Forest Row artist: "I wanted be on the telly!"

Forest Row artist Gill Bustamante is appearing in the BBC series Home Is Where The Art Is.
Gill BustamanteGill Bustamante
Gill Bustamante

Her episode is scheduled to transmit on BBC One on Tuesday, July 21 at 3.45.

“Each episode sees three UK-based artists competing to win a commission from clients who would like a bespoke piece of art for their home,” Gill explains.

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“Each artist specialises in different mediums, such as painting, sculpture, ceramics etc. I applied to go on the programme for the excellent reason that I wanted be on the telly and because as an artist I tend towards sitting in attics (where I paint) or tromping about in fields (getting inspiration) so it was definitely out of my usual mode to get involved in film work.

“I am very happy I did though as it was a lot of fun and very light hearted. The BBC crews were wonderful and one of the producers told me he loves this series as it is fun for them as well as it is not serious and depressing as some TV shows are!

“For my first filming day, I went to a house near London where I met the other two artists in that episode. We spent the day being filmed as we studied the art and other objects in the house to try and get an idea of what our mystery clients would like when it came down to pitching a commission for them. We were aided by a brief that the clients had left for us telling us what they liked and what they did not like and this helped each artist to figure out a proposal that they could give to them when they met them.

“Following the house visit, each of us were scheduled to meet at the film studio in Manchester where we brought sample artworks to present to the possible customers to give them an idea of the kind of commission we could create for them. We were then interviewed by TV presenter Nick Knowles. I managed to get a quick picture with him to please my mum! The idea of this stage of filming was that only two artists out of the three would be chosen to create a commission according to what the clients wanted and then only one being chosen as overall winner.

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“Another filming day involved a BBC film crew coming to the studio of each artist to film us as we worked and to ask questions. After filming me actually painting for a while and giving a little interview, the film crew and I went up onto the Ashdown Forest as this is an area I regularly walk around and get inspiration for my paintings from. I did a few sketches and one was used in the final painting – which I am not allowed to show until the program has aired.

“Some of the artwork I saw by other artists on the studio filming part of the show was stunning. I felt privileged to be among them. There are some great British artists and I totally recommend anyone who loves art to see this series.”

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