at the risk of seeming too proud of my own achievements (but this one was rather leftfield, if that's any excuse), i won an award last night (the st cuthbert's mill award, no less) in the rws contemporary watercolour cometition at their bankside gallery. very very satisfying to win a prize for something that's not a book (wonderful as that kind of award is). the picture is a portrait of stu west. professor stu west indeed, despite the potentially wrong-footing tattoo. it's also a great compensation for my recent discovery that the npg national portrait award does not accept entries on paper, under glass or in water-based media (see previous gripe - 'portrait award'). here's the painting (up for a second time, but in the circumstances, what the hell).