My plein air process is usually quite private and instinctive. I don’t paint right next to footpaths - I prefer not to engage with people while I work - and I tend to go off the beaten track. I usually work around A4 scale, making quick sketches, and I’m drawn to natural landscapes for the sense of freedom they offer.

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Cut to Landscape Artist of the Year...

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I was confronted with a cityscape - London - with every move watched and, naturally, lots of interruptions. I decided to go large: 24 × 36 inches, roughly nine times bigger than I normally work when painting outdoors. I do like to take risks! To make things even more interesting, we were painting aboard HMS Wellington (albeit moored on the Thames) on a windy day, with plenty of passing river traffic to keep everything gently swaying.

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I normally enjoy a challenge. My documentary directing work has put me in some fairly gnarly situations - raiding armed illegal logging operations with Brazilian military police, wading through croc-infested rivers, walking through lion territory with camera equipment on my back - but I can honestly say I have never felt as nervous as I was for this. And I knew I wasn’t at risk of being mauled!

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Everything in me might have wanted to push the opportunity away. But as artists, this kind of exposure - good or bad - is hard to say no to.

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I don’t usually paint cityscapes, so I approached it through the lens that feels most natural to me. Early that day, the city felt small and insubstantial beside the weight of the sky and the movement of the river, so I allowed the painting to reflect that imbalance, emphasising mood over description, and nature over architecture. 

 

​(I've just received the first batch of beautiful giclee prints to send out after the first print run, there are still some limited edition prints left).

 

Speaking to judges Eva and Kathleen on camera was genuinely reassuring - both calm, generous and knowledgeable, exactly the energy you need in that situation. It was fascinating to hear back what they said about my work during their deliberations:

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Kathleen “Nicola’s taken us to a very romantic, very moody part of London. I like the near abstraction, I love the balance in the palette, that lovely band of green that shoots across”

Eva: “This painting is full of drama and darkness and it sweeps you off your feet. The brushstroke work is really incredible”

Kathleen “I really love Nicola’s brushwork, I think there’s a lovely abstraction to her painting and it’s quite nice to see her just suggesting the presence of the buildings rather than actually defining them”

And on my submission piece:
Tai “Her submission was very rich and organic”

Eva “There’s a strangeness to it”

Shortlist deliberations:
Stephen “So much atmosphere in both those paintings when you put them side by side”

Eva “I think there’s a strangeness to Nicola’s work that really carries through - the submission feels very strange and really quite hard to read and I think there’s similar mechanisms today in her work whereby you feel that it’s London but it’s also not London at the same time. It’s another place and it’s a place of dreams…or nightmares…I’m not quite sure.”

Kathleen “‘Maybe it’s more about storytelling, maybe we’re used to narrative painting being slightly smaller, slightly more intimate this is storytelling on a much grander scale and she’s looking for meaning and mood and drama.”

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It was a real buzz to reach the shortlist alongside Tom Winter and Libby Walker - a very deserving winner. Tom later was told he was going to the semis too - and both have now made it into the finals!  It must've been exhausting for them and cannot wait for the final next week!​

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Above is the piece I produced on the day - I'd love to know your thoughts! 

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