Two of my favourite
television programmes are Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year and Sky Arts
Landscape Artist of the Year. I suspect because art is in my blood – my father
was an artist – watercolour, pastel and pencil and I loved watching him at work.
Yes, of course, he helped me with school projects!
Portrait Artist of
the Year
It is fascinating
watching the artists at work. Their models are three celebrities with three
painters per celebrity each week. Oils, acrylic, watercolour, pastel, charcoal,
pencil and even scratching on metal. Incredible. The winner gets to paint a
commissioned portrait of a celebrity. This year it was Sir Tom Jones and, as he
was relaxed, I saw a whole other side to him.
Landscape Artist of
the Year.
Nine artists a week are
taken outdoors to paint – maybe a castle, a house, ruins, gardens, coastline,
mountains. As with the portraits a variety of mediums are used. One that
recently amazed me was a lady with fabrics and a sewing machine!
………
I don’t envy the
judges – artist Tai-Shan Shierenberg, Arts Curator Katherine Soriani and Art
Historian Kate Bryan. They have a very hard job, but neither do I always agree
with their choices! It would be a boring world if we all liked the same things.
And the programmes are
brilliantly presented by Dame Joan Bakewell and – for a light touch – Stephen
Mangen.
Although the
programmes are shown on Sky Arts, they are repeated on Channel 4.
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