LONDON.- This year, the Boat Race will finally be back to normal with Putney expecting lots of visitors to watch the famous, annual race on the Thames between the university rowing teams from Oxford and Cambridge. It will take place on Sunday, 26th March and to coincide with it, Paul Mowatt, who runs Putney Pies Art, is curating an exhibition to celebrate the rowing heritage of Putney and the UK's most famous river - Catch 23. He has chosen works by well-known illustrator Rachel Hunt, rowing portraits by painter Martin Ireland and some works by Martin's mother Anne Hickmott, who was one of the first women to design a boat race poster in the late 1950s.

The exhibition, at Putney Pies upstairs, opened Wednesday, 22nd March and will continue until 23rd April. There will be original oil paintings and limited edition prints for sale with prices ranging from £100 to £800.

It is a particular pleasure to show two official boat race posters - one designed by Anne in the late 1950s and one by Rachel, who was asked to design this year's poster by the Boat Race Company Ltd. Both will have been seen by millions of people in London.

Anne Hickmott studied fine art and printmaking at art school and went on to study post graduate graphic design and photography at the Royal College of Art during the mid 1950s. She freelanced for the BBC, British Rail, British European Airlines, British Overseas Airways Corporation, London Transport, The Royal Mail and numerous publishers and advertising agencies as a designer, illustrator and photographer. She went on to lecture photographic art at Westminster University from 1970. Her work can be found in collections in the UK, USA and Canada.

Rachel Hunt started her career as an architect, but began working as an illustrator after she was shortlisted for the Serco Prize for Illustration in 2014, selling her first rowing print a year later. We have asked Rachel a few questions about her inspirations for her rowing illustrations below.

Martin Ireland studied both at the Canterbury and the Camberwell Schools of Art - fine art, printmaking and photography - and has exhibited all over the world from London to LA. His paintings can be found in private collections in New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Amsterdam, Mexico City and throughout the UK as well as in the National Maritime Museum in Liverpool. He particularly likes painting water and his subjects are often rowers, swimmers and river landscapes. Martin had an exhibition at the Henley River & Rowing Museum in 2008. He was an active rower between 1990-2002, boating the tideway with Furnival Sculling Club, Hammersmith. He has done the tideway course in reverse direction in several Head of the River races during the 1990’s.

‘Down on the water, the perspective of the river is different. On a summer’s day the light is all around you, not only coming from above but reflect up at you from the river’s surface. There is something about the anticipation of a start of a regatta: the pent up energy about to explode when the flag is dropped and the horn is sounded. Rowing has a rhythm to it, either in a single scull, a double, a quad or a crew of eight, all in synchrony with the crew in front.’

Short Interview with Rachel Hunt:

- Rachel, how did you get to be asked to design the Boat Race poster this year?
The first rowing print I made was ’The Boat Race at Putney’ back in 2015. From this, several commissions followed. In 2021, the Boat Race was held at Ely, for only the second time in its history. I was commissioned to create an artwork celebrating this event, with the stunning backdrop of Ely Cathedral. This caught the attention of the Boat Race Company Ltd, who used my original artwork for the 2022 Boat Race. This got a great response and a new commission for the 2023 Boat Race followed.

- You mainly focus on river and rowing scenes or animals - what inspired you?
I choose subjects I love. I think rowing is the most beautiful sport, which lends itself to artistic expression. It is the perfect fusion of athleticism and nature. There are endless possibilities with the composition, and the backdrop to many of the most famous racing stretches are stunning. My work, 'The Victors and The Vanquished’ uses the art of rowing to represent a universal concept - the fine line between victory and defeat, where the margins are tight and the rewards are all or nothing. Rowing is the perfect subject to express this universal concept in its most primal form.

- What do you find most challenging about your work?
I spend a long time planning and researching a work before I actually begin drawing. I like it to accurately represent a subject, but I also aim to pare a subject down to simple geometric forms. Sometimes this is a challenge - choosing what to include and what to omit. The early stages of a work are a challenge- I’m a perfectionist and I need to check every detail, even if it won’t be seen at the scale of the final print.

- Do you row yourself?
I don’t row myself- I intend to take a learn to row course later this year, from what I have learnt it is never too late to start! With all my research, I think I’ve got the theory nailed- time to put it into practice.

- How important is the boat race to you?
Putney comes alive in the lead up to the Boat Race. During lockdown, it was strange to see the river so quiet and it felt like something was missing. Rowing really brings the Thames to life, and The Boat Race is one of those events that brings the whole community together. Everyone has a favourite Blue, whether they have Oxbridge connections or not, and it is fun to see this rivalry come out on the day.

- How do you choose which part of the river you are working from during the boat race?
Every year I choose a different vantage point along the Championship Course. My work, 'The Victors and The Vanquished', was inspired by the 2019 Boat Race competitors as I stood at the finish line. I watched the anguish on the faces of the defeated, whilst the victors cheered and celebrated and it just struck me that these two different emotions were so powerful and contradictory.

- You are a trained architect and we love the architectural elements in many of your works - when did you decide to work as an artist?
My work, ’Now or Never’ was shortlisted for the Serco Prize for Illustration in 2014. This was the springboard from which I launched my illustration career, and I haven’t looked back. It is nice that I can transfer the draughtsmanship skills I learned as an architect into a new career path. To quote Eleanor Roosevelt, ' Nothing we learn in this world is ever wasted’.