FINAL Call for Entries: New England Art Club Annual Exhibition 2026

You have until 12 noon on Friday 20th March to submit your entries for the New England Art Club Annual Exhibition.

While the seriously committed will have submitted their entries already, there's still time to submit that work which you are pleased with.

Historically, the New English Art Club was founded by a group of artists dissatisfied with the entrenched attitudes of the Royal Academy

Today, its intent is spelt out by its President Patrick Cullen

At the heart of the NEAC is the search and propagation of meaningful, resonant art. It is committed to authenticity through the observation of life, as well as the task of articulating and communicating ideas with the beauty of skilful language.

FINAL Call for Entries: NEAC Annual Exhibition 2026

Entries from open artists are welcomed.

The NEAC Annual Exhibition is a showcase not only for its members but also for aspiring artists: with a history going back more than a hundred years, it is an opportunity for work to be seen alongside some of the best artists today.

I describe the process below. Here are the links to all relevant pages

• This is the official call for entries https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/open-calls/new-english-art-club
• This is the official entry portal https://mallgalleries22.oess1.uk/
• you need to locate the correct exhibition as this is the entry portal for all FBA Exhibitions at the Mall Galleries
• UNFORTUNATELY the Full Details, Entry Terms & Conditions is a pop-up page and is NOT a downloadable PDF. Which means if you want to make a record for your files / notes - you have to copy and paste into Word - and then you can print it.

NEAC is not an art society which is afraid of colour!
(NEAC Annual Exhibition 2025: End of West Gallery)

If you want to know what NEAC is about, take a look at my pics of the 2025 Annual Exhibition

Last year, the exhibition 389 artworks which included a lot which were big to very big - which made the hang look very crowded to me

Guidelines re Sales and Pricing

You can see the nature and price of the artworks which sold in 2025 by right clicking HERE and opening in a new tab

• 60% were painted in oils
• just over 20% were landscapes and cityscapes
• just over 10% were portraits
• just over 10% were still life
• the remainder covered marine and coastal (4), other (1) and abstract (2)

In terms of sales, 17 of the 50 sales were by open artists - and the majority were by women. I think it not unlikely that most of the sales were heavily influenced by women too.

For the record, although I've not crunched the numbers for 2025, there are some guidelines for open artists if you want to achieve a sale

• sales drop off once you breach £1,500 which I've identified for a long time as an important threshold for sales (i.e. not a lot above this, and these are mostly by members)
• OPEN ARTISTS tend to do better in the £500-£1000 price range and pricing - and this is consistent across a number of the art societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries

Review: Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2026

Last year I was rather tough on the Annual Exhibition 2026 of the Royal Society of British Artists. Principally because I thought they had hung far too many artworks and consequently it was difficult to "see" the art.

As a result I sent a four page critique of the exhibition to the President highlighting various aspects of the exhibition I thought needed addressing and suggestions as to how. I gathered from last week that he had used it as a checklist to review all the aspects I suggested could do with attention.

This year I'm very pleased to say that this year we have a much improved exhibition to view with fewer artworks hung. Plus a much nicer experience at the TWO PVs. The "payoff" seems to be that more artwork is selling.

The West Gallery on Monday

I've now visited it three times:

• at the NEW Private View for Art Collectors - which was very pleasant. We could all see the art properly and the red spots started appearing!
• at the Artists' Private View last Thursday evening when I got to meet a brand new first time exhibitor who I first met 11 years ago. She was so very pleased that her abstracted artwork had sold before the exhibition had even opened!
• Monday afternoon when I was able to get round the West Gallery and view all the artwork in more detail. Plus sat and chatted for ages with former President Mick Davies and printmaker Austin Cole about "exhibitions" which was again very enjoyable.

You can visit the exhibition 

• at the Mall Galleries
• until Saturday 7th March (10am to 5pm)

You can view the artworks online - and buy - via the online exhibition 

You can view the e-catalogue online 

BOTH give you an idea about media, size and price of artwork on display

RBA Annual Exhibition 2026 - view in the East Gallery

You can also see artworks hung on the walls in the three galleries in my Facebook Albums (after yesterdays' hiatus!)

• East Gallery
• North Gallery
• West Gallery 

Facts about the Exhibition

Artwork comprises paintings, fine art prints, drawings, sculpture, ceramics and other 3D work in all kinds of media and but mainly (but not exclusively) a figurative / representative style - and you can see them at the Mall Galleries until Saturday 7th March.

The Mall Wall in the East Gallery

There are 438 artworks hung in the show (compared to 554 last year) - which is still more than I would like to see (c.400 is the optimum number for me) split between:

•  244 artworks by members - nearly 60% (compared to 275 in 2025)
•  194 artworks by open entry artists - just over 40% (compared to 279 in 2025)

Consequently 

• a marginal reduction in members' artwork but a major reduction in the number of artworks selected from the open entry.
• Open artists might like to note that they had 2351 open entries so those selected represented about 8% of the open entry.  Hence you need your very best artwork to get selected!

As a result, this year it's an exhibition which is much easier to view. There is more space between artworks which enhances the individual artworks as well as preventing eye fatigue when viewing art - as happened to me last year.

As a result, they are selling more artwork. Just over half way through, they are one short of the sales for the whole exhibition last year. 

Call for Entries: Society of Wildlife Artists - Annual Exhibition 2025

If you want to enter the 62nd Annual Exhibition by the Society of Wildlife Artists the deadline for entries is 12 noon on Friday 22nd August 2025. (Apologies for this being rather later than usual)

In my opinion, one of the best annual art society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries every year is that by The Society of Wildlife Artists. 

That's because 

• it's uncompromising about favouring artwork which has been created after studying your creature from life (i.e. it is very much NOT a fan of the type of hyperrealist artwork done from a photo without ever seeing the animal or studying it in the wild)

The Society of Wildlife Artists seeks to generate appreciation and delight in the natural world through all forms of fine art inspired by the world’s wildlife.

• displays artwork in a wide range of art media (paintings, prints, drawings, sketches, sculpture, ceramics and other 3D artwork)
• highlights a wide range of styles and colour palettes
• includes artwork developed from projects undertaken by the society and its artists during the year

It is emphatically not boring!

Plus it also has that huge asset known as a solid set of followers and collectors who are both faithful to their preferred artists and are also very interested in new art by new artists.

"The Natural Eye" Annual Exhibition 2024 by the Society of Wildlife Artists
West Gallery at the Mall Galleries

Call for Entries: 'The Natural Eye'

It's worth remembering that it's not coincidental that the name of this annual exhibition is "The Natural Eye". This connects to the emphasis which the SWLA places on artwork conceived, started and sometimes developed to completion while observing wildlife "in the field / sea / air" (past CFE post on this blog)

You can find detail of the Open Call for Entries for the SWLA Exhibition on the Mall Galleries website.

Below this post covers:

• what sort of artwork the SWLA want to see submitted by open artists
• images needed
• online submission only
• who can enter
• what you can enter
• how to submit

Plus pics of the last exhibition and links (at the end) to my blog posts about previous exhibitions and the type of artwork hung.

Key Dates are as follows

• Submissions open: Friday 23 May 2025, 12 noon
• Submissions close: Friday 22 August, 12 noon
• Notification of selection: Friday 5 September, 12 noon (log in to OESS)
• Receiving Day (if selected): Saturday 4 October, 10am to 5pm
• Private View (invite only): Wednesday 15 October, 2pm to 8pm, official opening at 3pm
• Exhibition opens: Thursday 16 October, 10am to 5pm daily
• Exhibition closes: Saturday 25 October, 5pm
• Collection of unsold work: Thursday 30 October, 10am to 5pm

There are a number of awards and prizes which you can see on this page.

"The Natural Eye" Annual Exhibition 2024 by the Society of Wildlife Artists
End wall of the West Gallery at the Mall Galleries

What kind of image should you submit

The Society is seeking works that depict wildlife subjects and evoke the spirit of the natural world.

The Selection Committee welcomes:

• All forms of two and three-dimensional artwork based on representing the world’s wildlife
• Artists with fresh visions that show imagination, artistic ability, originality and creativity
• Artworks that reveal a personal experience or true understanding of the subject

READ the "Exhibit with us" page on the SWLA website which provides excellent advice

 

Who can submit

Any artist aged 18 or over may enter, from anywhere in the world.

(If you are an international artist, you need to read the section on VAT)

What type of artwork can you submit - and what will get rejected

Two art exhibitions in London worth visiting open this week

There are two art exhibitions opening this week in London. I'm guessing both are being hung right now. You can find all relevant details below about:

• Contemporary British Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2025 - in Brixton
• Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2025 - at the Mall Galleries

Which means, for this week only, for those needing a train ticket, you get more than one exhibition worth visiting if you visit between Thursday and Saturday!

Contemporary British Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2025

All the artists at the Private View last year

To date, the CBPP have held two exhibitions in 2022 and 2024 both in Brixton - but they seem to have switched up a gear and seem to be now going for an annual exhibition.

Anybody who is

• EITHER aspiring to either become a contemporary portrait painter
• OR wanting to commission a contemporary portrait from one of the leading portrait painters in the UK

would do well to visit the latest exhibition of the artist collective known as the Contemporary British Portrait Painters.

What I said last year after visiting the exhibition

Their exhibition space is actually very spacious and allows for a good hang. 

The Department Store, 248 Ferndale Road, Brixton
(you just have to get round all the parked bikes!)

Details are as follows:

• Venue: Downstairs at The Department Store, 248 Ferndale Road, Brixton, London SW9 8FR. The nearest station is Brixton (on the Victoria Line)
• Exhibition runs: Thursday 26th June - Thursday 5th 5 July, 
• Hours: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
• Admission: FREE no booking required.

It's also one of the more co-operative and relaxed exhibitions. It's got many of the artists I see on a regular basis each year - either at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters or the Portrait Award at the National Gallery or on television in Portrait Artist of the Year. By which I mean, this is an excellent exhibition.

Five winners of Portrait Artist of the Year at the CBPP Exhibition in 2024

My previous posts are:

• Contemporary British Portrait Painters - Biennial Exhibition 2024
• Contemporary British Portrait Painters 2022 Exhibition in Brixton

Society of Women Artists 164th Annual Open Exhibition 

The second exhibition is by the Society of Women Artists

Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2025

I think it's time for a wake up call for NEAC. I'm guessing quite a lot of what I'm going to say may be thought to be complete heresy - but I'm saying it anyway, because everybody is entitled to an opinion.

When I went to the NEAC Private View for its Annual Exhibition I had a big surprise. 

NEAC Annual Exhibition on PV night

The previous week I had been in and out of the 40th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists which looked amazing in the Galleries. They hung 466 artworks in just the West and North Galleries - themed by subject matter and colour - however most artworks were small or medium size with some large mediums. 

Prior to that I'd visited the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - which was a really impressive looking exhibition - showing a reduced number of portraits (210 artworks hung) generally as a single row for larger works which shows them to best effect -  and appropriate to those likely to commission future portraits. It was a very classy shop window for what their artists can do, some of which can be large.

I walked into the NEAC Annual Exhibition and my eyes were assaulted.  (Check out the banner image on their exhibition page link)

I saw the complete opposite of the two described above.

• there is a huge variety of styles - which is to be expected and nothing wrong with that.
• however artwork was stacked high and close together - making it look very busy. 
• This is a function of how many artworks were selected AND, very importantly, how big they are. 
• I think this maybe dates back to the days when NEAC members liked to think of themselves as budding RA members, despite the fact the society was founded by a group of artists dissatisfied with the entrenched attitudes of the Royal Academy - (where the art was piled high in the Summer Exhibition).

At the heart of the NEAC is the search, propagation, and education of meaningful and resonant art. It is committed to authenticity through the observation of life, as well as the task of articulating and communicating these ideas, with the beauty of skilful language. At the same time, it strives to keep alive the ideals and ethos of its history. About NEAC

• There are 389 paintings hung in the show - whereas there are rather a lot of big to VERY big paintings 
• which made the hang seem VERY crowded to me. 
• I thought back to the extremely good looking recent exhibition by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - who also hang big portraits - but they had fewer works hung. 

A very large artwork on a wall where several are very often hung.

• Lots of artworks were VERY colourful - which is so much better than dull and drab.
• HOWEVER those colours include lots of red and orange - which can be major league "thugs" if there's too much in one painting or in paintings adjacent to one another. Particularly when groups of paintings by the same artist are hung together.
• Bottom line too much red and orange can behave rather like the bully in the school playground whose every move is “look at me”. 
• They shout out and can totally drown out other artworks nearby. I almost always feel extremely sorry for any artist whose quieter work gets hung near a thug.  That's because it's always had its hang dicatated by the thug.
• There’s a reason why such "thug" paintings in museums are almost always hung with LOTS of space around them - which is not the case in this instance.
• to hang them close to other artworks you have to choose more subdued works which then disappear into the wall when surrounded by colourful "thugs". That painting of a garden is beautiful but stands no chance next to the paintings either side. I like subdued and subtle work, which works through a range of tones - but it's been skied and cannot be studied closely - as it deserves-  in this exhibition. It's playing a subordinate role - more's the pity.
• I'd put all the visual thugs together in a small room and let them fight it out and "get the message"!
• PS Don't get me wrong - I love colour - but I'm not fond of visual headaches!

Vibrant colours down more subdued and subtle paintings

In this instance the very colourful artwork gets more subdued artwork either side

What could have been a nice wall of landscapes
- except another red thug needs some more subdued paintings either side

Interestingly NEAC used to regularly hang over 400 artworks in their annual exhibition - but they were typically better organised and less thuggish. While they have always had large artworks, I think some of the large artworks have got much bigger.

Our Annual Exhibition is a showcase not only for its members but also for aspiring artists: with a history going back more than a hundred years, it is an opportunity for work to be seen alongside some of the best artists painting today, held at Mall Galleries in London. About the New English Art Club

The selection and the hang also gives me a feeling of this being a somewhat pretentious exhibition.

I actually left the PV early because I found the experience of the way the exhibition was hung - combined with the number of people at the PV to be just TOO MUCH for me personally. 

• It was an assault on the eyes and ears at the same time - and I very much dislike that. 
• I like to look at art when it's quiet. I doubt if I'll go to another NEAV PV.

For the record I much preferred how the large artworks were dealt with by the hang in 2023.

When I walked into the Private View of the Annual Exhibition 2023 of the New English Art Club (NEAC) yesterday, I was immediately struck by the new approach to hanging the exhibition in the East Gallery (2023 Review)

However, given I always write a review and have been doing for the last 18 years  I went back on Monday to have another look in a quieter environment. 

(see the end for links to all my past reviews of NEAC Annual Exhibitions over the last 18 years - going back to 2007)

I had another surprise - namely all the artwork I could not see at the PV because of bodies!

The need for NEAC to have a BIG Rethink

I think NEAC needs to have a VERY long hard rethink its annual exhibition

Specifically about :

• their approach to private views
• I remember when they used to have Buyers Previews (which were for those, like me, who prefer a quieter environment when they can see the artwork before they buy it)
• the size of artwork to hang in their exhibition
• I'm thinking of doing an exhibitions metrics post for this exhibition which will relate size to price to sales. Should be interesting!
• the price of artwork hung in their exhibition
• there are some artists who sell well elsewhere and on commission - and they aren't going to sell anything at this exhibition unless they paint small - but just because they need to price high doesn't mean everybody else should!! I'd want to see verifiable records as evidence for all those pricing above £2K

In 2023, the Number of artworks sold by price range include
over £2K is just 10% of those hung
over £5K is ZERO
Under £500 is 31% of those hung
priced between £750-£1,000 is 24%
priced between £1K and £1.5K is 23%

• how many artworks a member can submit i.e. the space given to artists
• one very large artwork = 4 medium sized artworks. Is that fair?
• retail prices everything on space - why not exhibitions?
• an artist's track record on sales relative to the space they get
• Everybody needs to make money from the exhibition - to keep the gallery and the society going and to make artists' careers worthwhile - and able to afford their membership fees!
• Anybody thinking open artists are just "pleased to get hung" hasn't been studying the commercial realities of late. 
• a commercial gallery would be looking at ANY artwork from a commercial perspective - and why should it be any different in the Mall Galleries or NEAC for that matter?
• can you keep hanging artists that never sell? Independent Fine Art Galleries not far from the Mall certainly wouldn't.
• I am amazed again and again when I ask leading members about sales how totally  unaware they are of their own society's exhibition metrics
• the lack of ANY price guidelines to BOTH members and open artists - resulting in some interesting insights post exhibition

Specifically they need to think long and hard about what they want the exhibition to look like and how they want to present it.

So, for example, if they want more bigger works then 

• they need to hang less and 
• do very much better marketing to people who have the houses big enough to hang them and the funds to buy them 

Bottom line - do artists really think that those who visit the Mall Galleries have houses big enough to have space for work like this? 

I've not seen big paintings sell at the Mall Galleries for quite a while.

Back when Lewis McNaught was Director, I seem to remember there were rather more evening functions for institutions in the City - and there were rather more people visiting the space with the funds to buy big paintings.

I'm not seeing large paintings sell well - or at all - this year either.

I'm puzzled by the rationale of artists producing big paintings 

• Lots of very big paintings are unlikely to sell. Would they have submitted them if 
• open artists had to pay the going rate for the wall space they occupy? 
• members were limited as to the space they can occupy? (eg x square metres)
• The only paintings which are selling are small. I've counted (twice)

From my perspective big paintings simply reduce the scope for more smaller paintings and add nothing to an artist's career if they don't sell.  This isn't the RP Exhibition with a commission room at the back of the North Gallery!

Prizes & Awards

You can see the artwork which won prizes and the names of the artists who won on this page on the NEAC Website

Interestingly they neglect to include the size and the media and the price.

A Major New Climate Emergency Prize

The exhibition for this is in the East Gallery with every artwork having a green Climate Emergency Prize label

Winner of the Climate Emergency Prize (£2,000)

Reduce Speed Now (Self-heal, Fipronil & Glyphosate) by Nessie Ramm

Oil on aluminium road sign, 120cm x 130cm

I was extremely disappointed to see that the winner of this major new prize has an absolutely  TINY label to announce the prize. Plus it is absolutely impossible to tell who had won as it looked absolutely identical to all the other labels 

I'm particularly gutted as I chaired the panel of judges who gave Nessie Ramm an SBA Fellow Grant to help her exhibit her roadwork verges paintings on traffic signs last year. She deserves better.

Also, if you’re going to have a prize why not hang them all together? It came across as a half hearted hang giving a strong sense of they started focused and then gave up! 

The Artwork

Like last year, the people at the PV and the artwork on the walls is looking different. 

A lot of the artists I started out with many years ago are no longer with us. 

• The days of artists like Fred Cuming are long gone - more's the pity.  
• So very sad to see the last exhibited artworks by Richard Bawden (1936-2024) and Judith Gardner (1952-2025)
• Indeed, there was a drawing of the late Tom Coates by his wife Mary Jackson in the North Gallery
• however the old ladies of NEAC are hanging on in there!

four paintings by Judith Gardner (1952-2025)
who is still winning prizes!

Artworks included the following media:

• paintings - in oils, acrylics, gouache, watercolour, and egg tempera 
• drawings - in charcoal, pastels, conte, colour pencils, graphite, pen and ink and mixed media
• fine art prints (very few) - etching, aquatint, wood engraving, 

In terms of the type of art

• Nearly 50% of the artwork is landscapes and it's well over 50% by the time you add in marine and coastal scenes.
• 22% are still lifes and interiors
• 15% are portraits and figures

You can see albums of my photos of the exhibition on Facebook

• West Gallery
• East Gallery
• North Gallery

East Gallery - on Facebook

Paintings

What I do know is well received are:

• paintings by artists like Melissa Scott Miller - of places people know and which are colourful and cheerful but much less “in your face” and a much more "hangable" size
• rather a lot of paintings by women painters who are becoming very old - but are still painting. People like June Berry (now 100 years old) and Jacqueline Rizvi (now 80) 

A Quiet Street by June Berry

Still Life with Chinese Teapot by Jacqueline Rizvi

• small paintings - by those with limited wall space left!

I liked these two sets even more for the fact they were the complete opposite of visual thugs!

two very plain landscape structures by Sarah Granville NEAC

and 

Two landscapes in egg tempera
by Christine Allman
- the third sold early

Drawings 

There seem to be many fewer drawings than I’m used to seeing in the past. 

• Was this be because they hung large drawings? 
• Multiple instances of thugs hung next to more delicate work as if the latter does not matter
• however there were exceptions - such as the suite of drawings by Felicity House (now 75) who won two drawing prizes.

Watercolour and pastel drawings by Felicity House

Sketchbooks on display in the East Gallery

Sketchbooks

One excellent aspect of this exhibition is the attention to exhibiting as many sketchbooks as possible in both the East and North Galleries

Reference: Past blog posts about NEAC Exhibitions

Call for Entries: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2025

Below you can see my reviews in previous years

• Review: NEAC Annual Exhibition 2024
• NEAC 2023 Annual Exhibition METRICS
• Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2023
• NEAC Annual Exhibition 2022 opens tomorrow (I was still recovering from surgery)
• Three Virtual Views of the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2021 (the Covid Years)
• Review: Annual Exhibition of the New English Art Club 2021 (the Covid masks exhibition)
• Three Virtual Views of the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2021
• New English Art Club - Annual Exhibition 2020 (Part 2) - the end of which got clobbered by lockdown
• New English Art Club - Annual Exhibition 2020 (Part 1) - after being cancelled twice by lockdowns
• A Virtual New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2020 - online now!
• Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2019 - the one in which I had a go at them for calling it an "open exhibition"
• Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2018 #1
• Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2017
• The NEAC Annual Exhibition 2016 at the Mall Galleries
• Prizewinners at the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2016
• Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2015 - the first time it was held in June - at the same time the Summer Exhibition opens
• Review: New England Art Club Annual Exhibition 2014
• Review: NEAC Annual Exhibition 2013 - also known as the exhibition when I started counting red dots at the end of the exhibition

I've been trying to work out how to word this review of the 2013 Annual Exhibition of the New English Art Club 2013. It might more accurately be described as a post mortem.

I've come to the conclusion that it's best just to highlight a salutary tale which is relevant to all art societies. They all have their ups and downs - and this is a tale of a big dip. Review: NEAC Annual Exhibition 2013

• Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2012

this year I'm less excited by the exhibition. It's not that the standards of painting have slipped per se (with a few exceptions) so much as it didn't "zap" me in the way I normally expect it to.

• Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2011
• REVIEW: New English Art Club Annual exhibition 2010
• Exhibition Review: New English Art Club - Annual Exhibition 2009
• New English Art Club - Annual Open Exhibition 2008
• New English Art Club - plus commentary and discussion (2007) 

RBA Rising Stars 2025 at the ROSL and three prizewinners

Earlier this month I attended the Private View and Awards Announcement for the RBA Rising Stars Exhibition at the Royal Overseas League.

View of the PV for the RBA Rising Stars Exhibition 2025 - speeches are getting underway

The Rising Stars art competition does two things:

• it produces a longlist of c.40 young artists (under the age of 35) who become semi-finalisrs for the Rome Scholarship who will have an opportunity to exhibit their artwork in an exhibition at the Royal Overseas League.
• reviewing the artwork and the applications also enables the identification of a shortlist of three artists who then go through a further process of being interviewed for the chance to win the Rome Scholarship - which is certainly a prize any young artist would think worth having 

The 3 Selected Finalists are advised to bring with them for interview any sketchbooks or journals which show their exploration of techniques or development of their ideas

The RBA Rome Scholarship

The competition is held as an Open Call by the Royal Society of British Artists.

• It's open to artists under the age of 35. Those applying need to be:
• living and working in the UK and 
• produce figurative artwork which can be a painting, drawing, printmaking or sculpture. 

This is the link to the Rome Scholarship 2025 webpage. 

It's officially known as The Marianne Von Werther Memorial Award - but in shorthand is also known as the "RBA Rome Scholarship"

The winner's prize comprises

• £5000 prize money
• Four weeks accommodation in a self-contained apartment, situated within a wonderful and extensive walled garden in the grounds of the Sala Uno gallery - a prestigious gallery in the centre of Rome
• Studio space - available within the gallery
• Two meals per day, provided at a nearby restaurant
• Return flights to Rome

The two runners-up also receive £1000 

Plus all three candidates will have one work included in the RBA Annual Exhibition in 2026.

Three Finalists

Here are the three artists who have been selected for a further review of their artwork and sketchbooks as part of a portfolio review / interview.

By way of a preview as to the challenge of the choice for this Scholarship, I will say that the last two winners of this award (Joshua Donkor 2024 and Aelfred Hillman 2023) are both producing exceptional art which is selling phenomenally well.

Below are the three young finalists for 2025 - who were announced at the PV

• TF Ashley @tfashleyart an artist and illustrator based in Oxford, UK. His recent work focuses on large-scale drawing in a wide variety of styles and traditional media and explores our shared human experience, engaging with themes such as identity, migration, and socio-political realities.
• Katie Kaur @katiekaur.art- a half-Indian British artist based in London, currently studying for an MA Painting at the Royal College of Art. Her work seeks a visual language that bridges the material and sensorial, the ephemeral and the physical.
• Ken Nwadiogbu @kennwadiogbu -  a Nigerian-born multidisciplinary visual artist, based in London. He's a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London (MA Painting).  He creates innovative conceptual drawings and paintings on various surfaces as he engages in multidisciplinary modes. He has also exhibited internationally.
  

The three finalists with the RBA team

The three artworks by the finalists for the Rome Scholarship

Review: Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2025

RBA Annual Exhibition 2025: East Gallery

This is one of my very analytical posts - for an important reason. The story unfolds below....

Last Tuesday I was at the extremely well attended Private View of the Royal Society of British Artists.  It was very pleasing to see a much better mix of members and open artists work aross all three galleries at the Mall Galleries. (for how to visit, see below)

This is my review of what I found. My guess is there may well be a significant post mortem after this exhibition. For a number of reasons.....

• the size of the Exhibition
• Initial Sales - a variation on "less is more"?
• Social Media Marketing
• The Private View

with another more generic post tomorrow about Private Views and another post on Wednesday about the art that I liked, where it will get highlighted more than in this already long post.

Yesterday, I went back to take more photos, as the galleries had become too crowded before I'd finished on Tuesday. A second visit after the PV also offers the chance for another and much better look at the exhibition.

 

Facts about the exhibition

There are 554 artworks hung in the show split between:

• 275 artworks by members
• 279 artworks by open entry artists

I applaud the RBA for achieving a 50:50 split in terms of artwork hung between member artists and open artists. That's a significant achievment and is also the mark of a "proper" open exhibition.

The artwork selected comes from 3,843 submitted images. To give you a sense of what that represents it's bigger than the entry for some major art competitions. There's a lot of younger people who now want to show with the Royal Society of British Artists. There's also a lot of people who would like to get their hands on some of the very significant cash prizes.

Artwork at the entry to the West Gallery

You can see the exhibition at the Mall Galleries ( in The Mall in London)

• Open every day (10am-5pm)
• Exhibition Finishes: Saturday 8th March 2025 at 5pm
• Admission £6, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries and under 25s. Concessions available. No booking required.
• Catalogue is available at the Gallery - or you can view it online
You can also see the artworks in the exhibition ONLINE via
• the Mall Galleries Shop website shop - 60 artworks to the page + you can see the media used easily
• The Royal Society of British Artists website

I will also be uploading my photos of the three galleries to my Facebook Page in three seperate albums for the West, East and North Galleries.

RBA 2025
End "Feature" Wall in the West Gallery 

The Size of the Exhibition

Mostly I found, as I usually do, a very wide range of styles and media used in paintings, drawings, printmaking and sculpture. There's probably something for everyone.

Mostly it was good work, although it certainly included artwork I personally would have edited out at the selection stage.

The thing is I'm experiencing real difficulty conjuring up the exhibition in my minds eye.

I can do it if I look at my photographs - but I normally don't need to do this

I have the sort of brain which remembers good exhibitions extremely well. I can walk around them in my head. I can remember exactly where certain paintings I like are situated - and what artwork is near it. I can remember that for a very long time afterwards. For some exhibitions I can do the walk around in my head somes months and even years after the actual exhibition. 

So to have difficulty recalling more than small sections of the exhibition causes me concern. 

I came to the conclusion that I was faced with VISUAL OVERLOAD.

Call for Entries: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2025

I should have written about the Open Call for Entries to the New English Art Club weeks ago! So apologies for that. 

This is a reminder that the DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES is Friday 14 March 2025, 12 noon

Most of this post is about how to enter - but I'm starting with two important considerations as to whether and why you might want to enter.

• whose artwork gets hung
• what prices artwork sells for

View of the East Gallery at
the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition in June 2024

Who gets hung

There have been two major changes in recent times. 

• For a very long time (i.e. most of the time I've reviewed the exhibition) the open entry artists who got hung used to be dominated by members of other national art societies who also wanted to be members - but that has changed 
• The ratio of artworks by members to non-members has changed and become more like other FBA Art Societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries. (I bleated at PVs for years about "you can't call an Open an Open if 80%+ of artworks hung were by members!")

Last year the 409 artworks which were hung were distributed in the following percentages. This conforms to the now more usual notion that at least one third of artworks need to be from people who are not members of national art societies

Bottom line - there's now a much better chance of an open artist getting hung than happened in the past. 

While some open artists get more than one artwork exhibited, the majority only get one selected - so make sure you enter your very best!

Pricing is VERY important

The Messanine Wall always has a lot of small and affordable artworks

Another important thing you need to know before you proceed to consider "how to enter" concerns pricing of your artwork. 

This is important. You could waste your time if you want to sell but don't read this first.  

Below are two charts which indicate what artworks sold for in the 2023 and 2024 exhibitions across different price ranges. The second differentiates between members and open artists.

• the 2023 chart compares artworks sold to artworks hung across various price ranges. Note that sales drop off once you breach £1,500 which I've identified for a long time as an important threshold for sales (i.e. not a lot above this, and these are mostly by members)
• the 2024 chart indicates that OPEN ARTISTS do better in the £500-£1000 price range and pricing above £1,500 is tantamount to not minding spending a lot of money on entering and transporting an artwork TWICE (to and from the galleries) for no sale.

ING Discerning Eye 2024 Exhibition

The ING Discerning Eye 2024 Exhibition is currently on at the Mall Galleries in London and I visited last Friday. 

Unlike other exhibitions, five days later there's nothing much which comes to mind when trying to recall it - apart from a few pieces which were standout ones for me. That's essentially because it is overloaded with small artworks but maybe something else as well.....

paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture in the ING Discerning Eye 2024

The exhibition is unique because of the way it is put together.

Six people - two artists, two critics and two art collectors - pick what they like best from the open entry and also get to exhibit artwork by artists they like. 

The selectors this year are listed below - together with some views of their individual exhibits

You can also see the exhibition online - by selector. I'm putting the link underneath each pic of their exhibit below

Artists

• Adebanji Alade - current President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters; he also features regularly on the BBC’s The One Show
• Nina Murdoch - She trained at the Slade School of Fine Art (1989-93) and at the Royal Academy Schools (1993-96), and was the winner of the inaugural Threadneedle Prize (2008).

part of the exhibit by Adebanji Alade (134 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/adebanji-alade/

part of the exhibit by Nina Murdoch (105 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/nina-murdoch/
(who had the most difficult and fragmented space - next to the cafe)

Critics

• Paul Carey-Kent - he has weekly column for FAD art news, does monthly interviews for Artlyst and freelances for various art news publications. This is his blog post about the exhibition and his chosen artworks
  
• Will Gompertz - an English journalist, author and art critic. He was the BBC's arts editor before becoming he Barbican Centre's Artistic Director in June 2021 and the director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in 2024.

part of the exhibit by Paul Carey-Kent (119 artworks) in the North Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/paul-carey-kent/

part of the exhibit by Will Gompertz (107 artworks) at the end of the West Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/will-gompertz/

Collectors

• Carol Leonard - has been dubbed the ‘doyenne of boardroom head-hunters’ by the Financial Times.
• Gabrielle Blackman - one of the country's leading interior designers.

two walls of the exhibit by Carol Leonard (115 artworks) in the East Gallery
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/carol-leonard/

part of the exhibit by Gabrielle Blackman (124 artworks)
https://ingdeexhibition.org/gallery/gabrielle-blackman/

What seemed very weird to me this year is that I found it quite difficult to distinguish between the individual selectors - with the exception of Will Gometz and Paul Carey-Kent - who happen to be the art critics - who both produced quite distinctive "looks" to their two exhibitions. 

Who knew it would be the art critics who would present me with the best visual experience?

Lessons from this Exhibition 

The thing about this exhibition, which is its unique distinction - a wealth of small artwork - is also what makes it very difficult to view on occasion.

I usually come out feeling as if I've just had a visual overload.  But there's overload and then there's indigestion.