Thursday, May 31, 2018

MUST VIEW online: 250 years of the Summer Exhibition Chronicle

The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle, 1769–2018 was published last night. It's
  • a record of the first 250 years of the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts;
  • a major scholarly endeavour; and 
  • a TOTAL TIMESINK for 
    • anybody who has been visiting the Summer Exhibition for years and/or 
    • anybody with an interest in art history
The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition A Chronicle 1769-2018
The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition A Chronicle 1769-2018

What is "The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition A Chronicle 1769-2018"?


The Chronicle is a database - and I recommend a wide screen for viewing! The menu can be found in the top right hand corner.

There's also a video which I'm including AFTER the "read more page break" as I'm not sure it's been suitably sized for all devices.

It covers every year of the last 250 years. The decades are down the left handside of the screen and when you click a decade the individual years within that decade open up.

If you're like me you will tend to dive in at the decade when you first started going to the exhibition regularly. As you can see below, each year had a major image - and then small thumbnails for the individual years down the left hand side.


The Introduction (accessed via menu top right of screen) states (with my bullet pointing)
Welcome to The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: A Chronicle, 1769–2018, an open access and peer-reviewed digital publication produced by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The RA Chronicle comprises two main parts. 
  • First of all, it offers a lively and informative year-by-year account of the Summer Exhibition’s remarkable history. This succession of short, illustrated texts, written by more than ninety art historians, curators, artists, and critics, is designed to highlight key issues, works, or artists from a particular year’s display. To provide a broader context for these accounts, each text is accompanied by factual and statistical details, such as attendance and submission figures, relating to that year’s Exhibition. 
  • Second, the RA Chronicle publishes a major digital database that makes the catalogues for every single Royal Academy Summer Exhibition available online as fully searchable texts. 
  • Together, the two parts of the RA Chronicle will be a permanent research resource for all those interested in the history of the Summer Exhibition.

It highlights the fact that the Summer Exhibition has been located at a succession of venues as the RA changed its home - Pall Mall, Somerset House, Trafalgar Square, and Burlington House - and has changed in size over the years in terms of numbers of paintings hung and the number of visitors each summer

The intention was to produce a counterpoint to the theme of the 2018 Summer Exhibition "Art Made Now" - as determined by Grayson Perry.

The notion emerged of providing an idea of how the exhibition has changed every year in the past.
to develop an online art-historical chronicle that focuses on each individual exhibition in turn and discusses something especially interesting about its character or contents. To enable us to carry out this ambitious project, we have asked more than ninety scholars, curators, critics, and artists to produce concise essays, of around 1,200 words each, about individual Summer Exhibitions. Some have written one or two—others a few more.
Do have a look at the gallery of illustrations used across the different years - and if you're anything like me - give yourself the mental challenge of seeing how well you do at recognising them with no clues other than the image!

These relate to the pages for each year which include typically a couple of illustrations to accompany the essay written for that year

You can find out who wrote which year in this Index of Authors

I came across it via this article The Summer Exhibition Chronicle by Charles Saumarez Smith who is the current Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts in London and also a cultural historian. He also wrote the entries for 1949 and 2006.

There is also an Index of Exhibitors - all those who have ever exhibited at any of the 250 Summer Exhibitions covered by the Chronicle. If you've ever exhibited your name is in there!

HOWEVER my experience hiccuped......

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Call for Entries - Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2018

You are now able to upload your digital submission for the 2018 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters

You have until 12 noon on Friday 17 August 2018 to get your digital entry ready and upload it and complete your submission online.

a wall in the Main Gallery last year
This post highlights:
  • Exhibition - a summary of venue and number of paintings to be exhibited 
  • a summary of the Call for Entries process 
    • who can enter 
    • what you can enter 
    • how to enter 
    • the timetable 
  • brief reflections on past years 
  • a summary of the prizes and selection process
  • plus what this exhibition has looked like in the past. At the end are links to all the blog posts I've written in previous years about the exhibition, who won prizes and who got selected - and links to their websites!
This is the first annual exhibition under Tim Benson PROIthe new President of the ROI, and it will be interesting to see what changes are made in how it works and what gets selected for the exhibition.

I think I'm seeing more of an emphasis on painting in oils....
The ROI seeks work in oils and is the only national art society devoted exclusively to oil painting.

EXHIBITION & Events


The exhibition is held at the Mall Galleries between Wednesday 28 November and Sunday 9 December - making 11.5 days in total. Hours are 10am - 5pm but the exhibition closes at 1pm on the last day .

'Paint Live': On Saturday 2nd December (the first weekend of the exhibition) there is an Oil Painting Competition called 'Paint Live' organised by the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. The aim is to encourage the practise of oil painting direct from the subject and it provides opportunities for artist participation with the ROI. Previously there has been an evening event so this looks like a new departure.

I like to provide feedback about the exhibition metrics associated with the previous year's exhibition and the success of non-members in getting their work hung,

The 2017 Annual Exhibition:
  • displayed 300 paintings - limited to the Main and North Galleries only - which I found very surprising given the popularity of oil painting.
  • Of these: 
    • 271 paintings in the main open exhibition (compared to 269 in 2016) 
    • 29 paintings by young artists aged 35 and under (all non-members) hung in a section devoted to the Winsor & Newton Young Artist Awards in the North Galleries
    • 61% were by members and 39% by non members - which in my opinion should aim to improve - in favour of non-members
    • However this means some 90 paintings were by oil painters who did not qualify for the the W&N Young Artist Awards (ie aged 35+)
  • 74 artists were selected from the Open Entry - and almost all were artists who did NOT have an affiliation to any other FBA society based at the Mall Galleries
a favourite corner in the North Gallery last year

The CALL FOR ENTRIES - Process and Key Points


Here is a summary of the KEY POINTS
Acceptable media: Oils.Acrylic and water soluble oil paint is acceptable if it is framed as an oil, so as not to spoil the general appearance of the exhibition. Glazing or wide mounts between painting and frame, as in watercolours, are not acceptable.
  • The deadline for submissions is Friday 17 August, 12 noon
  • Entry for the 2018 competition is digital and ONLINE
  • Images must be in JPEG format and under 5MB
  • Submission fee which includes Free Admission to the exhibition (normally £4)
    • £18 per work at the time of submitting 
    • £12 per work for artists aged 35 or under
  • These are the terms and conditions
  • This is the Call for Entries Page
I RECOMMEND that:
  • You review the images from past exhibitions (see blog posts reviewing past exhibitions at the end of this post) 
  • Have a go and enter two of your best works. The cost relative to the achievement and the experience is negligible
  • This exhibition is particularly supportive of Young Artists and all those oil painters under the age of 35 should feel encouraged to apply
Young Artists Awards wall last year

Who can enter

  • The competition is open to all artists over the age of 18. 
  • It is also open to international entries - you don't even have to be live or work in the UK (However make sure you read the notice about the need to register for VAT to get your artwork into the country)

What you can enter

  • Eligible media includes:
    • oil 
    • acrylic paint or waterbased oils is eligible if framed like an oil painting. (Personally I think they ought to make the point that other media also needs to be used like oil paint can be)
    • Glazing or wide mounts between painting and frame, as in watercolours, are not acceptable.
  • Works should not be larger than 2.4m along the longest dimension.
  • Paintings should be completely dry at the time of delivery.
  • Work must have been completed in the last three years and not exhibited in London previously.
  • Works must be framed for final selection.
  • All work must be for sale. Minimum sale price: £300 
  • Maximum of six works submitted. (Maximum of four works selected)
Some professional artists need to wake up to 'the facts of frames'
Note some of the small works last year were glazed - and this year glazing renders work ineligible for hanging
- and some of the frames in the exhibition did their artwork no favours, 

you should ALWAYS see the art not the frame!
  • Artwork by non-members tended to be smaller which might account for why more sold in numerical and percentage terms. 
  • There's also very clearly an appetite for very realistic paintings of still life involving botanical subjects

The Timetable

  • You can check from Friday 24 August, from 12 noon whether or not your painting has been selected for the final judging in front of the selection panel. 
  • You will be notified on 10th October if your work has been selected

Prizes & Awards

There are many prizes and awards available to win, including those listed below. I've categorised them according to the type of prize.

Entries are reviewed and assessed by The Selection Committee. This comprises artist members of the Society and membership is rotated annually - which means tastes change and your submission may find favour this year!

Cash Prizes

  • The Phyllis Roberts Award - An award of £2,000 to encourage and support young painters
  • The Stanley Grimm Prize - Two awards totalling £700, to the painters whose work receive the most votes from visitors to the exhibition
  • The Alan Gourley Memorial Award - An annual prize of £1,000, awarded for a painting of outstanding merit
  • Winsor & Newton Young Artist Awards (for artists aged 35 or under)
    • First Prize: £1,000 Winsor & Newton Fine Art Materials 
    • Second Prize: £600 Winsor & Newton Fine Art Materials 
    • Third Prize: £400 Winsor & Newton Fine Art Materials
  • The Menena Joy Schwabe Memorial Award - An award of £250 for an outstanding oil painter
Art Materials & Media Sponsors
  • Winsor & Newton Non-Member Award - £150 worth of Winsor & Newton Fine Art Materials
  • L. Cornelissen & Son - An award of a contemporary version of a Victorian Oil Painter's equipment
  • Frank Herring Easel Award - An award of a versatile easel

Marketing / Raising Your Profile

  • The Artist Magazine Award - The winning artist will be featured in a forthcoming issue of The Artist magazine, print and digital editions
  • The Dry Red Press Award - The winning work will be published as a greeting card by Dry Red Press in their 'Prize Winners' range.
Other
  • The Le Clerc Fowle Medal - for an outstanding group of paintings


Previous Exhibitions



You can find links to my previous reviews of exhibitions below.
Links for oil painters

Monday, May 28, 2018

Rewriting your Privacy Statement and Cookies Policy


I wrote Privacy Policies - which covered the use of Cookies - for my websites and blogs yonks ago.

Of course, the advent of GDPR has meant that they now ALL need to be updated to become compliant with GDPR.

However what I did not anticipate was that I would be writing and re-writing the Privacy and Cookies Policies over and over again. (For the record the one for this blog needs rewriting again and my latest / most up to date version is on Art Business Info. for Artists - but that needs more work!

That's because although I read the guidance and knew pretty much what I needed to do it took until 24-25th May before most 'well-informed' people published their new Privacy Policies - which means that I now have a huge reservoir of policies to look at to see which work best for me.

The main difference to what I had before and what I need now is that the Policy now needs to be 

  • spelt out systematically 
  • sit under heading(s) which say 'Privacy Statement' and 'Cookies Policy'.


If you haven't even started writing a Privacy Policy 


I've  decided that when it comes to rewriting you can't fail if you reference the Privacy and Cookies Policies of certain leading websites.

Which is why below you can find links to some of those I feel certain will have got it right. Have a read and then decide what works for you.

Information Commissioner's Office


Where better to go than the website of the Regulator?
  • Privacy Notice (over several pages - but an easy read)
  • Cookies Policy - their deeply nerdy goody two shoes approach has every cookie nailed and explained!

Gov.UK


Always worth checking out what they are doing on the Gov.UK website - they should be leading from the front! This is Gov.UK's

It's kept very streamlined and simple. very much a recommended read. Here's its take on Google Analytics.

Google Analytics stores information about:
  • the pages you visit on GOV.UK
  • how long you spend on each GOV.UK page
  • how you got to the site
  • what you click on while you’re visiting the site
We do not collect or store your personal information (for example your name or address) so this information can’t be used to identify who you are.
We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data.
Google Analytics sets the following cookies.
NamePurposeExpires
_gaThis helps us count how many people visit GOV.UK by tracking if you’ve visited before2 years
_gidThis helps us count how many people visit GOV.UK by tracking if you’ve visited before24 hours
_gatUsed to manage the rate at which page view requests are made10 minutes

The Royal Family


I just assume they have somebody advising them who knows what they are doing!  Here are the policies for the website - AND their operations more generally, which interestingly artists might find interesting given there is a lot of get out and about and interact with other organisations.

Here are their:
  • Privacy Policy
  • Note in particular the two paragraphs relating to cookies on the Royal Family website and Google Analytics cookies - this is what I call stripped back!

The National Gallery


I thought it worth checking what some of the major art organisations were saying.
  • Privacy Policy - set out in chunks with a separate page for each section
  • Cookies Policy - also chunks - the advantage being you can get straight to the bit you want. They have a complete breakdown of all the cookies - which means you have a good chance of finding the ones you need to list

Google

Every Google product seems to reference the Privacy Policy for the country you are located in.

This is the Google Privacy Policy for the UK - with the link found at the bottom of the Feedburner website which I use for email subscriptions to this blog.

Suzanne Dibble


Suzanne Dibble is the lawyer who has grown the GDPR For Online Entrepreneurs (UK, US, CA, AU) Facebook Group from zero to 35,000+ members since February. It's probably the most sensible GDPR Group around - plus it has lots and lots of videos addressing different aspects. Worth a wade through - but a warning - you will be overwhelmed!  It's targeting small businesses more than sole traders.

You haven't got a hope of copying either of the following for her business website (far too canny for that!) - but they are both definitely worth a read

Here is her:

My recommendation. Think of a website and operation that is very like you - and have a look at what they've got to say.

CAUTION: There is no way of knowing who has got it right. However taking a look at the websites of those who SHOULD be setting an example gives us a good steer towards getting our statements right.

and finally.....

All the messages coming out of ICO suggest that they are very much looking towards helping small businesses rather than fining them.

Don't ignore GDPR - but also don't anguish over whether you've got it all 100% right.  If you got it wrong then all the PR suggests that they will be looking to provide guidance in the first instance



Thursday, May 24, 2018

VIDEO: Carl Randall paints 70 people in Piccadilly Circus

This video by Carl Randall documents how he created a very LARGE painting of Piccadilly Circus. 

Crop of part of Carl Randall's painting of Piccadilly Circus
The video is very short (1min 42 secs) and is speeded up so you can see his painting process and how he progresses the painting in terms of
  • the backdrop of the architectural features of Piccadilly Circus
  • the foreground of people - which includes 70 portraits of people painted from life



First he mapped in the background

Next he started painting the individual heads - from life

About Carl Randall


Carl is a figurative artist. The thing that makes his portrait paintings work very distinctive is that he locates people in a cultural context and specific location.

He also likes to paint in monochrome as well as colour.

I first encountered Carl Randall at the BP Portrait Exhibition in 2012 when he had a painting included which I really liked (see Review: BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2012 (Part 2)) plus he won a prize - see Carl Randall wins BP Travel Award 2012.

Since then he has moved from Japan back to London and I've seen his very distinctive portraits from time to time e.g. his London Portraits by Carl Randall were exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery - and two of them are currently in the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Nick Park and Raymond Briggs - painted by Carl Randall
included in the 2018 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
However what I best remember him for is the outcome of winning the travel award - and Carl Randall's Japan - the best BP Travel Award Exhibition ever! I loved it!

On his website you can see:
  • London Portraits
  • Japan Portraits which starts with the very first painting of his that I saw - Mr.Kitazawa's Noodle Bar, Tokyo
  • Japan Sketchbook - monochrome drawings in pencil and ink on paper
  • Videos - more documentary videos about his work - which are an excellent way of sharing artwork!
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Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Artists and GDPR - what would you like to tell the EU (and ICO)?

This is your opportunity to comment on what you think of GDPR and its impact on artists and small art groups/organisations.

I was asked yesterday to provide a comment to a German news organisation and this morning sent them a written response to the questions they asked - see below.

But as an artist or illustrator or arts organisation WHAT DO YOU THINK?

  • are you aware of GDPR?
  • do you know what you have to do to comply with the new regulation as from Friday 25th May 2018
  • have you done anything to date?
  • are you planning to do anything
  • how do you feel about it?

Please comment below - and you never know your comment might also be incorporated!

Reference to previous posts below (re. GDPR background/actions) and a small treat at the end of this post for those who get that far!


I think maybe the ICO website is having a few problems with demand for information
with only two days left before the Regulation becomes operational


___________________________________

questions

  1. How might the GDPR negatively effect artists and artist organizations? Does simple human oversight and a failure to 'opt-in' before May 25 mean that artistic communities could lose contact with many of the people they rely on to survive? 
  2. Why has the 'one size fits all' roll-out of the GDPR been problematic for artists and art societies? 
  3. Anything else you'd like to add?

my response

The EU comprehensively failed to assess the impact of this change in regulation on the sole trader - and artists are no different from any other sole trader in this respect.

The definition I've seen of a micro business is one with less than 250 employees. We all know full well there are very many active sole traders and and thriving small businesses and trading operations which have anywhere between 1 and 10 employees. Two years ago when this new regulation was approved, both the EU and the national agencies responsible for the implementation of this new regulation totally failed to communicate effectively with sole traders and the real micro businesses (i.e. those with less than 10 employees). As a result, they have only succeeded in frightening them and sending them into a spin with very little time left to implement change. I'd liken it to the complete insensitivity of the disastrous change in VAT levied on digital products in 2015 (such as eBook and video tutorials) which was made without any thought whatsoever for the implications for the sole trader.
The EU needs to stop ignoring the fact there are HUGE numbers of sole traders - including artists - operating within the EU.
  • Sole traders are periodically strangled by EU red tape designed to catch the very large organisations who sidestep and/or ignore regulations and tax.
  • Of course, the EU should tackle the lack of proper security of personal data (and evasion of tax etc.) by corporate entities - but they need to make robust and realistic assessments of the impact of their "one size fits all" regulations on sole traders and extremely small businesses in the process! 
  • The level of change is seismic in its impact for a sole/small trader such as an artist compared to companies which can afford to employ individuals to tackle this topic. It's very likely to succeed in causing much anxiety and choking off economic activity at the grass roots.
However due to the very poor communication, I suspect most artists are still not aware that ANY change is happening on 25th May. Very many will not be aware of the complete range of changes they are expected to make. They will undoubtedly carry on as before. Whether this becomes a problem for them in the future is hard to say. I certainly don't think the regulators should be spending their time chasing after artists who probably don't understand much of the language and terms that the regulations and guidance is written in. 

Lawmakers and regulators should very definitely get their priorities in order and focus all their efforts on holding the corporate giants to account!

and finally......


I've been collecting GDPR Privacy Policies - and if you are at the screaming ab-dabs stage with yours you might enjoy reading this one - The Writers HQ - Privacy Policy

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Essential TIPS for First Timers at an Art Fair

I asked a question in the Art Fair Buddies Facebook Group on Sunday and had some amazing feedback - which I'd like to share.

Old Town Art Fair, Chicago rated as one of the top art fairs in the USA
The question was
I'm doing a lecture tomorrow and was wondering if people would care to share YOUR ONE IMPORTANT TIP for those who have never ever done an art fair before.
Sorry for the late notice - I want one slide of "voices of those who have been there/done that" - you say it so much better!
My lecture yesterday at the Heatherley School of Art was on How to make money from your art and it focused on the various ways you can make money from art - via either third parties or by being independent and doing things for yourself and trading independently eg online, in a pop-up exhibition you've organised - or at an art fair.

I wanted to create a two sides of A4 handout for those who had never ever done an art fair before.

Just before the start of my lecture last night at The Heatherley School of Art

The wonderful Art Fair Buddies came up with LOTS of tips which I then recorded in a two sides of A4 Word document and grouped according to the different themes which emerged which are:
  • Logistics Preparation and Set-up - covering: design of your stand, making/painting on your stand; location issues; keeping track of everything and comfort factors
  • The Do's and Don'ts of how to present yourself and behave 
  • Your Art Business - covering Learn how to sell; Pricing and Contacts
That Word document has now been converted to a PDF file which has now been uploaded to:
Alternatively, the direct link to the PDF file - which you can download for free - is embedded in the title of the document Essential TIPS for First Timers at an Art Fair

What are the essential tips for first timers at an art fair?


In summary, these are the tips from the Art Fair Buddies:
  • BEHAVIOUR: the major theme which got the most comments related to how to behave. You must be 
    • friendly and positive, 
    • smile until your smile muscles ache, and 
    • stay upbeat no matter what happens. 
    • BUT don't pounce as soon as people come on your stand)!
  • SET-UP: Various aspects relating to logistics and getting your set-up right also generated an awful lot of comments. Key points were
    • have a checklist
    • have a box of things you need which you never ever unpack!
    • plan the layout of your stand and where to hang/place whatever before you get there
    • think of ways to maximise the use of space within a very small space
    • bring the comfort factor to your stand - whether it's a favourite mug for your cup of tea to flat shoes because you'll be on your feet all day
  • YOUR ART BUSINESS: Finally, people highlighted the need think about your art business:
    • the most important one was to learn how to sell - and close a sale
    • get your prices right for that art fair - and make them visible
    • remember that lots of sales at low prices add up and can cover your costs
    • keep a record of people's contact details (and think about how these now need to be varied for GDPR e.g. no more visitor books!)
I'm wondering what your tips would be.


You can find more advice and information about Art Fairs 
on the Art Fairs page on my Art Business Info. for Artists website

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Art Galleries and GDPR

If you as an artist are sweating over GDPR - otherwise known by its longer name of General Data Protection Regulation - just imagine what it's doing for art gallery owners, directors and managers - and any and all art dealers.

The Financial Times has a particularly good article on this topic A secretive art world grapples with data protection which highlights some of the issues for art galleries and dealers and the scope to tear down the walls they keep around their major asset - information about individual collectors
galleries record extensive personal information about collectors and clients — from their tastes and their buying histories to their private addresses and even their dietary preferences. 
As from next Friday 25th May 2018 (i.e. 5 DAYS LEFT)if a collector enquires, an art gallery has to produce all the  data they hold about an individual.

Then there's the issues of
  • provenance which is important in relation to how long personal data is kept. Keeping a track record of purchases and sales of art is crucial to the maintenance of credibility and value.
  • the black lists - who is not allowed to buy art from a gallery
which appears to be leading to some interesting explorations of which records are and are not subject to GDPR (and hence whether or not they must be revealed).

Cork Street - as was - before the developers got going, pulling down buildings.....

For more about GDPR


What I've written so far

Facebook Groups and Other Resources

Other Articles


DISCLAIMER: I am NOT an expert on this topic - even if I know more than you! Nothing stated on this page is legal advice. Like you I'm just trying to work my way through the maze of online information about GDPR. Hence this resource should NOT be construed or relied upon as legal advice. You are not my client and I do not know your individual circumstances - meaning I have no liability to you in any circumstances should you choose to rely on any of the materials on this page - although whatever is published by the ICO should be more authoritative than most.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Call for Entries - Society of Wildlife Artists' Annual Exhibition 2018

Entries from non-members are welcome for the 55th annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists is open.  

You have until 12 noon on Friday 27 July 2018 to get your digital entry ready and upload it and complete your submission online.

This post highlights the new advisory guidelines on the sort of work the SWLA wants to see submitted.
The Selection Committee of the SWLA seeks to encourage all forms of three and two dimensional artwork (see 'Acceptable media' below) that is based on representing the world’s wildlife. The Committee is particularly keen to encourage all artists with fresh visions to submit work to the Annual Exhibition that shows imagination, artistic ability, originality and genuine creativity.
SWLA Exhibition - Main Gallery last year

Call for Entries: 55th annual exhibition of SWLA


The SWLA call for entries is administered by the Federation of British Artists at the Mall Galleries and you can find more information below and on their website

For full terms and conditions, click here.

Prizes & Awards (subject to final confirmation)

There are many prizes and awards available to win, including:
  • NEW The Terravesta Prize: £2,000 for the best work exhibited
  • Birdwatch Artist of the Year Award (£1,000 plus Swarovski equipment)
  • The Roger Clarke Award: £500
  • The Langford Press Printmaking Award: £200 cash and the winner's choice of ten titles from Langford Press publications 
  • The Langford Press 3D Award: £200 cash and the winner's choice of ten titles from Langford Press publications 
  • RSPB Award
  • Dry Red Press Award
  • PJC Drawing Award
  • Birdscapes Gallery 'Conservation through Art' Award
  • Eligible artists
  • Any artist over 18 may submit.
North Galleries last year

Eligible artwork


The artwork must be of wildlife 
In summary, the SWLA Selection Committee is looking for:
  • two and three dimensional artwork inspired by the natural world
  • work that displays a deep knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, based on ‘in the field’ observation
  • work that reflects a personal, original, and creative response
  • work that displays a high level of technical skill
  • work that showcases interesting approaches and emerging new talent
Wildlife includes any non-domestic animal such as birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, crustaceans and insects.Works depicting domestic animals or purely botanical subjects are not permissible.
Works depicting wildlife divorced from its environment or without place, setting or context are rejected in many cases.
Biological or scientific illustrations are in most cases not permissible.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Review: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition - Unstuffed!

The reason for the curious title is that this year the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters has
  • finally lost its stuffed shirts
  • included more portraits of women
  • improved its hang
  • and members have painted portraits as interesting as the open entry!
It's quite a transformation!

You can read about the Prizewinners at the 127th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in my previous blog post.

This one is just about the exhibition. (Don't forget! If you mention "Making A Mark" at the admission desk you can get Free Entry for Two - normal admission is £4, Concessions £3)

But first some portraits by somebody who has been featured rather a lot on this blog of late

Portraits by Daphne Todd (centre plus two on the left) and Antony Williams (two on the right)
Top left is Daphne Todd's portrait of Des Volaris,
the omnipresent representative of BP on the BP Portrait Award selection panel
The painting in the centre has also had quite a few airings on BBC1 of late.

Exhibition Metrics and the Open Entry


The Selection Committee this year only had two people who were selectors in 2017: Simon Davis and Antony Williams. The rest were new and were Richard Foster (the new President), Andrew James, Anastasia Pollard and Mark Roscoe.

These are the numbers (the "exhibition metrics") 

There are 220 works hung in this exhibition of which 111 works (50%) were by members 

NON- MEMBERS EXHIBITED: 
  • OPEN ENTRY: over 2,000 entries were submitted by non-members
  • The ratio of members' work to non-members is 51:49 - it varies from year to year but overall it appears that the ratio averages out at around 50:50
109 artworks are being exhibited by 92 non-member portrait painters
  • the big change in 2018 is fewer artists are being selected and more are being invited which I guess is another form of selection
  • the good news: around half the artwork in the show is NOT by a member
  • the bad news: less than 5% of the entry gets selected
  • the good news: which is better than the percentage selected for the BP Portrait Award
  • the bad news: however this open entry is more competitive than the RA's Summer Exhibition!

Open Entry

  • 90 works were selected from the open entry and exhibited by 69 artists 
  • The average number of selected paintings per selected artists is 1.3 - most just have one although a few have two or three - typically those who are moving up the ladder towards being invited to be a member
  • Open entries selected for exhibition: percentage selected is less than 4.4% (based on an entry of at least 2,000). This is a reduction on last year due to the increase in artists invited to show a work.

Invited Artists

  • 18 artists were invited to exhibit a portrait - up from just five last year. Typically those invited are artists who have been selected previously and presumably there needs to be a good reason why they are invited (see my example below). Also some (such as Gareth Reid) also had a work selected via the Open Entry
Changing Faces Commissions
Small wonder then that we have the very odd situation where
North Gallery - where most of the open entry typically hangs
In the centre are Carl Randall's portraits of Nick Park, the animator and Raymond Briggs the illustrator
Hero Johnson with her portrait of Sir Alan Parker - and her subject.
Hero won the Changing Faces Prize at this exhibition in 2016
and was shortlisted for the the RSPP Self Prize in 2013 
and was invited by Mark Roscoe RP to exhibit at the exhibition.
She was also selected to exhibit at the BP Portrait Award 2017
What's also very interesting - although I have no statistics to validate this - is that there seem to be a lot more international artists entering the competition - and the Chinese appear very taken with the RSPP!

On that basis I'd expect the international entry to keep on growing....

What has changed


Very few stuffed shirts and lots more women!

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Back stories to exhibitions and activities at the RA

This week saw two television programmes exploring the back stories behind exhibitions and other activities and recent developments at the Royal Academy of Arts

This is to do with:
  • the 250th anniversary of the RA is this year 
  • the fact that "The New RA" opens next Saturday on 19th May 2018. (The Friends Previews are 16-18 May 2018)
Below is a brief synopsis/review of each programme
  • The Private Life of the Royal Academy (BBC2)
  • David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts (ITV)
Plus there's also a treat for Hockneyphiles at the end of this post.

The New RA - new buildings and spaces and activities

The Private Life of the Royal Academy (BBC2)


Discussing plans for the Summer Exhibition 2017

The Private Life of the Royal Academy was shown on BBC2 and can now be seen on iPlayer for those who missed it
See behind the scenes of the New RA in our very own documentary.
This didn't really do much to avoid the notion that the RA is some sort of exclusive club which has only started to get to grips within thinking about adding in more women as members since 2000.

It's been made partly because of the RA's 250th anniversary. Part of me is convinced it has been made for an American audience and future benefactors in terms of what it  focused on e.g. history, the royal connection, lavish dinners etc and the rituals associated with being a member.

It did show you around the RA - although I've seen much of what it revealed on a trip I did in connection with the building project. It showed you how the RA Summer Exhibition worked - from an Academicians perspective and we had an endless number of views of the signatories over the years when people became members and Grayson Perry floating around in another costume that the students at the London College of Fashion have made for him.

It was interesting to hear that the Friends Membership Scheme generates something like £10 million per annum - and is their bed rock of funding in the absence of any government grant.

However I'm a Friend and have been thinking of giving up my membership ever since they took away the Chesterfields in the Friends Room. It was particularly interesting to hear what the membership was supposed to deliver in the early days (i.e. what I want) compared to what it now delivers now i.e. bigger spaces for doing more things which are no interest to me.


Great Art: David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts (ITV)


The Bigger Picture at Burlington House in 2012
David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts is the first episode of the second series of Great Art - featuring Tim Marlow (the Artistic Director at the RA). The programme is based on
  • the 2012 RA exhibition, in the very large main galleries: A Bigger Picture - of outdoor plein-air landscapes, (See my blog post Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture  January 17, 2012) and 
  • the 2016 RA exhibition, in the smaller Sackler Gallery: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life show, 
  • and on extended interviews with Hockney himself.
In the context of the 250th anniversary of the RA it's unsurprising that Tim Marlow wanted to feature the biggest exhibition they've ever had at the RA i.e. the 600,000 people who visited The Bigger Picture in 2012.  There are times when I think Hockney is keeping the RA afloat all on his own.

It's not very penetrating interviewing and I spent most of the time predicting what was coming next - but that might be something to do with how many times I saw A Bigger Picture!

However it was wonderful to see the rooms and the paintings in the exhibitions again. In some ways it was better because of course the rooms are empty and hence you get a much better sense of some of the works.

It tended to focus on the paintings and didn't really do justice to either his drawings or the ipad digital work. It also skipped lightly and quickly over the reasons for moving back and to between California and East Yorkshire.

It's more interesting about the processes of paintings (e.g. each portraits was the product of  three concentrated days of painting - and none of them are commissions) and provides less insight as to why. Other than Hockney likes a big project and a challenge!

What was interesting was hearing extended interviews with two of his portrait sitters RA contemporary curator Edith Devaney and Hockney author Martin Gayford - although we need to remember both probably have a financial interest in making Hockney look and sound good! See also:
Curator Edith Devaney introduces David Hockney’s portrait exhibition, giving an insight into this remarkable series of work and Hockney’s relationship with portraiture, as well as her own experiences of sitting for the artist.
  • Videos on the RA website - In the studio with David Hockney RA (4 minutes) 
David Hockney RA talks to curator Edith Devaney in his Los Angeles studio, ahead of his Royal Academy exhibition '82 Portraits and 1 Still-life'.


The series is adapted from full-length feature films originally released in cinemas under EXHIBITION ON SCREEN.

Bottom line this is a programme which is compiling and using bits of various footage which has been released over the years and re-issuing it in such a way that it feels quite fresh - even when you know you've watched bits of it before!

You can also purchase it as a DVD in the UK, USA and Canada.

More about David Hockney


I've written about David Hockney on a number of occasions on this blog. You can READ my posts BELOW - they're organised backwards by years.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Prizewinners at the 127th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

The annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters opened to the public today at the Mall Galleries and continues until 25th May. Those interested in commissioning artists exhibiting in the exhibition will want to know that a special commissions desk is open throughout the exhibition.

If you mention "Making A Mark" at the admission desk you can get Free Entry for Two (normal admission is £4, Concessions £3)

Below are the prizes, followed by the events - and then details of this year's 'how to enter' if you are interested in entering next year and past blog posts about this exhibition.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend yesterday's Private View due to problems with my feet (the sort that stop you being able to wear shoes!) and I'll be doing a blog post reviewing the exhibition generally just as soon as my feet stop being a problem and I can walk again!

Prizewinners


The prizewinners are listed below together with the prize they won, what it was for and a brief bio.

Winner of The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture


Prize: £10,000 + Gold Medal - awarded for the most distinguished portrait in the Society’s annual exhibition
Winner: James Hague for Mette

Mette by James Hague

Background to the Award

This year's winner of the Ondaatje Prize was born in 1970 and comes from Derbyshire. James Hague's art education comprised
  • National Diploma in Art and Design (1987-1988), 
  • ollowed by BA Hons Fine Art - University of Northumbria at Newcastle (1989-1993) and 
  • an MA Painting - Royal College of Art. London (2004-2006).
His MA at the RCA came only AFTER he had already won the BP Portrait Award in 1996 with a self-portrait. (one can only imagine his application!) His self-portrait was described by the Independent at the time as angular and morose (Check out the Getty Image of him with his self portrait 22 years ago) 

His portrait of Sir Michael Caine, that he was commissioned to paint by the National Portrait Gallery as part of that prize is now in the NPG's permanent collection and regularly on display.

You can see his approach to painting portraits in a speeded up timelapse video produced for the BP Portrait Award: Next Generation Summer School in 2014.

Winner of The £2,000 Prince of Wales’s Award


Prize: £2,000 and framed certificate for a portrait in any recognised drawing medium
Winner: Anna Pinkster for Em and Bruno

Em and Bruno by Anna Pinkster 
“In this charcoal portrait of Em and her beloved cat Bruno I have endeavoured to capture a quiet, reflective moment in time as Bruno neared the end of his life.”
In 1994, Anna Pinkster was awarded a first class BA degree in Fine Art by the West Surrey College of Art and Design. Since then she has exhibited largely in London , Bath and Somserset. She has been elected a member of the Bath Society of Artists

Winner of The £3,000 de Laszlo Foundation Award


Prize: £3,000 plus a Silver Medal for the most outstanding portrait by an artist aged 35 years or under
Winner: Emma Hopkins RP