Stockport girl and TV presenter Joan Bakewell is coming back to her home territory in May as she takes up the role of co-presenter on Sky Arts ‘Landscape Artist of the Year 2015’.
Sky Arts, in association with the National Trust, is searching the UK and Ireland for a talented artist to be named ‘Landscape Artist of the Year’, and will film three painting heats at National Trust properties this summer, one of which is Lyme Park.
Artists throughout the North West are being encouraged to take part in the competition, and Joan Bakewell comments: “It’s great to be coming back to Stockport and to be presenting what will no doubt be a very exciting heat in the competition. I thought of all our varied and much-loved English landscapes – and how they had inspired Turner, Constable and Gainsborough.
I jumped at the chance to present the series as it’s such a pleasure to meet gifted artists and watch how their work grows. We’re on the look out for outstanding talent, and I’m sure we’ll find it!”
To enter the competition you should send a photograph of one of your landscape paintings, two other artworks you have made, together with a passport photograph by Friday, 20 March at 12 noon. Anyone aged 16 or over is invited to apply.
Shortlisted artists will be invited to attend one of three series heats and will be challenged to produce a timed landscape painting. At the end of each heat, the judges will choose one artist to go through to the next round of the competition.
The winner will be awarded a £10,000 commission which will be added to the National Trust’s permanent art collection. In addition to
Lyme Park, other competition heats will be filmed at the National Trust’s Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire in April, and Trelissick inBCornwall in early May.
Cei Paynton, General Manager at Lyme Park said: “We’re delighted to be hosting a heat for Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2015. People
have a real emotional connection with landscape and it will be fascinating to see how the artists respond to the stunning landscape around Lyme
through their work”.
Joan Bakewell’s co-presenter on Sky Arts Landscape of the Year Competition will be Frank Skinner. The expert judges are
Tai Shan Schierenberg, Kathleen Soriano and Kate Bryan and the series will broadcast on Sky Arts later this year.
For information on how to enter the competition go to www.sky.com/landscape
