- Hello from Chartwell in Kent, for many years, the family home of British Prime Minister and wartime leader, Sir Winston Churchill.

- And today home to six heroic artists, all preparing to do artistic battle, their aim, victory at all costs.

- For one, it'll be their finest hour.

For the others, das boot.

Welcome to a brand new series of Landscape Artist of the Year.

- [Woman] Thousands applied, but just 36 talented artists were selected to take part in this year's competition.

- I'm a woman on a mission.

- [Man] Challenged to create landscape masterpieces from some of the UK's most demanding, but inspiring views.

- Hopefully I can pull it out the bag.

(laughing) - [Man] From lush green parkland, classical architectural gems to modern urban landmarks.

- Everything go wrong at any minute.

- [Woman] Amateur or professional, the artists get just four hours to create their landscape works of art.

I'm getting cramp in my fingers.

(laughing) - [Man] For one winner, there's a magnificent prize, a prestigious £10,000 commission to create an artwork capturing the wild, natural beauty of Snowdonia and its sweeping vistas.

celebrating DNAS Olay.

The first ever land donation to the National Trust.

- [Woman] As always, the hopeful contenders will compete under the watchful eye of our three discerning judges.

Award-winning artists, Tai Shan Schierenberg, independent curator, Kathleen Soriano, and art historian, Kate Bryan.

- I'm thinking of not including the house at all at the moment.

- We're getting, really radical, I like it.

- [Man] And at every heat, there's a host of additional artists competing as wildcards with just one going through to the next stage of the competition.

- [Woman] With brushes and pencils poised, join us in our search for this year's Landscape Artist of the Year.

- Brilliant tree out there that looks like Miriam Margolyes, have you seen that?

It's really sure and wide with sort of really bushy, looks like Miriam Margolyes in the nicest possible way.

(gentle music) - [Woman] Competing for creative glory today are four amateur artists, Gabriela Fernandez, Stuart Jarvis, Shelagh Casebourne and Julia Burley.

- Very excited to get started.

Can't wait, seeing it all set up.

It's all become a bit more real.

- [Man] Joining them are two professional artists, Paul Godin, and Gail Davis.

- I didn't sleep last night really at all.

I think I managed about three and a half hours.

So adrenaline is keeping me standing upright at the moment.

- While the artists unpack the tools of their trade, the judges take a look at the submission paintings, which until now, they've only seen as digital images.

So we have six landscapes for you to look at this morning, where reality is filtered through the imagination of our artists.

We start off with a small, but is it perfectly formed landscape?

- The thing that I really love about it is the lilac tones that are put in the mountains.

I really feel there's such a sense of distance and they've been able to convey that.

And so I'm like, this is really we.

- [Woman 2] I think they've been really clever with the brush strokes as well.

You've got these little vertical, hesitant brush strokes in the foreground and then with the sky, it then becomes all horizontal and peaceful and calm.

- Next we have an urban scene full of movement.

- [Man 2] Yeah, it's a very vigorous drawing.

It's charcoal, which lends itself to be worked and scrubbed out, which gives the whole thing this dynamism.

I love the fact that they've used these diagonals to create more movement.

- And this has got a brutality about it in the way they've attacked the paper with the charcoal.

Yeah, it's really powerful.

- This next one, we have a rather ugly crate being cradled and protected by a slightly woe begotten tree.

- [Man 2] It's a very strange, artificial landscape, but you know, it's made real by the sense of light.

- The star of the painting is this sort of metal container.

I love the red in the foreground that's picked up in the contractor sign.

It's slight, but it all comes together very nicely.

- Now we have someone's sketchbook stuck to the wall.

- [Man 2] One of the things that's wonderful about this is this presentation.

It's got that strange old adventure, new world's kind of thing about it, which is very evocative.

- I was first taken with the amount of vegetation there.

It looks really sort of lush, but then the closer I looked, the more I realized, it's really all about decay and death.

It's quite in a way.

- We're in Kent and here's the back of Canterbury Station.

- What is extraordinary is how such an ugly backend of a station can be made into such a beautiful picture.

These grubby black gray tones are giving us a lot of atmosphere.

- Their treatment of the puzzle is fantastic.

'Cause both the car is a bit sort of dilapidated and the puddle somehow dilapidated.

I think that's really great.

- I've got a whole story going on for that.

Parked the car, gone up to the signal box, brutally murdered the operator and then jumped off.

Yeah anyway, I dunno where this landscape is, but I want to go there.

- Yeah, I mean it's trippy.

The shark is such a strong motif in contemporary art because of Damien Hirst and it's surreal and it's fantastical.

I'm really pleased it's here.

- What I'm particularly taken by is the way in which they painted the sellotape.

You sort of feel the way in which it was made, the sellotape keeping the clouds in position.

- Well, we've got several artists today who found beauty in the ugly, will they find beauty in the beauty?

Artists, Winston Churchill famously said that all he had to offer was blood, toil, tears and sweat.

But we'd prefer you to use more conventional materials today.

- We wish each one of you good luck.

You have four hours to complete your landscape and your time starts now.

(gentle music) Whatever their medium, the artist's first decision is selecting their composition, which aspect of the view will they choose to capture today?

We presented them with a view of Chartwell House, a commanding red brick mansion positioned on the side of a small valley, overlooking the wheel of Kent, with large landscape grounds and romantic flower gardens.

- This is an absolute cracker of a view.

The artists are positioned looking up.

So there's immediate drama.

We get scale, we get this amazing red brick.

It's set against beautiful greenery, beautiful gardens.

If you are adept to architecture, we've just given you a gift.

If you don't like architecture that much, there's so much greenery around you could actually obscure the building.

Maybe it's a bit too pretty for some of them.

And maybe they'll have to amp up the drama.

We can make it dark, you can make it menacing.

They can do anything, artists.

- The building is so imposing, it would be almost rude to ignore it all altogether.

So need to try and get that feeling of height.

- From this angle of the house, the path, the stone works, the hedges, they're all leading us into the house.

And that's the look I'm looking for.

- It's beautiful, but I'm still not used to painting buildings.

So it's gonna be a bit of a challenge.

- I normally paint landscapes from my imagination 'cause I use them to cleanse my mind of other thoughts.

Really what I'm aiming for is to get a shock of the lights and the darks popping out on top of this crazy background.

- [Man] Gale Davis is a professional artist from Newbury in Berkshire.

Her submission shows an imagined landscape painted from her sick bed during a COVID fever and features items gathered by her children, all depicted in her unique visual style.

- Hello Gail.

- Hello.

- That's quite an eyeful to start with.

- It is.

- Any reason why you've picked those colors?

- Only because I like them together.

'Cause they seem to bounce off of each other quite well.

Optical illusion sort of thing.

- Can you give us the science behind that?

- No.

(laughing) They wobble.

- They do, they wobble when you shake your head, they wobble.

They do either that or Joan slipped me something in my breakfast this morning.

- I can't wait to see how that is gonna become that.

- Yeah, snap.

(gentle music) - [Woman] While color is key for some artists, others prefer to see the world in black and white.

- My medium is charcoal and this is not the usual landscape whatsoever.

Well I certainly wouldn't come here to draw.

I bring the family here, but I wouldn't be here to be drawing here, no.

You'd often find me in a really strong urban setting, like a power station or a cement works or something like that.

- Stuart Jarvis is an amateur artist and head of art at a West Midlands boarding school, working in charcoal with energetic mark making to convey movement, Stuart's submission depicts the brutalist Relic Tar in west London, captured from a photo he took from a passing train.

- Stuart, so we've had electric train lines and sort of chaos.

- Yeah.

- And here we are at Chartwell, this rather charming slice of Britishness.

Is it something that you can adapt your work to?

- I think so.

I feel pretty confident in a couple of compositions that I've found where I can kind of generate those marks that I'm looking for.

- And now you're going in with a charcoal and I see you've sort of smudged it as to give you a mid tone.

- Yeah, I first put down graphite dust and then as the construction takes place, I can with a rubber, use dark and light.

At the same time.

- Just like the idea of working in, taking out, working it.

And then you get the sense of the whole day on the paper.

- I think that's the draw of charcoal, no pun intended.

Sorry.

- No, you've used that one before Stuart.

- I have not used that one.

Maybe in the classroom once or twice.

- [Man] But not all of our artists are as keen to find the angles in the landscape.

- I work pretty quickly.

It's not very detailed, but I still try to capture the image of what's in front of me.

So it's a mix between expressionistic, but also realism.

With my style, it might be quite difficult today because of the detailed view and the building, which I'm not used to as well.

But I'll just give it a go.

- Amateur artist Gabriela Fernandez works as a flight attendant, only taking up landscape painting in 2019, working at speed to create a loose impression of what she sees, Gabriela's small, quickly captured oil painting is of Burbage Valley in the Peak District.

- Gabriela, you gave us this lovely little jewel with your submission, but you've sort of stretched it out here.

What made you make that decision?

- It was so fast to do the small one, 'cause it only took me about 40 minutes.

So I thought if I worked on a bigger canvas, it would give me slightly longer to capture.

- What I really like is that you're starting to show us, as we saw in your submission, those lovely, hesitant vertical brush strokes.

So what are the benefits of working quickly?

- I think you just get to capture a certain sense and it doesn't feel overworked, which is kind of what I'm worried about with this.

That's why I wanted a bigger canvas 'cause if I had it smaller, I'd just work at it and work at it - But I can see anxiety in your face.

Are you feeling that you've made the right decision with your larger canvas?

- I'm not too sure about that at the moment, but I've still got time to do another one.

- If well, if you can do one in 40 minutes, you've got loads of time, you're fine.

- [Woman] Our six hopefuls aren't the only artists at Chartwell today, a whole host of landscape lovers have taken over the glorious garden.

On a first come, first serve basis, they've been invited to compete as wild cards and they've scattered themselves across the lawn, settling in for a day of painting on.

- When I look at it all laid out, I think, did I bring all that just for four hours?

- [Woman] The artists are given free reign to pick whatever view they like.

- Not very good at buildings.

So it's either green or building, got a couple of canvases, so I might hedge my bets.

- Should their artwork catch the judges' attention, they could find themselves with a place in the semi-final.

- I find painting houses a bit boring.

So I'm gonna do something different, impress the judges.

- I started using the cardboard from the boxes to do sort of trick ticks on each panel.

So this is what I'm trying to do today, but it might be a bit ambitious.

- [Man] At the top of the lawn, our six artists are well underway, each developing their individual approach to the view.

- Charcoal doesn't allow any sense of precision or refinement.

So that challenge of being able to communicate that level of detail in the architecture is my nemesis at the moment.

- I'm just blocking in general colors.

I'm not actually entirely sure of my composition.

It's all a bit up in the air.

I don't feel great about it right now.

- I want to paint from the heart in the organic way that I paint.

I think I'm happy with the colors I chose, I think.

- [Woman] Here in Kent, six artists are one hour into their challenge to create an artwork of Chartwell, the former home of Sir Winston Churchill.

But one artist is doing her best to ignore the imposing building in front of her.

- I'm going to put less emphasis on the house I think, and concentrate more on the gardens and the nature around it.

For me, the most exciting thing that I can see is this apple tree, it's beautiful.

And it's very kind of like gnarled, and the textures that I can achieve in that will be really interesting.

The landscape will basically form itself around that.

- 21 Year old Julia Burley is a student from Oxfordshire with a keen interest in drawing wildlife and botanical landscapes.

Her submission made it in charcoal is drawn across two pages of her sketchbook.

It shows an imagined tropical landscape inspired by her BA research on birds of paradise.

So Julia, you're still a student.

- Yes.

- What stage are you in your studies?

- I'm just about to graduate in illustration.

- So what better place to be than in front of a landscape with the most complicated building?

- Exactly, yes.

The building is a big worry for me because usually I only really draw very natural, very kind of countryside settings.

So I start with a big detailed focal point, which is this apple tree here.

- An apple tree.

- Yes.

- We bring you along.

- I know.

See the most beautiful house, and I don't wanna draw it, yeah.

- Well I have to say, it is a very lovely apple tree.

- And I love birds in the house, they're flying around and they're adding so much life to it and I'd like to try and incorporate something to do with them in there.

- You see artists notice things we don't always notice ourselves.

(gentle music) - [Man] Paying close attention to the complexity of the house's construction.

One artist is taking inspiration from the geometry of this looming view.

- With the building, it's getting the perspective right.

And we've got lots of different angles coming with all the walls, as well as the house itself, the steps and retaining walls in the garden.

So there's quite a lot to think about.

- [Man] After stepping away from a successful career in publishing, Shelagh Casebourne from Berkshire went on to study fine art as a mature student, a fan of painting on, Shelagh's submission depicts a tree, cradling a desolate shipping container, a familiar landmark she walks past most days.

- Shelagh, I like your approach.

You've really gone for this exaggerated viewpoint, we're down low and we feel the house looming above us.

There's a looseness that was in your submission though.

You're obviously quite interested in not being too prescriptive in your work.

- Yeah, every time I paint, I'm trying to use less brush strokes to say what I want to say.

- Is there anything you're gonna leave out?

I don't know, the detail of these amazing kind of arts and crafts windows.

Are they something that are a bit too detailed?

- I'm going to hint at them.

I don't want to put too much detail in.

- And what about time looking at your work.

- I have no idea what the time is, I kind of feel I haven't started yet.

Until I've got it all down there and I can step back and think, okay, where do I now want to take it?

Yeah, I'm still sort of in the starting blocks very much.

- Okay, well I'll let you finish off covering the board.

It looks great already.

- Oh, thank you.

- So Ty, painting this house from this angle, sort of exercising, geometry really?

- And quite a complicated one because you're right, we're sitting quite low and looking up, some of the artists are actually situated themselves the same level as the house and some are dealing with this trajectory 'cause it is quite nice.

I think it's unusual to be below something that sort of monolithic with all this green leading up to it and around it.

- What are the traps you can fall into painting a building like this.

- It is one color and all the detail is in the windows.

Now you start going into that, you're gonna be here for weeks.

So you've gotta find a way of simplifying.

Find a way of getting sort of salient points across without going into too much detail or using parts of the building and using the landscape it's in because it is just stunning here.

It is a complex structure.

And as long as the sun is giving the artist shadows and a sense of structure, I think it should be manageable.

You have got two drafts people drawing and maybe they will have an easier time of it.

- Should have taken the drafts people to checkers.

(sighing) (gentle music) - I don't like the light because it's full on the building.

There are no shadows.

I'm hoping by the end of the day, I'll get some deep shadows cast across the building.

If that happens, I'll put them in as they are.

If not, I'll just guess where they're going to go.

- [Woman] Today sees the return of professional artist Paul Gadin from Canterbury, who first competed in Landscape Artist of the Year at Rowston manor in 2015, this year's urban submission painted in oils is testament to his love of derelict and dilapidated locations, a dark narrative he hopes to bring to his artwork today.

- With your submission, you gave us a lovely grubby, urban behind the bike shed scene.

And you've got this sweet, gorgeous English present land.

- Well, I'm torn between doing the pretty, the obvious.

Or maybe a bit brown stoker, a bit dirty.

Lots of nice dark clouds.

- And is that how you mainly introduce grit into pretty scenes then, through light and dark?

- Yeah, it is, and avoid sunny days with blue skies.

- And you've got this under paint, which is, almost like there's been a nuclear attack somewhere.

- I like this color because when bits poke through.

- Yes.

- You know, it just warms it up.

- Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how it tightens up over the course of the afternoon.

- Yeah.

- [Man] Meanwhile in full creative swing further down the lawn are the wild cards.

As always, displaying their range of styles and techniques.

- You've really got a lot of character into that house.

Also, I love your hat.

Your barefoot, you're really embracing the whole summer thing.

- Well there is something really festival ish about being here.

- Is the apple part of your painting technique or is it?

- It is, before the apple, I had a sausage roll.

- Really, you have to have something in your left hand.

- Comfort.

There's a peach in there.

- Hello.

- We've got Chartwell on the hill and this beautiful green, most of them facing this way.

- They just don't like green.

- Some of them have done it very well or found corners.

There's one artist who actually avoided the house in it's very pale.

It's very strange sort of other worldly painting.

- Talking of other worldly, have you noticed how many more of our artists are now using highly colored grounds?

- Yeah.

- You have these bright fluorescent pinks or reds coming through.

- I think for an artist to find a ground where putting green on makes it more interesting is of course using some other colors to fight against it.

- I think a lot of our artists like giving us things that are slightly edgy, slightly more contemporary, less chocolate boxy.

- Good, good, they know us very well.

- It's lovely 'cause you've painted on this wooden board, which has got this gorgeous grain coming through.

- Well, yes, it's recycled, it was a chicken coop.

- Nice.

Okay, so chicken coop has found its second life as a landscape painting.

- The chickens have got a new one.

That's fine.

(gentle music) - [Woman] Also in the grounds of Chartwell are our selected artists, with almost two hours gone, they're fast approaching the halfway point of the day's challenge.

- A bit worried about time actually.

It's taking a little bit longer than I thought to get the kind of detail and the essence of the piece across.

- I haven't covered the board yet.

So there's just need to be careful not to let my colors get muddy, try and keep everything clean.

There's a lot to do, there's a lot to do.

- [Man] But one artist has already nearly completed her painting.

- I think it's kind of done.

- Wow, you could really psych out your fellow competitors by ostentatiously shutting your paint box, wandering up and down going, I finished, they'll panic them so much.

- Okay, I'll try.

- [Woman] Six artists have been challenged to paint the house and grounds of Churchill's Kentish home Chartwell, with two hours gone, they're halfway through the competition.

- I think I'm behind, for halfway, I'd like to be a little bit further on.

All I can do is let it mold itself into art, but I'm having a great time.

- I still think that the house is gonna be a big problem.

Yeah, I'm putting it off.

So I think I should just go ahead and start on it and get it out the way.

- But of course there are only three opinions that really matter.

Judges, we are halfway through our day here, general impression so far.

- There's a lot of bricks in that building.

It's very slaby and I was worried that they would be overwhelmed, but I think all six of them have found a way round it.

- Okay, let's take them one by one.

Shelagh.

- I think Shelagh's done a very good job of getting that sense of being below Chartwell and she's uses stairs in a very clever way that it draws your eye through and up into the house.

- There's a nice energy.

I'm concerned that if she goes in with a bit too much detail, this lovely suspension of reality is gonna come crumbling down and just be a bit too real for me.

- And what about Stuart?

He's still working on lines.

What do you make of it?

- I think Stuart needs to speed up.

That's what I make of it.

I mean, I don't know what he's doing.

Like it's charcoal, get in there, make a mess, energy.

That's what we had in the submission, where is it?

- We only little bit of that energy to really bring Chartwell to life.

- What about Gabriela, now altogether different.

- Yeah, I must say this edifice is towering over us is not happening in Gabriela's painting.

And instead we are getting like a dream, I think it's rather beautiful.

- It is leaning towards the sweet, but it's not leaning towards the conventional.

- Yeah.

- Okay, Paul.

- I think Paul's doing a really good job actually because he's leaving himself enough room that this afternoon, when the sun moves around, he could get some good shadows.

- And Paul did say to me as well that he was looking for Bram Stoker.

So I think he's hoping that Dracula will appear at the window or something.

- I would really embrace that and I think there's gonna be a lot of shadow hunting this afternoon and it might make or break a couple of them.

(gentle music) - [Woman] There has been a house here at Chartwell ever since the 14th century, with a property rumored to have accommodated Henry the Eighth while he was courting Anne Boleyn nearby Heva castle.

Centuries later in 1922, the house caught Winston Churchill's eye while he was searching for a country home for his family.

- When Winston and Clementine first saw Chartwell, they both fell in love with it, but Clementine was the very sensible woman and she began to see a number of drawbacks to their house.

However, Winston made the decision to buy it without telling her and Clementine throughout her life referenced him buying Chartwell as the only time that he wasn't straight with her.

- [Woman] Enchanted by the properties commanding views of the wheel of Kent rather than the house itself, Churchill immediately set about making architectural alterations.

- Among the changes made to the house were to bring more light in and really make the most of those views.

So a number of dilapidated wings were removed and very large windows put throughout.

And in some rooms we even have these gorgeous triple aspect windows around the edges.

- [Woman] Churchill also constructed his own artist studio, a place where he could indulge his love of painting.

He then said about making improvements to the gardens building features with his own hands and landscaping the grounds.

- Churchill's love of nature dates from his childhood.

He really was captivated by the natural world around him.

One element that dominates the landscape are the water features and they all pump around and connect to each other.

So it's a really clever piece of engineering.

He genuinely influenced the landscape, whether it be the built walls, the gardens, the ponds, the pools, his hand print is across every feature of this landscape.

- [Man] And today, committing the house to canvas, as Churchill did on many occasions, are our six competing artists.

- Gabriela, what's going on, doing another painting.

- I am, yeah.

I don't want to overwork the other painting.

I'm gonna come back to it towards the end.

And see it with new eyes.

- The new canvas could be a potential submission.

You could choose that.

- Yeah, potentially.

- Oh, okay.

A bit more like your submission.

You've given us this portrait piece.

- Yeah.

- More of an upward Vista.

- Either that or not including the house at all.

At the moment.

- We're getting really radical I like it Gabriela.

- [Man] While Gabriela tackles her second canvas, Stuart's drilling down into the detail on his first.

- Stuart, the drama, are you a fan of angles?

- I'm a massive fan.

Yeah, for me today is all about perspective and I've deliberately chosen this composition to allow us to kind of lead up into the building.

- Okay.

- So angles, lines tends to be kind of my go to.

- And something about that monochrome look that makes it dramatic.

- Yeah, it's quite sinister, isn't it?

But now I've started to add a lot more dark and light detail, I've realized actually that there's quite a long way to go.

And I think now it just depends on what I leave out as opposed to what I add.

- Can't wait to see how it turns out.

- [Woman] Want to add in or leave out is a conundrum for all the artists.

- So Sheila, very little sky in this.

Well, one of the things I really liked about your submission was the treatment of the clouds, which gave a real sense of the heat of the day.

- Well I would love to put more sky in, but I'd lose all of this.

And then I'd just have a house in the sky.

I think the key thing is to get over how imposing that building is.

- You say that, but you've actually made it more imposing 'cause you've shoved it right the way up to the top of a canvas.

- I'm trying to kind of lead us up to it.

- Okay.

- With the marks and the directional lines and where the light's falling.

- Would you ever introduce any artistic license?

I mean, would you ever put a container in the bottom for example?

- Oh yes, if it makes the composition work better.

Yeah, that might happen.

- [Woman] While Sheila focuses on composition, Paul's waiting for nature to play its hand.

Now, Paul you've said you were waiting for the shadows, have the shadows come?

- Yes, they have come around exactly where I want them to be.

I'm now putting in the shadows on this beige buff wall.

And it's got little highlights just on the edges of the uprights.

But the key thing is, all of those lovely flowers there are back lit.

So they're all singing out really brightly.

So I'm gonna pop those in as well against the shadows.

- Now, once you add the blue in, that will make a huge difference to the entire picture won't it?

- It does, I was torn between doing very postcard, or very Bram Stoker, dark.

And I'm still in the sort of middle.

- You're doing terrifically well.

- Thank you.

- [Man] Fending off the wildlife by the lake, our wild card artists have spent the day expressing their love of the landscape, while hoping to win a chance of a place in this semifinal.

- This is absolutely beautiful, detailed work.

- I cut into two so I can ink them separately.

So I'm going to go for blue sky and then just black on the foreground at the moment.

- Okay, well good luck.

I will be watching, I'll also keep it on the Swan for you.

I love the wild cards.

They always seem to work really quickly.

- That's 'cause we are not bothering them constantly.

- Yeah.

- I've got about three favorites I think.

I like the lady who's under the tree Who's sort of framed the view with dappled.

Like it's a little bit sweet.

- With the pink coming through.

- I like that one.

- The print maker is fantastic.

- I like also the space you get on that print, you get the sky moving, I thought it was very good.

There's a woman who's painted just the cool wall and the garden and I like the colors.

It reminds me of south of France.

- It feels to me like there's one person who stood out for all of us.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- You are the winner of the wild cards Mark.

(audience clapping) You did a great job.

The color, the detail, so congratulations.

- Thank you.

I feel a little bit shocked and surprised that I was selected, but yeah, absolutely amazing.

Wasn't expecting to actually win anything, I was just happy to just sit and carve away.

- Mark Rogerson from Onesworth will enter a pool of wild card winners from all the heats at the end of which one will be selected for a place in the semi-final.

At the base of the house, our six artists are into their final hour of the competition.

But for one, time doesn't appear to be an issue.

- Gabriela, you've not only finish one painting, but you seem to finish two paintings.

- Yes.

- So you've got a whole lot more boards, you can do another one or two.

- Might do another one, yeah.

- And it's not detrimental to the quality of the painting.

You really have caught something about today.

So I'm quite intrigued how you're going to present them.

Us judges, we always like a little twist at the end.

- I'm worried that it's gonna be unfinished.

I know a painting's finished when it makes me smile.

And at the moment it's not making me smile.

- There's always a danger with me of getting too fussy.

So trying to keep things as simple as I can, but everything could go wrong at any minute.

- [Woman] Here at Chartwell in Kent, our six artists are nearing the end of their landscape challenge.

And even at this stage, there are still tactical decisions to be made.

- I'm thinking of maybe presenting three as a trip tick or just picking one, I'm not sure, it's gonna be hard.

- I've done just about as much as I can.

I could probably do with another four, five hours.

- Artists, as Winston himself said, this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.

Actually it is almost the end.

You've got five minutes left.

- Oh my God.

- I'm getting cramp in my fingers.

- Quite glad that I can put my brush down in a minute and just think.

- Artists, your time is up.

Please stop work and stand away from your easels.

(audience clapping) - Well done.

- I'm feeling quite tired.

People don't realize how hard it is standing there painting all day because you're focusing, totally absorbed.

- [Man] While the artists relax, the judges are tasked with whittling them down to a short list of three.

- All six artists work really, really hard to find something that the house would speak to them about, that would also match with their styles.

- Julie's very good at creating texture.

I get the difference between the grass and the tree.

And I get a sense of weathering and sort of being outside in all seasons.

- I think Julie was very clever to make nature the protagonist instead of the house.

It feels as if it could come to life at any minute.

- I think Shelagh's use of the stairs to lead our eye up to Chartwell, it's just ingenious.

- The shadows that came into play at the end of the day, she really used really well to give the painting a bit more ooph.

I'm pleased that she kept the vitality and freshness.

She didn't overwork it.

- Stuart's work's interesting because it's almost like a work of two halves.

You've got the abstracted nature of the foreground and then you've got the detail of the house.

He's been very clever compositionally.

- We got the energy that we were looking for mainly through the rubbing out marks that he did later on.

- There's something about the way Gabriela puts on paint.

She's able to create so much with so little, the two outside paintings are glorious.

- Don't know if it's entirely successful as a Triptic.

I think I'm enjoying looking at them as three independent works, but think she's caught the balance quite right between descriptive and literal and also takes a bit of artistic license.

- I think Gail's use of those crazy colors and this hyperrealist painting Chartwell over the top kind of leads you on a journey, which is intriguing.

- Lunchtime, we had a floating oil rig and a peer, and now I feel like it's the Starship Enterprise, but what I love about it is the thrust.

There's a real sense of energy that she found with that diagonal line.

We haven't quite got Dracula, but Paul did definitely pick up on those shadows.

But I find myself distracted by sort of almost inpasto detail in areas like on the side of the house and in the purple foliage.

- Paul's painting is sort of dark.

And I thought that was a very interesting thing to be aiming for and actually took the painting away from the quite conservative path it was going down.

- I think all of them played around and found their own way into what was happening today, that's good.

We want to see artists who know who they are.

- [Woman] But which three paintings will they select for their shortlist?

- There's two drawings here and I think I can let that one go.

- I agree.

What about this one?

I know it's not perfect.

- But there's so much potential.

- Yeah.

- One of them has done it in a more inventive way.

- Yeah.

- I think very cleverly put together.

- So are you happy this.

- I think that's a good top three.

- Okay, that's a nice top three.

- Artists, you've all done exceptionally well today and we commend each one of you.

- But sadly only three of you could be shortlisted and the judges have made their selection.

The first artist on the shortlist is Shelagh Casebourne.

(audience clapping) - The second artist on the short list is Stuart Jarvis.

- The third artist is Gabriela Fernandez.

- Commiserations to the rest of you.

And I did mean it when I say we commend all your work.

It's outstanding, so thank you to you too.

Thank you.

- I'm feeling a little disappointed, but I can go home and know that I was bolder and bigger and braver, and that makes a big difference to me.

- [Man] Taking into account the artist's submission works, the judges must now make their final decision.

You threw a lot at these guys today.

- Yeah, and each one of these three artists has found a way of getting the best out of it.

- So Sheila gave us a submission of a dilapidated container.

Today she's given us a stone staircase.

- Sheila's obviously reveling in the elements that she found in the landscape to produce something very enigmatic.

There's something brooding there, which I find echoed in both paintings.

- Yeah, I think Sheila came on today actually.

I much prefer her painting of Chartwell where she's pushed that building solidly up into the top and given us just a sort of glimpse of sky.

- There's so much strength to her work because she makes great compositional choices before she even gets down to the business of good looking paint.

- Now Stewart is a completely different operation entirely.

Did he rise to the challenge?

- We gave all the artists Chartwell to deal with and he hasn't avoided the issue in hand, he's tackled it in all its complexity.

You do get that great sense of distance and volume.

- I think what Stewart did today, he tried to find that energy from his submission in this lawn.

And he's given us that energy with the thrust of the line.

- The work that he's made today accurately represents Chartwell as a sort of architectural gem, but also is very clever compositional choice to leave all this blank space in the foreground.

- Right, Gabriela, we've got one and then three.

- Gabriela very much wanted us to see them as one work.

I don't know that they are entirely successful as a Triptic.

She really can paint very well.

- There's a focus and an intensity.

It may just be about the colors actually, which feel more thoughtful and more considered.

Little brush strokes, little squares, a bit like Cezane used to do.

- I think Gabriela is a very good colorist.

I think it gives us a sense of a landscape, which has its roots in art history, but it feels very contemporary.

- But you have to choose one artist from the three.

Good luck.

- Gabriela, Stewart, Sheila, There's no doubt that to have reached this point is a tremendous achievement, but there can only be one of you goes forward today.

- The artist who the judges have chosen to put through to the semifinal is final is Shelagh Casebourne.

(audience clapping) - It feels absolutely amazing to have won.

I'll pinch myself in a minute and maybe tomorrow it will seem real.

- Delighted that Sheila won.

Here's a traditional artist who understands how to tweak that tradition to make something feel very contemporary.

And she's such a wonderful painter, she puts paint on beautifully.

She's such a great colorist that this corner with a strange rhythm through it, both in her submission and in today's painting, comes through loud and clear and in a very beautiful way.

- To have won this round is incredible.

It means that there's a purpose to carry on picking up the brushes and going out painting and makes it all worthwhile.

(gentle music)