Not Quite A RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2012 Review

I would like to say I perused and absorbed all the paintings last Thursday night at the RWS competition exhibition, really taking my time in order to put down my thoughts in this post with a wealth of viewing knowledge behind me. However I cannot. After a series of travel nightmares that involved even more expenditure on train tickets and running up London Underground escalators, Suzanne and I arrived at the Bankside Gallery hot, sweaty and very late.

I'm so pleased we made the effort. It was great to meet up with Jonathan Pitts (also showing) and his lovely wife and yes next time we will go for food afterwards! The exhibition was also well worth the trip. The subject matter on show was incredibly varied as was style, which to me is what you want to see in an open exhibition. The conceptual ideas in my opinion seemed much stronger than the Sunday Times exhibition last year although maybe in terms of technique the RWS was slightly behind. I don't want to degrade anybody's work, so it's just as well I didn't have the time to make any notes, but there was the odd sucking teeth moment as I stalked around the gallery.

Needless to say the show is well worth a visit and the winning pieces stand up well to scrutiny, unlike my review. For a more informative and frankly better written review visit Katherine Tyrrell's Making A Mark.

Arnold XIV

Above is a whimsical illustration that I produced for Suzanne's Birthday card last year. The style is very similar to that of the children's book I am currently working on but as I can't release any images from that project I thought Arnold XIV would do. Arnold might just be a stuffed toy who resides in our home but he does comes from a rich heritage of Arnolds. At the beginning of April I tend to discover another portrait taken from the Arnold family tree and present it to Suzanne so she can fill in another gap in Arnold's geneology. I think the 'Who Do You Think You Are' TV crew are missing a trick by not featuring Arnold in their new series, maybe I should persuade him to write a letter.

Levi Art Order Challenge Pt 5

By the end of Tuesday morning the ArtOrder Levi painting was looking like this (above). I had just about taken the watercolour as far as I wanted, there was still an abundance of elements that need refining such as the faces of both characters, weapons, leather doublet, background, rocks... I could go on. My plan was to use gouache, gradually becoming more opaque, until I had sorted all the problems and ended up with a finished painting.

Below you can see the final artwork which I finished Thursday evening. I'm pleased with the outcome but still feel I can push further with the gouache paints. No doubt I shall bear that in mind for my next fantasy illustration.

38 x 29cm

Center For Media And Democracy

 
I had a lovely email from Rebekah Wilce recently who writes for the online publication PRWatch requesting the use of my 'Cracked Matador' watercolour. The metaphor 'a Bull in a China shop' was used in her article to describe a well used (in the U.S) herbicide where the China shop was you. I thought her cause a good one so I agreed the use of my image. Read her article here.

Levi Art Order Challenge Pt 4

How would you like to see some more WIP photos? Well, you're in luck! Above is the pencil for the final colour artwork I will be entering into ArtOrder this Friday. The following shot shows the background blocked in with watercolour, this is how the painting looked by the end of Monday 6th.

Pen Drawing Of Marlborough Town Hall

I shall be getting married in the above building this summer and this drawing will be featuring on the front of the invitations. I was attempting to channel Franklin Booth as I hatched away.