CHARTWELL HOUSE - Sky Arts ‘Landscape Artist of the Year’
Chartwell House, Winston Churchills family home.
‘The Pods’
The ‘Wildcard’ area
‘The Pods’
12” x 12” oil on board
July 2020: I was lucky enough to get a place as a ‘wildcard’ painting at Winston Churchill’s family home ‘Chartwell House’ in Kent.
It was one of the hottest days of the year and I found a beautiful spot in the shade of a tree to paint: great composition with lots of lovely different shapes and colours of trees around a little pool...turns out Winston and I have similarly good taste as just under that bamboo tree (directly behind my canvas) is the chair where he liked to sit, paint and meditate! (I didn’t know that when I chose that spot!)
I got off to a promising start but a lack of experience in painting landscapes/ outside/ in acrylics/ to a time limit meant I wasn’t terribly happy with the finished piece….so the one you see top left is one that I have done since, at home, from a photo, in oils!
What a fabulous experience though. It was lovely to meet some of the other artists who took part in the ‘wildcard area’ and to go and watch the artists that were painting in the pods. COVID restrictions meant that we couldn’t watch the judging, which was disappointing, so I’ve had to wait 6 months to find out who won the heat! The show has just aired on the Sky Arts’ which is now free for all to view on Freeview channel 11 (season 6 episode 4). I hope to do it again this summer as it was so much fun to be part of such a special and inspiring TV production.