They say as an artist you should always work around 10 per cent above your comfort level. Well, last year I decided to work about 200 per cent above mine and entered Landscape Artist of the Year (LAOTY).

I submitted my entry on the day before the deadline so I didn’t have long to wait to find out if anything would come of it. Within a few weeks I got a phone call from an unknown number. Now, normally I ignore unknown numbers but thankfully I answered this one and sure enough it was Storyvault Films telling me that the judges liked my submission and wanted to invite me to be a ‘reserve artist’. What an honour!

Reserve artists are there in case a pod artist is unable to attend. Being a reserve meant I had to commit to turning up for two days of filming, but if I was not required to be in a pod, I would be able to take part as a wildcard artist on the second day.

I didn’t know the filming locations at that point and I was initially pencilled in for Hever Castle which is 200 miles away from where I live. However, thankfully someone at Storyvault realised I lived in Liverpool and so being at the Liverpool heat would make much more sense.

A few frenzied weeks of preparation, admin, emails and phone calls followed and I became more and more stressed wondering whether I would end up in a pod. The production team requested I only told my nearest and dearest about my participation. I felt awful not telling my friends and fellow artists who would have been so interested in the news.

In preparation, I practised a few en plein air paintings and tried to streamline my equipment and supplies. I managed to buy a french easel at a bargain price because it had a wingnut missing. A replacement was sourced and I was good to go.

Eventually, the big day arrived and I duly attended the Museum of Liverpool at 7:30am as instructed. The whole production team were kind and welcoming, and it seemed to me, extremely well organised. Breakfast was on offer but I was too nervous to eat anything so just had a cup of tea. Over the following twenty minutes or so all the pod artists arrived and I got chatting to a few of them. One told me she had been a wildcard three times before she managed to get into a pod. That gave me hope for the future.

I spent the next few hours watching the filming. It was very hot, the temperature reached around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) and I really felt for all the artists, but especially the wildcards as they were located in full sun with no shade. I was a little star struck seeing the judges and the presenter, Stephen Mangan, in real life though I missed out on seeing Dame Joan as she had retired the year before. I watched Tai Shan Schierenberg sit and chat in a pod for around 25 minutes and could feel my anxiety rising for the artist as they only have four hours to complete their artworks (plus breaks which they can work through if they choose).

I left at lunchtime so didn’t get to see who won the heat that day. I headed home but not before I popped into Zara to buy a white shirt to protect myself from the sun on the following day. That and the french easel were by far the best purchases I had made in a long time!

The next day had the slightly earlier start of 7am. Again, I had no appetite for breakfast so had a cuppa and met my fellow reserve artist, Gary @artofgaryyeung. I’m pretty confident that out of the two of us, he would have been chosen for the pod ahead of me because his work is incredible. In the event, neither of us were needed as all the pod artists showed up and after wishing them all luck we grabbed our things and bowed out.

Gary and I were led to the wildcard queue to get our canvases stamped. It was still very early and there was a bit of hanging around as the crew set up the ‘Wildcard Walk’ scene. It was done in one take and we were then led to the Tide Dock / Canning Dock area just in front of the Museum of Liverpool. The pods were facing the Three Graces and the wildcards were facing the opposite direction towards the Albert Dock. Both views were fabulous, but both extremely challenging. The bright sunshine meant strong shadows and high contrast which I love, however as we all know, sunlight and shadows move and as they do so colours, forms and textures change.

I set up my easel between two excellent artists, one of whom, Ruth @ruthgillbanksart, set up the most amazing outdoor studio. She worked on a large support and created wonderfully expressive work. Throughout the day lots of people stopped to look and compliment her painting and the production team, attracted to her striking brushstrokes, filmed and interviewed her.

After we were told to start, I spent the first 30 minutes doing thumbnail sketches determined to plan properly and not just blunder into the painting without thought. Stephen Mangan came over to say hello to the wildcards off camera which I thought was great given he didn’t have to. He tried to look at my virtually empty canvas but I became all shy and said “oh, no, don’t look’ so with a respectful “ok” he moved on. That’ll teach me; my one chance to say hello to Dr Guy Secretan and I blew it! Haha!

I regularly work en plein air as I am an urban sketcher and I had completed a few practice pieces leading up to the competition. I also live in Liverpool so know the subject matter well. Given this you would think I had a decent chance to shine; the problem I have is that I am a ‘push and pull’ artist; a slow painter who puts something down and then leaves it for a few days before coming back to tweak and improve. Obviously you can’t do that on LAOTY so I knew the day was going to be a challenge for me.

The weather was really, really hot. Every so often a strong gust of warm wind would blow in from the Mersey and the sound of canvases hitting the floor followed by gasps of stressed artists and worried spectators would fill the air. My easel stood up to the challenge and my canvas didn’t budge once. I worked in acrylics on a 30 x 30 cm canvas. I decided on an ‘L’ shaped composition using the red bus snack bar as the main point of interest. I had designed a system using small plastic trays with lids as stay wet palettes which given the weather I was very grateful for. I’m sure many artists were looking over at the oil painters with envy as their medium stayed workable for longer periods.

As the competition was near the city centre, throughout the day lots of friends and acquaintances walked past and took a second glance surprised to see me there. I had to apologise many times for keeping it all under my hat but thankfully everyone understood. My husband and daughter came along too armed with snacks, drinks and lots of support. My daughter commented that I should have had a larger canvas as my work seemed lost amongst everyone else’s. It was a fair point.

It was lovely to hear all the positive comments from passers by and fellow wildcards. Everyone was so supportive, and I had a few people stop to talk about my techniques and whether I sold my work.

A member of the production team who I had met in the morning came over and said hello which was really lovely of her. She said they don’t usually get chance to look at the wildcards because they are often too far away from the pods. Honestly, I couldn’t fault the Storyvault team, my dealings with them were an absolute pleasure, and from what I could see they looked after the pod artists very well indeed.

My unresolved painting. I needed to speed up!

Soon enough it was the end, and a member of the production team explained that Kathleen Soriano would walk along and choose the wildcard winner. We all exchanged nervous glances and came up with a few theories such as whoever had been filmed or spoken to by the judges would likely win. As no one had bothered me all day I knew I could relax. Kathleen duly walked around a bit looking here and there, before settling on a lady further along the dock side. I couldn’t see her work and later tried to have a closer look without success. Given the standard of work produced by some of the wildcards that day, the winner must have been excellent indeed.

I packed up and stayed behind to watch the winner of the heat be announced. Before that though, we were told that wildcard t-shirts were available to buy so I hurried along and grabbed one. Mainly so I could say ‘been there, bought the t-shirt’ in a blog post several months later.

The filming of the announcements was fun to watch, though a bit repetitive. One of the artists seemed nervous and kept looking the wrong way so they had to restart a couple of times. A mobile phone went off too which was a bit annoying. However, on the whole the atmosphere was brilliant and we in the crowd speculated as to who was going to win. It seemed obvious to me and everyone around me but alas, we were all wrong!

All in all, it was a fabulous couple of days. I made some new friends, produced a piece of work that will always hold a special memory for me and I had a great time. That said, I have a few learning points, namely:

I should have practised more timed en plein air paintings beforehand
I need to work on a larger scale

This might be controversial but I wish I hadn’t taken it all quite so seriously; obviously it is a competition and everyone wants to do well, but it’s also a lovely day to make art and to be with other artists. I got myself so stressed on the lead up that it took some of the joy out of it. Enjoying the whole experience is just as important as competing.

If you got this far, thank you for reading my blog post. If you are thinking about applying, I say go for it, but get plenty of practise in!

Andrea

Follow me on Instagram @andreastablesart

Take a look at my portfolio andreastables.com

Landscape Artist of the Year 2024 is on Sky Arts (Freeview Channel 36) on Wednesdays at 8pm from 10th January 2024.

The episode at Liverpool Docks mentioned in this post is aired on 17th January 2024.

Call for entries for Landscape Artist of the Year Series 10 is open now. Go on… have a go!

Landscape Artist of the Year Wildcard

Moving House

St Helens Open Art Competition at The World of Glass