Beyond The Chase

Savill's Swing Stumps Sultan

You will probably wonder, when you next go racing, whether the meeting will be abandoned or mucked around by strike action of one sort or antoher. However, if you want guaranteed actgion with no boycotts and the added bonus of culture, you'll find it aplenty - albeit on canvas - at Peter Curling's stunning exhibition of recent paintings at The Gallery in Cork Street, London.

No good to you if you live in Scotland? Wrong, Entitled "Venice, Tipperary and The Turf" his work can also be viewed on www.petercurling.com, so unless you live in Scotland without Internet access, there is no excuse.

Peter has come along way since his first exhibition, aged 14 in the canteen at Lambourn Enineering, as likely as starting place for one of the world's foremost racing artists as the Old Berks Hunt pantominme would be for an Oscar winning actor. Then, his work sold for up to £20; now, you could add another three noughts and it's still a good investment.

He likes painting locations he is familiar with and that is evident with his Tipperary landscapes and scenes from Ballydoyle (he's been given the password) and Killeens (Edward O'Grady's etablishment). Another string to his bow is the work on Venice. I always wondered if his going there for a couple of months each year was a holiday but now I know. His studies of gondoliers in the Cannareggio are every bit as evocative as jockeys at the start of a race. I'm never going to get a job as an art critic, I know, but I can't recommend the exhibtion enough.

Apart from being a painter, Peter couldn't be Irish and live in Tipperary without a few horses of his own. One of them is Inca Trail, Best Mates' full brother but, at the moment, half as good. Trained by Henrietta Knight, he's going novice chasing this season and the best, the hope is yet to come. he's also had a bit of luck with a good looking but incredibly slow point to pointer called Hoch Magandy (a rather poetic Scottish phrase meaning "sexual intercourse" - for the purposes of recreation rather than procreation).

Of course, being an artist is not without its moments. A few years ago he was commissioned to do a portrait for the Sultan of Brunei and, at roughly the same time, one of Celtic Swing for Peter Savill's wedding. When he was happy with the results, they were bubble wrapped up in the studio and the Sultain's was sent out to Brunei.

The great work of art was duly unwrapped at a ceremony by the Sultan himself. A picture of anticipation, he was delighted, though somwhat mystified, by the end result - a painting o Celtic Swing, Luckily, by this stage, Peter Savill hadn't quite got married, so the paintings could be swapped before he was presented with a portrait of the Sultan.

Diary - by Marcus Armytage