The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 8

Number 8- Evening Light Charing Cross Road






This piece highlights a road, I can almost, if it was possible, walk through it, blind-folded! It has hosts the very popular Leicester Square station, National Portrait Gallery and a number of theatres. The Theatre I captured here with its artificial lights interposing the late evening light in the atmosphere of a busy London Street is Wyndham's Theatre, which was then hosting Jude Laws' Hamlet.



Evening Light Charing Cross Road, 14" x 10", Watercolour with hints of Mixed Media, 2009.

This piece began purely as a watercolour, then as usual I get into the sketching mode to make up for the areas the unforgivable watercolour denies me freedom and access. I added gouache, acrylic, a bit of colour pencil effects, wax crayons and pastel.

I first submitted this piece for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 2009, it wasn't accepted, then I submitted it for the Chelsea Art Society Annual Open Exhibition and it won the Agnes Reeve Memorial Award for a Painting of London. Now, that was a great feeling! I normally share this and many other artists have the same experience about submitting works into juried shows-And it's never to be discouraged by rejections, the people on the jury are humans and not machines. I have been on a jury before, judging the Bath Prize and I can relate to this fact clearly-The decisions made during that judging period are all based on the circumstances surrounding that particular exhibition and the taste of the judges at that particular selection. This sometimes does not mean the work isn't good. So, I'll encourage all to keep submitting work into juried shows as far as they are willing to risk rejection and have a good budget for it. It's a great way to get exposure and some good contacts and sales.

SPECIAL QUOTE
"The last piece of advice I try to leave with students is that they have to be positive about themselves and their prospects. No one wants to be around depressed, self-indulgent artists, least of all collectors who want to know the paintings they buy today have the potential to be worth more tomorrow"-Camille Przewodek