Croquet

This sport occupies quite a bit of what might otherwise be my spare time, so I suppose it is inevitable that I would eventually draw or paint a game.

This particular painting is based very loosely on a photo taken during a recent match at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, South West London. This club was originally founded as the All England Croquet Club in 1868, but before long they added the then new-fangled game of lawn tennis to their activities, and now the annual tennis tournament dominates club activities, and perhaps even the sport itself. However, a few croquet lawns still survive, as my photo (but perhaps not this painting!) proves.

I had intended to copy the naïve style of a number of tennis watercolours that I have seen, and in the main I think this has been achieved. The pen marks on the players are perhaps too heavy, and something odd happened with the shadows of the trees overhanging the hedge, but otherwise I was pleased with the result, and in addition I had fun using masking fluid for the first time to keep the white lines white!