So, did I paint the third one?

Moored in the shade, Brancaster Staithe  Oil 10x14 ins

(Click to enlarge)

So, you've all been wondering, did I finish the third painting to submit to the RSMA Annual Exhibition?  Sorry to have kept you all biting your nails all day long, on the edge of your seats, worrying, unable to sleep or eat properly - most unfair of me to not to have told you earlier, for which I apologise....what's that, DID I MANAGE TO PAINT IT?  YES!  But not without incident........

I was painting up until 3.30am this morning before I was happy with it and finally hit the sack at 4.15am after fitting the painting in a frame, setting my alarm for 6.45am for a refreshing two and a half hours sleep, ready to meet Mike Challoner of Picture Post, who takes artists' paintings down to The Mall Galleries for each Society exhibition, at 7.15am on the A1 at Stamford.  The alarm went off and......yep, you guessed, I failed to rise, only to be woken by Mike calling me at 7.30 to see where I was.  Having leapt into clothes and driven to Stamford in double-quick time, still fast asleep and running on fumes, I finally gave mike the 3 pictures at 7.40am, making Mike half-an-hour behind his schedule, for which I was most embarrassed - sorry again Mike!

Having got back to have some breakfast before going off to Leicester to help set up the Leicestershire Pastel Society Exhibition, in which I have three paintings, I remembered I had to fit one in a frame - a task I had put off because of trying to get three paintings done for the RSMA.  So, another panic, no shower, no shave, managed to get to Leicester for 10.20am, sporting a very attractive designer stubble......

Enough of my travails, you want to know a bit about the painting.  One of my favourite painting locations, Brancaster Staithe in Norfolk provides a wealth of subject matter.  The bright crimson fishing vessel was a lovely splash of colour to act as an obvious focal point, lit by some dappled sunshine in the shade of the foreground.  The rivulets of water running through the mud provided a nice directional tool to take the eye through the composition and I particularly liked the gorgeous red reflections in these little watery trenches.

I also enjoyed the challenge of depicting the bluish hued mud in the shaded foreground, set against the orangey sunlit mud of the middle and far distance.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to put a lick of retouching varnish on the painting before it went off to London.  The thin varnish always gives a lift to the colours and unifies the whole picture, but, it's beyond my control now - I'll have to wait and see if the acceptance committee of the RSMA consider these efforts of suitable quality for the exhibition in October.