After almost 1600 original entries, six heats and 350 competitors, the winner of for this year’s Landscape Artist of the Year series is Jen Gash of Thornbury in South Gloucestershire.

Jen was announced as the winner in the final programme which aired at 8pm on Sky Arts on Tuesday 4th December 2018. The show charted her progress alongside fellow finalists Greg Mason of Exeter and Allan Dewar Martin of Barnet who competed in the final at Greenwich Park at the Royal Observatory in London.

As part of her prize, Jen was given a life changing opportunity - a £10,000 prestigious commission from the Imperial War Museum to create an artwork to tie in with the centenary of the 1918 armistice. Her final painting will be unveiled at the museums London HQ and enter the IWM’s collection at the ‘Lest We Forget’ exhibition - www.iwm.org.uk/events/lest-we-forget.

Jen won her heat at Broadstairs in Kent, then went onto the semi-final at Felixstowe Docks, which earnt her a ‘challenge’ painting of Brighton Pier before she went into the final at Greenwich Park.

Delighted at winning the series, Jen was equally ecstatic of her Winning Commission and the effect she wanted it to have: 'I wanted the painting to have impact, hence the size and strength of colour. I also wanted it to have a strong emotional feel which hopefully comes through. I didn’t want it to be a boring landscape. I also wanted some mystery present, rather than give the viewer everything. I wanted people to question various aspects of the work, like what is happening in the foreground?'

Read more about Jen's work on her website, www.jengash.co.uk

The series produced by award winning production company Storyvault Films marked the debut for new co-presenter - actor and art-lover Stephen Mangan alongside Joan Bakewell. Over the past eight weeks, it has charted the progress of artists across six heats - three of which are National Trust locations: Fountain’s Abbey and Studley Royal in Yorkshire; Viking Bay, Broadstairs and Inveraray Castle in Scotland. Each heat was then open to a further 50 wildcard artists who were invited to compete for a potential place in the semi-final.

The judges are artist Tai Shan Schierenberg and independent curators Kate Bryan and Kathleen Soriano. The show not only highlights the tremendous artistic talent across the country, but also how the beautiful British countryside has inspired past and present generations of artists.

This was the fourth series of the show, which is produced by London and Glasgow-based independent production company Storyvault Films. Landscapes first aired three years ago following the enormous success of Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Year (PAOTY), also from Storyvault Films, that has captured public imagination since its launch in 2013. LAOTY boasts the titles of 'best-performing, non-scripted series of all time' and second-biggest series ever for Sky Arts, with viewing figures growing over the course of the series.