Thursday, September 30, 2021

Two new Royal Art Society Exhibitions in London

There are two new exhibitions by national art societies opening in London this week. These are:

  • RSMA Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists at the Mall Galleries 
  • RWS Autumn Exhibition of the Royal Watercolour Society at the Bankside Gallery

I'm hoping to visit both of these exhibitions in the near future. 

They both include paintings - but those of the RWS are in water soluble media and the RSMA exhibition at the Mall Galleries includes all media plus sculpture.

You can easily see both exhibitions in one day.

Royal Society of Marine Artists 

The Royal Society of Marine Artists is the focal point for much of Britain's finest contemporary marine art, and many of the country's leading marine artists are elected Members of the Society.
This country is an island nation with a proud maritime heritage. The coastline of Britain and its principal islands measures some 19,400 miles, presenting a wide variety of often spectacular scenery.
The sea is part of who we are as a nation. It is this heritage and this environment that we aim to celebrate.
Title of Exhibition: RSMA Annual Exhibition 2021 
I actually prefer the online perspective on artwork by members on the RSMA website - mainly because the images are much bigger when scanning through to see which ones you want to take a closer look at. On the other hand, if you click on an image twice on the Mall Galleries website, you get to see an even bigger image. Lots of clicks and navigation though to do this for several exhibits!

The Private View and Awards Ceremony were held yesterday (which I no longer go to as I'm avoiding crowded events). Those artists who have won awards in this exhibition have been announced - and you can see the artworks on the Mall Galleries Facebook Page plus prize details and the artist who won the award.

It's very interesting, at this stage of the exhibition, to see which artworks sold online prior to the opening of the exhibition and/or sold yesterday the Private View.

Royal Watercolour Society


View of some of the line artwork from this exhibition
Title of Exhibition: RWS Autumn - "Now and Then" 
This exhibition of works by Members of the Royal Watercolour Society showcases paintings created in the very recent present alongside those at the earliest points in their career, and everything in between. The display promises to provide visitors with a rare insight into the development of each artist's creative output, as well as the opportunity to take a piece of work home, whether from now or then.
To my mind RWS has still not recovered from their disastrous attempt to "look contemporary" as opposed to painting for the reason they were chosen to be a member and slowly developing their work over time.

Furthermore, despite the scope and intention of the exhibition, I'm left wondering whether member artists read the brief! That's because, 
  • to be perfectly honest, when viewing the works online I can't see very much change in artworks - except for those submitted by a very few artists.
  • when I checked the dates on some artwork it's also very evident that the watercolour painting styles of some artists have changed very little in the last 10 years (June Berry), 30 years (Richard Bawden) or 40 years (Dennis Roxby Bott) 
I shall be intrigued to see whether buyers are purchasing old or new work - and will probably wait to visit until I get an answer to that question.
Posted by Making A Mark on Thursday, September 30, 2021
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