Red Parrots, Watercolour on 640 gsm Arches paper

Four o clock, on a Thursday afternoon! Central London, beside the Royal Albert Hall. Three young gallery assistants help to unload paintings and photos from a van parked in front of the Royal College of Art. Inside, a botanical watercolour and a nude oil on canvas, both at Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery – with a £14k price tag –, rub shoulders with drawing (rising from £500), prints and photographs (£250 upward), and other small and large paintings, which occupy two levels of the RCA. The 20/21 British Art Fair, which has opened on the previous day, is a more modern (figurative) than contemporary (conceptual) art fair. This rather local (national) commodity selling place presented idyllic visions, and occasional thought-provoking art pieces, ranging from the beginning of the twentieth century into present day. A familiar scene occurs when one of the individual character strolling from stand to stand, says «I would rather buy that one over there. It looks more unrealistic». Apart from the wording, I have almost felt being at home, as when walking through the wide obnoxious aisles of the perfidious Contemporary Art Fair, Arte Lisboa.