Spot BA (Hons) Fine Art student Jo Forbes on the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year TV show! The televised competition allows artists to enter with a landscape artwork created within the last five years. Entrants are selected on merit by a panel of expert judges. At a series of filmed in-person gatherings, ‘heats’, selected artists are then given four hours to paint a particular UK based landscape.

The show releases a number of first-come first-served spots to artists each year, the competition     details, “By bringing your own easel and materials you can join us at one of our spectacular Landscape Artist of the Year locations around the country and still be in with a chance at winning a £10,000 commission.”

Jo features as a wild card artist at one of their ‘heats’ in an episode that was shot in June last year, speaking of her appearance she commented “I was sat quite near the wildcard winner so you see me in the shot but only briefly!”

Speaking of how she got involved Jo said, “I applied in January last year through the show’s website. Someone got in touch saying I wasn’t selected for pod artist but was for wildcard. In June last year I travelled down to Hever Castle in Kent – I’m from Sussex so stayed with my Brother who came along for day too. It was an early start at 7am and amid torrential rain and thunderstorms we waited to be registered and our canvases approved.”

Jo made her canvas in our Fine Art studios in Hartlepool with help from our technicians, “I made my canvas at uni with the help of Katy especially to work on over the summer. I didn’t plan to take something so big but in the end I went with fate. We set up at the lake after the storm, filming the obligatory ‘walking in’ shot. The big canvas made me slow my practice down and I enjoyed a different pace of work from usual.”

The show is hosted by Stephen Mangan, both competitions are judged by award-winning artist Tai Shan Schierenberg, independent curator Kathleen Soriano, and art historian Kate Bryan. Speaking of the judging panel she said although she wasn’t interviewed “the judges were so friendly and all of them said hello and looked at our work. It was a lovely day, quite a long day but so enjoyable.”

Jo has been able to secure a number of other creative opportunities following her appearance as a wild card artist, opening her first solo show ‘Rotation’ at Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery earlier this year. You can watch the Series on Wednesdays at 8pm Sky Arts Channel 9 (36 on Freeview), Jo’s heat in Kent is episode 3.

If you are interested in studying fine art at degree level we offer a fantastic degree programme which you can find out more about here.