Tenby based artist Tom Sloan features on Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year next week, with Stephen Mangan and Joan Bakewell hosting the brand new series which continues the hunt for the nation’s best landscape artist!

The episode will air on Sky Arts at 8 pm on Wednesday (January 27), and sees six talented artists take on the ever changing view at Stoke Newington’s West Reservoir, all in a bid to impress judges Tai Shan Schierenberg, Kate Bryan, and Kathleen Soriano.

The winning artist will go through to the semi-final and get one step closer to claiming the grand prize – a £10,000 commission for the National Trust to create an artwork capturing the sweeping vistas of North Wales’ Dinas Oleu; the Trust’s first ever land donation.

Meanwhile, on the beautiful waterfront, also vying for the judges’ attention, were a host of talented ‘wildcard’ artists (including Tom) - who if succeeded in creating a masterpiece, they too would stand a chance of reaching the semi-final.

Tom’s work was in the spotlight last year, when he created a ‘thank you’ card to honour the incredible fundraising feats of Captain Tom Moore, who set about a mission to walk 100 laps of his garden during the pandemic to raise funds for the NHS, inspiring the nation along the way.

Contemporary artist Tom, who originally hails from Newport, Gwent, painted an original piece of artwork after a request from local veterans charity The VC Gallery to produce a birthday card to send to the man himself, ahead of the milestone occasion.

On his appearance on the Sky arts show, Tom said: “After applying for a spot on ‘Landscape Artist of the Year’ in January of 2020 I received notifications from the organisers that I was getting further in the competition and they requested a telephone interview for more information on my inspiration, process and background.

“Once they informed that I had made it through to get one of 50 wildcard places it was then that I found out it would be London to travel to to compete!

“So Tenby to London...and back, between lockdowns in a year with a global pandemic, it was madness, but it was a great day, and great to be involved!

“Loads of great feedback but I got no further in 2020s competition, but am reapplying for 2021 filming,” he added.

Next for Tom, will be a scheduled show of his work (Covid restrictions permitting) at Tenby Museum and Art Gallery in August/September.

“We first became aware of Tom’s work when he displayed as part of the VC Gallery exhibition in January 2020, so I approached him to do a solo show and we were delighted when he agreed,” said Mark Lewis curator at Tenby Museum.

“Tom’s work is vibrant and wonderfully though provoking, often showing familiar scenes in an unfamiliar and bold way. We are very excited about the exhibition.

“His success on Sky Art’s Landscape Artist of the Year is very much deserved.”