Delighted ‘Rising Tide’ has been selected for the Royal Watercolour Society Open 2025

Rising Tide, watercolour and water soluble pencil on paper, 2024, 23 x 30.5 cm (unframed size), £1200

Very happy to have just discovered that ‘Rising Tide’ has been selected for the Royal Watercolour Society Open 2025.

‘Rising Tide is part of a new series of watercolours I'm currently making exploring the interactions between river, weather, industry, human and more-than-human life taking place in the area surrounding the Thames Barrier.

There's a moment of muted tension just before high tide on the Thames, when the water seems to congeal into a viscous, imperceptibly rising mass - in contrast to the swift torrents of water seen at other stages of the tide. It can be very quiet at that point too, as if the rising mass of water has somehow muffled sound. And, if I've been focussing on painting another area (part of the Thames Barrier for example), I've also noticed that I'll often suddenly feel uneasy, only subsequently realising how high the water has become. 

Hope you’ll drop in to see this painting at the Royal Watercolour Society Open 2025, Bankside Gallery, Thames Riverside, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH, from Friday 7th – Sunday 23rd March 2025. Opening times to follow.

If you would like to find out more about the exhibition or the image, please contact me here.