Ian McLean sits in his studio in Bright’s Grove. The painter and teacher is cast member on a new reality TV show, Landscape Artists of the Year Canada.
Ian McLean, a Bright’s Grove artist and teacher, is in the cast of a new television art reality competition show that offers the winner a $10,000 prize and the title of Landscape Artist of the Year Canada.
The show premiered Sunday on the specialty cable channel, Makeful, and McLean’s episode airs Feb. 23 at 9 p.m.
“It’s probably one of the craziest things I’ve ever experienced,” he said
A high school art teacher for more than three decades, McLean has paintings in several collections and has exhibited work in galleries around the country. He is also the recipient of several Ontario Arts Council grants
A friend sent McLean a link to a call for artists to be part of the show, which is based on a successful U.K. television series, Landscape Artist of the Year.
“I’m kind of at a stage at my life there I thought, ‘let’s just go for it, let’s just take some risks and dive in,’” he said.
Former CBC radio personality Sook-Yin Lee hosts the show where 18 professional and amateur artists, along with wild card hopefuls, compete for the title, the prize money and the chance to have their work displayed at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection Gallery.
Each episode takes a group of artists to a different location and gives them four hours to create a landscape piece.
McLean said he was told to travel to Toronto in September with his supplies and, the next day, he and two other artists in the cast were picked up in a van at 5:30 a.m.
“We still didn’t know where we were going.”
After about two hours of driving, they arrived at a marina in Cobourg, a community on Lake Ontario about an hour east of Toronto.
“My first impressions were that it reminded me very much of Sarnia,” McLean said. “It couldn’t have been a more perfect day – sunny and warm.”
But as the day went on, the heat became a challenge for McLean when his oil paints began to melt and drip.
“I had bugs flying on my painting, but that’s a day in the life of a plein air painter.”
Plein air is a term used in the art world for painting landscapes outdoors instead of in a studio.
“I’m not allowed to reveal the results,” McLean said about how his episode turns out.
Judges Marc Mayer, a former director of the National Gallery of Canada, and artist Joanne Tod pick two winners at each location to compete in a final, along with wild cards selected from 50 additional artists who hope to catch the attention of the adjudicators during episodes.
McLean said it was “loads of fun,” even though competition isn’t a motivation for most artists.
“We’re not in it to win it, but on the other hand I think the whole program is a really fantastic celebration of visual art.”
It puts artists on a national stage while adding excitement and fun to the experience of creating art, he said.
McLean, who teaches at Northern Collegiate in Sarnia, said he encourages his students to take risks.
“I’m hoping they’re seeing that in me through something like this.”
It’s also an opportunity to show the public something they often don’t see.
“It pulls the curtain back and reveals what an artist does: what does it look like when you’re creating something from start to finish?” McLean said.
Following its run on Makeful, the series is scheduled to air on CBC later this year.
pmorden@postmedia.com
