Roy Connelly

Above: Ken Howard, Peter Brown, Roy Connelly – click to view

This is a recent interview with Ken Howard RA in which he talks about the difficulties encountered when painting on the streets of London.  The problem is not one of perspective,  capturing the light or changing weather but of being moved on under the spurious excuse of ‘health and safety’.

I was pleased to get a mention in the article, along with Pete the Street – Peter Brown NEAC.

The Health and Safety Executive saw fit to respond with a letter defending common sense:

“Real health and safety is about dealing with risks that are likely to cause serious harm or even death to those in workplaces. I would urge you to challenge those jobsworths who persist in devaluing the real and important stuff by using “elf ‘n’ safety” as an easy excuse for spoiling everyone else’s enjoyment.”

You can read their letter in full here on the HSE website.

Finally, in a humourous response to the original story in the Telegraph, The Guardian newspaper found 10 ‘serious menaces’ in Trafalgar Square that were apparently missed by the wardens.

I had a fun day out in London today.  I started off at the annual exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours where my friend Naomi Tydeman won the Winsor and Newton Prize for a series of beautiful moonlit beach paintings.  Well done Naomi!

Then I went on to paint the Thames with Karl Terry but we found that Ken Howard RA had beaten us to the best spot

We stopped for a quick chat with him on Hungerford Bridge then left him to get on with the two wonderful paintings of the river towards Westminster.

Ken and I will have work in an auction on Thursday 22 April, conducted by Nick Bonham, to raise funds for a young artist’s bursary at Heatherley School of Fine Art.

There will be selected works by artists including: Ken Howard; Jane Corsellis; Bill Packer; Julian Barrow; Roy Connelly; Hazel Soan and others.  You can see the auction items and competetion entries here.