Detlef Jumpertz

It is now about a week and a half since I mailed my entry to the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize. With each passing day I get more and more nervous as to whether I will be in or out.

Like most art competitions these days initial judging is from photos (thanks to M. for producing a good quality print for me). Last year 400-odd entries were received (ie numbers not as in actually weird entries), and this was whittled down to 100-odd entries.

The category I have entered covers watercolour, pastel, gouache, ink, charcoal, pencil or mix - mine is pencil and charcoal. I suspect there won't be too many p&c entries - this tends to be the case when drawers are up against painters in the same category. Is this a good or a bad thing? The optmist in me says: yes, more chance for the work to stand out from the crowd. The pessimist in me says: no, swamped by more colourful subject matter.

Successful exhibitors will be notifed by (e)mail in June. How vague is that! Nothing more specific, can't they give a definitive date? Don't they know that June has 30 days and that as each day passes without news one way or the other the anxiety levels increase.

Now where did I put those pills?