Wednesday 29 February 2012

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.

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