Last night was the private view of the Contemporary Watercolour Competition at the Royal Watercolour Society at Bankside, London. We arrived late afternoon to a gorgeous riverside sunset (that’s St Paul’s in the background there) and walked along the south bank of the Thames.

 It’s like a culture corridor with the Festival Hall, National Theatre and Tate Modern all along side the river path and mixed in with the coolest skate park in a graffittied concrete underpass and even a Bollywood movie being prepped for filming. But how cool is that Airstream cafe above?

The private view was really well attended but as we arrived really early we got a chance to take some photo’s of Tea Table in situ.

There was an enormous variety of work on show from the very transparent to the very opaque, the gesteral to the photo realistic, the experimental to the very accurate. It was so heart warming to see that there really is a place for everyone to create and so amazing that no two artists, who paint from their hearts, ever make the same painting.

Tea Table got a nice central place on the wall – thank you very muchly.

The RWS selection really did support its aim to “encourage innovation and experimentation in watercolour painting, spanning work on paper in watercolour, acrylic, gouache, pen & ink and watercolour mixed media.” I was impressed by how forward thinking an organisation it seems to be whilst still valuing the roots and history of traditional watercolour painting.

It was a great night made all the more so by its glamorous capital city location. I feel very grateful for the opportunity and can’t wait to get stuck into some more painting again soon inspired by being amongst such stimulating artistry.