Landscape Artist Of The Year - Series 10

Sky Arts celebrates the 10th series of Landscape Artist Of The Year with a £10,000 commission from the Courtauld Gallery. This season features a diverse range of landscapes including the historic grounds of Hampton Court Palace, the dramatic Llanberis Lake at the base of Yr Wyddfa (Mount Snowdon), the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, and the newly redeveloped St. Pancras Basin.  As ever, eight artists and fifty wildcard entrants will do their best in each round to impress judges Tai Shan Shierenberg, Kathleen Soriano and Kate Bryan to see who can progress to the semi-final and the chance to depict Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard. The final challenge will take the top three artists to one of Britain's most famous landmarks, Stonehenge. There they will do battle on Salisbury Plain to see who will take home the coveted title of Landscape Artist Of The Year, 2025. For the tenth year in a row, Storyvault Films and Sky Post Production have combined once again to bring you a show which grows more popular every year. Sky's Colourist, Ben Whitney, has been associated with Landscape Artist Of The Year since its inception and, as a reward for his dedication, we asked him to take his trusty Nikon down to Hampton Court Palace for Episode 1 to give you a sneaky peek at what life is like behind-the scenes on this most iconic of shows from a Colourist's point of view. Over to you, Ben!

Ben Whitney – Colourist

I've been associated with all ten series of Landscape Artist Of The Year as either the Online Editor or Colourist and it’s always exciting to be invited down to the shoot. It’s a chance to get out of the Grading suite and to see the artists, judges and crew in action. It’s interesting to see the paintings progress in real time too, although it all feels a bit empty without Composer, Nick Harvey’s music as a backdrop. The last time I’d been on a site visit was in 2018, to Viking Bay in Broadstairs, which was amazing, so it was a real treat to be invited to Hampton Court for the latest series. The weather on both occasions was uncharacteristically good: clear skies and uninterrupted sun. In fact, the Hampton Court shoot day was one of the hottest days of 2024 and I would often have to find some shade under a nearby tree to cool down, so I really felt for anyone out in the sun all day.

The purpose of the visits, apart from an enjoyable day out watching the artists and crew in action, was to get a visual reference for the location, environment and paintings. This means taking plenty of reference photographs which could be used later as in the Grading suite. For the photos I used a Nikon D80, with an 18 - 135mm lens, and an iPhone 14. I generally chose the Nikon for the standard and long focal length shots and the iPhone for the wides. I was able to speak with Series Director, Southan Morris but not to the DOP, (Director of Photography) Paul Bomber Harris because he was, as you might expect, immensely busy on the day. However, as he was already booked to come in to the Colour suite to see the Grade in action, I wasn’t too worried and was able to wander around freely with my camera like the rest of the public.

It's really exciting to see everything first-hand because sometimes the scale and expanse of the locations and vistas is lost in the suite. It also gives you a sense of personal connection to the space and whets your appetite for the Grading to come. Whenever I could, I took pictures of the camera viewfinder displays in order to check on the settings for colour temperature and LUTs (Look Up Tables) which can be a great help when starting out on a Grade. In this case the LUT was Sony S-Log 3/S-Gamut3 and was set in Baselight using the camera metadata during the grade prep by our dedicated assistants. On this shoot the cameras were Sony Buranos which are smaller and lighter than their predecessors which, on a shoot where the crew are highly mobile, is a real plus. And as technology improves, so does the picture quality, which is good news for the Colourist.

Landscape Artist Of The Year shoots are busier and more frenetic than their Portrait Artist Of The Year counterparts. This is mainly due to the larger area to cover (including the Wildcard entrants), the changeable nature of the weather as well as the uncontrollable natural lighting. You can’t tell the sun when to come out, or not, and sudden changes in weather and light have a massive impact on the artwork and thus on the work that needs doing in the Grade to bring everything together. Portrait Artist has its own challenges, but unexpected downpours or gusts of wind aren’t one of them. Temperatures can fluctuate wildly too depending on the day and the location. On the day I visited Hampton Court the temperatures were 30°C and above which only added to the intensity of the shoot, but at least the paint would dry quickly. Although that presented problems for the artists too, with oil paint in particular becoming thick and difficult to work with.

The whole series has to be filmed when daylight hours are as long as possible because everything has to be finished before the sun goes, and there’s always that deadline looming on the horizon. Quite literally. The weather on this occasion was pretty consistent I’d say, bright sunlight and uncomfortably hot for most of the day. The occasional cloud would provide brief respite, and a temporary shift in colour temperature. Towards the end of the day, for the judging and the results, the sun would be lower, as is the case in most of the episodes. This can give a different look and feel with light coming in from the side as well as sharper, longer shadows and more shade in general. And, with the location now away from the artists’ pods, there was often a lot more squinting of the eyes too. This more dramatic atmosphere often works well to enhance the tension of the judges’ decision.

The DOP, Bomber Harris, came to Sky a few weeks later to look through the footage once it had been cut together. We spent time looking at a few key shots per episode and once we’d established how they should look, we could then apply the same thinking to the rest of the shots in that episode. We pulled up a variety of shots, from close-ups of Stephen Mangan to wide shots of the landscape, as well as some mid-shots of the artists in their pods. I would occasionally refer to my photos during the process. For example, if a section started with a wide of the palace in sunlight, followed by a series of close ups of the architectural details, with the sun behind a cloud, then the colour temperature of the latter would increase, and the images become cooler. Having the reference photos available helped to balance all the shots to a master shot and to avoid colour changes during the scene. There is often a lot of contre-jour or ‘against the light’ footage in Landscape Artist, which happens when the sun is behind the subject. This is often the case when shooting the artists in their pods. The stronger the sun, the more dramatic the contre-jour and it can be a challenge to balance the foreground detail with the bright backlight without creating an oppressive silhouette. Having said that, sometimes a dramatic silhouette is exactly what’s required. 

It’s not a regular part of the workflow but being invited to come down to the site is a real bonus for a Colourist. There isn't always time before my part of the Post-Production process begins to visit the shoot and to then have the DOP come on the site as well, but if you offer me the chance, I’ll pretty much bite your hand off. A few minutes spent together at this stage early on, looking at how everything has been setup, will often mean fewer questions and variables later in the process. It’s a real worthwhile investment in time, and it’s enjoyable too. I’m still a fan of the series after all these years and I recorded the 2am broadcast and then watched it before the showing that evening. I thought Hampton Court looked imposing and dramatic and, elsewhere, the sense of heat and drama was conveyed well.