Taking my easel outdoors — Landscape Artist of the Year

For someone who spends most of his time inventing elaborate buildings, imaginary cities and slightly dysfunctional institutions in the relative comfort of a studio, painting directly from the landscape is something of a departure.

A rush of blood to the head, combined with an unexpected phone call from the producers of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year asking whether I might consider applying, led me to enter the competition. Quite what possessed me, I’m still not entirely sure.

I wasn’t selected. Or at least, not initially.

Then, at the last minute, I received another call asking whether I would be willing to act as a reserve contestant for the London heats. This meant being ready to step in should one of the selected artists fall ill, fail to turn up or otherwise become unavailable. Naturally, I said yes.

There were two heats in London, one in St James’s Park near Buckingham Palace and the other aboard HMS Wellington, moored on the Embankment. Both required me to turn up at the crack of dawn, fully equipped with easels, palettes, paints and all the other paraphernalia that oil painters seem incapable of travelling without.

The first involved lugging everything across London on the Tube to St James’s Park, waiting around hopefully, and eventually being told that everyone had turned up and I wouldn’t be needed. So it was back on the Tube with the entire travelling circus.

Two days later, I repeated the exercise, this time heading for HMS Wellington. Things initially looked rather more promising, but once again all the selected contestants arrived, apparently in excellent health. My brief career as a potential television painting contestant was over before it had begun.

However, I was offered a place among the wildcard painters on the lower deck, which turned out to be rather good fun. On what felt like the hottest day of the year, I spent a very enjoyable few hours getting to know my fellow wildcard artists, including the lovely Olivia and her daughter, while attempting to paint a view towards the Southbank Centre.

Unfortunately, the painting was something of a disaster. I managed to get oil paint everywhere, struggled with the heat and made a complete hash of the view. Not exactly the triumphant television debut I had imagined.

The irony was that I’d spent weeks back in Edinburgh practising plein air painting, trying to improve my speed, observation and ability to make decisions under pressure. All that preparation, only to spend most of my time on the London Underground or waiting to see whether somebody else might fail to appear.

Still, I had a wonderful time, met some lovely people and came away with a renewed appreciation of just how difficult painting directly from the landscape can be. It also encouraged me to continue making occasional excursions outdoors with my paints, even if I’m not quite ready to abandon my imaginary architecture for the real thing.

And at least I can say I nearly appeared on Landscape Artist of the Year. Twice.

See some of my plein air paintings from 2025–26