Pintar Rapido

This weekend was my first experience of Pintar Rapido in London- a one day painting competition seamlessly organised by Roger Beckett and a team of volunteers. Stationed at the bottom of Exhibition Road , so that the orange glow below the awnings of Comptior Libanais could be included, I spent half the morning understanding the perspective of the rooves, the dome of the V and A, and then painting the changing sky. I was showered with kindness by the team at Comptoir Libanais who brought juice and a salad, and the restaurant behind let me access clean water. Other artists and members of the public, of all ages offered helpful advice and interesting conversation.

By 2 pm I was pretty tired and decided to go home for a rest and finish it later, ready to hand in framed by 8pm the same evening. Unfortunately, distracted by a conversation about language development and Speech Therapy, I left the painting on the 345 bus to Peckham!

Realising this, I raced to the local depot and was given regal treatment, travelling in a Not In Service bus on my own, like a taxi, to Stockwell where it had been rescued. There was then a mad rush to complete the lower half of the picture by introducing imaginary figures with large hats! Needless to say, I wasn't very proud of the end result, but it had been such a wonderful day, thanks to the kindness of strangers.

See www.pintarrapido.com/london for more images and the prizewinners. Ben Hope's classic painting Looking West Along Queen's Gate Terrace was a masterstroke of understatement!

Looking forward to the next one and warm thanks to all those kind people, and Roger and his team!