This is a review of the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists which I visited on Tuesday morning last week - straight after the PV the night before.
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| View of the West Gallery with a range of artwork and sizes on display |
I'm writing this essentially for three four parties:
- artists interested in marine art and maybe thinking about applying for next year's exhibition
- members of the RSMA (re. framing and pricing)
- the Mall Galleries
- the Royal Society of Marine Artists.
I'll be commenting very specifically on the artworks in the exhibition.
However, some of the comments in my review follow a theme arising from earlier reviews of annual exhibitions at the Mall Galleries for the very simple reason it's important and universal. That theme very much relates to the interest rate shenanigans and the cost of living crisis experienced over the last 12 months i.e. fewer people having disposable income or feeling confident about buying and this has an impact on sales and by definition to income of artists.
East Gallery
The morning after the PV turned out, as I hoped, to be an excellent time to take photos without a lot of people in front of the artwork. These will be loaded into albums on my Facebook page where they will
- either give you an incentive to visit the exhibition
- provide an insight into the type of artwork which gets selected for the exhibition, if you're unable to visit.
These are the links to my photos of the:
- SEE all the Prizewinners on the wall in this FB post and
- READ about who won what in this news post by the Mall Galleries Royal Society of Marine Artists Exhibition 2023 | Award Winners
- VIEW all the artwork by both members and selected from the open entry online on the Mall Galleries website. Sadly there are no filters so you have to work your way through to see what you want.
The exhibition continues until Saturday 30th September (10am to 5pm) at the Mall Galleries.
BELOW you can find my review of the artwork and a commentary on sales and the price of artwork sold
Review of RSMA Annual Exhibition 2023
Overall, this is an exhibition which continues to impress in terms of the standard of artwork submitted - with particular respect to its execution. There are, in particular, a number of very impressive oil painters.
The exhibition is also becoming more diverse and is demonstrating a wider range of both subject matter and media over time.
It also receives a good level of sponsorship which is reflected in the prizes on offer to participating artists - both members and those selected via the open entry.
It also receives a good level of sponsorship which is reflected in the prizes on offer to participating artists - both members and those selected via the open entry.
Subject Matter
This is an open art exhibition which invites artwork about anything that involves tidal waters of the world.In other this is NOT about water per se - it MUST be essentially marine in nature i.e. involved with TIDAL water. This includes:
- harbours and shorelines,
- traditional craft and contemporary shipping,
- creeks and beaches,
- wildlife and marine workers
- in short anything that involves tidal water
The range of subject matter on display in the marine art in this exhibition is fascinating.
One of the key aspects creating and maintaining a successful art society is knowing your audience and how to reach out to them - otherwise you and your members could be out of pocket pretty fast!
Ostensibly in the past, this has been a society which has enjoyed the patronage of "men with money and boats". I spotted one such last Tuesday - obviously visiting during a lunch break from an important job which required a smart suit and shiny shoes. He closely studied a number of paintings - definitely a collector!
However I'm not sure to what extent this patronage has continued as society has changed.
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| Some traditional sailing ships at the end of the West Gallery - but very few generally |
I noted that:
- despite me thinking of this exhibition as being very masculine in nature, it appears to have slowly become rather less masculine over time. There are, for example,
- many more women artists submitting artwork as members or via the open and
- this is also reflected in changes in the artworks displayed.
- I'm pretty sure there's a bit of a demographic impact on some of the artwork. Artworks that used to very much appeal to older people and older artists appears to be reducing as both decline in numbers visiting and displaying art. It's maybe a generational thing. Alternatively, it might be that these were the paintings that older people liked looking at - but did not buy - and hence artists have changed what they choose to display. Whatever, my parents' generation - who lived through the war - have now all but disappeared.
- As a result, I find I am now noting:
- fewer old sailing ships (a dying genre?)
- fewer naval vessels (fewer people in the navy now means less interest maybe?)
- fewer commercial ships - although still very much present
- fewer big sailing yachts (looks a bit bling and maybe inappropriate during a cost of living crisis)
- more emphasis on vessels of a smaller scale which represent smaller scale commercial working practices and more accessible leisure activities
- more emphasis on holidays at home and ordinary people enjoying the sea and the sea side and normal pastimes - although I'm always a bit amazed I don't see more normal surfers and wind surfers represented in artwork
- more emphasis on families and children - with this group in particular being very popular with those buying
I thought a tiny proportion of the artworks was pushing the definition a bit in the sense that there was very little evidence of marine in the painting. There also some artists who really need to work a lot more on their drawing and painting of people.
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| North Gallery |
I found it very odd that the Candidates Wall had not grouped their work together to aid decisions about who should be upgraded to member or associate. Or maybe somebody forgot to put 'candidate' on all the labels?
I very much liked Patsy Moore's paintings - who is a candidate with paintings scattered around - who some may remember was a Landscape Artist of the Year Finalist in 2019.
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| I found it odd that the candidates (for membership) work was scattered around and not all on the Candidates Wall |
Media
Paintings are still very much the preferred type of artworks - with a marked preference for those in oil and then watercolour. Acrylic and gouache are very much minor players.
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| Four watercolour paintings by Srirangam Mohankumar ARSMA - which I liked a lot partly because they reminded me a lot of Winslow Homer I was surprised he didn't win a prize. |
However there are a good range of fine art prints (etchings, aquatints, linocuts, woodcuts, monoprints, gyotaku, cyanotype photogram) - although not grouped and hence less obvious.
- Other societies group their prints in their exhibitions and I find this very effective.
- What was very silly this year was having a minimum price of £600 for artworks on display - which is patently ridiculous for most prints!
- Personally I'd like to see MORE original prints - as they are very affordable and get people started on collecting - and rather fewer of the more mediocre paintings.
There were very few drawings - which is a pity. Graphite, charcoal and pastel were used by those were included.
Sculpture is well represented across a variety of media.
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| Two groups of sculpture in the East Gallery |
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| "Crabbing" by Simon Connolly ARSMA and RBSA Ceramic on slate - the only sculpture sold prior to the exhibition and after the Private View - for a very reasonable price |
However this year we also had:
- Hand stitching on vintage sequins
- textile and embroidery - which look just like paintings until you get up close
- fabric collage
- bead embroidery and morse code
- cast mycelium (a sea gooseberry!)
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| Sea Gooseberry by Sheila Robinson Cast mycelium |
Size
There were probably fewer very large paintings compared to what I've seen in the past - which, given the economic context, was probably a very wise move.While it's good to have some large "anchor" paintings for a gallery or a wall, too many crowd out opportunities for other artists to both exhibit and sell
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| Part of the North Gallery - with a large "anchor" painting |
The mezzanine wall was used, as most do, as the small works wall. It works particularly well being situated next to the tables and chairs and people drinking tea!
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| Small works on the Messanine Wall - and rather fewer sales than I often see on this wall. |
Frames
I really HATED some of the frames which were an active deterrent to sales. I'm not going to single anybody out, but some people need introducing to contemporary framing! I'm not going to name names - but if you look at the photos I'm sure your eyes will hurt when you see some artworks.
Sales and Pricing
What's interesting to me is what interests the buying public.
Last Tuesday morning, when I counted all the artwork sold, sales had been generated via
- the online preview of the artwork - see above link
- sales at the Private View - where it's a common expectation that a goodly proportion of artwork will be sold given this is an opportunity to be nice to collectors!
Sadly only one sculpture sold - notably for less than £1K. I think this in part might be to do with the fact that quite a lot of aculpture tends to be more expensive. That said there is some excellent sculpture on display and I was very taken with the bronze fish!
This morning I then counted all the sales last week and added these on. I'll then be doing a comprehensive review of pricing and sales at the end of the exhibition - as it's important for would-be participants to be aware of important facts
Halfway through the exhibition:
- the top seller is the East Anglian artist Raymond Leach RSMA who has sold four paintings of figurative scenes in Southwold, Walberswick and Blakeney. For this exhibition he has created a series of small paintings of scenes involving lots of figures doing typical things on the coast of East Anglia. It's rooted in what he knows; each painting has lots of content and each is skilfully painted - there's absolutely no sense of any of them being "a quickie" or a study - which is a mistake some artists make when submitting small works.
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| Four of Raymond Leach's seven paintings |
Raymond Leach also won the Best Small Painting Award (below)
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| RSMA Award for the Best Small Painting Evening Crabbing Session, Blakeney by Raymond Leach RSMA (click the link for a closer look) |
- Jenny Aitken has sold three of her paintings with a very distinctive palette.
- Both know how to price to achieve sales.
- A lot of members have no sales - particularly those pricing at above £1,500.
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Winner of the Baltic Exchange Award Sundown from Harwich Quay by Jenny Aitken ARSMA |
Here's a few observations on sales to date
The new minimum price has probably LOST sales and reduced sale income. and, as I said in this post Call for Entries: Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2023) I think this was "a HUGE mistake"
The Minimum Price for artwork in the exhibition has been raised to £600.
(Personally - within the current economic climate - I think this is a HUGE mistake - despite the fact that this is an exhibition which always sells well. That benchmark eliminates all those who are happy buying smaller works under £500 - which can be very significant as my recent posts about pricing metrics have demonstrated given this is a major psychological hurdle price barrier. I very much doubt it will generate more income and it is very likely to generate less.
Telling artists the minimum price level is £600 means you automatically lose the 25% of all artwork priced under £500 which usually walks off the walls in other FBA Society exhibitions. Raising the minimum price from £300 to £600 has probably reduced overall income from sales rather than increased it.
The £600 minimum price was a dreadful mistake re fine art prints also - as these typically sell in this gallery for a lot less. I noted some prints with one price in the catalogue and another online - which I assume happened when people realised the mistake.
Whether everybody just submitted the same artwork and upgraded the price is difficult to tell. Other than at one point it became very obvious that prices between £600 and £700 were the most popular for sales
The guidelines on pricing apply to this exhibition too.
- Most artworks sell for less than £1,500 - with most of these selling for less than a £1,000
- A few artworks have sold between £1.5K and £2K
- Only one artwork has sold for more than £2K
- the most popular sale price so far is £675!
This very much follows EXACTLY what I've been observing about the pattern of sales and income in other exhibitions at the Mall Galleries.
Every artist needs an entry artwork and price level for those starting to collect
It's my belief that every exhibition needs to be very much geared towards creating art collectors - who will go home pleased with a purchase and come back again and again to buy more. Which means every artist should give serious thought as to:
- whether they've created a good quality cost effective artwork which can get a new collector started.
- submitting a representative artwork which acts as an entry to buying bigger, better and more expensive later.
- irrespective of whether you are exhibiting one or six artworks! (i.e. this is a strategy which applies just as much to member artists as it does to those hoping to be selected for the first time).
People don't generally start buying with the most expensive artworks - which is why members with higher prices do well - ONLY if they get their collectors to come to the exhibition! Otherwise they need to rethink their overall strategy in relation to exhibiting and income generation.
I'll be writing more on this topic and producing another one of my charts after the end of the exhibition.
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