Last June, Andrea Stables took part in Landscape Artist of the Year at St Pancras Basin, London. Read on to find out how she got on.

The painting that won me a place in a pod

In a previous blog I wrote about being a wildcard at Landscape Artist of the Year (LAOTY) in Liverpool. I had a great time and so a year later I applied again and kept my fingers crossed for another wildcard place. I almost fell off my chair when I received a phone call to say that I had been selected by the judges to be a featured artist!

Last time I was a reserve artist and so I had regular involvement with the production company Storyvault in the run up to the show being recorded. I remember getting quite stressed about the possibility of ending up in a pod. I was determined to not to feel the pressure this time and just enjoy the process. Other projects I was involved in at the time helped keep my mind off things, including working on the layout of the book ‘Liverpool by Urban Sketchers’ (currently being reprinted as the first run sold out!).

I am a big fan of Katherine Tyrrell’s arts blog, Making a Mark, and in preparation for the show I re-read her LAOTY posts. I recommend this to anyone applying as she offers excellent advice and observations. I also researched the area of St Pancras Basin and studied as many photographs and maps as I could. I painted several landscapes in four hours both en plein air and in the studio. I felt much better going into the competition knowing that I was at least capable of finishing a painting in the allotted time rather than going in and just hoping for the best.

I thought of ways to speed things up on the day and tried to pre-prepare as much as I could: I mixed a batch of neutral dark paint, sketched out some rectangles in my sketchbook that were the same proportions as my canvases, devised a way of connecting a viewfinder to the sketchbook so I didn’t waste time being all fingers and thumbs on the day. I also prepared my canvases with a mid tone grey/blue ground. I always seem to gravitate to this colour ground especially for urban scenes. As the day approached, I noted it was going to be sunny so I chose a black top to reduce reflections onto the canvas - a valuable lesson learned from past experience!

I arrived in London the day before filming to challenging weather: very high humidity and stifling heat. When I got to the hotel I checked my equipment and found that I had forgotten my ultramarine blue paint! So much for being organised. A visit to Cass Arts’ flagship store in Islington solved the issue and was a very nice diversion. After a difficult night’s sleep and waking with the worst headache (dehydration because of the heat no doubt) I gathered my things and made my way to the pods.

Storyvault have the whole process running like a well oiled machine and the team are very friendly and affable which put all us artists at ease. Over breakfast we were given a briefing which included the strong recommendation that we paint something which was in the 180 degree view from our pods.

I know there are those who do not class urban areas as landscapes per se but I find them interesting as they usually hold strong narrative elements. I regularly sketch with the Liverpool Urban Sketchers (my submission painting was based on a sketch I made during one of the meet ups) I was therefore pleased to have been selected to paint at St Pancras Basin. However, I really did not like the view from my pod. There were too many canal boats, a looming dark rectangle of a boat shed and despite the lovely Victorian water tower, the skyline beyond wasn’t very inspiring. I could see that a great composition was there somewhere (as my fellow artists later proved) but I knew it would take me too long and too many thumbnails to work it out and I felt I just didn’t have the time.

I loved the gas holder structures but I could only see a small part so decided against including them. Instead I looked down the canal a little to the left and spotted a boat partly covered by tarpaulin with the locks and some cottages behind. I try to be design led rather than subject led in my compositions, and with this in mind I used my viewfinder to make some thumbnail sketches. I felt happy that this view would make a decent painting that was achievable in the time allowed.

Thankfully I had the foresight to take a photo of the scene I was painting early on, because another boat moored in front of my tarpaulin boat! I could still paint from life for most of the scene but thereafter I had to refer to my phone for the details of the boat and reflections.

I have to say that the interruptions for interviews and filming were not as bad as I was expecting. If anything, they forced me to look away from my painting for a few minutes each time and so actually helped. I was interviewed by all of the judges, all of whom were very pleasant and easy to speak to.

Thankfully, I did manage to finish the painting and I haven’t touched it since, even though it got knocked about a bit on the journey home. There are some little tweaks I wish I’d done on the day, more light here and there and I’m still undecided if omitting the buoy from the side of the boat was the correct decision. I felt that it was too distracting at the time but maybe it would have been a nice touch after all.

Shout out to Susan Isaac, Phill Hosking, Bassam Andari, Tina-Louise Trimmer, Ruth Bateman, Tim Slatter and Vlada Popescu. All lovely people, excellent artists and well worth a follow on the socials.

I ended up in the final three along with Phill and Susan. It must have been a very close call as from what I could see the other artworks were excellent. In the end, that is as far as I got. I was not in the least surprised when Susan was chosen to continue to the next stage of the competition as her painting was beautiful, the textures and contrasts she achieved were masterful. I thought Phill’s depiction of the water was fabulous, and I really liked how he set the horizon line up high in his composition.

The whole thing was a joyful, positive experience and I’m glad I did it. I am relatively new to oil painting, starting in earnest in late 2023 and so being chosen to be on the show and then ending up as one of the final 18 out of the 2,000 who applied was a huge boost to my confidence - even if my choice of subject matter was described as ‘charming but boring’, ha! I’ll take that.

Landscape Artist of the Year Series 10, Heat 4 at St Pancras Basin aired on 12th February 2025 Sky Arts.

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Since filming I have established two weekly painting classes with Liverpool Independent Art School: Watercolour Techniques on Tuesdays and Discover Painting on Thursdays both of which I am thoroughly enjoying and are proving very popular!

Landscape Artist of the Year 2025

Food Illustration in Watercolour