I am pleased with this painting although it was difficult to paint because I did not have sketches to help me, I relied on altering and juxtaposing various photographs, and on visual memory.
It is one I entered for the Singer Friedlander Watercolour Prize this June, and got rejected.
Actually I get over these rejection letters quite quickly thank goodness. They fade into the background and I continue painting and drawing. I feel a little flash of annoyance when I realize I spent more than I can afford on nice frames for this watercolour, and for the drawing I entered into Jerwood.
This spring we went to see the Boat Race atHammersmith, instead of the usual Putney. I wanted to see how the crowds congregated to watch the race from the other bank. I was carrying a heavy bag with drawing stuff and a stool. It poured with rain as we walked along.
Hammersmith tube station is some way from the river and it was a very gloomy afternoon. Everyone who could do so, was carrying an umbrella. We arrived well before that start of the race, but even so a huge number of people were gathered around the various pubs, where beer etc was being consumed in quantity. Also optimists had set up little stalls selling barbecued food, especially hamburgers and hot dogs. You can see two people eating them in my picture, and some others sitting at a little table by a barbecue stands. The sky was dark and dramatic and to add to the low light, dense clouds of smoke from the barbecues drifted over everybody. Even so, it was a highly partified atmosphere, everyone laughting and chatting. I was suprised to hear so many accents from Australia and New Zealand, perhaps the grapeview put out the news that it was party time!
Because of the rain I did not get my sketch book out. In the end, we walked for what seemed like miles to Chiswick. I hardly saw the race itself, because we were at a bad vantage point when the boats went past. But that didn't matter much, everyone was having a good time.
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