I wanted to push that Spider-Man drawing down the list and it's still another five days to the weekend, so I thought I'd do something different and highlight my favourite two paintings by other wildcards from my day at Landscape Artist of the year.
First, though, here's what the judges picked as their winning wildcard entry. It was by Louise Gillard. There's lots of moaning on Facebook about the judges on LAOTY and how they like to pick out paintings with unique takes on scenes rather than straightforward paintings that try to reproduce what's in front of the artist. Those people must have been looking the other way when the wildcard winner was announced because this is the sort of painting that they seem to be clamouring for. Obviously it's a good painting but I have more eclectic tastes. Let's look at my two favourites.
This is Anna Gannon and her drawing was made using only colour pencils. Look at those colours, those gradations and the shapes of the bits of overhanging tree! An amazing piece of work! Anna did this sitting on a picnic blanket not far away from me working at a camping table - we were the only two wildcards on the day without easels.
But this was my favourite on the day. It's by Faye Bridgwater, a professional artist (yes - I was up against professionals!). It's 140 separate little vignettes of scenes around Chartwell. An absolutely bonkers and unique idea. I had a chat with Faye on one of my walkabouts and she was staring at those 150 squares trying to spot any that she'd not drawn in. I think I found three or four. I think Faye's eyesight was trashed by then after staring at this work for four hours.
These works are inspiring and make me want more than ever to compete again and come up with a better piece of artwork last year.
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