This is part one of my Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2026 (Series 11 Heat 5) blog ahead of the official broadcast time of Wednesday 11th February 2026 at 8pm on Sky Arts. Part two will follow shortly after the broadcast
I thought it was worth giving some extra context on my journey that led me to appearing on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2026 as I know this can be interesting for fans of the show, which I have been for both the Landscape and Portrait Artist variants
My entry and the lead up…
At the start of 2025 I decided to enter LAOTY but as usual with deadlines, I somehow left my application to the very last day and entered with the hope I may just get selected to be a Wildcard. So you can imagine my reaction when I got a phone call and email two weeks later giving me the amazing news that the judges liked my submission and I had been successful and was asked to be a heat artist and it would be on the HMS Wellington on the Thames in central London. I did ask out of curiosity what the final commission was and at that time I was told it wasn’t known which can be understandable if their are candidates/tenders etc.
For the first week after the call I my head was in a spin and I was finding hard to relax and enjoy the moment, which wasn’t great as we went on a holiday to the New Forest shortly after getting the news. The strange thing is I wasn’t afraid of being on a TV art show and also being able to paint within four hours on the day but quickly realised the anxiety was purely doing something out of my comfort zone and also the logistics of getting down to central London with equipment and working out what to do about our dog. After talking this through with my wife and making some plans (thanks to my sister-in-law for looking after our dog), the “fear” was quickly replaced with excitement and an eagerness to prepare. A lesson to myself and anyone else reading this is to embrace the unknown and only focus on what you can manage and then act on this to ease the anxiety, otherwise it can seem overwhelming.
Preparation and practise…
I used the interim to practise and understand what other things could remove indecision on the heat day. I even had a stroll down by the HMS Wellington to take some photos when I was in London for the day with work. I had regular dialog with the Storyvault production team in the lead up to my heat and they were excellent in all respects. I’d encourage anyone who has been thinking of entering to just do it.
The day before…
The day before the heat my wife and I drove down to London from Derbyshire, parked our car in the long stay car park under Hyde Park and got an Uber to the Premier Inn, which was only a 9 minute walk to the HMS Wellington. It was a lovely Summer evening and we walked along the Southbank and had a pizza and a beer at Zizzi. Surprisingly for me I slept pretty well.
On the day…
As a heat artist you have to be at the venue early, so we got down to the Thames for just before 07:30am to find an extremely busy embarking area for the HMS Wellington. The production team started to shout out instruction and the heat artists and guests were allowed to jump ahead of the waiting wildcard artists to allow us to board and was quickly led to the dining room for a briefing and wiring up for our mics. The main purpose of the briefing was to outline the day and what we would be required to do in terms of the production. All this was extremely interesting to see how the show is made. The briefing was the first time we got to meet and greet our fellow artists and guests properly and this was key to creating a great vibe and bond among the artists IMO. I enjoyed this bit.
I just want to emphasise at this point that the thing I really love about Landscape Artist is the chance for different artists and different art styles to be in the same competition. Having variety makes for a more interesting programme for the viewer IMO. There’s a place for Olympian type events where the “best” compete but at the very core of this programme’s essence is something that encourages inclusivity with the amateur and professional artists (and art tutors!) all in the mix and not a whiff of arty snobbery at all. We can all disagree with the judges but thats what makes this programme great and if I’m honest they are providing insight. I liked the constructive feedback they gave me but Tai could recite a shopping list to me and I’d still listen intently! He’s great btw as is Kathleen. I didn’t get the pleasure of being interviewed by Eva but shes was also great in passing.
Up on deck…
Leaving our partners and guests behind we were all led upstairs to our pod-less stations to get prepared for the start at approximately 10am. It was shortly after this that Stephen arrived and greeted the assistant director who was with me and shook my hand. The ship was ever so slightly swaying and Stephen comedically started exaggerating this backwards and forwards and asked me how I was with being on the deck, to which I responded smiling; “OK, until you started doing that!”. I didn’t really have any nerves but I can see Stephen is great at making people feel at ease and appreciated this small exchange with him.
All the artists now spent time setting out their materials, equipment and adjusting their easels. It’s important to note that you are not allowed to start before the official go ahead is given. This includes sketching or taking photos etc. Of course we were all looking around but we probably all came prepared with a view in mind but you want to react to what you find on the day etc.
In terms of the weather and clothing, it’s important to point out that although it ended up being extremely hot and sunny it was also pretty windy and therefore I felt I need to ensure I wasn’t cold when we started. Suncream was supplied in abundance by the production team but I don’t tend to burn easily and the wind was somewhat deceptive but I did end up with a red nose and ankles. My own fault but when you get engrossed it’s the art that counts etc. I can’t stand wearing hats but sensibly I could/should have worn one but I felt I would have made myself uncomfortable and for me it was the right choice. It’s worth noting that the production teams like you to stay consistently attired throughout the day and this makes perfect sense for continuity. Sunglasses were an option but I find it changes my sense of colour and a sun visor wouldn’t have helped with the position we had on the ship. Wearing an apron did make me warmer but for me personally its useful to have pockets to stick my unruly hands in whilst being interviewed 🙂 and I’m such a messy painter however I often paint without an apron. On the day I just needed the pockets versus being a little warmer etc
The view from the ship (not boat!) was great in both directions but I felt for me that the view towards Southwark bridge was more interesting and gave me a stronger composition as a whole. My alternative was directly across the water to the National Theatre. I was less keen on the view towards Waterloo bridge and the London Eye and the was based on me trying out a composition at home where I felt it could look a little “touristique”
The start of the painting time for our heat at least was a very quiet affair in that the production team tell us we can start. I think this is because the segment with Stephen declaring we have four hours has to be captured on film prior to make sure they have got a good take.
Choices, choices…
Anyway we were off at this point but I just took my time reconfirming what I wanted to paint and after using my ipad to help validate the composition (and failing with the brightness of the screen versus the sun) resorted to my iphone’s brighter screen to do the same but unfortunately on a much smaller screen. To be fair I only used this to ensure I was getting the overall proportions of the cityscape and the angles approximately correct, as I had already identified I was drawn to the strong diagonal that the One Blackfriars, Shard and Tate Modern gave from top right to bottom left. I had brought a few different panel sizes with me but had already considered that a traditional 4:3 aspect ratio would only give me a rather boring inclusion of the OXO wharf and tower on the right and more of the Southwark bridge on the left, which I felt may have detracted from the square dynamic composition. If the skyline was less “pointy” I may have gone landscape but the skyline and the river are the two big elements. I also had some confidence in my tests at home but more on that later…
I’ll update this blog with some photos after the broadcast….