Ranger and Windrose chasing Velsheda, 2009, Watercolour on paper 30" x 40"

The Caribbean reagatta season begins in earnest this week, with the first gun of the St Barths Bucket on Friday 25th March. Fabulous superyachts shaking out the caution of winter for an exuberant, competitive and often dangerous melee in the azure waters of the French West Indies.

For us Europeans it is a welcome relief from the long gloomy winter, even as the first tinges of colour appear in the trees back home. Elusive green shoots of economic springtime, however, are easily forgotten in A-list St Barths with over a billion dollars’ worth of the world’s greatest yachts chasing each other around the capricious rock-strewn coast in a gorgeous symphony of excess.

The names and the superlatives are all there. The biggest, Maltese Falcon & Mirabella V. The fastest, Leopard. The most beautiful, J’s Ranger & Hanuman. The most elegant, Elena. The coolest, P2 &  Twizzle. The newest, Christopher.

But not me. Sadly this year I’m not there to immortalise it all in charcoal and watercolour. Painting of the Month shows the great J-Class yachts Ranger and Velsheda, with Windrose of Amsterdam leading the field at Antigua. The location’s different but the spirit’s the same. No, I am focusing on architecture, on terra ferma, for now. I am moving into the revered surroundings of GF Watts’ Great Studio the very day the Bucket is won in St Barths.

I am embarking on a series of monumental watercolours, superworks the likes of which have never been seen before, breaking my own records in terms of size and impact,  I will be unveiling my own symphony of excess later in the year  - the biggest, fastest, coolest and newest - watercolours the likes of which the world has never seen. Then I’ll deserve a trip to St Barths next year!