Call for Entries: Royal Institute of Oil Painters

You've got less than a week left to submit an entry to the Annual Exhibition 2024  of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the Mall Galleries which opens on 28th November 2024.
I'd normally writing about this in August - but as regular readers will know I was on a lengthy break for various reasons.

So the first thing I need to tell you is that the deadline for online entries - to to submit your digital image of your artwork / form / fees ONLINE only - is Friday 4 October, 12 noon 

The ROI Annual Exhibition typically exhibits around 300 artworks by both members and those selected via the open entry. 

The ROI is the only major British art society that promotes and exhibits work of the highest standard exclusively in oil paint.

This blog post covers this Open Exhibition - and:

• who can enter
• what you can enter
• how to enter

Call for Entries - ROI Annual Exhibition 2023

You can find the official and FULL Call for Entries here on

• the Mall Galleries website
• the ROI website
• the portal to the entry screen

Plus this is the link to the Full Details, Entry Terms & Conditions

Below is a Summary of the different aspects of the Call for Entry - plus MY COMMENTARY.

I would love to see more artists having the chance to exhibit alongside us at this prestigious event. When I had my first chance, I was over the moon and just being associated with this society has really boosted my career in the most positive ways.
Adebanji Alade - President

WHO can Enter

Artists are invited to submit work for exhibition alongside members of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the ROI Annual Exhibition 2023. ROI Exhibition Page

• 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 International Artists need to make sure they read the Mall Galleries/FBA Notice about the need to register for VAT to get your artwork through Customs and into the UK!  
• You might also find my webpage about International Art Shipping: How to ship / export art to other countries useful.

What you can enter

Portraits of people in oils
at the ROI Annual Exhibition 2023 (East Gallery)

SUBJECT MATTER

Artists may submit work on any subject matter.

ORIGINAL ARTWORK NOT PREVIOUSLY SEEN

Basically NEW to the Mall Galleries and less than 3 years old.

ALL artwork submitted MUST

• have been completed within the last three years and 
• must NOT have been previously exhibited at the Mall Galleries (i.e. if you've submitted it to one of the other art societies that exhibits at the Mall Galleries - and it was selected for exhibition you cannot submit it to this exhibition)

ACCEPTABLE MEDIA

I declare victory for common sense!  Last year and the year before in my Call for entries posts, I had a go at the ROI and the Mall Galleries for what was clearly confusing advice as to eligible media - which IMO bordered on being in conflict with mandatory regulations re marketing - and this year it has been sorted!!

I'm really pleased to acknowledge that the ROI is truly exclusive to entries in oil paint.

The definition of acceptable media is now as follows (with my choice of highlighting for what is now EXCLUDED!)

Oils. The ROI promotes and exhibits work of the highest standard in oil paint.

Water-soluble oil paint is acceptable if framed as an oil, so as not to spoil the general appearance of the exhibition.

Acrylic is no longer accepted

Most of the selected works have always been in oil paint i.e. high 90% so this shouldn't be an issue for the look of the exhibition

However this change may well affect all those artists submitting via the open entry in acrylic who will now need to find alternative exhibitions to enter - or start painting in oils.

NUMBER OF ENTRIES

Call for Entries: Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2023

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters invite entries to its Annual Exhibition 2023 at the Mall Galleries which opens on 29th November 2023. This blog post covers this Open Exhibition and:

• who can enter
• what you can enter
• how to enter

It also covers what, in my opinion are two serious mistakes.

The deadline for entries is 12 noon on Friday 6 October to submit your artwork / form / fees ONLINE only.  

Call for Entries - ROI Annual Exhibition 2023

You can find the official and FULL Call for Entries here on

• the Mall Galleries website
• the ROI website

There's not been a lot of marketing of this Call for Entries by either the ROI or Mall Galleries - I only spotted it this week!

Below is a Summary of the different aspects of the Call for Entry 

- plus MY COMMENTARY. 

(UPDATE: I should add that I emailed the President of the ROI before I published and he's written back to say that the ROI Council will consider the points made for the future.)

View of the East Gallery at the ROI Annual Exhibition 2022

WHO can Enter

Artists are invited to submit work for exhibition alongside members of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the ROI Annual Exhibition 2023. ROI Exhibition Page

• 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 International Artists need to make sure they read the Mall Galleries/FBA Notice about the need to register for VAT to get your artwork through Customs and into the UK! (See the last bullet point under Sales in the Call for Entries re the need to register for VAT). You might also find my page about International Art Shipping: How to ship / export art to other countries useful.

View of North Gallery - ROI Annual Exhibition 2022

WHAT you can enter

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters was founded in 1882 and is the only major British art society that promotes and exhibits work of the highest standard exclusively in oil paint. ROI Exhibition Page

Acceptable media: Oils. Acrylic and water-soluble oil paint is acceptable if framed as an oil, so as not to spoil the general appearance of the exhibition. 

The ROI have a problem with the wording of the Call for Entries (and website). I explicitly noted the problem with the Call for Entries and the two statements above last year. I warn about issues once and, if not addressed, the following year I spell out why it needs to be addressed - which is what I'm doing this year.

The two statements above are ambiguous, contradictory and misleading which means they are very unlikely to be compliant with The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code)

A Call for Entries is a direct marketing communication. I'm not sure many art societies are aware of this, but it applies to ALL marketing communications on the Internet, print publications, advertisements and promotional material - including websites. Compliance is also NOT optional!

The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) is the rule book for non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing communications (marketing communications). (CAP Code)

In my opinion, the ROI really MUST review the use of the word 'exclusively' on the ROI website (and Mall Galleries website). All that needs to happen is either:

• EITHER: delete the word "exclusively" and have another think about how to describe the ROI and acceptable media
• OR: delete non-oil paints from eligible media since it's impossible to be "exclusively in oil paint" - and then accept other paints e.g. acrylic which are NOT oil paints! ( i.e. a frame does not change a media!!)
• AND make sure all communications comply with the CAP Code in every respect.

Number and percentage of works - by medium

- in the ROI Annual Exhibitions 2014-2019

The number of works exhibited each year typically varies between 270 and just over 300. 

I RECOMMEND that artists submit artworks in oil paint only via the Open Entry.

In relation to other matters there are various requirements

• Age: All artwork must have been completed within the last three years 
• Previous Exhibitions: Artwork must not have been previously shown at Mall Galleries.
• Presentation: 
• Paintings should be completely dry at the time of delivery
• Wide mounts between painting and frame, as in watercolours, are not acceptable.
• Glazed work is not encouraged.
• Unframed work can be accepted if on a well-presented box canvas.
• Works that are poorly presented or differ significantly from the photograph entered will not be exhibited.
• Exhibition Theme: 
• This year’s mini theme is ‘Urban Life’, which can be interpreted widely. 
• Artists are encouraged to contribute a work on the theme, however it is not compulsory.
• Number of artwork submitted: A maximum of six works may be submitted
• Number / size of artwork selected: 
• A maximum of three works may be selected.
• The combined measurement of works accepted will not exceed 8 feet maximum per artist.
• For Sale: 
• Work must be for sale, unless portraits.
• The minimum sale price is £500.
• All prices must allow for the deduction of commission @45% plus VAT %20% on the commission sum and the cost of the frame and shipping (there and back if unsold).

I'm very concerned that the minimum price has been raised to £500 for a number of reasons. I can only assume this is the product of some misplaced notion that eliminating very affordable art will increase sales and income. This is wrong. If anything the emphasis should be on making artwork more affordable.

Key Pricing Points - based on analysis of actual data:

Review: Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2022

This exhibition is on for longer than most of the annual exhibitions of the art societies based at the Mall Galleries. The Annual Exhibition 2022 of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters opened at the Mall Galleries on 24th November and closes on 10th December.

This is a review of what I found when I visited in the first week. I've previously written about the prizewinners in Prizewinners at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2022

Annual Exhibition 2022

This exhibition comprises 285 paintings which are hung in the three galleries at the Mall Galleries. (This compares to 304 in 2019 which was the last ROI exhibition I went to and is the second lowest total since 2014)

The first thing is that I've uploaded my photos of the exhibition to my Facebook Page - by gallery - as follows:

• West Gallery
• East Gallery
• North Gallery
  

Part of the hang in the East Gallery

Part of the West Gallery

I've highlighted paintings I liked and/or was intrigued by through photographs of the  individual paintings.

You will appreciate that I've reviewed such exhibitions many times - although I've missed the last two ROI Annual Exhibitions due the pandemic and shielding prior to surgery. (I got as far as the hospital a year ago today - before being sent home again!)

So I'm splitting this review into two halves

• what I noticed
• what I liked.

It's always interesting to do a review a little while after a visit to see if you still think the same as what you noted at the time.....

What I noticed

Themes for my commentary are as follows

• Groups of artworks by members
• Changing Times (Theme)
• Young Artists
• Small = Affordable?
• Framing
• Media
• Sales

Groups of artworks by Members

I liked the grouping of artwork by members with very distinctive styles. It makes for a more impactful presentation.

Just Stop Oil now threatening to slash artworks

The ignorant idiots who've been assaulting artwork around Europe are now reportedly threatening to start slashing paintings - despite the fact the oil in the paintings is nothing to do with the oil they are protesting about.

• Just Stop Oil considers slashing famous artworks as it threatens to 'escalate' protests | Sky News
• Just Stop Oil could slash famous paintings like Suffragettes, says spokesman | Evening Standard

Alex De Koning, a spokesman for Just Stop Oil, said it was "insane" that "more people are outraged" about the activists targeting artwork than the devastating floods in Pakistan, which displaced millions of people.

The 24-year-old - who describes himself as a climate scientist - told Sky News that the protest group may follow in the footsteps of suffragettes who "violently slashed paintings in order to get their messages across".

In 1914, Mary Richardson attacked Diego Velazquez's painting The Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver in a protest against the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst.

Later that year, suffragette Anne Hunt entered the National Portrait Gallery and hacked away at a painting of Thomas Carlyle, one of the gallery's trustees. (Sky News)

The most ludicrous excuse is that they're going to act "like the Suffragettes"

Clearly these ignoramuses have never studied history. As my other half pointed out this morning the spokesman 

• neither understands how suffrage was actually achieved 
• nor how to get people on their side.

The FACTS are:

• the movement for women's suffrage started in 1872
• it became a militant campaign in 1906

However over the course of 42 years absolutely nothing was achieved in terms of change in suffrage prior to World War I.

Women got the vote after the First World War only AFTER women had thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the war effort.

• the outbreak of the First World War saw all political activity suspended - including the suffrage movement
• After the War, Lloyd George wanted to recognise the efforts of those who had contributed to the War Effort and in 1918 Lloyd George's Coalition Government passed the Representation of the People Act 1918, enfranchising 
• all men over 21, 
• as well as all women over the age of 30 who met minimum property qualifications.
In 1928 the Conservative government passed the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 equalizing the franchise to all persons, male and female, over the age of 21.

My other half said he did not understand why those protesting did not grasp that aggressive, combative and damaging protests rarely if ever achieve anything. Nor do they achieve public support if they constantly annoy the public at large.

In contrast peaceful non-aggressive protests can be much more successful.

So, he asked, why do the protestors not act voluntarily to do something of positive and public benefit to the community at large - while wearing clothing indicating they are "#Just Stop Oil" Protestors.

I think he's making a great point.

In the meantime I notice that 

• protestors are acquiring criminal records and sentences of 6 months in prison.
• the security at major art galleries and museums has been significantly toughened up since their "attack" efforts started.

National Gallery in Trafalgar Square this month (November 2022)

REFERENCE

• Just Stop Oil is both destructive and IGNORANT!
• Why throw tomato soup at a Van Gogh painting?

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2022 & Events

This week the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters opens to the public at the Mall Galleries on Thursday, 24th November 2022. 

I haven't been to one since 2019 - so am really looking forward to going this year. This is after the ROI experienced the worst luck possible of having both its 2020 and 2021 exhibitions clobbered by you know what - plus I was avoiding exhibitions pre-surgery last year.

That said, I'm still not attending Private Views (I'm still averse to large crowds indoors), so I'm not going to be visiting until Friday at the earliest so thought I'd take the opportunity today to highlight below

• the Online Exhibition - which you can view now
• the many Events - including painting with the ROI members - being held during the Exhibition

ROI Annual Exhibition 2022

Venue: Mall Galleries
Dates: 24 November 2022 to 10 December 2022
Hours: 10am to 5pm
Admission: £5, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries, ROI Friends, under 25s. Concessions available. No booking required.

ROI Online Exhibition

You can view the ROI Online Exhibition of all the artwork selected for the exhibition in 2022 on the Mall Galleries website.

You can also view the ROI Catalogue on ISSUU. This includes images of artwork by members and the complete listing of all the artworks and artists - with media and prices - in the exhibition

Landscape paintings by members of the ROI in the Exhibition Catalogue 2022
(Left clockwise: Andrew King, Julia Hawkins, Tom Stevenson; Right: Nicholas Verrall)

It was very sad to see from the catalogue that the ROI has lost five members in the last year - in alphabetical order

• Brian Bennett ROI
• Fred Cuming RA NEAC Hon RGA Hon ROI (1930-2022)
• Derek Daniels AROI (1912-2022)
• Neville Fleetwood (1932-2021)
• Ken Howard OBE Hon RBA PPNEAC RA ROI (1932-2022)

ROI Events at the Annual Exhibition 2022

Some of these events involve painting and hence require some planning ahead of time - so best to highlight BEFORE the exhibition!

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2022

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters invite entries to the OPEN Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in November 2022. The deadline for entries is Friday 9th September 2022 so you've still got time to be get organised and get your entry in. 

This year’s theme is ‘Changing Times’, which can be interpreted widely. 

The last Private View of the ROI I went to - in 2018

I always like to give people a point of reference for entries in terms of images of the last exhibition

So I've spent this morning looking for my photos of last years exhibition - only to realise that the ROI has been really, really unlucky in that its annual exhibition is held late in the year and got caught by pandemic scares / lockdowns in both 2020 and 2021. I was being very cautious well before lockdowns, so I've not seen an ROI Exhibition since 2019!

However there is a video tour of the 2021 exhibition - which was hung - and the catalogue is available on Issuu

and a video of the 2020 exhibition - which is an hour and half long - see below

Peter Graham ROI talks about eighty of the works in this year’s show, including paintings by long-established ROI members as well as pieces by non-member artists selected from open submission.

Call for Entries - ROI Annual Exhibition 2022

You can find the official and FULL Call for Entries here on

• the Mall Galleries website
• the ROI website

Below is as a summary ONLY.

Interestingly I note the new website indicates on its home page that

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters was founded in 1882 and is the only major British art Society that promotes and exhibits work of the highest standard exclusively in oil paint.

However I note that the Call for Entries still states "Acrylic and water-soluble oil paint is acceptable if framed as an oil, so as not to spoil the general appearance of the exhibition." so I think maybe somebody needs to review the use of the word 'exclusively' on the ROI website.

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 International Artists need to make sure they read the Mall galleries/FBA Notice notice about the need to register for VAT to get your artwork through Customs and into the UK! You might also find my page about International Art Shipping: How to ship / export art to other countries useful.

What sort of artwork can you enter

• Eligible media includes: oil. Acrylic paint or water based oils are eligible if framed like an oil painting. Below is a table I constructed from reviewing the works selected for hanging in previous exhibitions. Over 90% of artwork has been in oil in the last six hing exhibitions between 2014-2019.

Number and percentage of works - by medium - in the ROI Annual Exhibitions 2014-2019

• Size: The combined measurement of works accepted will not exceed 8 feet maximum per artist
• Age: Work must have been completed within the last three years 
• Previous Exhibitions: it must not have been previously shown at Mall Galleries.
• In terms of presentation there are some very specific guidelines 
• Wide mounts between painting and frame, as in watercolours, are not acceptable.
• Glazed work is not encouraged.
• Unframed work can be accepted if on a well-presented box canvas.
• For sale: Work MUST be for sale
• the minimum sale price is £300. 
• Note that any prices must allow for the deduction of commission @45% plus VAT %20% on the commission sum - so for a work priced at £500 you will receive £230 after the deduction of commission (£225) plus VAT on commission (£45). The price also needs to cover the cost of the frame and shipping (there and back if unsold). 

This year’s theme is ‘Changing Times’, which can be interpreted widely. Artists are encouraged to contribute a work on the theme, however it is not compulsory. If a work is on the theme, please elaborate on how in the artwork description box.

How to enter

All work must be submitted online - and pre-selection also takes place online.

If you make it through the pre-selection from digital images, you're then invited to take/send your artwork to the Mall Galleries for final selection for hanging in the exhibition - in front of a panel of ROI members.

This is the process you need to follow:

Just Stop Oil is both destructive and IGNORANT!

For many years, I used to visit the BP Portrait Awards Night at the National Portrait Gallery to photograph the winning artists. In doing so, I used to have walk past the demonstrators against BP's sponsorship of this important portrait competition.  I said "Excuse me" and they kindly moved to let me pass. Respect on both sides.

I understood where they were coming from. It made sense - even if I disagreed with them - as explained in a series of posts about sponsorship of art (see end of this post)

However words very nearly fail me when it comes to some of the utter stupidities of the Just Stop Oil's initiatives in relation to art galleries and famous oil paintings - but not quite.  Hence this post!

The demonstrations

Graffiti sprayed onto walls of art galleries and glueing themselves to paintings
is standard practice for these demonstrators

To date there have been various demonstrations around the UK involving destruction of property and demonstrators gluing themselves to very old artwork and archival frames as follows

• June 29th - Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum - 
• July 1st - Manchester Art Gallery
• July 4th - National Gallery
• July 5th - Royal Academy

Not so one of my followers who very neatly summed it up when he pointed out 

It's the wrong sort of oil!

or another who commented

Ian Dugdale
Just think about all the petro-chemical solvent that will be needed to remove all the graffiti. Wouldn’t be needed without their actions.

So let's highlight 

• it's the wrong sort of oil
• the wrong places are being attacked for no good reason

The one on the left apparently enjoys foreign holidays involving lots of flights

The wrong sort of oil

Some of the protestors are art students.

You'd think they'd know that oil paint has nothing whatsoever to do with petroleum!

The oil used in oil paint is very often linseed oil.

Linseed oil is:

• pressed from flax seeds - which have been grown for centuries if not millenium without adverse effects
• biodegradeable
• non toxic

Other oils used as a viscous medium for oil paint include walnut oil and poppy oil.

They all sound very green to me - and precisely the antithesis of what these very silly  infantile protestors are complaining about.

The wrong places i.e. no oil sponsorship

NONE OF THE GALLERIES DESECRATED TO DATE ARE SPONSORED BY OIL COMPANIES

Indeed BP has very nearly stopped backing the arts per se.

On the page on its website dealing with sponsorship of the arts in the UK it highlights the following

In 2016, in support of our strategy, we announced a further five-year investment of £7.5 million from 2018 for a range of projects at the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Opera House

So basically, not one of the art galleries targeted have been in receipt of oil money - and one of them is closed at the moment!

There are no grounds whatsoever for attacking these places.

On 14th June I walked home from an art exhibition along Horse Guards
- only to find that some very expensive machinery involved in 
cleaning red paint thrown on the Treasury Building by Just Stop Oil demonstrators

Indeed I also find the waste of public money involved in cleaning off the paint thrown at the Treasury to be abominable, given others (from Gandhi to Greenham Common to Dame Deborah James) have demonstrated extremely well how effective other forms of PEACEFUL campaigning can be. 

Destructive protests just serve to alienate very many people.

The rules of effective protests are

1. First do no harm
2. Get your facts right
3. Don't annoy the wrong people 

So far as I'm concerned they're getting it very badly wrong on EVERY SINGLE LEVEL! 

While I support environmentalism, in no way do I support people who behave in such an ignorant and destructive way to no good end. 

Many think - and I agree - that they need to grow up and stop behaving like young people with a bad attack of the teenage tantrums.

REFERENCE: BP sponsorship

I've written about BP's sponsorship of the Arts and the various views taken about it on a number of occasions:

• Tate must release details of BP sponsorship (December 2014)
• Tate's BP funding figures revealed - less than expected (January 2015)
• BP Sponsorship of the Arts - latest developments (July 2016)
• Should artists use prize money to protest against the sponsor of an art competition? (2017)

My view is clear - as stated back in 2015.

I'll state my case up front. I really am not in the least bit bothered by BP's sponsorship of art galleries and museums. I'm far more concerned about:

• fossil fuel companies behaving in a social responsible manner
• those trying to repair their reputation paying a fair price to society for the privilege of being associated with a prestigious art gallery or museum which only exists due to generous state support. 

Of course I'd rather that energy sources came from renewable sources. However until somebody makes energy consumption from non-fossil fuel a cost effective and efficient proposition for most of the companies and families in the UK (and elsewhere) I don't see much alternative to the continued use of fossil fuels.

That in turn means oil companies will be looking for ways of sanitising their image - and offers a wonderful opportunity for sponsorship - so long as this is at the right price.

Acrylic Painting, Art Societies and Education

There are huge numbers of artists across the world who paint in acrylic. Many of whom can do absolutely fantastic things with what I regard as a medium that presents a number of problems for working practices and can be difficult to master.

tubes of professional acrylic paints

What I find very odd is the apparent fact that 

• so MANY acrylic painters appear to want to be seen as painters in traditional media rather than a distinctive and different non-traditional medium.
• so FEW acrylic painters are concerned about promoting knowledge, education and best practice in the use of acrylic for artworks.

Maybe the latter can only be achieved if and when

• acrylic painters start owning their media and 
• stop pretending to be something else?

The acrylic painter with various hats

At present:

• Acrylic paintings have become a major presence on the walls of exhibitions by art societies which used to be focused on the use of traditional watercolour paints (i.e. ones used for centuries).
• While other acrylic painters appear to want to pass themselves off as painters in oils - because oil paintings are better regarded and typically sell for more money!

What is the problem about being open about the fact the media is acrylic - and that what it can do should be celebrated not hidden?

For a long time, I assumed what I have tended to regard as a bit of a 'masquerade' was because acrylic used to have a very bad reputation in the relatively past. 

This was back in the days when 

• lack of knowledge about how it works and 
• lack of skill in use of acrylic painting
• RESULTED in a number of acrylic paintings cracking, peeling and flaking after a few years.

The behavior of acrylics as a painting medium and their physical and chemical properties are different from oil paint which warrants distinct guidelines for acrylic paintings' care. Some traditional conservation methods can be harmful to the acrylic paintings. The aging characteristics of acrylic paintings are just beginning to be understood. At present, preventative care seems to be the best care for acrylic paintings.

Care of Acrylic Paintings | Smithsonian 

See also 

• Conservation Concerns for Acrylic Emulsion Paints: A Literature Review | Tate Papers

In general, very few studies of the conservation of acrylic emulsion paintings have been published. Instead, concerns tend to be communicated through informal discussion.

However, of late I've begun to wonder:

• why we've not yet seen any change and 
• why acrylics are now the ONLY art medium lacking a major and well recognised art society dedicated to its use. 

Art societies help educate artists 

To me, one of the benefits of an art society which embraces a particular medium is that it can also 

• educate and promote good practices in the use of a media
•  through associated educational and charitable activities.

To not have a leading art society doing this for acrylics is, to me, very odd. Even odder, when you think that many artists are also art teachers.....

Acrylic Art Societies

There are of course existing art societies which focus on acrylics. However, none have the same status as the older art societies associated with oil or watercolour. 

As a result, in the UK we have acrylic crossing the oil and watercolour divide - and sometimes forgetting that 

• those on the water side should NOT look like oils and 
• those on the oil side should NOT look like watercolours.

Maybe it's a question of acrylic painters needing to achieve a much higher profile - in terms of an art society with a very clear focus and its own membership and exhibitions?

It's always interesting to see an art society which is explicit about the fact it includes work in oils and acrylic paints.

 

Below is a list of art societies which are EXPLICIT about their use of Acrylic Paint.
Some of the history of how they came about is also highlighted in extract quotations from websites - and current places you can find them online.

LINKS to their websites are embedded in their names.

MAMA #1: Charles Sovek's comprehensive website of resources for artists

The Making A Mark Archive (MAMA)

This is a new bit of routine for me - digging out a post from 14 years of archived blog posts about art - to provide you with new things to look at and/or new things to do.

• I'm going to work my way through the years, starting in 2006
• I'll also try and stick closely to the current calendar date - but x years ago!
• When I get to 2019, I'll start again in 2006 - and continue until this horrible health crisis is over. I've got masses of great content in the archives of this blog and this is one way of sharing it!

Here's one inspiration for why I'm doing this.....

MAMA #1:  Charles Sovek's comprehensive website of resources for artists

On March 25th 2006, I posted about the wonderful website of resources created by artist Charles Sovek in Charles Sovek - Lessons from the Easel

"I found a veritable feast of resources for all sorts of artists when I browsed around Charles Sovek's website after being given a link to one part of it as a reference for a project.

Although Charles Sovek works in oil, acrylic and gouache, the material he provides about art is universal. Sadly, it's very rare to find such a comprehensive and good resource on an artist's website - and so I'm obviously going to share!"

EXAMPLE: Charles Sovek wrote articles for "The Artist's Magazine" over a 20-year period beginning in 1985.

Here are some links from one page of the website

• The Key to the City - October, 2005
• True Colors - August, 2002
• Breaking the Ice - November, 2000
• The Surprising Color of Gray - August, 1999
• Capturing Green - July, 1995
• Mixing Colorful Grays in Oil - November, 1992
• Strong and Simple: Discovering Fairfield Porter - May, 1992
• Going Over The Edge - March, 1992
• Creating Effective Shadows - November, 1991
• Finding the Three Shapes Under Everything - October, 1991
• Light and Color, Sorolla Style - December, 1990
• Turn On the Glittering Light of Impressionism: The Art of Frank Benson - October, 1989
• Secrets of Sargent's Watercolors - April, 1989
• Paint Like a Master Impressionist: The Art of Edward Potthast - December, 1988
• Beating the Background Blues - November, 1988
• Simplifying Your Painting: The Art of Alfred Chadbourn - March, 1987
• Catching Light in Your Paintings - October, 1984

I RECOMMEND you click every link and pic you see on the website, there's a LOT MORE than is apparent at first glance! 

Please also SHARE with any artist groups who you think might benefit from access to resources for artists - during the current emergency.

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 PROI, the 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)

Last year I commented that 

• ALL ARTISTS need to wake up to the fact that poor choice of frames deters sales. Or as I put it in the review of last year's exhibition 

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.

• 2017 - Review - Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2017
• 2016 - Review: Royal Institute of Oil Painters 124th Annual Exhibition 2016
• 2015 - ROI Exhibition: Young Oil Painter Awards and Review: Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters 2015
• 2014 - Review: Royal Institute of Oil Painters - Annual Exhibition 2014
• 2013 - Review - 2013 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• 2012 - Royal Institute of Oil Painters - Annual Exhibition 2012
• 2011 - Review: 124th Annual Exhibition of The Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• 2010 - Review: Royal Institute of Oil Painters - 123rd Annual Exhibition 2010 and 
• Winsor and Newton Oil Painter Awards
• 2009 - Exhibition Review - Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• 2008 - The Royal Institute of Oil Painters - 121st Annual Exhibition

Links for oil painters

• Top tips for travelling artists - oil painters 15 Aug 2011 
• The Best Books about Oil Painting

Review - Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2017

I visited the annual exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters last week.

The exhibition was on Tuesday 28th November by Philip Mould the gallery owner who is also host of the popular TV programme ‘Fake or Fortune?’

View of one half of the Main Gallery

This blog post covers

• how you can - and cannot - see the art
• a summary of what I noticed about the show - in terms of both numbers and artwork
• shout outs for 
• the artists whose work I liked best in the show
• those artists who have sold two or more paintings
• the prizewinners  
• and finally a listing of past blog reviews of this annual exhibition if you'd like to understand more about this exhibition prior to submitting your paintings next year.

Coastline and beach scenes in the North Gallery

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) helped to develop the tradition of oil painting in the UK. Established in 1882, it gained royal status as an art society in 1909.

I RECOMMEND this year's exhibition:

• it has LOTS of artwork of a high quality by both members and non-members - with a mixed hang across the main and north galleries 
• a high percentage of the artwork is in oils (but not all). 
• you can see many and varied ways of applying oil paint to a support to create a picture.  You can also see the extent to which the use of acrylic can mimic oil paint - or not.
• The exhibition has a huge variety in terms of painting styles, palettes of colour, brushwork and subject matter.  
• Most of it looks as if was painted using a brush and NOT photographed using a camera. The exhibition also includes some very painterly work.

I'm not quite sure when the ROI started to let people submit work in acrylics but I do wish they'd:

• either change their name 
• or stick rigidly to this being an exhibition of oil paintings.

I think it's misleading to do otherwise... It needs to be one or the other.  I was pleased to see the extremely high percentage of the exhibited work is in oils. Hopefully this is an aspect of the society that can be addressed over time.  

It's was VERY interesting to note that ALL the young artists selected for the Young Artist Award ALL painted in oil.

I used to go to the PV nut now tend to choose to see an exhibition in the mid/late afternoon (when it tends to be a bit quieter) just after it has opened. It means I can see the art properly and also get decent photographs of it hanging in the gallery - which is virtually impossible on PV days.

How you can - and cannot - see the art in the exhibition 

Some large paintings in the exhibition

You can see The Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries until Sunday 10th December 2017. The galleries are located in The Mall (near Trafalgar Square), London SW1 - this is a google map showing the entrance. Hours are 10am-5pm daily including weekends, (and it loses at 1pm on the final day).

If you're a fan of ROI member and plein air painter Peter Brown ROI NEAC PS Hon RBA RP (aka Pete the Street) then, from Wednesday 6th December, you can also see Pete's solo exhibition at Messums in Cork Street as well as the ROI exhibition.

Next week, the members of the ROI are available to meet visitors include:

• Monday 4 December (all day): Tony Merrick and Adebanji Alade
• Tuesday 5 December (all day): Tim Benson
• Wednesday 6 December (all day): Bill Dean
• Thursday 7 December (all day): Trevor Chamberlain and Ronald Morgan

The first work you encounter in the North Galleries

You can see selected works from the exhibition online if you keep scrolling down the page.

• If you click the TITLE of the painting you can find out more about it and how to buy it - and click again to find out more about the artist
• You can make an enquiry about buying a painting online

However it's NOT actually possible to see ALL the artwork online - which I think is both a pity and not helpful to overall sales.

Now people are so used to buying artwork online, it's absolutely vital to have a very accessible virtual art exhibition (online) as well as a physical art exhibition (in the gallery) - especially if an art society wants to promote its online sales for all the artwork exhibited.

That means ALL members gearing up to produce good quality digital images - or not having their work online.  (Non members already have to do this as the submission is now based on digital files.)

It would seem that rather a lot of ROI members have not yet done this because, very oddly when I look at the oil paintings in the Mall Galleries own online "Buy Art" gallery, most of the oil paintings seem to be by artists from other art societies - or non members exhibiting in the ROI exhibition!  Which does really seem a bit odd!

A small selection of the paintings I liked

I loved this stunning painting of an apple with a Holbein blue background by Alex Callaway RBSA. A very strong contender for my "Visitors Choice" vote. Alex is a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) and an Associate of the Art Renewal Center (ARC). While highly realistic it's also fantastic at both showing colour and form of the apple and its leaves. The background also reminded me somewhat of Holbein portrait paintings.