Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Review: Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 214th Annual Exhibition (2026)

I think the 214th Annual Exhibition by the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours is probably the best RI exhibition I've seen by them at the Mall Galleries on two counts:

  • excellent artwork
  • extremely well hung - it reads very well throughout both the West and East Galleries and most of the North Gallery.
It also has the unique distinction of:
  • a VERY colourful title wall in the West Gallery
  • a monochrome title wall in the East Gallery
RI Annual Exhibition 2026: Very colourful end wall in West Gallery
RI Annual Exhibition 2026: Very colourful end wall in West Gallery

RI Annual Exhibition 2026: Monochrome end wall in the East Gallery
RI Annual Exhibition 2026: Monochrome end wall in the East Gallery 

Also, given there are 462 artworks hung in the show, I can also say it's one of the very best hung exhibitions - of LOTS of artwork - that I've seen of the different FBA societies who exhibit at the Mall Galleries. 

Too often, I've found exhibitions with lots of artwork to be very difficult to look at because too little thought has been applied to how the works should hang. Indeed, I think maybe there should be a rule "don't come to the hanging if you haven't worked out what goes where if you are hanging in excess of 300".

I gather that the hang of this exhibition was planned in enormous detail by the new President Juliette Losq in her first year - and the effort has well and truly paid off.

It is certainly getting lots of visitors!

This blog post tells you:

  • how to see the exhibition - whether or not you can visit it at the Mall Galleries
  • how to check out the events during the exhibition
  • how to check out the standard of work by artists applying to become a member
  • observations about artwork in the exhibition
  • what can be improved for next year
Plus an extra post tomorrow - about the name and the importance of water.

How to see the RI Exhibition

You can visit the RI 214th Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries until 11th April (however it is closed in Easter Sunday and Easter Monday).

  • Venue: Mall Galleries, the Mall, London - North, East & West Galleries
    Hours: 10am - 5pm every day except Easter Sunday and Easter Monday when the Galleries are closed
  • Dates: 25 Mar 2026 - 11 Apr 2026 
  • Entry: Admission £7, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries and under 25s. Concessions available. No booking required.
You can also SEE ALL THE ARTWORK ONLINE
One of my photos of two colourful walls in the North Gallery

READ MORE......>>
Posted by Making A Mark on Tuesday, March 31, 2026 0 comments
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Wednesday, March 25, 2026

A FREE Plein Air Painting Handout

This is about a FREE Plein Air Painting Handout by Michael Chesley Johnson - a very experienced American plein air painter and instructor in oils and soft pastels of repute.

His CV is impressive - see below to check out the credentials of the chap who is providing this handout for free.

He says 

This is the handout I give to my all-level plein air painting workshops. Although it covers only oil and pastel, the methods and information apply to all media. (Watercolor is a bit different, though!)

I'm not going to include the link to it here - however I will include 


Content of the Plein Air Painting Handout


The headings and subheadings are:

MATERIALS

  • Pastel: Basic materials and Procedures
  • Oils: Basic materials and Procedures
  • Note for acrylic painters
You’d think that, over 25 years, the handout would need updating, but I’ve found “how to paint” consists of some basic principles that, like the laws of phyics, don’t change. The only thing that might change are some of the products listed (which I have updated for this release.)

PLEIN AIR METHODS, TECHNIQUES & TIPS
  • Purpose in Plein Air
  • Principals to Capturing the Landscape Quickly & Accurately
  • How to Paint - Not Draw
  • Plein Air Tips (which are excellent! KT)
  • Different Approaches to Interpreting Landscape Values
  • Dominance & Contrasting Pairs
  • Finding Color Harmony
  • Color Harmonies
  • To Match Any Color
  • About Black
  • Useful Resources for the Plein Air Painter
You can find his handout here

Paintings in the South West Gallery on Michael Chesley Johnson's website
- the application of media and techniques to landscape
Note how they all "read" really well even in a thumbnail version

About Michael Chesley Johnson AIS PAPNM

I'm going to use the words from his "about" page and will add a few bullet points and a few extra words!

Basically he is an all round "good guy" in terms of being a plein air painter and helping others to become one too - through a variety of channels.

What does he do?

  • He paints primarily outdoors in oil, pastel or gouache, choosing locations from the American Southwest, Downeast Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. 
  • He has been invited repeatedly to national plein air events:
    • most recently was on the distinguished faculty of the annual Plein Air Convention & Expo in Denver, Colorado.
  • He delivers plein air painting workshops across the U.S. 
  • He is a frequent writer for 
    • The Artist’s Magazine, 
    • Pastel Journal, 
    • Watercolor Artist and 
    • PleinAir Magazine, 
  • He is also the author of several books, including Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering Plein Air.

Recognition and Awards

  • Awarded Master Pastellist status by Pastel Artists Canada in 2008
  • Signature Member of 
    • the American Impressionist Society and 
    • Plein Air Painters of New Mexico 
  • plus a past signature member of several national organizations. (Read here to learn why I let these memberships lapse.) 
  • Featured in The Artist’s Magazine in September 2013.
  • His paintings 
    • have appeared in many magazines 
    • are in both corporate and private collections. 

Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 0 comments
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Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Making A Mark still in Top 10 Art Blogs

I recently found out that Making A Mark is still in the top 10 of a list of art blogs from all over the world

Specifically they are #5 in the 60 Best UK Art Blogs and#10 in the 100 Top Art Blogs according to Feedspot. 

Not quite sure how they work out the rankings either and not quite sure how this happened but I'm happy that it did. 

Although I was #5 in the Vuelio's Art Blogs UK Top 10 in 2022


60 Best UK Art Blogs - according to Feedspot

The best UK Art blogs curated and ranked based on multiple factors, including content relevancy, subject expertise, posting frequency, and freshness of content. Blogs with highest credibility within the UK Art space are ranked higher. This list is updated regularly to ensure it reflects the most active, influential, and valuable UK Art blogs on the internet today.
In the 60 Best UK Art Blogs to Follow in 2026, Making A Mark ranks 5th!

5. Making a Mark

Making a Mark+ Follow Blog
Description A top art blog for artists and art lovers: news about major art competitions and exhibitions, interviews with artists, techniques and tips for art and business
Email ****@gmail.com
Location London, England, United Kingdom
Facebook 12.5KTwitter 3K Domain Authority 46

100 Best Art Blogs- according to Feedspot


The same principles apply in relation to how different sites rank within the 100 Best Art Blogs to Follow in 2026 - where Making A Mark is ranked 10th.

10. Making a Mark 

Making a Mark+ Follow Blog
Description A top art blog for artists and art lovers: news about major art competitions and exhibitions, interviews with artists, techniques and tips for art and business
Email ****@gmail.com
Facebook 12.5KTwitter 3K Domain Authority 46

This is despite a reduced level of posting in recent times due to the facts that:

  • I got to 70 and decided if I was ever to retire I needed to make more time for me. This is despite the fact I took early retirement (knowing that severe osteoarthritis was a racing certainty for me) back in 2005 and started this blog a few months later
  • I now need to walk a decent amount every single day to stop me from seizing up. I average between 5,000-6,000 steps
  • Periodically I have to get ready for and recover from surgery. Like I said I always knew osteoarthritis was in my future. I didn't quite factor in the time needed for surgery!
  • Not to mention other health hiccups. I was told I need an urgent MRI this morning! They're going to see if they can fit it in before surgery next month.
Although I do fewer posts now I do seem to get better audiences for the ones I do.

For the record, other art blogs "from the old days" also ranked as follows in all Art Blogs

1. Artsy

3. ARTnews

13. Artwork Archive Blog

16. Artnet


Note: I do find these inventories of blogs to be very useful. If you look at the Feedspot Instagram, you can see all the other categories which are ranked.

Posted by Making A Mark on Tuesday, March 24, 2026 0 comments
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Monday, March 23, 2026

Landscape Artist of the Year: A Celebrity Twist!

The Sky Arts website recently announced innovations for the next round of Landscape Artist of the Year.

At the weekend we heard - via the main Sky Arts website only - that:

  • Fearne Cotton is to join as a new celebrity Co-Host
  • More Celebrities will be involved in every episode - talking about their landscape
  • Still no announcement about the Judges for LAOTY although we now know who two are.
Image for Series 12 - using submissions from Series 11

However, what is very weird is that 
  • they have added text to the page, 
  • without removing images and text associated with previous incarnations. 
  • Hence we have two lots of text describing the format of one programme in two different ways!

A New Co-Host

Fearne Cotton is to be a new Co-Host for Series 12 which will be filmed this summer.

She a long-standing British TV presenter - mainly associated with the "popular tv" end of the market with mainstream broadcasters.

She also describes herself as Mother, Broadcaster, Writer, Founder.

Since finishing The Fearne Cotton Show (2009-2015) for BBC Radio1 she has branched out on her own and now hosts an award-winning podcast Happy Place (on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Her Happy Place Brand has since expanded into:
  • a wellbeing brand including
  • a book club,
  • an annual festival and
  • a marketplace that champions small businesses that are female-led, minority-owned, and/or based in the UK.
In other words, treading the well trodden path of celebrities who now need to differentiate themselves - while remaining popular - and generate their own audiences in the new social media world. 
“I am thrilled to be joining Landscape Artist of the Year as part of the presenting team at Sky Arts. Art is such an important, emotive and expressive medium for me and I know that the audience is just going to be absolutely blown away by the level of enthusiasm and passion that we see from the artists taking part in the show. I can’t wait to be part of that journey and to help them tell their stories.”
She also comes with:
Which makes her very good fit with lots and lots of women over the age of 30 who like watching Landscape Artist of the Year.

I can see why she could be attracted to LAOTY and why Sky Arts might be attracted to her. 

Casting now depends on social media following - as well as the ability to do the job!

Plus - and this makes her sound a very positive addition - she's a celebrity who can paint!!!
READ MORE......>>
Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, March 23, 2026 0 comments
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Thursday, March 19, 2026

Review: UKCPS Silver Anniversary Annual Open Exhibition 2026

After 25 years, the UKCPS is celebrating its Silver Anniversary with its first exhibition at the Mall Galleries.

It's always been an ambition of the UK Coloured Pencil Society (UKCPS) to hold its Open Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. Making it to its 25th Birthday seemed like an opportune time to spend some money and celebrate in style.

UKCPS Annual Open Exhibition
Part of the Hang in the West Gallery

For those UKCPS people not familiar with me or my blog (although I gathered from the PV on Tuesday night that a lot were), I am 
  • a coloured pencil addict and a past signature member of UKCPS. I've written about its exhibitions a lot over the years (see the list of blog posts at the end which also give an insight into artwork in past exhibitions)
  • somebody who reviews ALL the national art societies which exhibit at the Mall Galleries - and has done so for nearly 20 years. So I've got a very good basis for saying how this exhibition compares with the norm at the Mall Galleries.

History of the UKCPS Society


The Society was founded in 2001 by Bob Ebdon and Pat Heffer.
The UK Colour Pencil Society (UKCPS) was founded in 2001 by Bob Ebdon, spurred by a letter in A&I magazine from Pat Heffer (who became a founder member, enthusiastic supporter and finally President). A few people sharing their interest of colour pencil art, who had never met except via the Internet, started the Society and it was launched at Patchings Art Centre in Nottinghamshire. The Society has grown over the years: the second issue of the quarterly magazine (September 2001) reported they had just reached the 100 member mark, and now there are just over 750 members.
I was also a coloured pencil fan and found them online a little later and subsequently became a member and exhibited with them between 2007-2010. After that I gradually withdrew as a member from all national art societies I belonged to so as to be able to do better reviews of their exhibitions!

The society is different in some ways from other national art societies.
  • anybody can become a member
  • recognition of expertise and contribution is made through
    • becoming a Signature Member (which I became in 2009 - see my blog post Signature membership)
    • progressing to Silver Signature status (pictures accepted into 5 exhibitions within 10 years) and Gold status (pictures accepted into 10 exhibitions within 15 years.)
  • it holds three exhibitions each year
    • an open exhibition for all artists using coloured pencils - which is competitive
    • an online exhibition for all members
    • members only exhibition held at the Derwent Pencil Museum, Keswick. (This year it will be 31st August to 30th October 2026)
In June 2018 it was granted charitable status - with an objective of:
  • promoting the art of drawing for the public benefit through the use of colour pencils
  • holding a public exhibition at least once a year to showcase work and provide tuition
  • help educate the public how to use colour pencils
The definition of a coloured pencil for the purposes of the exhibition is 
"wood-cased, wax- or oil-based colour pencil"
i.e. pastel pencils are excluded.

The 25th Annual Exhibition of the UK Coloured Pencil Society


Venue: Mall Galleries - West and North Galleries
Dates: Open from Tuesday 17 March 2026 - Saturday 21 March 2026,
Hours: 10am to 5pm

How the work was judged

  • One member and two independent artists selected the artwork for the open exhibition.
  • Another artist judges the selected artwork for awards. This year it was Curtis Holder - a leading exponent of coloured pencil artwork.

You can see all the artwork in the exhibition in two ways:


BEST PICTURE IN SHOW
Where ­Time ­Rests by Pauline Stuart
(which I had spotted as a "go back and look again" pic!)
READ MORE......>>
Posted by Making A Mark on Thursday, March 19, 2026 0 comments
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