Exploring Snowdonia – Landscape Artist of the Year – S06 EP09 – Art Documentary

Join landscape artist Ophelia Redpath as she embarks on her prize commission for the National Trust, capturing the breathtaking beauty of Snowdonia, the first land donation. Follow her journey as she explores the rugged landscapes, battles the elements, and wrestles with the challenge of translating the sublime onto canvas.

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Artists from across the nation, both seasoned and novice, converge on iconic locations to capture their essence on canvas. Amidst the backdrop of wildlife, historic edifices, and landmarks, they race against time, vying for the approval of discerning judges. While episode winners progress to subsequent rounds, up to 50 wildcard artists per location also hope to dazzle the judges. Their aim? A coveted spot in the grand final and the title of Landscape Artist of the Year.

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[Music] hello and welcome to a very special  occasion the winner of landscape artist of   the year Ophelia redpath has completed her prize  commission for the National Trust and gathered   here full of excitement and anticipation  we’re about to see the finished artwork for  

The very first time we’re ready let’s hope it’s a  Triumph this year out of the thousands of artists   who applied to take part in the competition  just 36 were selected [Music] thank you their   task capturing on canvas some of the UK’s most  spectacular Landscapes and throughout one artist  

Outshone all others and the judges have decided  this year’s landscape artist of the year is   Ophelia redpath winning is wonderful you know  I’m I’m thrilled it’ll take a while to sink in prize is a ten thousand pound commission to  create a work of art to celebrate the 125th  

Anniversary of Dennis Olay the first piece  of land ever donated to the National Trust and so Ophelia sets off for Wales to immerse   herself in the stunning Countryside of  snowdonia and the Glorious Welsh Coast a wild scenery that has  inspired artists for Generations   absolutely amazing it’s like  something on a different planet

Athelia’s challenge is to produce a commission  that is true to the landscape it depicts whilst   reflecting the founding principles of the National  Trust I’ve got my work cut out for me [Music] I think there’s obviously magic in snowdonia  and if anyone’s going to find it and draw it  

Out and make it to stick to their own it’s  Ophelia this commission will put her artistic   talent to the test I’m not panicking but I’m  confused in terms of getting a painting done   that makes sense Ophelia has four weeks before  the formal unveiling of her painting I do hope  

It’s good enough because I’m going  to put everything that I can into it   the unveiling of the prize commission  here we go [Music] thank you landscape artists of the year are never ever  thought that that would happen at all so it’s a  

Lovely title to have really lovely and I’m just  slowly taking it all in yeah Ophelia redpath   gained a place in this year’s competition with her  Whimsical dreamlike oil painting the night owls has the real take on London’s West Reservoir in  Stoke Newington one of philia her heat the way  

That she puts paint down the way that she conjures  an atmosphere I love the addition of the Heron and   the clock they’re really really useful components  in a painting to take us to somewhere slightly   different to today it’s so Newington but very  much kind of athelia’s story of stoke Newington

At the semi-final at London’s Olympic  Park Ophelia took a gamble that paid off   I thought should I try a big canvas and I  thought okay I’ll go for it and I think that   made it a lot more yeah I just felt under  much much more pressure to cover it [Music]  

And the other challenge was that  there was a big storm in the middle flooding in so that was challenging  and I thought well I’ve still got to   keep painting as well as painting the  dog and I was painting everything else   that I saw and there was kind  of drips coming down the canvas

I feel it creates this otherworldly  surreal stories but that is not what   they are actually about her paintings  about much something much more important   man nature us encroaching onto nature  and this kind of despoiling of nature  

As one of three finalists Ophelia was commissioned  to create an artwork of the Japanese Gardens at Q this would be judged alongside  the painting she made at the   final where she reimagined the London  landscape to create an evocative story felia’s quirky magical surrealism and  extraordinary technique one had the  

Title landscape artist of the year only one  of you can be crowned as this year’s winner   when we were waiting for the judges to  announce the winner I was aware of the   fact that it takes a long time to actually say  who the winner is and the judges have decided  

This year’s landscape artist of the  year is I was trying to kind of work   out whether he had an o in his mouth or  not so I was kind of studying his face Ophelia redpath then I found  out it was lovely [Applause]

I think Ophelia Paints in code and I’m just  fascinated by this sort of Fantastical code   that she gives us and I just want to be  transported into this weird and wonderful   world but she gives us really a feeling is our  winner because she intrigues us you know she  

Paints in this way that feels entirely  her own she’s borrowing strains and all   motives from art history but also doing  something a bit peculiar and and really   accomplished and peculiar that’s a kind  of winning combination I’m one of these   painters who does everything very slowly quite  meticulously the whole competition has taken  

Me out of some sort of comfort zone that I  was living in for a very long time foreign ER for more than 30 years music has always  been a huge influence in her work [Music]   always really like jazz in the past I used to do pictures of people  usually quite colorful and vibrant and for me  

They kind of felt slightly Jazzy in a way so I  couldn’t think of anything to call myself so I   thought well why not call myself a jazz artist  [Music] thank you jazz is about improvisation  

And I suppose kind of Art in some sort of way can  be an improvisation as well quite often when I’m   approaching art I kind of map it out very kind  of concretely to start with but then once you’ve  

Got that concrete element settled down on the  canvas then you can start playing with it and   I think behind Jazz there’s always that feeling  that you’re not just copying something thank you   recently Ophelia’s Focus has shifted to creating  Landscapes with a strong sense of narrative

I’d just like to do a little snapshot of something  in front of me which is either joyful or has some   sort of immediate atmosphere it’s like setting a  stage and you do not know who’s going to arrive  

On the stage and then someone pops up you know  and lands in your picture and you think what   are they doing there it’s almost like they’ve  got a character of their own Ophelia’s highly   individual style was honed from an early age  learning from her artist grandparents both  

Members of the Royal Academy for me these are  inspiring because you can never stop looking   at them and wondering how they did things  how they caught the light in a certain way   my grandmother she was a very very inspired  person she saw a lovely sky she’d want to  

Paint it she loved flowers she loves people’s  faces she loved everything as far as I can see   when I was very young she used to paint and I  used to watch her painting and she used to to take  

Me off to museums and say choose something and  draw it and then come back and show me over the   years Ophelia has developed her own unique style  painting oils she likes to create a world where   the boundaries between reality and Imagination  are blurred I love to observe I like to see things  

Around me I like to not only observe things  as they are but I like to observe the effect   that they perhaps have on me or the certain  type of atmosphere that they give off [Music]   what’s particularly interesting and  what’s particularly motivating me now  

Is the kind of dilemmas that wildlife and  Landscapes are facing and how human beings   relate to our natural environments this  fascination with the natural world and her   place within it will be crucial to Ophelia in  the weeks ahead as she embarks upon her prize  

Commission for the National Trust [Music] to  fully understand the landscape she will have   to paint Ophelia is getting ready to explore the  place where it all began snowdonia sketch pads oh charcoal for drawing pencils tracing paper here I’m so excited  so excited it’s another adventure  

I’m just really curious to know what  we’re going to be doing probably feel   nervous on the day that I get confronted  with it but I’m not feeling nervous now [Music]   to find out the details of her brief  Ophelia’s first stop is Penryn Castle  

In snowdonia where she’s meeting the head of  National Trust Wales Justin Albert [Music] so Ophelia yes we want to commission you to paint  a picture of Dennis olai this gorgeous small bit   of four and a half acres of land above the the  fishing Village of barmouth a little place Left  

To Us by Fanny of Tolbert she was a philanthropist  she gave things away she cared about making things   accessible about looking after beautiful  places but letting progress get in the way   of quiet in 1895 a small group of social reformers  concerned by the urban working-class populations  

Lack of access to clean air and blue sky founded a  society to preserve and protect places of historic   interest or natural beauty for everyone to enjoy  not just the privileged few and so the idea of   the National Trust was born this Vision was only  brought to life when Fanny Talbot a widow living  

In North Wales bequeathed them her small plot of  land a rocky outcrop on the west Welsh Coast it   was this extraordinary Act of philanthropy that  started Europe’s largest conservation charity   the idea is that we could have this piece of  land and we now have thousands of acres of  

Land around Britain so everyone should look at  that and appreciate the beauty I’ve always been   interested in the difference between hard-working  life and the hard-working communities and nature   which is you know always there and something that  we should conserve and especially in this day and  

Age where people want to get away from the grind  and they want to see something that reminds them   that you know the planet still exists now I  feel one of the Essences of this commission   which I love to see is that melding of people and  Landscape to combine them both together is the  

Essence of what the trust is about oh that well  that’s just people and landscape and Beauty I’m   just looking forward to I just want to see  it now my appetite has been wetted [Music]   sitting above the small fishing Village of  barmouth on the malthak Estuary dinasole  

Is where it all began for the National Trust   and about to be the inspirational starting  point for Ophelia’s prize Commission [Music] well this is an amazing view  completely breathtaking so big this was really worth the climb it’s huge 180  degree view well the fact that I’m going to paint  

This you have to decide which elements you’re  going to paint I got my work cut out for me [Music] thank you landscape artist of  the year winner Ophelia redpath is on   the west coast of Wales preparing for  her commission for the National Trust to  

Create an artwork that celebrates their  first land donation dinas Olay [Music]   it’s a really really big big scene and so many  different ways of tackling it so I’m kind of going   into the details but at the same time I’m kind  of sitting back and seeing well actually there’s  

Hills and the mountains in the distance and  the distance you want to convey by doing it   slightly lighter so that things in the foreground  stick out I’m kind of focusing on some houses the   shoreline houses and at some stage I’ll be doing  a few little tiny dots which are the people and  

The boats you know a few lines with a pencil is  not going to do this scene any justice whatsoever I’ve never done sand dunes before they’re quite   difficult I’ve got to try and kind  of get the pattern from from up here although she usually Paints in  oils today Ophelia’s chosen to  

Use an unfamiliar medium ink [Music] so oh my God it dries literally as soon as  I put my so that’s beautiful this color oh   nice it’s done something really nice there  it’s really quite tricky tricky so at the  

Moment I’m feeling quite overwhelmed it’s really  tricky to get a flavor of this and I feel very   inadequate painting in inks here at least I’ve got  a something that’s going to jog my memory foreign hugely at the moment about 10 minutes ago  you know the sun was catching everything  

And now the sun is catching nothing  at all so it looks as if I’ll call   it a day for today I’m just trying to  get a few Finishing Touches of the last   little glimmers of light but yes I think that  we’ve come to the end of end of today [Music]

The following morning brings a change of scene  and a change of weather Ophelia is exploring   the seaside town of barmouth with its vast sandy  beaches and rusting hulks directly below dinas Ole [Music]   I love these boats I’m sure they  will inspire the picture as well  

So different in color that one’s  obviously had all the color rubbed off it so these are wonderful [Music]   the opportunity to investigate every perspective  of this multi-faceted landscape is irresistible   you ready it hasn’t been on a boat yes three  blasts going to stern [Music]   Fortress of light  

So the Fortress of light that’s a nice nice name  it’s the hill just behind the old buildings here   at the old part of barmouth yeah the locals  call it the rock or little Gibraltar [Music]   thank you very much had a lovely time

Poetically named Dennis Olay or Citadel of  light the remains of this Iron Age enclosure   provide the perfect vantage point to take in the  stunning View and the Moody Welsh weather [Music] well it’s suddenly been inundated by a flood  it’s quite interesting just to see what you  

Can get with ink and loads of water and I  don’t know how to put the water on myself   it’s coming down in in buckets  at the moment as lovely   effect that’s the blur of the storm coming over  the sea so if I just like put a little black on  

Here see what it does it’s it’s actually  very descriptive of what’s Happening Now   which is the water coming right over  the sea this is the Horizon it’s just   completely dark blurred you can’t see the  Horizon at all now I’m gonna tip it off now  

It’s just amazing what paint effects you can  actually get by actually putting stuff onto water [Music]   to prevent the day being a washout  Ophelia takes the opportunity for   further exploration of the landscape [Music]   we came up around this lovely winding path  and next to the path is so many gorgeous trees  

And Ferns and different types of I think it’s  Heather so you get white Heather pink Heather   purple heather it’s like the Chelsea flower  show and then you look further down and   there’s this lovely little Woody path that  gets into a very kind of cozy shaded area so  

That’s what I’m trying to record now just  kind of getting the outlines of the trees   and some of the leaves and then the little  shady nooks and crannies behind the trees thank you yeah I feel very torn at the moment  because we’ve just seen the town which is  

Absolutely lovely so for me it’s the difference  between a man-made structures and the natural   structures and I’m not sure if they’ll join  each other into one painting or I might even   be tempted to do two pictures I’m just going to  wait and just gather information at this point  

I think my fear is being  spoiled for choice [Music]   winner of landscape artist of the year  Ophelia redpath is in Wales researching   her commission to paint DNS Olay  the first land donation to The   National Trust a place that has inspired  landscape artists for Generations [Music]  

Started back in the when Welsh artist  Richard Wilson returned from traveling   in Italy and applied European painting Styles  and techniques to the dramatic Welsh landscape to find out more Ophelia is meeting artist  of the year judge Kathleen Soriano [Music]  

The father of British landscape painting actually  was a Welshman who was born not too far from here   and his name is Richard Wilson and this is one  of his very well-known views of a lake up near  

Cataridris and you can see that he was really  sort of getting the full drama of this sort   of rugged landscape here in Wales before that  people thought this landscape wasn’t remotely   interesting and he sort of elevated it this is  really interesting seeing a landscape which has  

Only got very small figures in and a little bit  of um livestock here but the rest of it is just   dominated by huge Crags and mountains and rocks  everywhere so it’s it’s lovely well you’ve picked   up on all the all the important things actually  brilliantly the small figures yeah that was a  

Reference really to the notion of the sublime  at that time a lot of the artists were dealing   with the sort of enormity the drama of landscape  and you know Wilson was very much about landscape   not just being about the mountain that you saw  but it was also about conveying mood and meaning  

First coined in the 18th century the term the  sublime refers to works of art that convey the   power and spirit of Landscapes and a man’s  place within them Wilson’s Sublime style led   to his becoming one of the founding members of  the Royal Academy sadly despite inspiring the  

More famous constable and Turner his reputation  faded amid poor health and dwindling finances   after this was painted hundreds of artists  actually traveled out into the landscape to   paint from exactly the position to try and find  the position that Wilson was painting from was  

This painted out in the open pretty much out in  the open yeah and also it was very much about   being truthful to what nature presented although  he did play around with it a little bit it’s not   unlike what you try to do really in a sense  that storytelling that you always bring into  

Your landscape so I’m hoping that he will inspire  you I am inspired already I am inspired already [Music]   Idris the spectacular Mountain  painted by Richard Wilson is   now a nature reserve managed  by national resources Wales Richard Wilson’s work it’s obviously in the  old style he’s really captured an atmosphere  

Here and uh it’s very similar to the the  atmosphere that’s around us at the moment it’s a lovely feeling knowing that other  artists actually kind of came up these   Pathways and looked at the views and I  mean it really does feel huge this place  

And it feels very you know so far away  from civilization in the sense [Music]   Bridge Ophelia is met by the Wild open  terrain and the rugged beauty of the mountain   it’s an opportunity to try her own hand at  capturing the sublime in this dramatic landscape  

I’m trying to get a sense of the scale as long as it was possible like trying to  observe the little rocks and the tiny bushes   and everything so it makes the mountain look  bigger I have no idea if I’m achieving this  

Or not I think it’ll probably take quite a long  time to know if you know the sketch is going okay foreign concerned that’s kind of the easier job really  because I’m just basically trying to get the  

Colors that are in front of me which are kind  of a slate gray because obviously the snakes   come from the mountains itself so there’s  loads of slate there and the kind of dark   rustity brownie at vegetation so that’s  the simple part of it the most difficult  

Part is actually to try and get the texture  and the structure of the mountain [Music] [Music] I feel as if I’m fighting a losing battle   at the moment imagine is always  beautiful but this picture is not

You know I’ve lost the capacity to think in  terms of the kind of macro and the micro you   know the larger the smaller scale there’s  just I’m finding it impossible to to kind   of get the impression down onto his paper  [Music] the light is changing all the time  

So one moment the sky will be dark in comparison  to the light the mountain which is caught by Sun   just at the top and then the next moment  there’s a massive Cloud that literally   is appearing just now and right at the top of  the mountain turning the mountain into a black  

Mountain and then the background is white  so um it it’s uh yeah it’s a real challenge right it’s gonna stop back up now [Music] in this rugged landscape reaching the viewpoints   Richard Wilson painted is no easier in  the 21st century than it was in his day

Chasing the sublime is proving to be both  an artistic and physical challenge [Music]   it’s quite cold very windy tired can’t wait  to get to the top hope there’s someone else   up at the top selling Cups of Tea is so  high up I think we’re pretty much on the  

Cloud line as well so um we’re going to  have our heads in the clouds very soon I so look forward to getting to the top [Music] yay that’s fantastic got here [Music] absolutely amazing it’s it’s like something  on a different planet very very dark Lake  

In a massive bowl of mountains um so  lovely yeah well worth the climb [Music] at the moment we can’t see half the mountain  because it’s covered in cloud and he’s got   this amazing high peak I’m trying to imagine  this really high peak just above the lake it’s  

Lovely to be here in exactly the same spot and to  see all the little Crags that he painted [Music]   amazing [Music] cada Idris is aimed  after the mythical Welsh barred Idris   Legend holds that those who sleep a night on  the mountain will wake either a poet or Madman

Wary of pushing her luck Ophelia heads back down [Music] I’m amazed we’re still alive I  haven’t done anything this physically   tough for a long long time so um so it’ll be  you know I have to look after my knees now  

And we actually did get up to that point Didn’t  we or round about there which is amazing really   as struck by the awesome beauty of Kata Idris  as she is by Dennis Olay Ophelia has collected   a wealth of ideas and possibilities that will  inspire her Commission a lot of people who like  

Being creative actually don’t mind confusion  very much I think it’s quite a nice thing to go   through because it means that um you’ve got a lot  of stuff coming in and you’ve got to let it just  

Percolate a little bit I’m not panicking but I’m  confused so this is in terms of you know getting a   painting done that makes sense and is certainly  not formed in my head at the moment foreign by the sublime style of 18th century  local artist and the father of British  

Landscape painting Richard Wilson winner of  landscape artist of the year Ophelia redpath   is in snowdonia gathering material for her  prize Commission [Music] used to be pretty were so it’s nice to be sitting in  the same spot we’re just looking   at the lake at the moment with I  think it snowed in the background

So many different colors in the mountain  struggling to get things on because the paint   dries very quickly so they’re just dealing  with the challenge at the moment [Music]   to try and get the boats in actually I’m not used to this type of painting I’m not  a watercolor painter and I think I’ve decided  

To in this picture take it literally by using  loads and loads of water so at one point the   water as soon as I put the water onto the  paper it was drying so quickly that I have   no idea how watercolor painters do it so I’m  full of admiration for them [Music] foreign I struggled with the mountains because  as ever there’s so many details to put   in and I’m undecided as to whether  to put lots of details on or just to   give a little impression of it so for  me it’s a kind of mixed painting some  

Bits obviously I’ve learned from and other  bits I would have definitely do differently Timeless landscape surrounding  Ophelia has remained largely unpreserving our National Heritage  was one of the founding principles   of the National Trust and remains an  idea more relevant today than ever

One of their Flagship projects Islan Farm  where the land is managed in a way that   benefits nature and 21st century technology has  been harnessed to safeguard the area’s future   foreign this is an environmentally sustainable  Farm I was just wondering if you could tell me  

More about it and the ethos behind it so above us  above the waterfall there there’s a small intake   that takes a small percentage of the water  out it flows down a pipe to the farm itself   it makes something bigger metal go round and  round very quickly and that makes electricity  

Completely renewable electricity the farm is so  much more than just the hydro itself so it also   makes energy from sunlight it also supplies  heat through biomass and heat pumps so it’s   an encapsulation it’s a demonstration of what  you can do in quite fragile special places so  

We’re demonstrating that you can do something yeah  everywhere yeah so as far as the power from the   water is concerned could you give us an idea of  how much power that can actually give you in terms   of electricity it’s enough power for hundreds  of houses that’s wonderful [Music] foreign

I had a wonderful conversation with Keith I  could have shattered to him all day because   I happen to be very interested in  sustainability and not only that   but in Wildlife quite often I do do paintings  which relate to what’s happening to the planet  

Um so I’d quite like to put something  referencing sustainability into a picture   as far as the commission’s concerned I’ve just got  another layer of confusion to go through [Music] yeah in her state of creative confusion Ophelia  pays One Last Visit to the site of her Commission   dinos Olay [Music]  

So I’ve got a lot of information now matters  and matters of different viewpoints of   different places around this area I’m back on  a completely different day with a completely   different light and actually it’s interesting  the clouds are casting Shadows over the sea  

You know always when I’ve got information overload  which is like what I’ve got at the moment I kind   of trust in the process of just letting it  simmer for a bit and just seeing what emerges so   um I don’t know what I’m going to paint  at all I’ve been incredibly inspired by  

The whole visit so I just have to  just wait and see what materializes back at home Ophelia is in her Studio  planning her prize painting [Music]   I tend to get quite overwhelmed and that’s  why I’m not naturally a Plein Air painter

When I go somewhere I feel like an owl I want my  head to swivel right 360 degrees but um the nice   thing about working in the studio is that you can  filter a little bit and you can work out some of  

The things that actually maybe I’m not going to  include that I’m not going to include that with   such a wealth of inspirational images from her  trip Ophelia’s collated her favorite photographs   into a book there’s so many different Cloud  effects different Landscapes different plants  

Types of Heather you’ve got sunny days rainy days  sunsets details on the houses in the village below   you’ve got the prevailing wind you can see the  trees leaning upwards and bent over over the   hill because obviously the wind’s coming in from  the coast so this is going to be a gold dust for  

Me this this little booklet I think now finally  Ophelia is ready to put paint onto canvas [Music]   I was kind of toying between doing the town  and making it much more Rural and the kind   of primeval levels are kind of primeval  feeling about the landscape around it and  

So I’ve put the town into the background  you can see hints of it but I was I was   so stunned by the vegetation and the landscape  that I thought well I’ll Focus mainly on that   so I’m going to use quite thin paint to  start with to kind of get a feel for the  

Place and then gradually layer by layer I’ll just  increase the layers and increase the intensity of   the colors and the Shadows [Music] it’ll go  from being quite a kind of pale insipid thing   to kind of gradually adding more color until  at the end I hope it’s quite rich in color

I’ve always felt very very comfortable knowing  that there’s a thriving natural world around   and so that’s what I’m wanting  to capture in this picture here   I’m kind of wanting to incorporate Humanity  within the larger landscape [Music]   the path to artistic success rarely runs  smoothly and although a failure is halfway  

Through her four-week commission  she still has many decisions to make   initially I was very confused trying to distill  it all but now I’m less confused but I am finding   areas in the picture where I’m not quite sure  what’s going to happen in terms of the layouts  

DNS alive still is the central place I’m  bringing in different elements from where   I was and I hope that the people from DNS alive  forgive me for adding more to their to their View I’d really like to put some sort of creature so  I’ll be doing my research on animals around this  

Area quite often when I put an animal or a figure  in a picture I do leave it until last because I   like to kind of get set the stage first it’s such  a privilege to do a picture of the National Trust  

Anyway my Prime feeling is I do hope it’s good  enough because I’m going to put everything that I   can into it because for me landscape painting and  the Wilderness is something that I love thank you after weeks of work Ophelia’s returned to  Wales with her daughter Sally to reveal her  

Finished painting to the National Trust this is  seriously the biggest moment of my artistic career   I I kind of quite get my head around it  it’s always a little bit daunting when   you’ve done a commission you have no idea  what anyone’s going to think of it [Music]  

Among those attending the unveiling is the  National Trust commissioner Justin Albert   I’m so excited I’ve been thinking about it  for weeks what’s Earth’s going to be there   and Mr part of the world I know so well it’s a  view I know so well conversation I had was how  

Are you going to translate that onto canvas has  Ophelia turned something into a masterpiece it is   also Keen to see what Ophelia has created are the  landscape artists of the Year judges we really   want to see what Ophelia’s done she genuinely  puts storytelling and narrative first in her  

Paintings yes they feel like they represent a  particular landscape but it’s always through the   prism of Ophelia’s imagination there’s always  something unexpected there’s always something   which is a new introduction we can only see it  as Ophelia’s landscape that’s really exciting  

For us and it kind of reinvigorates what a  landscape can be I really want to convey the   feelings that I had when I was up in the hills  up there because it really was a special place  

To be and if I feel that I can convey to other  people then you know I’ll feel pleased about that   welcome everybody to this very auspicious occasion  the unveiling of the prize commission by Ophelia   redpath Ophelia what was it like going out to  do that painting in the countryside oh it’s  

A wonderful experience it was the most  beautiful spot you can imagine how are   you feeling you’re right I’m fine it’s  like fidgetery but there we go I’m very   excited for you and as well for the National  Trust it’s a great moment well let’s not put  

It off any longer I feel you you helped me out  here yes here we go [Music] [Applause] [Music] congratulations that’s just wonderful what a  wonderful spot it is you’re quite right it’s   just glorious First Impressions Justin I think  it’s absolutely beautiful and you’ve done it  

Proud you really have Ophelia you’ve done it  proud it’s gorgeous it’s a Triumph for you to   have won that competition which of course we  all enjoy and we enjoy your your Triumph in   painting this portrait thank you very much  for what you’re feeling thank you so much thank you

It’s got this incredible Timeless quality to it  it could be something from the 1930s or even 125   years ago when the land was first gifted I think  magical is that word it means if it’s magical then  

It’s Ophelia I mean that’s why we wanted her to  be her winner she gave us these Landscapes but she   just took us to that extra particular peculiar  enigmatic magical place and I think she’s just   absolutely delivered that here we are very high  up and I wonder whether we are in a sense floating  

With the bird and being invited and then you  get that swoop down setting us up so high that   we’re given this access down through that swooping  value I think that’s astonishing Ophelia’s really   delivered she’s really delivered for us and for  the National Trust [Music] I think this experience  

Has been quite life-changing for me it’s such a  nice thing to feel that the judges love the piece   there’s so much to discover visually  I mean it’s just it’s a joy it’s just   fabulous really now that absolutely gorgeous  you see that’s barmouth that’s a view from  

Dealer solo but it’s also a fantasy version  of it the colors the warmth so it’s real and   it’s not real and it’s a whole story there and  the more you look at it the more you see in it  

I feel in mixed feelings about the end of this  journey because you know it feels like a bit   of a beginning it’s helped consolidate the type  of thing that I want to be doing which is at the   moment working on pictures about wildlife and the  environment and the natural world they all happen  

Because you know I decided yes I will take part  in this competition it’s so funny how you know one   little moment you make a decision can can do all  sorts of things to change things for you [Music] thank you foreign