July 2026 Newsletter
Welcome to my July newsletter. It’s another big one! But there’s been a lot going on - Landscape Artist of the Year filming, getting ready for a Summer artwork sale, podcast and videos, and lots of painting!
Landscape Artist of The Year - Wildcard Winner!
At the end of a very hot and dusty day with my winning wildcard painting!
So here’s the big news - I was invited up to Port Talbot to take part as a wildcard in Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year series. And I won the wildcard competition! Although there wasn’t an official wildcard competition in this new series format, so I guess I am an ‘unofficial’ winner? I’m not sure how to phrase that on my instagram bio.
However, it was a really interesting and fun day. An early start (6:45am) to wait for the bus which took us down to the filming site - a bit of waste ground which overlooked what I think are the old blast furnaces at the Steelworks. I was hoping for a more industrial setting when I selected Port Talbot as my location. And I certainly got that! A good bit of disused waste ground, with dust blowing everywhere in the dry heat.
I’ve never seen anything being filmed before, so it was a bit surreal having to take part in group shots and filming. I didn’t realise just how many crew members it would take to film an episode - I think there must have been 50 people working on the day, as well as the wildcards, guests, judges and pod artists. We painted all day and I got to have a few great chats with Tai Shan-Schirenberg (one of the judges) who, at the end of the day, picked me as the wildcard winner! Unfortunately that bit wasn’t filmed because there isn’t a wildcard competition this year (in previous years, one wildcard winner would be selected for the semi-final stage). Create Cotton and Stephen Magnan went around and interviewed a couple of the other wildcards, but not me unfortunately. So I think I will likely just be in the background shots, painting away, when the episode airs sometime in February or March 2027. I can’t share anything about the pod artists but Port Talbot was the final heat location, so the group of 10 starting artists had been reduced down to 5 by this point.
The painting itself went really well - I’ll talk more about it in the ‘New Work’ section later in this newsletter.
Overall it was a great day. Hot, dusty and sweaty! And I really hope it stands me in good stead for applying next year. I had a chat with Tai at the end of the day, and cheekily asked if it would be ok to list myself as a wildcard winner and say that he asked me to apply - which he did do earlier in the day. So here’s hoping for being in the pods next time!
Interrupting judge and fantastic artist Tai Shan-Schirenberg from his ice cream.
Some lovely wasteground for filming!
Some of the other wildcards setting up early in the day.
Summer Sale
Once again my painting racks are getting full - so it’s time for a summer sale of artworks next month! As a newsletter subscriber, you will of course be getting advance access to the sale. I’ll send out a pdf of the artworks and prices next month, if you have any questions about any of the works, just email me at email reserved for newsletter subscribers. Of course, you are always welcome to come round and view them! I’ve renovated my painting space which makes it much nicer up there, and also you can view works downstairs too if you don’t fancy the loft staircase.
Open House Exhibition for Plymouth Art Weekender - 16th-18th October 2026
The Plymouth Art Weekender is finally back this year! Another world ago in 2015, I was deeply involved in setting up the first Art Weekender. It’s a chance for smaller visual arts practitioners to open their doors alongside larger venues, and be promoted in the same way across a three day festival all over Plymouth. I don’t have the full info on it yet as that is still being sorted I believe, but I plan to be running an exhibition of my work at my house, as well as perhaps some painting tuition for those who are interested. So more info to come on that in a later newsletter - just save the date (16-18th October).
Podcast and Videos
I am tentatively recording the Secret Lives of Pigments podcast and videos, which I will announce soon. but progress has been slow because of the sunny dry days, which means I have been out making hay while the sun shines and painting! Which leads me on to…
Filming a video on reduced colour palettes.
New Works
There are too many new works to go into my usual depth with them in this email, so you will just have to be content with some pictures and a short description of each for the minute. I’ll do my best to go through them in date order this past month (the landscape artist of the year piece is 4th on the list). I aim to include all the paintings here in the summer sale, so if there are any you’d like to ask questions about or see in person, just send me an email at joe@joemeldrumart.co.uk
Fishing Boats
The rain came in and stopped play on this one - but I have since worked on it in the studio.
Looking at the fishing boats tied up to the fishing quay on a very changeable day. There were a lot of curves to contend with! Rain stopped play on the day so I have been finishing this one off in the studio, and using this process to record some painting videos, which is useful practice for me. I changed a few small things in the studio, which I found quite enlightening as a process, although it’s hard not to lose the immediate effects of the day and shift it towards something else entirely.
Daisies
Not for sale.
Before they all wilted in the heat, I managed to capture the daisies going mad in the garden, engulfing my artichoke and apple tree! A few Forget-Me-Nots and Campion provided some subtle shots of colour.
Saint-Omêr
Before…
… and after!
I originally painted this in the evening light. But rapidly fading light and non-ideal interior painting lighting conditions mean the work got stuck between two different illumination ideas. So I worked on this one back in the studio, adding glazes to better capture the night-time scene and shift it firmly towards the later part of the evening.
Landscape Artist of the Year
Very much a tough exercise in leaving things alone! I am really happy with the loose underpainting still shining through in the buildings.
I did my best to let the rough underpainting shine through, only adding paint were it was really needed. And even scraping paint away to create the building roofs and light catching the water. It was hard to not do too much to this painting, so I took lots of breaks and restrained from fiddling with it in case I broke anything which was working. And I am pleased to say the painting sold!
Barbican Street Scene
Such a time-consuming and fiddly painting.
This one is still a work in progress. Three sessions now and counting! It’s really fiddly with all the small details, and I’ve very hard not to overwork areas and lose the basic and good shadows and sunlight. I wish I started it on a larger scale!
The Burial Grave Tree
It’s amazing what a bit of glazing can do.
I painted this one back in April, but after spending some time looking at it, I knew it needed more. So I have been slowly glazing it to add more depth into the scene and to bring out the sky, which still needs more work.
Hoe Reflections
This one is really coming together!
Standing in the heat on the Hoe waterfront, I was really taken on a calm high tide morning with the reflections of the buildings bouncing over the water, and the translucency of the water over the rocks. This is still a work in progress and needs some glazing to resolve a few areas of light and colour vibrations.
Mountbatten Experiments
Experiment 1 - a success!
Experiment 2 - needs more glazing, probably more of a studio technique.
These two pieces were some experiments at painting shallow water with the light coming through. One went well, one not so well. The first one I tried to focus on the underwater light, capturing the yellow colour shift on the parts of the rocks which are just underwater. The second one was an experiment with liquid charcoal, using that as an underpainting to map our the scene and using glazes of colour on top. I think this technique would need lots of drying days and studio time to work well - might be good for the winter but not so good on location.
Shaugh Prior
The nearly finished painting.
It’s been a few attempts on this one, with one session completely wiped away, but I’ve finally got the water approaching something I’m happier with. I have been painting water a lot, I think because I was struggling with this painting in particular. But it’s very nearly there now and I’m just letting it rest a bit before I decide what needs further work.
Thank you again!
As always, thank you so much for being a subscriber and for all your help, support and love! It’s a pleasure to be able to share my art journey with you all and build connections with people who love painting - whether that’s viewing them, creating them or learning how to paint. If there’s anything you’d like to chat about, please please just send me an email (address included in my original newsletter only) or message on social media. I love to hear from you!
If you have missed any previous newsletters, do not worry! They are available here.
