Landscape artist of the year

[Magnalux]

Anyone watching this? I know nothing about art but I’m on episode 4 and I can tell every time which one the judges will pick ( usually one I hate !) take the view in and paint it a bit blurry! Every week same thing.. again I will reiterate I know literally nothing about art so I’m sure more arty folk than me will know why! Anyway what do you think?

What channel is it on?

Yep I can always pick out the winner, It’ll be the most quirky painting there. There is no room for fantastic skilful paintings anymore, just the ‘different’ ones.

I've watched some of it, and really enjoy it (takes me back to when "Watercolour Challenge" was on during one of my maternity leaves)

The ones I like best never seem to be favoured most by the judges - I predict about 1 in 3 of the of the final shortlist. But that's still ahead of DH who usually hates all the judges' picks

Sky Arts

We have watched every series and Portrait Artist also. They always seem to pick the worst one for the top three and there have been some corkers over the years. Quite often the best one is overlooked altogether. Then we have a good eye roll! Apparently the judges like it went they get criticised on SM. We really liked the charcoal drawing this week but it wasn't placed.

It did make me smile when one of the artists this week, who was obviously not painting what was in front of her, said "I paint what I feel not what I see" - completely waffly arty BS. And she was a top three-er. The whole point of both Artist of the Year programmes is to paint what is in front of you.

yes the charcoal one was amazing, but they never even put it into the top three. I don't know why people who make pictures in other mediums, charcoal, print, etc go on because they never seem to get anywhere

It annoys me that they so often pick the worst paintings but Portrait Artist of the Year is much worse. The paintings that look nothing like the person painted are almost always chosen over the really good paintings

The winner was good this year though @mydogisthebest and it was lovely that the prize sitter was the amazing Jane Goodall.

Yes the winner of PAOTY was great but the woman who painted exaggerated heads produced rubbish work but keep getting picked by the judges. Indeed to think what she would have done to Jane Goodall

Yes I agree the winner was good but some of the ones each week they picked were awful.

Also the year the winner got to paint Lenny Henry the painting was awful and really did not look like Lenny.

The charcoal one was beautiful and a couple of the others they picked (episode 4) were terrible. Usually they do get it right with the final winner (Ophelia Redpath for example) but I do feel they too often choose the quirky over the good.

The Making a Mark https://makingamark.blogspot.com/ reviews are usually spot on.

I refuse to watch anymore Sky painting programmes until they change the judges as the ones they’ve got are too try hard and trying to be trendy instead of actually picking the best painting - particularly with Portrait Artist of the year .

i went to a filming of Portrait for this season. Everyone in the audience wanted a certain artist to win, but they picked another one who was really good but not as popular. I did note Tai-Shan Schierenberg did specially go over to the popular one to give him some encouragement at the end.

Who were the sitters @bruffin? Did anything surprise you about the day?

Repeated at 2pm today on Sky Arts

Sue Barker, Alan Titchmarsh and Philippa Perry episode 5. It was filmed about 6 months in advance! I havent actually watched the rest of the series yet so dont know who won overall. i must get round to it!
I really enjoyed it , i was in the afternoon session but it was a really nice relaxed afternoon. We we were allowed to wander around and take photos which did surprise me.
If you live near Battersea it's worth applying for a ticket.

I thought the lino print one was amazing.

And thought the judges really said very little about it.

The print one was fabulous, the work that went into it was just unreal, but no recognition at all!

The print one was fabulous - agree. But not different enough for the judges

I love this show, and Portrait Artist...until the last 5 minutes when the judges choose to my mind, often the worst one there. Then I feel like throwing things at the TV!

The Lenny Henry one was shockingly bad ( and they get £10k for it! )

I didn’t really like any of tonight’s paintings, though I much prefer actual seascapes, green landscapes etc..I’m not a fan of the architectural pictures. Also what was that octopus about !!

They were all a bit weird this week.
I was irrationally annoyed at the young woman's lines which weren’t straight - it was totally out of proportion.
And what on earth was the pink monstrosity? 🤣

I think 2 of the 3 (not the wonky line girl) shortlisted were the best ones and I don’t know how the hell she got through.

@Magnalux

Also what was that octopus about !!

Octopus’s Garden song by The Beatles (I assume)

I didn't mind this week's selection, but none stood out either. Well except for the one with pink buildings. I knew which one was going to win, the one that's a bit different. She said herself it wasn't in proportion. I'm not overly keen on city scapes.

I thought it was a bit off they weren't given some shade.

We love this show but its so formulaic and therefore eye-rolly:

We see a bunch of submissions that took months to produce - these artists are then asked to produce something of a similar quality in FOUR hours
Lovely Stephen makes some puns about the venue. He's adorbs so he can pun as much as he likes, to be fair.
Some great artists get overlooked usually for the weirder, experimental O-level student types who lack the necessary skills
Two artists from the wild cards get reviewed, one wins. Rarely the one you want though.
One of the judges makes some obvious comments about what to capture from the landscape in front of them
The older blonde one (sorry I don't know any of their names) will say she hopes they capture the history of the place.
They pick the worst painter and two others but rarely the most skilled. Usually the worst painter doesn't go through but sometimes they do.

I really wish they would approach the whole thing more like Bake Off. I find the judging really underwhelming and we never really get to know the artists or what their particular skills are or care. I'd rather a dozen artists were put through a different challenge each week in a different location.

Maybe they also have a segment where they work on another singular piece in a studio over the course of the series.

I'd also like to see more of the Wild Cards.