Landscape Artist of the Year returns to Sky for its 11th series on January 14. Hosted once again by Stephen Mangan, Sky Arts’ long-running competition, mixes artistic endeavour with leisurely location-hopping, as a fresh cohort of painters attempt to capture some of Britain’s most recognisable vistas.
This year also brings a new face to the judging panel: Eva Langret, Director of Frieze London, joins returning judges Tai Shan Schierenberg and Kathleen Soriano.
The series opens out across a thoughtfully chosen itinerary that feels as much like a slow-travel wish list as a painting challenge…
As ever, the real stars are the locations. The series opens out across a thoughtfully chosen itinerary that feels as much like a slow-travel wish list as a painting challenge.
Dover Castle provides a suitably dramatic starting point, its chalk cliffs and commanding views across the Channel offering artists a lesson in scale and atmosphere. Just down the road, Dover Ferry Port delivers a more industrial coastal scene, where ships, water and movement create a very different kind of seaside subject.
Further north, the Lake District supplies its familiar combination of soft light, layered hills and reflective waters, territory that has tempted painters for centuries, though rarely with a stopwatch ticking. In London, the show takes a varied approach: artists sketch the Thames from aboard HMS Wellington, offering a river-level view of the capital, before decamping to St James’s Park, where pelicans, plane trees and passing office workers lend a pastoral calm to the city centre.
Elsewhere, the Ouse Valley Viaduct in West Sussex brings Victorian engineering into the frame, its sweeping arches cutting across open countryside. In Scotland, the Falkirk Wheel offers something altogether more modern, a feat of design that challenges artists to reconcile function with form.
Each episode sees eight selected artists and up to 50 wildcard entrants working side by side, hoping their interpretation catches the judges’ attention. Heat winners progress through to the semi-final and final, with the eventual prize being a £10,000 commission to paint Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, Ireland’s holy mountain and a fittingly dramatic destination for the 2026 title holder.
Landscape Artist of the Year airs weekly on Sky Arts, Freeview Channel 36 and streaming service NOW from January 14.
British Airways is giving its long-haul cabins a substantial makeover, with new seats, bedding, dining and interiors arriving across its A380 fleet. Sean Doyle, Chairman and CEO at British Airways, says the upgrades mark “one of the most significant transformations we’ve ever undertaken on any aircraft. This is a major milestone for British Airways and…
Belle Brise returns to the Monaco Yacht Show this week after a comprehensive rebuild that has transformed the 48‑metre Perini Navi. Originally launched in 1993, the yacht has spent more than three decades at sea, emerging earlier this year from an extensive restoration at Lusben in Livorno. The scale of the restoration project makes Belle…
The UK’s smallest pub is packing its bags for Japan, with The Nutshell from Bury St Edmunds being recreated inside an Osaka department store this October. For two weeks, a little piece of Suffolk will be making an unlikely appearance in Japan. The Nutshell, widely recognised as the UK’s smallest pub, is being recreated inside…
Landscape Artist of the Year returns to Sky for its 11th series on January 14. Hosted once again by Stephen Mangan, Sky Arts’ long-running competition, mixes artistic endeavour with leisurely location-hopping, as a fresh cohort of painters attempt to capture some of Britain’s most recognisable vistas.
This year also brings a new face to the judging panel: Eva Langret, Director of Frieze London, joins returning judges Tai Shan Schierenberg and Kathleen Soriano.
As ever, the real stars are the locations. The series opens out across a thoughtfully chosen itinerary that feels as much like a slow-travel wish list as a painting challenge.
Dover Castle provides a suitably dramatic starting point, its chalk cliffs and commanding views across the Channel offering artists a lesson in scale and atmosphere. Just down the road, Dover Ferry Port delivers a more industrial coastal scene, where ships, water and movement create a very different kind of seaside subject.
Further north, the Lake District supplies its familiar combination of soft light, layered hills and reflective waters, territory that has tempted painters for centuries, though rarely with a stopwatch ticking. In London, the show takes a varied approach: artists sketch the Thames from aboard HMS Wellington, offering a river-level view of the capital, before decamping to St James’s Park, where pelicans, plane trees and passing office workers lend a pastoral calm to the city centre.
Elsewhere, the Ouse Valley Viaduct in West Sussex brings Victorian engineering into the frame, its sweeping arches cutting across open countryside. In Scotland, the Falkirk Wheel offers something altogether more modern, a feat of design that challenges artists to reconcile function with form.
Each episode sees eight selected artists and up to 50 wildcard entrants working side by side, hoping their interpretation catches the judges’ attention. Heat winners progress through to the semi-final and final, with the eventual prize being a £10,000 commission to paint Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, Ireland’s holy mountain and a fittingly dramatic destination for the 2026 title holder.
Landscape Artist of the Year airs weekly on Sky Arts, Freeview Channel 36 and streaming service NOW from January 14.
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Why Belle Brise could be the most interesting yacht at the Monaco Yacht Show this year
Belle Brise returns to the Monaco Yacht Show this week after a comprehensive rebuild that has transformed the 48‑metre Perini Navi. Originally launched in 1993, the yacht has spent more than three decades at sea, emerging earlier this year from an extensive restoration at Lusben in Livorno. The scale of the restoration project makes Belle…
Why the UK’s smallest pub is being recreated inside a Japanese department store
The UK’s smallest pub is packing its bags for Japan, with The Nutshell from Bury St Edmunds being recreated inside an Osaka department store this October. For two weeks, a little piece of Suffolk will be making an unlikely appearance in Japan. The Nutshell, widely recognised as the UK’s smallest pub, is being recreated inside…
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