Landscape artist of the year

[Magnalux]

Every year I watch this and realise I know nothing about art.. I hated that final commission! Anyone else watch?

I watched it too and thought the end commission looked like a blob.

You mean Kim Day’s painting of Croagh Patrick (which I wish Stephen Mangan wouldn’t keep mispronouncing)? I wasn’t crazy about it either. I thought it was rather twee, when Irish folk tradition isn’t at all. I liked her preparatory sketches more, before the lights appeared on the path.

Yes I quite liked her earlier submissions but thought the final painting was ..I don’t know .. I just know I didn’t like it. But again I’m not remotely cultured they never picked the ones I liked!’

The final commission was dreadful! The other poor contestants were robbed.
It was that bad I showed the picture to DH and DS.

Just shows how subjective art is - I wasn't keen on her winning painting of the Falkirk Wheel but I really loved her commission, the painting of Craogh Patrick.

I wasn’t keen on her Falkirk Wheel either. (Don’t start me on why they keep setting large inanimate chunks of engineering to test contestants to win a commission to paint a mountain). But I think she won primarily for her final ‘commission’ rather than for her heat painting, which makes sense, really — having much more time and choice of subject is going to give the judges a better indication of how you’ll cope with the winning commission.

I’d have given it to Tom Winter, only I think he shot himself in the foot by his choice of a built environment for his final ‘commission’. I think he might have won if he’d painted something that indicated how he would approach Croagh Patrick.

Same with Libby Walker. I think her choice of undergrowth rather than a ‘big’ view, when she’d done the same for her original submission made her look limited. The judges poss thought she’d just paint a patch of vegetation on CP.

So it might be that the other two finalists lost the final rather than Kim Day winning as such?

Do you know they’re changing the format entirely for the next series? It’s going to work more like GBBO and start with eleven pod artists, one of whom will be eliminated after each heat, as they travel round painting different views.

I liked the final painting apart from her decision to cut the peak off, I don’t think it worked.

I love the show, I’m not sure about changing the format. Part of the joy is seeing such a range of painters each week.