SBA Submission day at Central Hall

Today I submitted my two coloured pencil drawings to the Society of Botanical Artists. That was after I gave up on finishing my reworking of a work which I had ruined.

The #1 rule when submitting artwork to an exhibition is don't mess with a finished drawing - in case you ruin it, have to start over and then can't get it finished in time! Did I mess - and make a mess? Of course I did!

I thought you might like to see what it's like in the Aldersgate Room of Central Hall, Westminster. It's all highly organised and very tidy and the members who are doing all the work on Receiving Day are all very helpful. It's a positive delight to submit to this Society!

The SBA have a very good brief on what you have to do - right down to diagrams of how to include your swing tag, the label that needs to be fixed to the back and how the mirror plates will be fixed to the pics.


I also like the fact that they charge a fee for submission and then another fee for hanging. It means you don't get clobbered with a hefty fee just for submitting work which then gets rejected.

It's £5 to submit and the fee for hanging then varies depending on the size of the work from £14.50 to £26 - which is not cheap, however this exhibition has a really excellent track record for selling work.

They've also now switched to having just one day to pick up work which has not been accepted or not sold - which means just one journey to London for people who live out of town. Another very sensible measure which of course helps to keep submissions healthy!

I'm going to be reviewing Botanical Sketchbook prior to the exhibition in April (16-25 April). This is a new book associated with the SBA. I've got my review copy and it's absolutely excellent! I'll also be doing an interview with the two authors.