Review: 63rd Society of Wildlife Artists Annual Exhibition

The 63rd Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists is currently at the Mall Galleries

It's also the last exhibition of Harriet Mead as President of the SWLA, a role she has fulfilled extremely well for the last 17 years. She steps down at the AGM in November 2026.

Harriet Mead with six of her sculptures of wildlife
created from welded found metal
Five of which have already sold!

The exhibition also saw the launch of the SWLA's new book about its Massingham Heath Project which started in May 2025. The book is available to buy at the exhibition

The Massingham Heath Project will see over thirty of our member artists follow the seasons and changing flora, fauna and landscape of an exciting rewilding project in West Norfolk.

This is a review of this exhibition which continues until Saturday 10th October.

About the Exhibition

There are either 359 exhibits in the show which creates a good show on the walls without the exhibition seeming too overcrowded. 

There are a lot of birds in the East Gallery

Artwork includes oils, watercolours, acrylics, pastels, drawings, sculpture, original prints, mixed media and animation. 

Much of the sculpture is beyond competent and some is extremely spectacular such as the cranes in the East gallery (see above)

One aspect I particularly like about this show is there are so many excellent fine art prints (84 in total) which can be much more affordable - and sometimes smaller and easier to find a home for on your walls. These include Serigraphs, Etchings,Etching and monoprints, Etching and Aquatints, Linocuts and Reduction Linocuts, Lithographs, Collographs, Drypoints, Drypoint and chine colle, Monotypes, Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock), Mokulito (wood lithograph) and Screenprints

Some of the prints plus a snake

More prints

What distinguishes the artwork in this wildlife art show is that it is based on actual observation of the subject, rather than the conversion of a photograph into a drawing, print or painting. The selectors are always looking for the signs that an artwork is based on personal and real observation.

Harriet Mead drew my attention to a submission by a new artist on the end wall of the West Gallery. This is not normally an exhibition where you see big cats or tropical animals. Yet this was a painting of Tiger Cubs. As Harriet said to me, you could tell straight away that this was based on observation in real life. It turned out the painting was was by an Italian artist who had visited Vietnam and come across captive cubs.

Tiger Cubs by Francesco Calistri (Italy)
oil and acrylic on canvas

All the artworks are for sale and many of the artists can (and are) commissioned.

The trend I observed last year towards more smaller - and more affordable - medium and small size artwork seems to have continued - which I think is very sensible in the current economic context. 

Nearly 80% of the 72 artworks sold in the first five days are priced at less than £1,500 with most sales being for less than £1,000. This in part reflects changes in sizes of artwork.

You can see the artworks:

"Turning Thirteen" by Frances Bell wins HSFK Portrait Award Visitor's Choice

I have to say I am not in the least bit surprised that "Turning Thirteen" by Frances Bell has won the Visitor's Choice award - as announced by the National Portrait Gallery this afternoon on Facebook and Instagram.

Visitor's Choice Award - Frances Bell

Frances Bell and her daughter 
with her portrait of "Turning Thirteen"
at the HSFK Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Gallery, London
© Making A Mark

Here's what I had to say about Frances Bell and her portrait back in my post Portrait Award 2026 - Artists with their paintings (Children and Parents)

Here's MY reasons for why Frances's portrait won.

Call for Entries: Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2027

You have TWO MONTHS to submit a portrait as an entry to the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2027 (aka The Portrait Award!)

The BIG CHANGE this year is 

• you do NOT have the Christmas break for final titivating - because....
• the deadline for your entry is Tuesday 1 December 2026

This date change is not highlighted on the website. If you have friends who sometimes / always enter it might be worth making sure they're aware of the date change. You could always send them a link to this blog post! :)

This is about:

• WHY enter the HSFK Portrait Award?
• WHO can submit an entry?
• WHAT sort of portrait you can submit?
• HOW to complete and submit your entry

Very many artists who have succeeded in being selected for this exhibition in the last two decades started out by reviewing my summary of the call for entries! I know because they told me at the Private View!

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award  2027
CALL FOR ENTRIES IMAGE

First of all the full title of both the competition and the award is the "Herbert Smith Kline Portrait Award" - but that's too much and too long so I ALWAYS refer to it as either

• the HSFK Portrait Award
• or THE Portrait Award

The links to the official information are all included below.

Series 13 of Portrait Artist of the Year starts 7th October 2026

Portrait Artist of the Year is back next week on Wednesday October 7, 2026. 

The thirteenth series has three new Judges - who I've already seen in action at Battersea Arts Centre during the heats in April this year.

Three New Judges
Eva Langret, Jonathan Yeo, and Katy Hessel

My post below covers:

• what's the same - essentially the format and broadcasts and rules
• what's different - ALL THE JUDGES
• the list of celebrity sitters right the way through to the Commission
• about my reviews after each broadcast episode
• access to my past reviews of every episode of every series since Series 4 in 2018

So what's different and what's the same

What's the same?

• the venue for all the heats is Battersea Arts Centre as in recent years
• the presenter is actor and tv presenter Stephen Mangan (since 2018)
• the programme is 
• commissioned by Sky Arts and 
• made by Storyvault Films
• you can access all programmes via Sky Arts on Freeview or via Now TV
• the series is broadcast on 
• a Wednesday evening - starting at 8pm. 
• It's then broadcast again the following evening at 7pm 
• and on the following weekend (but I forget when)
• Programme Format:
• Artists enter with a self-portrait created within the last 5 years.
• They are selected on merit by the panel of expert judges. 
• Nine artists compete per heat 
• At the heats they are given four hours to paint a surprise celebrity sitter. 
• Each heat winners then competes at the Semi-Final.
• Three of the Semi-Finalists go through to the Final but only one is selected as the overall winner.
• These were the Terms and Conditions of Entry / Participation for all the selected artists
• Prize: The winner receives 
• a £10,000 commission to produce an artwork that will go on public display at a National Institution (which changes every year) plus 
• £500 of art supplies from Cass Art.

What's different?

There are three new Judges - Eva Langret, Jonathan Yeo, and Katy Hessel 

(see my post The NEW Portrait Artist of the Year Judges for longer and much more detailed summaries and assessments of them

• Eva Langret we saw in LAOTY 2025 as a new Judge replacing Kate Bryan initially (re LAOTY 2026) but it's now clear she is the bang up to date and heavy weight substitute for Kathleen Soriano. She is the Director of Frieze London and Vice Chair of the Camden Art Centre.
• Jonathan Yeo is "the artist" replacement for Tai Shan Shierenberg for Portrait Artist of the Year only. (I understand Tai continues for LAOTY). I'm not a fan of his portraiture due to the predominance of a lot of "head and hands" and odd connections between the two - although he is excellent at capturing a good likeness. (see my blog post The King Charles Portrait by Jonathan Yeo.) He has been a trustee at the National Portrait Gallery since 2018. He seems to be a portrait painter who likes to paint celebrities and other well known people (like some of the sitters in this series) and is described by Sky as 

A portrait painter whose work you almost certainly know

• Katy Hessel - a British art historian, broadcaster, author, columnist and curator dedicated to highlighting women artists throughout history. She has an Instagram account @thegreatwomenartists 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eva Langret (@evalangret)

The Celebrity Sitters for Portrait Artist of the Year

Final Call for Entries: Royal Institute of Oil Painters

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters invite entries to 

the ROI OPEN Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries 

in November and December 2026. 

View of part of the West Gallery

This is the exhibition which, in 2025, broke the Mall Galleries record for the value of artwork sold! (Of which more in another post, but I do think my witterings about price ranges have got through!)

You have just over two weeks to get a entry submitted online.

The deadline for entries is 9th October 2026 so you've still got time to be get organised and get your entry in. 

The ROI welcomes submissions on all subjects and approaches to this wonderful medium, from plein air, landscape and still life to portraiture and abstract… there is no limit except the common denominator that the work must be created in oil.

Note: As in acrylics are not oil! 

The theme for the 2026 exhibition is ‘WINTER RITUALS’. The theme invites oil painters to 

• explore the traditions, repeated actions, gestures and rhythms that shape our experience of winter, 
• from personal routines and acts of devotion 
• to cultural traditions and collective gatherings. 
• It reflects on the character, moments, identity and symbolism of contemporary life.

The ROI Themed Painting Prize will be awarded to the best interpretation. 

Below is the wall of the artworks selected for last year's theme of "Home"

The range of artwork selected for the 2025 theme of "Home"

Call for Entries - ROI Annual Exhibition 2026

Submissions are ONLINE ONLY and open until Friday 9 October 2026

If successful, you will be notified of your selection on Friday 23 October, 12 noon

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

• the Mall Galleries website
• the ROI website
• the portal to the OESS 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

This covers:

• WHO can enter
• WHAT you can enter
• PRESENTATION
• FINANCIAL ASPECTS 
• PRIZES AND AWARDS
• Past ROI exhibitions - if you want to see what they look like