Sunday, September 16, 2007

More from London

Small study for "Permanently Temporary", unframed £280




Well I spent the last few days in London attending the prize award ceremony for the Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander/ Sunday Times watercolour competition on the Tuesday and was awarded my cheque by Mariella Frostrup. You could certainly tell who the artists were amongst the many bank employees and friends. I enjoyed the evening and met all the artists who of course turned out to be all very nice people. Gordon McDowall I already knew which helped me (I am not always entirely comfortable in certain social occasions on my own) and got to know Julia Farrer (1st prize) and Wladyslaw Mireki (3rd prize winner) and his wife through the course of the evening. Everyone of course was complimentary which all helped to make the evening special. The food & drinks were in copious amounts, which I tried not to over indulge in.

I spent the Wednesday visiting a number of private galleries across London and getting a feel for the style and content of each place which proved very enlightening. Wednesday night, well what can I say, I found a pub (3 Kings) which was showing all the International football matches on that night. The pub was filled with every European nationality going, including a fairly large and raucous group of Scots. In the 67 minute the place exploded with noise. Needless to say I am still a little hoarse. Final score, Scotland 1 France 0, as if you didn't know.

Thursday I went to the Tate Britain and took a boat ride to Tate Modern, which would have been great if I hadn't fallen asleep, ach well. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the work on show at Tate Modern, as on the whole, it was quite accessible and less obscure/obtuse than some modern art tries to be. Thursday night was the artist opening at the Mall galleries for the Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander/ Sunday Times watercolour competition, this was an entirely different affair to the Tuesday presentation. It was less formal and we artists dissolved into the crowd quite easily. The night for me was topped off by selling my painting which just made a great night even better. I then went for a meal with Julia Farrer and her sister and friends which rounded off a perfect few days in London.

The less said about my cell of a hotel room the better!!

I also thought I would let you know about an interview with Peter Blake (Artist and Judge) by Frank Whittford (Journalist/writer and Judge) talking about the prize winners which is very illuminating.
You can find the interview here: or click on an interview with Peter Blake
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/audio_video/times_online_tv/?channel=Arts%20and%20Entertainment&clipid=1152_timesonline0267