Popular presenting duo Joan Bakewell and Frank Skinner have returned to Sky TV’s Landscape competition after the success of the Portrait Artist series. Expert judges Tai Shan Schierenberg, Kathleen Soriano and Kate Bryan are also returning. The winner will be awarded a £10,000 commission, which will be added to the National Trust’s permanent art collection.
Narrowly missing out on a place in Heat 3 of Sky Landscape Artist of 2015, by way of open submission, I was offered a place as reserve artist for the Heat. It was a very un-Christian position to find myself in, wishing that one of my fellow artists be ill-fated and fall by the wayside, but what the hell. Failing that I was guaranteed a place in the Wild Card competition the following day. I saw it as an opportunity not to be sniffed at. I wasn’t going there to make up the numbers or for the “experience” but because I believed I could be a real contender.