isn't it?

- It is, yeah, it's gorgeous, Cornwall is a gorgeous place.

- [Joan] Are you from Ireland as well?

- I am, yeah.

- You're another?

- This lady here.

- [Joan] Ireland's empty.

- Yeah.

- You're all over here.

- [Tai Shan] It's a nice scene here, isn't it today?

- It's gorgeous and I'm completely overwhelmed by how many potentially great paintings are starting to emerge already.

(soft orchestral music) - [Frank] Battling it out for one certain place in the semi-final, our eight heat artists have been painting for nearly an hour.

- I'm just focusing it on the tree at the moment and painting the leaves and getting the most complicated bits done first, so that I can look at the rest of the landscape.

(soft orchestral music) - There's some boats coming in, so I'm gonna try and make a note of them now.

Hopefully they'll come in really close and I'll have something more to draw.

(soft orchestral music) - I've kind of made my decisions now, so I've got a painting up here, it's trying to match what's going on there.

(soft orchestral music) - [Joan] At Trelissick in Cornwall, our artists have been painting their landscapes of the Fal Estuary for just over an hour.

(soft orchestral music) - I did portraiture and I thought that if it didn't look like the person it was meant to be, then it wasn't good enough and then it was when I started painting landscapes, that I got a wee bit more looser with things and realized that I could have fun while painting and it was still a nice painting, that it didn't have to look like a photo and so now I paint like this.

(laughing) - Sharyn Agnew studied painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee.

Her landscape is of her hometown, Mauchline in East Ayreshire and was painted in four hours.

You've gone big today as well.

- I have to.

- Why?

- I just can't do it, when it's wet, if it's wet, I'll all have done a painting in like 10 minutes.

- Oh, really?

- Yeah.

- That's not a bad thing, you can do half a dozen.

- I know.

- I mean, I like this view, but it's a bit neat and tidy, isn't it?

- No, I'll mess it up.

- Yeah, that's what it needs, it needs somebody to kick it up the back side.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause when I look at this, eventually I want to kind of feel like I feel, when I look at that landscape.

- Totally.

- But with a bit of extra oomph that you've supplied.

- I'll get that going.

(laughing) - Yeah, don't forget that, will you?

I'm counting on that.

- Mm-hm.

(soft orchestral music) - [Joan] Staying focused on the composition they've chosen to tackle has taken on a practical approach for one artist.

- The marks are just so I know where I was standing, when I'm looking at the tree, because there's so much going on in the tree, I move and shift my position, I'll alter the marks on my canvas.

- [Joan] Susan McFarlane is from Wilshire.

She studied History of Art in Glasgow before going on to an MA in Painting at the Slade in London.

Her submission landscape of North Ayledon near Bristol was a sketch for the background of a portrait commission.

- So this morning, when you were confronted with this enormous landscape with all this detail, boats in the background, the town there, this headland and all the trees in front of you, you decided, "Actually, do you know what?

I'm just gonna go for one tree."

- I'm not trying to get away from the view, but I'm trying to find a personal relationship with the landscape and I think for me, whatever it is, whether it's a person or a landscape, they have to have a personal connection to say something.

- I mean, a great start.

- [Kate] Yeah, really good start.

(soft orchestral music) - Seven of today's artists are using paint to create their work, but one is using a very literal piece of material to give a sense of place.

So Roger, you obviously arrived with a bit of a map at the ready?

- Yes.

- [Kathleen] How did you find this style?

How did it come to you?

- I'm a geographer-geologist by training.

- Ah.

- Then a landscape architect.

- Okay.

- And a landscape architect tends to analyze the landscapes.

(soft orchestral music) - Retired landscape architect, Roger Griffiths is from Northamptonshire.

He approaches each piece of work by first looking at the views, ecology and cultural heritage.

His submission is a collage of Baldersdale in County Durham and was created by first looking at satellite images and then flattening the perspective.

(soft orchestral music) I used to love those maps, you ever see those maps that were like 3D, raised up?

- Oh, the topographical maps, yes.

- Yeah, as a kid, I remember being fascinated by those and I like the fact that you've taken something flat and 2D like that and you've just given it a new context and given it a big burst of life.

- Well, I love the way that you can actually take a 2D image and then you can actually make a transition into a perspective.

- [Kathleen] Well, it's like a sample, that you take from the soil.

- It's a cross section.

- Exactly.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So that's very, very clever, that you combine the two together.

- You know what?

I really wish you'd been my geography teacher.

- Oh.

- (laughing) Really?

- Yeah, it'd have been much more interesting.

- Oh, dear.

(soft piano music) - A paintbrush can be made of synthetic or natural hair and one artist kit is its own work of art.

This is the most amazing array.

It's like a still life here, it's a shame to touch them, it's a shame to use them.

- [Chi] You can touch them.

- Are they fur?

- They're fur, different animal hairs.

- Beautiful objects.

- So the white hair always made from goat hair and for this small, brown brush is made from weasel hair.

- Weasel hair.

- So which is quite stiff and which good for painting fine details later.

- Chi Zhang grew up in China before moving to Edinburgh.

Previously a graphic designer, he now teaches Chinese calligraphy.

He wanted his submission of the Forth Bridge in Fife to capture the atmosphere of Scottish weather.

What do you think about the view that you've got to?

- The views are great, but I use my own judgment for changing the composition slightly different.

I see most of artists painting horizontal today, I try to do a vertical.

- So you're moving it around?

- Moving little bit around, but still based on this piece of landscape.

(soft orchestral music) - To secure a possible place in the semi-final, the wildcards are trying all manner of techniques in order to impress.

You're a bit of a rebel, I can see.

(artist laughing) Everyone else is facing that way, I think you're the only one I can see, who's actually painting in that direction.

- [Artist] That's too landscapey, I live at Lyme and you see it every day.

- Oh, okay, that's enough water.

- [Artist] Well, this is the gardens, I mean, we should do the garden.

- Let me look at your hands, you paint with your hands, don't you?

- I do.

(laughing) - [Joan] Well, you're clearly enjoying yourself.

- [Artist] I am.

- This is an explosion of color, isn't it?

- [Artist] It's the merge of how the weather's changing, British weather.

- Yeah, where are you from?

- Gibraltar.

- Oh, you know Christian Hook, don't you?

- Yeah.

- Who won "Portrait Artist of the Year."

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- [Frank] Does he know that you've entered?

- No, no, I haven't spoken to him in a while actually.

- No, what, since he won?

- Yeah, yeah.

(both laughing) - [Frank] Amongst the wildcards is a familiar face.

David Alderslade was invited by the judges to take part in one of the earlier heats at Waddesdon Manor.

He made the shortlist, but failed to make it through to the semi-final.

Was it quite a big decision to decide to come with a wildcard?

- Well, you've got to be a bit opportunistic as an artist and I just thought, well, if I don't do it, then I'm gonna be thinking afterwards, what if.

- How does the wildcard experience compare to being in the pods, part of the center of things?

- Don't take any offense, - Okay.

- but I like no interruptions when I paint.

- Oh, okay.

(both laughing) So I've really let you down now.

- I apologize.

- You thought you were free.

You even hid behind the tree.

- I did, yeah, yeah.

- I found you.

(melodic piano music) - [Joan] The artists have two hours left of their challenge.

(melodic piano music) - I'm looking at the whole kind of view more as kind of shapes, I think, I'm kind of breaking it up.

It's kind of like landscape on acid a bit, you know what I mean?

- Well, it's almost like acid in the water here, 'cause I love those textures that you've managed to get in this brown, murky water, what have you used here?

- I've used a mix of like wood adhesives.

- A wood adhesive?

- Yeah.

As you lay it and layer the layers on top, it dries see through in certain points.

- [Kathleen] 'Cause it's got like a magical quality to it.

- Yeah.

- In a way, it's almost as if the water's much closer to you.

- Yeah.

- So you've done a great job there.

(soft orchestral music) - It's not my favorite painting I've ever done.

I don't know what it is, there's something about it, that's just maybe I'll like it more the more I look at it, that happened with the last painting I did.

I didn't like it and then the more I looked at it, the more I've seen in it, the more liked it.

So that sometimes just happens.

(soft orchestral music) - Just working on detail really and wondering how much detail I can sensibly get in in the time.

- [Kate] It's really good today already, don't you think?

- Yeah, I'm terrified.

- It's gonna be so hard.

- Really difficult, what is interesting is everybody's painting in a different way and has chosen different elements from the landscape, so it's going to be like apples and pairs and oranges, it's so different each way, it's gonna be difficult to kind of compare them.

(soft orchestral music) - [Frank] At Trelissick on the Cornish coast, our artists are halfway into the challenge.

So the judges have had time to begin to form their opinions.

What about Benedict, who's the big sky man?

- Lovely, moody picture, really romantic, getting a real sense of spirit, maybe not exactly the spirit of this place, but it's still very evocative, powerful piece, I think.

- But there's a predominant blue, that I can't find anywhere today at all.

- [Kate] Yeah, but I think that blue's really important, 'cause it helps him create form.

I think it's actually a pictorial device, so I don't mind that artistic license, 'cause it actually really helps the painting along.

- What about Sharyn?

- She just seems like someone, who is like a fully formed artist, that's just come into the world like that.

She's got such a mastery of her medium, she knows exactly where she's headed in that landscape, it's really evocative of a time and a place.

For me actually, what's better than the landscape is the sky.

- The sky's fantastic.

- [Kate] Yeah.

- [Kathleen] But she's got this incredible confidence and a real attitude actually and in a way, I don't think she really cares about being judged.

- What I really want you guys to tell me is that Sam is at a certain stage in the painting and everything's gonna be okay.

- It's not sadly, I don't think.

- [Tai Shan] I think it's great.

- Do you think it's great?

I'm a bit worried it's not getting there.

- I don't think he has any idea what he's doing.

- None whatsoever, I mean, he's just going with his intuition.

I think today will be huge learning experience for him.

- I think he's being very inventive, but his brown lake looks like a lake.

- [Kathleen] That's amazing.

- But in a completely different sort of dimension, I think it looks beautiful.

- [Frank] Okay, what about Lynton?

- Lynton's doing interesting work as always.

I feel that he's sort of playing around with different styles since we last saw him and maybe that's a good thing, maybe that's a bad thing.

- And as always his paint application is yummy and his colors are beautiful.

He's gonna have to bring in is something to just bring it up to another level, otherwise it'll be a very good painting, which isn't bad.

- In his defense, I walked passed it and I thought it looked a bit flat and a bit gray and then I looked at the landscape and it was actually flat and gray, so maybe he's really capturing it.

- [Joan] With just over one hour of the challenge remaining, Sam may be making a bold decision.

- Have you given up on the big one?

- I'm not sure yet, I think the painting's a bit generic looking already.

I don't think it's really evocative of being here.

- And you didn't like it?

- Yeah, I know, I don't know.

I've gone back to some former ones quite a lot and I might do a few tests on this small scale and try out something new.

Maybe I might have to just end up going with the big one, but I'm just gonna play around with it and see what I can do.

- I think that's a good plan and try to enjoy it bit.

- Yeah.

(laughing) (birds chirping) (soft orchestral music) - [Joan] The Trelissick Estate is spread over 700 acres, helping to preserve it is Park Ranger, Neil Stevenson.

- [Neil] Come on, chucks.

- [Joan] There are no motorways on his daily commute, he lives and works on the estate, so is fully immersed in the park's life.

- The parkland itself was created out of the patchwork of small Cornish fields, so the Cornish hedges were taken down.

The very oldest trees which we have in the parkland are very characteristic, they almost look like they're on stilts.

That's simply because they were actually growing on top of a Cornish hedge in 1750, they were mature trees then.

So it seems wild and it is wild in places, but it is very much manmade.

During the winter, when we were doing our woodland management work around here, there was a large Irish Oak, which are a maritime species, it's non-native species.

There was an opportunity to open up, have this framed view of Tolvern on the other side of the river, it was the main operational offices for the D-Day landings and it was for embarking troops, before they went over to Operation Overlord on D-Day.

- [Joan] Woodland management can play an important role in shaping the landscape.

This area is one of Trelissick's protected ancient sites.

- It was a lovely piece of oak woodland, which was completely dominated by holly and mainly silver fir, we've gradually been removing everything to expose these beautiful oak trees.

We do so very slowly, we only do a few at a time simply because we don't want to shock these oak trees.

I love the shapes and the character of these oaks, they're all twisted and gnarled, it's a nice, quiet spot to come and contemplate things.

- [Joan] But his job is not always on terra firma, sometimes Neil just has to get his feet wet.

- It's really handy to be on the water, to take pictures of the estate.

The skyline is very important and the canopies of the trees and how that is formed and maintained, so today I was taking pictures just to maintain a record.

Every day is different, but it's always nice to get back home.

Yeah, it's a gorgeous place and it's a lovely place to work.

So yeah, it's a good day.

- [Joan] To reward Neil for his dedication to Trelissick, he'll later get to choose his favorite painting for himself.

(melodic piano music) - [Frank] Before the wildcards finish painting, the judges have a final opportunity to look at their work.

- So you've dipped the brush in two different colors, so you get dark green, light green and then just roll it along on it.

- That's really good.

(artist laughing) (soft orchestral music) - I like the way the house just comes up behind the trees there.

- [Joan] But who will they choose?

- [Tai Shan] David is very accomplished and in a funny way, it's a bit too romantic, but it's very good.

- The lady behind the tree who's produced three sketches, the most recent one she's done really captures the spirit of the place.

- Alright, how's it been today?

- It's been good fun actually.

- Let's have a look at it.

That's a very beautiful painting and you're our wildcard, man.

(laughing) (artists applauding) It's lovely, well done.

- I didn't expect that at all, that's just incredible, it really, really is amazing.

- [Joan] David now goes into a pool of wildcards from across the heats from which one will be chosen to go through to the semi-final.

- [Frank] The artists are in their last 30 minutes of the challenge.

(soft orchestral music) - Little fly on it there.

- Yeah, oh yeah, the fly, a fly's a good thing.

- Yeah, well, that was a fly and when I picked it off, it looked like a boat, so I left it.

- Brilliant.

(both laughing) (soft orchestral music) - I am fighting with a tree and it's a big tree, so if I don't get it right, the rest of it's gonna look pretty rubbish.

- It's wild, isn't it?

(Sharyn laughing) I mean, the sky is absolutely stunning.

- Oh, thanks.

- I mean your sky.

I'm actually preferring your sky to God's.

- [Sharyn] To the sky, yeah.

(laughing) It was quite nice earlier.

(soft orchestral music) - I could do with another four hours, so yeah, just trying to get the paint on as quickly as possible now.

(soft orchestral music) - [Frank] Here at Trelissick in Cornwall, there are just 10 minutes of the challenge left and Sam has made his decision.

- I've had a sudden change of direction, I think.

I realized that the larger piece of work wasn't really going anywhere, it took me a few hours to kind of find out what I wanted to do.

- Okay, so this turns out to be a study of the landscape, which informed your final piece, is that right?

I'm taking this is your final submission?

- Yeah, I found out I disliked the shape of the water, so I kind of tried to create this texture and then used the shape as that.

- I personally think it's a great decision and how good that you just didn't fall down and die and give up.

- Yeah.

(soft orchestral music) - I've gotten to the point where I think I'm done, yeah.

There's no more that I can do.

(soft orchestral music) - I'm getting to the point now, where I'm not quite sure how to finish it, so it's gonna be nice just being- - Cut off.

- Yeah.

(laughing) - Yeah, I think if it'd be like pulling a thread on a jumper, it'd just all come undone, if I started to try and match now what's there.

(soft orchestral music) - Artists, your time is up.

- Please put down your equipment and step away from your work.

(all applauding) (melodic piano music) - [Joan] Before the paintings are judged, Head Park Ranger, Neil Stevenson, who's worked at Trelissick for 16 years gets to choose his favorite.

- Artists, can you please turn your easels?

(melodic piano music) - I like the palette in this one, I like the colors.

This is a bit different again, more dark and brooding.

- [Frank] So Neil, have you made your choice?

- [Neil] Yeah.

- Okay, why don't you show me?

- Up here.

- Okay.

- I was torn, torn between this, which I do like, which I do like, but sorry, it's gotta be, it's gotta be.

Cheers, Lynton, very good.

(all applauding) I'll be proud to hang it on my wall.

- Oh, good.

- I'm really proud that you've picked it.

- [Frank] As the artists head off to relax, the finished works are sheltered from the weather for the judges to view.

(melodic piano music) - I love this low horizon line and his sort of 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 that the time, so it does feel to me, that 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 makings.

- But I just don't like the messiness that she's got and I think it looks more sophisticated than it actually is.

- Everything happened quite quickly, it felt like I'd only been painting for 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.

- [Kathleen] I wonder whether there isn't an issue with the scale.

- She's suggesting monumentality without it feeling like it.

- [Kathleen and Kate] Hm.

(soft orchestral music) - [Kate] 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's, "I'm just gonna go back to what I know."

- I think that it's probably one of the works, that's not quite so recognizably landscape as some the others, so that might be challenging, but also 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 this light, but he's done it very successfully and very inventively and I like these clouds here.

- 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 at this point you feel sick.

It's exhausting, I think reaching the end of it is absolutely exhausting, you're working to that finish point and it's down to the judges now, so.

(soft orchestral music) - To help them select a winner, first, the judges shortlist three artists.

And the first artist is Benedict Doonan.

(all applauding) - The second artist is Sharyn Agnew.

(all applauding) - And the third artist to be shortlisted is Sam Taylor.

(all applauding) - Commiserations to our other artists, thank you so much and I'm sorry you didn't get through.

(all applauding) - I'm absolutely gutted, I was hoping for the final three, if I'd have got in the final three, I would've been over the moon, but yeah.

- I feel a little bit disappointed today, because of not being selected, but I quite enjoying today's experience, because I do try my best.

- [Frank] Before they decide who will claim a place in the semi-final, the judges talk to Benedict, Sharyn and Sam.

- It's really nice seeing them together, particularly the light and 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.

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 onto 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 this submission is 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, whereas this is from, it was right in front of me, so.

I have no idea what my chances are.

I don't really mind either way, I think like 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 for this.

- It's exciting to see you feel your way and come up with really surprising things, yes, there'll be a lot of dead ends, but it's been exciting watching you work.

- It feels really good to be shortlisted, I'm still a bit jittery from here in, but yeah, 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.

- Yes.

- I'm not sure mine's the same, but we'll arm wrestle.

- Okay, look forward to watching that.

- Benedict, Sharyn, 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 semi-final has intrigued them with their potential and left them keen to see where they might go next and that person is, (tense orchestral music) Sam Taylor.

(all applauding) Well done, Sam.

It's been a game of two halves.

- That was really amazing to have won it.

- Congratulations, Sam.

- Straight away thinking about what I've got to do next, the struggle continues.

(laughing) - 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, it's pretty impressive.

- Pretty tired, it's been a really long day, but I guess definitely can go out and celebrate a little bit, yeah.

(melodic orchestral music) (soft orchestral music)