How I started to prepare
Go Get Em!
After the initial excitement/shock/joy started to wear off I started thinking… you haven’t painted for 7 months.
Actually, I was pretty new to painting, well new back to painting. I had been a proficient painter whilst doing my A levels and during my art foundation course but I’d long since specialized in printing and moved completely away from art for many years. I’d only in the last few years become a full-time artist and so some preparation was needed if I was going to have a modicum of confidence going into my heat day of painting.
The lovely Glen had arranged a longer phone call to go over practicalities and logistics so I wrote down some questions that I had to ask him. If you get shortlisted absolutely do this. I’m happy to share what questions I had around the heat but of course, it’s down to you to ask what’s pertinent to you. Don’t be afraid to ask, the team are absolutely wonderful and very approachable.
Here are the questions I asked:
What time will I need to get to the location?
What time will we start painting?
Can I prep my canvas before the day?
When will I know the location?
Do you cover any costs for me?
Can I bring Jason (partner) with me?
When can I share that I’ve been selected as a pod artist?
What do you guys provide and what equipment don’t you provide?
After the 2nd call with Glen, I sat down and had a good think about what I could do to better my chances on the day. Because of lock-down and home-schooling, I hadn’t been making or selling much art let alone dedicating time to prep for a time-pressured televised competition! The biggest concern I had was how the fluff I was going to produce a painting in 4 hours that I could even think of being happy with. One of the main things I love about being an artist is that for the most part, I’m working to my own timelines and rarely have any time pressures beyond the norm. Also, I’m not a morning person!
So that’s how I started to prepare, I set my alarm for 7 am every day and went straight into my studio and got paint onto canvas for 4 hours every day. It really helped. My heat was in August so I had a fair amount of time to prepare as I was in the second to last heat to be filmed (so grateful for that).
At first, I didn’t worry about completing paintings within 4 hours, I just needed to build up my painting confidence. I started working on landscapes easing myself into observation and interpretation. I didn’t start timing myself for a fair while, I’d find that stressful if I started that straight away.
As an artist, I generally work quite big, larger prints, larger tapestries, big ol’ canvases. I don’t mean to, it just happens. Something I was aware of was size and impact, for me, I would find it hard to paint too small, I get clogged up in detail and things get muddy and constrained and then I get grumpy, and then the art would be shit (artists thought pattern). I decided not to constrain size in the weeks running up to the heat but to work naturally building up to timing myself and finishing a piece of art I was happy with within 4 hours.
So after the questions being answered and picking up brushes for 4 hours each and every day what else did I do?
I watched all the episodes of Landscape Artist of The Year. If you are going to do this and you’ve been selected as a pod artist I’d recommend really listening to what the judges say. There is consistency in what they say throughout the series’ and it’s really worthwhile watching as many as you can to get a handle on this.
Something to be aware of…. YOU WON’T BE WATCHING, IN THE SAME WAY, YOU WERE BEFORE GETTING SELECTED. I found myself looking like a rabbit in the headlights! The enormity of being part of such a prestigious and loved program certainly sharpens the mind. At first, I was shit scared and then as I watched more and more I must have reversed that as I was looking for different things in each episode. It’s ok to feel freaked out/scared/overwhelmed, push through those feeling and recognize how flipping cool you are for getting selected, seriously, if you are reading this as a selected artist YOU ARE SO COOL!
Next blog post I’ll share the art I made in preparation for my heat.
Don’t forget to tune in this Wednesday at 8 pm Sky Arts for episode 2.
J x