The Big Painting Challenge

S1.E1 · February 12, 2017

Mariella Frostrup and Rev Richard Coles host a competition in which amateur artists compete against one another. Each episode sees the contestants face two challenges, with a mentor to help guide the way, before a panel of judges scrutinise their work and send one of the artists home. In this episode the artists are taking on still life. The first challenge sees them facing a table laden with objects. The mentors, Diana Ali and Pascal Anson, demonstrate some handy tips. In the second challenge the artists have to tackle still life on a much larger scale. Half of them must tackle a set based on Vincent van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles painting, and the other half must interpret Roy Lichtenstein's Interior with Waterlilies. Wrestling with oil paint, sightlines and proportions, the artists set out to express their artistic personalities on canvas. At a private viewing the results are seen by members of the public, who can give their favourite artist an automatic pass through to the next round. Then it is up to the judges, Lachlan Goudie, Daphne Todd and Dr David Dibosa, to deliver their verdicts and decide which of them will be sent home.