2017 Wildlife Artist of the Year - Call for Entries

The Wildlife Artist of the Year has published its call for entries for the UK's most prestigious independent wildlife art competition - with a top prize of £10,000.

Entry is online or by post and the deadline for entries is February 20th 2017.

If you want to know what the exhibition looks like:

• below is a picture from the awards evening
• you can see a video of last year's exhibition on my Making A Mark YouTube channel.
  you can see some of the work which got a prize or I liked in the two posts I wrote about the exhibition for this year's Wildlife Artist of the Year
• Wildlife Artist of the Year - The Exhibition 
• Wildlife Artist of the Year 2016 - The Awards

View of the exhibition in the Main Gallery at the Mall Galleries in June this year.

This is the 10th anniversary year for a competition that attracts entries from all over the world. It's been helping to raise both funds and awareness for endangered wildlife since 2008.  Since it began, the event has raised over £320,000 for conservation projects supported by David’s eponymous wildlife charity, protecting endangered wildlife across Africa and Asia.

The competition is organised by the conservation charity the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF). (UK registered charity no. 1106893) which works to protect endangered species in the wild.

The exhibition will provide a week of wildlife art - of some 150 exhibits - in all three galleries at the Mall Galleries.  You can also see original works from supporting artists and there will also be some special 10th anniversary events.

Prizes

The first prize is definitely worth winning and the category prizes are also very nice!

• Overall Winner £10,000 cash prize & title ‘Wildlife Artist of the Year 2017’ 
• Overall Runner-Up £1,000 cash prize. 
• Remaining Category Winners £500 each.

Eligible Artists

The competition is open to both amateur and professional artists over the age of 17.

There is no residence requirement and entries are regularly sent from all over the world.

Eligible Art

The main conditions are:

• You may enter up to 5 pieces of artwork at either £10 or £25 per entry.
• All media are eligible (however photography is not eligible).  For example, the competition is very happy to receive artwork in media that includes oil, acrylic, watercolour, pencil, mixed media, bronze, plaster, wire, collage with styles encompassing traditional, abstract, monochrome, original prints* and many others .

* An original print is a print either in black or in colour, drawn from one or several plates, conceived and executed entirely by hand by the same artist, regardless of the technique employed, with the exclusion of any and all mechanical, digital or photomechanical processes. Every stage has been completed by hand by the artist. 

• Entries must be completed by the entrant themselves
• it must be their own original work. 
• If a reference photo has been used, then the permission of the photographer is required (i.e. copyright issues are NOT allowed!)
• Work completed before 15th February 2012 CANNOT be entered. 

How to enter

Full terms and conditions available on line at www.davidshepherd.org or by calling DSWF on 01483 272323.

The website provides three documents (as pdf files)

• Terms and Conditions of Entry(130.5KB) - this is a MUST READ for all artists
• Helpful Hints (126.42KB)
• 2017 Postal Entry Form (115.71KB) - for those wanting to enter by post rather than online

Categories

Entries must be submitted to a category. The categories are:

• Animal Behaviour: Showing a real understanding of animal behaviour, a sense of character, maybe something the judges may not have seen before. 
• Hidden World: A celebration of remote and rarely observed or lesser known landscapes and species. 
• Into the Blue: Illustrate the wonderful world of water, be it ocean, seashore, wetland, river or stream. 
• Urban Wildlife: Entries can be in an urban style or depict the city life of animals and plants. Judges will be looking for both originality in the habitat as well as the contrast between wild and urban life. 
• Vanishing Fast: Our vanishing world – it can be any species officially listed as endangered or threatened on the IUCN Red List – or any landscape that is at risk. 
• Wings, Feathered or Otherwise: The extraordinary variety of winged wildlife – birds and insects, in flight or at rest. 
• Earth’s Beautiful Creatures: The choice is yours! 

For all categories the judges are looking for....

not only beautifully executed original artworks but also imaginative interpretation, moving away from the purely photographic to compositions with great characterisation, showing imagination, originality and genuine creativity. 

Method and cost of entry

Entries can be my post or online - however

• all images submitted as an entry must be digital. Please NOTE that no allowance is made by the Judges for poor digital images or bad quality photographs. It's up to you to submit quality images.
• all entries must reach the Foundation by 205h February.

Entry is online or via the post.  Your artwork should be submitted as a JPEG digital image via the digital entry form or should be burned to a CD. They recommend:

• High resolution @300 dpi
• minimum pixels of 2,200 pixels on the SMALLEST side
• File size not exceeding 6MB.
• all files must have an easily identifiable name eg you should use your surname followed by title of art artwork

Responsibilities of the artists

• Note that delivery, collection, shipping costs and insurance are the responsibility of the artist.

What does it cost to enter

Entry costs vary depending on the status of the artist

• normal entry fee: £25 
• concessionary rate: £10 for DSWF members, 17-25 year olds and the over 60s.

How should I price my work?

• All entries must be for sale.  Do NOT enter anything you don't want sold as this exhibition aims to sell - and that includes making your sale price appropriate for the exhibition and marketplace.
• All prices need to be realistic i.e. priced for sale. Note that this competition is a bit different. Sale price will be negotiated with the artist but the final decision will be made by DSWF.  
• That effectively means that if you enter your work and then put 
• a silly high price on it so it won't sell, that DSWF can vary that so it will sell
• a low price on it - maybe because you don't know London prices - that DSWF can raise it so that it's consistent with prices asked for other work of the same quality in the exhibition.

Commission

There are three commission rates:

• Sales proceeds for works exhibited at the exhibition are to be split 50/50 for sales made for the duration of the exhibition and for one month after. 
• After one month, any sales made as a result of the continued promotion of the piece by DSWF will be split 70% artist and 30% DSWF
• Sale proceeds resulting from commissions taken at the exhibition are to be split 70% artist and 30% DSWF. 

More about Wildlife Artist of the Year in previous years

• Wildlife Artist of the Year - The Exhibition June 20, 2016 - these are the people whose work caught my eye
• Wildlife Artist of the Year 2016 - The Awards June 28 2016 - these are the people who won awards in each of the categories - plus the overall Wildlife Artist of the Year Award
• Review: Wildlife Artist of the Year 2015 July 02, 2015 - 186 artworks were selected from the 1,000 entries to the competition. A further 38 artworks were selected but not hung 
• Wildlife Artist of the Year 2015 - Call for Entries - 1 September 2014
• David Shepherd's Wildlife Artist of the Year 2014 - deadline ... 18 Jan 2014 - Summary of the Call for Entries for David Shepherd's Wildlife Artist of the Year 2014 - exhibition at Mall Galleries in June 2014.
• Wildlife Artist of the Year 2013 - David ... 06 Jun 2013 Wildlife Artist of the Year 2013: Review of the prizewinners and exhibition at the Mall Galleries.
• Wildlife Artist of the Year 2013 - Call for entries 24 Oct 2012 - Overview of call for entries for The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation Wildlife Artist of the Year 2013 Competition.
• Wildlife Artist of the Year 2012 - Call for entries 16 Dec 2011 - The overall BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year 2012 wins a place for one person on a 10-day painting safari with Pip McGarry in Botswana in October 2012
• Two opportunities to be Wildlife Artist of the Year 2011! 25 Jan 2011 - The competition is open to all professional and amateur artists aged 17 and over. The top prize is £10,000 and all shortlisted artists are exhibited at the Wildlife Artists of Year 2011 Exhibition at the Mall Galleries
• Adam Binder wins Wildlife Artist of the Year 2010 25 May 2010 - Yesterday evening, at the Mall Galleries, Adam Binder's stunningly simple bronze sculpture of a polar bear on an iceberg - "Sinking Feeling" - won him the title of Wildlife Artist of the Year 2010. 
• Art competition: Wildlife Artist of the Year 28 Jan 2010 - The title Wildlife Artist of the Year is awarded by a panel of judges appointed by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) and comes with a cash prize of £10,000 generously donated by the exhibition sponsors
• Exhibition review: Wildlife Artist of the Year 2009 02 Jun 2009 - You can see my photos of fellow coloured pencil artists Gayle Mason and Jonathan Newey with their work on the UKCPS News blog in UKCPS members and their art at Wildlife Artist of the Year 2009.
• Wildlife Artist of the Year 2009 - the online exhibition - 13 Apr 2009 - so refreshing to see the online exhibition for the Wildlife Artist of the Year some two months in advance of the actual exhibition in June. 
• Two wildlife art competitions and a snow ... 28 Nov 2008 -The Wildlife Artist of the Year, run by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF), is open to amateur and professional artists alike from anywhere in the world. Artists must be aged 17 by the closing date - 30th Jan 2009.