Wild Card at Sky Landscape Artist of the YEAR

Hi, just a quick update on what I've been up to this year. I don't know where the time has gone but one of the most fun things and a totally new experience for me was being on Sky Landscape Artist of the Year as a wild card at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire on a sunny, spring day. Yorkshire was beautiful and the other wild cards were great fun though I felt nervous when I realised most of the artists had done a recky the day before and some of them had even guessed what view we were going to be painting. I had done some historical research as I always do when I paint a building in order to help me understand and feel the atmosphere. I had also taken a large canvas, I think it was the biggest one there so for four hours I hardly looked up as I was PANIC painting.

At one stage I was told that one of the judges Tai Shan Schierenberg was watching me paint but I was so engrossed I hadn't noticed. Later I was interviewed by the newest presenter Stephen Mangnan which was a bit surreal as I was used to seeing him in films and in comedy. It was a fun day as everyone was lovely, would love to do it again! It was aired on Sky Arts on the 16th of October but is available for streaming and download via Sky on DEMAND.