My Day
in the
Pods

In 2019 I was lucky enough to be chosen to take part in one of my favourite tv programmes, Landscape Artist of the Year. It’s a painting competition broadcast on Sky Arts that is presented by Joan Bakewell and Stephen Mangan and judged by the widely known painter Tai Shan Schierenberg who has painted the Queen, as well as curators Kate Bryant and Kathleen Soriano. This wasn’t the first time I had been on the show, having featured as a ‘wildcard’ artist on the series a couple of years previously.

The painting I submitted that earned me a place in the heat was called ‘The River Test’ and takes my typical abstract landscape style. It was amazing to be part of the programme and meet the lovely team behind the scenes who make it all come together. The day itself was pretty crazy and my nerves did get the better of me. The last time I had completed a timed painting was in my A-levels when I had 10 hours, not the 4 hours they give you on the show. These days, I normally take weeks to complete one of my landscape paintings, because I need ample pondering time to make the right decision about what should go where and when. I had none of this on the day of filming which left me panicking and making rash decisions that I later went onto regret.

In the end I wasn’t happy at all with my finished piece and wasn’t surprised I wasn’t picked to go forward into the quarter finals. It was an interesting experiment though to see how I would fare in an environment like that, which overall felt very alien. But it was fun too, especially chatting to the judges, presenters and hugely supportive crew. I made friends with the other contestants and the location of Herstmonceux Castle was fascinating. I plan to go back and repaint the scene we were given on set, but right now, I am happy to have the memories and the tv show to look back on, even though I did find it slightly cringeworthy to watch myself! Maybe I will enter again at some point in the future, but I think I will be more likely to enter Portrait Artist of the Year, as I tend to work much more quickly with this subject matter, and that would put me in a much better position to do well on the show.

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(+44) 796 372 2312

satdeep.grewal@gmail.com

@SatdeepGrewalArts