LAOTY 2025: Meet the Heat Winners and Wildcard Winners PLUS View the Commission Painting!

This is about:

• Interviews with all the Heat Winners and Wildcard winners in Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 10) - now available on Cass Arts website
• How to view the Commission Painting - now hanging at the Courtauld Gallery
• My reviews of the Final and the Commission programme

Interviews with the Artists

For those who have been following Series 10 of Landscape Artist of the Year (2025), you'll be interested to know that interviews with participating Artists can now be found on the Cass Artists blog in this post Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year Series 10: Meet the Artists

Heat 1: Ben McGregor with his submission

The article covers Heats 1 to 6 and

• all the Heat Winners
• all the Wildcard Winners

and has quite lengthy text about each one. 

Very definitely a "get a cup of tea and find a comfy chair" long read!

If you want to see the Commission Painting

The winner's Commission Painting inspired by three locations associated with Monet, Cezanne and Van Gogh in the South of France is now hanging in the Courtauld Gallery.

You can read more about where it is and how to view it in Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2025 winning commission now on display at The Courtauld Gallery

Note that Goya to Impressionism is SOLD OUT until 30th March.

It's priced admission and don't forget there are a limited number of "walk up" tickets which enable to go free as a Friend of the Courtauld or if you have an Art Fund National Art Pass. Otherwise an adult is £10 to see the Permanent Collection

If you also want to see the current Goya to Impressionism, you'll be waiting a while as it is currently booked out for a few weeks.

My reviews of the Final and the Commission Programme

I'm still feeling fairly wiped out following my partner's very sudden emergency admission to hospital last Friday and his five day stay. Coupled with the fact I went to hospital again yesterday for my outpatient appointment and now have to work out how I'm going to continue blogging in a couple of months after my left shoulder replacement operation! (Arm in sling for six weeks!)

So I'm having a quiet day today and tomorrow and will be hoping to publish as follows

• Sunday - Review of the Final
• Monday - Review of the Commission (after I've got the stepladders out, rescued my holiday photos and found the ones where I visited Cezanne's studio!)
• Tuesday or Wednesday - Review of the Series as a whole

I hope you'll be back to read them despite the fact the Series has now finished.

Review: Landscape Artist of the Year 2025 - Semi Finals at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

This is a formal Review of the Semi Finals of Landscape Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 10) which took place and was filmed at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in July 2024.

The seven semi final paintings - and one print

Last Wednesday, the semi finals of Landscape Artist of the Year 2025 was broadcast. I then watched it again the next day and started to write this review. 

However my partner then intervened and what was due to be a quick finish off on Friday morning has turned into an even quicker finish off on Wednesday afternoon six days later. Inbetween, I've spent most of that time either in A&E at the Royal London Hospital with his medical emergency or trying to catch up on sleep or sort things out post discharge. Anyway, enough of that.....

This was quite possibly the worst Semi Final of Landscape Artist of the Year I've ever seen - and was particularly notable for how many of us drifted off to sleep while watching it.

This review includes a lot of comments from people who were once avid fans of the show - but who feel it could be so much better than the tired, self-indulgent version we now see on our screens.

I feel that this series has truly lost the plot. (comment on FB)

The judges seem to delight in making life difficult for the artists, cackling at the thought of their plans going awry as the tide came in. It feels almost sadistic to me: does making the heat as difficult as possible for the artists make good telly? (comment on FB)

I've watched the program over many years too and to doze off and come to as they announce final three is a first for me. (comment on FB)

Location and Weather

Yes - it was yet another one of those ludicrous locations which this series chooses for its semi-finals. 

Complete with a tide which was coming in.

None of them are thrilled with the Challenge (Judge)

They were all out of their comfort zone and certainly out of their depth. (Observation on FB)

What a ridiculous subject for the semi final. Especially given what the commission is. I haven’t got a problem with the concept of urban as opposed to organic/countryside landscape, but this is more akin to a still life. (Observation on FB)

Dealing with tidal changes in a natural landscape is already a challenge, but in this environment it’s setting them up for a challenge that needs more than 4 hours.
They will never get the best out of artists in this way.It was not fun to watch. (I did have to go back to watch the bits I slept through and didn’t feel it was really worth it in the end) (Observation on FB)

The location was Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. The pods were on the concrete slipway below the jetty which goes out to and partially obscures HMS Warrior.

Those pods - at the bottom of the pic - and sitting very low down on a slipway
well below the jetty which hides the bottom part of HMS Warrior

Below is the very tight view of HMS Warrior in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. 

If you look at it on Google maps, the artists had a very narrow field of view: restricted by a massive boat house on their right, and the Mary Rose museum on their left. They had no choice but to paint either the long pier with HMS Warrior hidden behind it or the more industrial-looking pier on the right. I thought Ben made the best of a terrible situation - I think I'd have walked off set!. (comment on FB)

Problems with the location of the Artists Pods were as follows: 

Artwork I liked at the RBA Annual Exhibition 2025

I promised another post about the art I liked in the Annual Exhibition 2025 of the Royal Society of British Artists.

This is probably the most electic of all the art societies belonging to the Federation of British Artists BA Exhibitions - whose home is at the Mall Galleries. 

This is because their media spans drawings and paintings in every media, all manner of fine art hand pulled prints, and sculpture in various media.

As a result, if frequently gets large and imposing works which are absolutely impossible to ignore.

"Capital at Risk: Drawing the City of London (pen and ink, 1.5m x 2.5m) by Louis Pohl
and
"Effects of Lockdown" (cardboard, 170x45x45cm) by James Lake

Two such this year that I found absolutely unmissable in the East Gallery (above) were:

• Louis Pohl's very large and incredibly impressive pen and ink drawing of "Capital at Risk: Drawing the City of London (1.5m x 2.5m) 
• James Lake's Cardboard sculpture of "Effects of Lockdown" (170x45x45cm)

I work with cardboard for its immediacy, ease of availability and low environmental impact. My disability and dyslexia have also influenced my choice of material and the way I create my sculptures. For over twenty years I have created life-size three-dimensional portraits of people.

There is just so much to look at in Louis's drawing - in terms of both realism and allegory and just sheer expertise in the use of pen and ink for drawing people! I was extremely surprised that it did not get a prize for the ambition and the story-telling. As in "truly gobsmacked"!

By way of contrast, James Lake's sculpture won The Nathan David Award for Sculpture.

I also spotted a style I recognised straight away in the East Gallery - although I've not seen it in some time. It's very memorable.

"The Sky" by Ana Schmidt 
Acrylic 73x 65cm

"The Sky" by figurative artist Ana Schmidt reminded me a lot of the much larger painting she created which  won the £20000 Columbia Threadneedle Award 2018 for contemporary figurative and representational art. She is amazing at painting urban landscapes with huge sheets of water or puddles which reflect the sky.

In the North Gallery, there were two paintings which both immediately captured my attention.

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.