Now in its fifth year, Landscape Artist Of The Year is a well-behaved example of Hobby TV.
It avoids innuendo. Mostly, it eschews back story and the development of “character” among its contestants. The hosts, Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell, are unobtrusive. The judges — curator Kathleen Soriano, artist Tai Shan Schierenberg, dealer Kate Bryan — display the full range of critical responses; from underwhelmed to faintly impressed.
There are, to be fair, some small rips in the fabric. One of tonight’s contestants comes dressed as a chef and decorates his artist’s pod with sweet pastries and — crazy guy! — a large seashell. “The shell’s very nice,” he tells a nervous Mangan. “You’re welcome to touch it.”
He’s trying too hard, the art chef. Showing off is not the done thing in this contest. Another of the artists goes the other way, and paints with her eyes closed, listening to birdsong, a technique she picked up on a mindfulness course. Her mindfulness wavy lines are electric. The bits where she paints with her eyes open are less persuasive.
There is a challenge, of course. The artists, six pros and two plucky amateurs, have four hours to render the coastal scene surrounding a lighthouse, Smeaton’s Tower in Plymouth. “How do you deal with the view we’ve given them without it becoming twee?” Mangan asks Schierenberg, pointedly.
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There’s also the weather to contend with. It is properly changeable, becoming cyclonic, verging on c**p. An umbrella is lost to the wind. Someone gets wet knees. One or two of the contestants try to avoid tweeness by ignoring the lighthouse. There is a recap of the time Napoleon surrendered at Plymouth.
Then suddenly the judging is done and the cull begins. It’s all quite brutal, and terribly polite, which isn’t quite the recipe for invigorating art.
Landscape Artist of the Year is on Sky Arts, 8pm tonight
