Learning to be a small fish in a very big pond

No, I’m not exploiting the homeless waiting for a hot meal with my camera, although it appears that way.  I quickly snapped this photo of the line I was standing in to drop off one of my paintings for the Royal Academy of Arts summer exhibition.  The flood of other artists doing the same was quite the reminder that I’m no longer in mid-west America.  Here’s a little insight into the scale of this exhibition:

One of the founding principles of the Royal Academy of Arts was to ‘mount an annual exhibition open to all artists of distinguished merit’ to finance the training of young artists in the RA Schools. Now known as the Summer Exhibition and held every year without interruption since 1769, the exhibition attracts around 10,000 works, the selection being carried out by Academicians chaired by the President.

The Summer Exhibition is the largest open contemporary art exhibition in the world, drawing together a wide range of new work by both established and unknown living artists.

Yes, I’m competing with about 10,000 other artists to get into this show.  I’m not holding my breath. However, you’re welcome to knock on wood or cross your fingers for me.