AFGHANISTAN veteran Richard Salter came under fire from a judge on a new TV art show when he said he wanted his pictures to tell a story – but he survived the first round of the knock-out competition.

Sgt Salter, 35, who lives in Devizes with his wife and three children, appeared on BBC1’s The Big Painting Challenge on Sunday evening.

He said he found the time constraints of the competition daunting.

He said: “I am used to being able to have ages to plan, so to be told you have half an hour to do something was quite stressful.”

He said much of his work has been inspired by his time in Afghanistan. He said: “I was particularly moved by the children out there. You always compare them to your children at home. It pulls on my heartstrings. So I try and bring that into my work and try to tell the story.”

But in Sunday night’s show judge Lachlan Goudie was not impressed with Mr Salter’s landscape painting of a castle with a river in front and told him to forget the story and concentrate on the painting.

Sgt Salter, who serves in the Royal Signals in Corsham, said the Army had backed him taking part but he was expecting plenty of stick from his mates.

He said: “I have received loads of messages on Facebook full of banter.”

But his wife Vicky and children Libby, 11, Ethan, 13, and Corrie, 17, have been very supportive. The family went to Gallery 21 in Salisbury, where his work is sold, on Sunday evening for a party and to watch the show.

Sgt Salter said: “The children knew I had been away filming but they didn’t know how I got on.”

The show, which runs for six weeks and is presented by Richard Bacon and Una Stubbs, will see the contestants face elimination by judges Daphne Todd and Lachlan Goudie each week.

The winner will be rewarded with a two-week display of their work at Tate Britain in London.

Sgt Salter, hopes to paint professionally when he leaves the army in four years.