I was asked to do a painting of a small section of the river Cam of the The Cambridge University Boat Houses. I have painted the town a few times before so I was looking forward to painting the river too.
The focus of the painting was to be rowing
Cambridge and Oxford are famous for their yearly boat race on the River Thames in London. The first inter university race was in 1829, though of course, the sport of rowing on this site would probably go back way before then. Well, this is one of the sites where Cambridge University draws their team from and where they get a bit of practice in before double maths.
My rowing experience
I have to say I know nothing what so ever about rowing. My experience goes as far as squeaky pedalos on a fetid lake when I was a child, and a farcical raft race on Southsea beach as an art student at about aged 20. I recall we made the raft so poorly that it fell apart after just a few meters of modest Solent swell. So I had much to learn. Thankfully, this job kept me firmly on land and all the better for it.
The first thing I learnt from my ever patient client was that there are a baffling number of different types of boats, and I am sure some boats are not even called ‘boats’ and I know for certain that some oars are not called ‘oars’ even though they still do the same job and, to me at least, look the same as each other.
The boat houses
The backdrop for the painting was to be the boat houses. These are owned set out in accordance of each of the Universities’ colleges. And I have to say, that if they are as competitive in their rowing as they are in the construction of their boathouses, then Cambridge should beat Oxford every time.
Each architect appears to have been given the same brief for each build.
‘OK, make it look totally different from next door… And bigger, and better, and it needs to stand out more.. Oh yes I almost forgot. We need to put some boats in it.’
The resources for rowing alone must be vast, and many of these structures are listed so they require regular maintenance, and more importantly, you don’t want to let the side down in front of the neighbours.
The print of the Cambridge University Boat Houses is 60cm x 19cm giclee not including the white boarder surround.
I was asked to do a painting of a small section of the river Cam in the University City of Cambridge. I have painted the town a few times before so I was looking forward to painting the river too.
The focus of the painting was to be rowing
Cambridge and Oxford are famous for their yearly boat race on the River Thames in London. The first inter university race was in 1829, though of course, the sport of rowing on this site would probably go back way before then. Well, this is one of the sites where Cambridge University draws their team from and where they get a bit of practice in before double maths.
My rowing experience
I have to say I know nothing what so ever about rowing. My experience goes as far as squeaky pedalos on a fetid lake when I was a child, and a farcical raft race on Southsea beach as an art student at about aged 20. I recall we made the raft so poorly that it fell apart after just a few meters of modest Solent swell. So I had much to learn. Thankfully, this job kept me firmly on land and all the better for it.
The first thing I learnt from my ever patient client was that there are a baffling number of different types of boats, and I am sure some boats are not even called ‘boats’ and I know for certain that some oars are not called ‘oars’ even though they still do the same job and, to me at least, look the same as each other.
The boat houses
The backdrop for the painting was to be the boat houses. These are owned set out in accordance of each of the Universities’ colleges. And I have to say, that if they are as competitive in their rowing as they are in the construction of their boathouses, then Cambridge should beat Oxford every time.
Each architect appears to have been given the same brief for each build.
‘OK, make it look totally different from next door… And bigger, and better, and it needs to stand out more.. Oh yes I almost forgot. We need to put some boats in it.’
The resources for rowing alone must be vast, and many of these structures are listed so they require regular maintenance, and more importantly, you don’t want to let the side down in front of the neighbours.
