Computer Love

As with many things in life I thought I'd have more

time to prepare for  my annual rejection from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Yet I had barely enough time to shrug off the Christmas chocolate induced malaise before I had to get my shit together.

This year for the first time the Royal Academy has introduced a new digital stage to the process, which makes sense, so it means that you don't have to drag yourself up the Big Smoke for nothing. I must admit that I had a pang of regret when I read that they were doing this, it nice to have that flame of expectation burn for a while, but hey ho. This new stage meant that I had to call my mate and talented photographer Simon Ayre to take some snaps of the paintings, if it's worth doing it's worth doing right. Up until just before Christmas I was in two minds about what the second painting I would enter for consideration would be, the painting on the right - Major character flaw - hadn't been going the way I wanted, but the Christmas holiday gave me the luxury of time and I was able to work on it and was pretty happy with the way it came out.

The Royal Academy entry site went live on Monday the 6th with an error when it came to making the payment. Embarrassing yes, but I've been part of too many digital projects to know that these things do happen and they did resolve it pretty quickly, I can imagine all too easily the scenes of frantic hair pulling and phone calls which must have been going on their end.

It's good that this kicked off as soon as it was a call to arms to get going so soon after Christmas and one of my resolutions is to submit to more exhibitions and galleries, so it's a good way to start.