Artist’s watercolour of Trad broken up into little pieces

THIS colourful painting is the perfect gift for a boating
enthusiast.

It depicts the Thames Traditional Boat Festival, which was held in Henley every year for 41 years until last year when it was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The “Trad”, as it has become known, will return to Fawley Meadows over the forthcoming August bank holiday weekend.

This watercolour was painted by artist Bill Mundy, who lives in Wargrave Road and has been attending the event for many years.

A few weeks ago, he was contacted by Wentworth Wooden Puzzles to be told the painting had been selected for one of its jigaws.

Bill, 84, pieced the image together from a series of photographs he took over several years and it features some of his favourite boats, including Gloriana, the Queen’s royal barge.

The painting, which took him about 200 hours, will be on display in the members’ enclosure at the festival and Bill hopes someone might be interested in buying it. He said: “It is a combination of photographs that I have taken at the Trad of Gloriana, a blue royal barge, a couple of moored slipper launches and also a man who made his boat, the paddle steamer. I don’t remember the man’s name, but he is sitting in it with his wife.

“It also has Upper Thames Rowing Club in the background.  

“Then the other month we were walking along the river and saw some Canada geese frolicking around, which were perfect as I was looking for something for the foreground of the painting.

“As the geese are surveying the scene. I’ve called it Gandering at the Gloriana.”

Bill sketched a design for the picture before adding the paint using a mixture of true brush strokes and his specialist technique of pointalism, which comprises thousands of tiny dots.

He said: “I had to draw it all out many times to get a good design and work out where all the boats should be in relation to each other. I spent a lot of time making sure I got the scale of all the elements correct otherwise it would look strange and unrealistic. That was one of the hardest things to do.

“It was not all painted with dots, otherwise it would take me 10 years to do. I did the water, more or less, in strides and smaller washes but when it came to the detailing I would use pointalism.

“I did this with Gloriana, some of the work on the slipper launches and the grass in the foreground.

“The two Canada geese are also very finely detailed, which you would be able to see through a magnifying glass.

“I started off the painting with the Canada geese and then I went for it. I do tend to jump around a bit when I am painting. When I am doing a boring bit I jump on to something else more interesting and then come back.”

Wentworth has used about 10 of Bill’s paintings for its jigsaws over the last 15 years, including one of a Spitfire flying over Henley.

The company contacts him every year to see if he has anything “interesting”. He usually submits about six pictures before learning which one had been chosen.

Bill said: “This one came a bit out of the blue when they said they were interested in it for their autumn collection and sent me a mock-up box so I could see what it would look like.

“They give me a free box of the finished product and I am able to order as many as I like at trade price.”

Bill receives royalties of five per cent from each puzzle sold, which amounts to “a few hundred quid” a year.

The puzzles come in either 250, 500 or 1,000 pieces.

Bill said: “I have ordered about 20 or so of the 250-piece puzzles and a couple of the 500 pieces as they make really good Christmas presents.”

He is looking forward to the Trad returning.

“We all missed it last year,” he said. “I love boats — I have two myself — and I love looking at them in beautiful conditions.”