Pintar Rapido event in London

Better late than never, here is my post about the Pintar Rapido event which I attended in London last month. 400 artists turned up on the day. The principle was to come at the reception on Saturday morning with a white canvas they stamp at the back, then painting in the street of Chelsea, before returning the work by the evening for the show and competition prizes on the next day.

It was such an exciting event for me to attend. Although I must say painting quiet allotments in the Bath countryside didn't quite prepare me for the busy city. I left home in my summer sandals in the pouring rain at 6am wondering what on earth I was doing. As I arrived at destination, I felt a bit like in an episode of 'Mr Bean goes to London': just as I got off the train and was thinking "London, here I come!" I got stuck with all my kit in the automatic door and got to be freed by a chuckling member of staff...

But then luck showed its face as the rain made room for the sun. Here is below the first painting I did on that day, which happened to be the one I presented for the show. I found a nice little spot looking at Battersea Bridge:

Battersea Bridge in the morning  11"x14"  oil on board

Detail

Afterwards, the sun properly came out and there was a lovely hazy shimmering light reflecting on the water so I decided to paint the view from Battersea Bridge toward Chelsea Harbour.

View towards Chelsea Harbour  11"x14"  oil on board

Detail

Then finally, in the late afternoon I did my last painting of the day, only a few meters away from my previous spots, this time looking at Battersea Bridge from the distance. I just loved the golden evening light sparkling on the water:

Battersea Bridge in late afternoon  16"x9" oil on board

Detail

I then headed back to the exhibition centre to drop my painting. It seems Mr Bean was back in the room... After dropping my painting on the floor, losing my paperwork, and taking half the hall space to frame my work, I finally managed to hand in my painting and then enjoyed a well deserved drink with fellow artists.

Here are below some pictures of the beautiful venue on the next day at the exhibition, with some of my favourite paintings on show:

Paul Weaver

Haidee-Jo Summers (if it was up to me, this would have been the winner!)

Tom Hughes

David Pilgrim

And me!

I enjoyed it so much that I decided to sign up for an other plein air painting event in Norfolk in September. Norfolk, here I come!

Oil sketch of Darmouth avenue in Bath

Here is a quick study done from a photograph of a street close to where I live in Bath. I walk there almost everyday and the composition of the scene really caught my eyes. I do most of my paintings in plein air but I still take pictures when I come across something I like because it keeps me busy in my studio in the loft at evenings when my baby daughter is asleep.

Bridge, Darmouth avenue, Bath   12"x10"  oil on board

Detail

As you will notice below, I played with the photograph in photoshop with various filters, to help me simplify the scene like I would naturally do if I was painting in plein air.

original photograph

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