A Sarnia high school art teacher taking part in a reality TV show has a chance to win $10,000 and be named Landscape Artist of the Year Canada.
Ian McLean of Northern Collegiate will appear on the show's second episode February 23 at 9 p.m. exclusively on the Makeful channel.
The first three episodes of the series will see a mix of six professional and amateur artists produce a landscape painting in their own style, with two contestants from each episode moving onto the final.
Northern art teacher Ian McLean. (Photo provided by Landscape Artist of the Year Canada)
McLean said he was taken to a surprise landscape, along with five other contestants, and given four hours to produce a painting.
He said the whole experience was really intense.
"So it wasn't a perspective of my choice, it wasn't something that I would normally paint. I'm actually not normally identified as an outdoor landscape painter. So you will see us struggle with the elements, and then on top of that, there are probably 50 cameras and interviews and interaction throughout the whole time period.
McLean said he's typically used to working in an isolated, quiet environment.
"This is very active, very busy and the fact that it was all being recorded, every single move I'm doing is recorded, so it was a time-lapse camera on the painting, so you can't stop, or you can't help but be aware of that, that extra presence. So it was very distracting but very fun."
McLean said he's not normally identified as a "classic landscape" painter.
"I'm always including images of constructed worlds and natural worlds, so I include a lot of architecture and they're usually a little bit surreal, so kind of like dream-like settings," said McLean. "I like to set up some sort of connection between the inhabitants and the environment, and for me, my work is meant to be more of a contemporary take, I guess, on typically landscape painting."
McLean has been teaching at Northern for over 30 years now, and he has no plans to stop.
"The young people I have the chance to work with I find are always so motivated and creative and they really inspire me, and I'm forever impressed by the caliber of young people I get to work with everyday," said McLean. "One thing I like to impart my students is the importance of setting goals and taking risks, and it's I think something I try to do with this TV show, just put myself out there and take a little bit of a risk, set a goal for myself and then we see what happens."
Along with the $10,000 prize and being named Landscape Artist of the Year Canada, the winning artist will also be given an exhibit at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Vaughn.