Sarah Lake wins Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024

Winner of Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024: Jara by Sarah Lake

This post is about the internationally renowned David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation's Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024 Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, which opened to the public today - and continues daily at the Mall Galleries (10am - 5pm) until 6th July. It provides:

• announcement of 
• the artwork winning the top prize
• the runner up
• plus all the category and other award winners
• comments on the Exhibition
• my photos of the exhibition - plus links to more images of the artwork - including all the Category Winners
• comments on pricing and sales

On Monday night, I attended a very impressive Private View for the Wildlife Artist of the Year Exhibition where the awards for each category and finally the winner of the Wildlife Artist of the Year were announced.

You can also review the artworks in the exhibition online at the Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024 Online Exhibition on the DSWF website.

Towards the end of the Private View last night,
when numbers had reduced enough to get a good view of the artwork in the gallery

Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024

Since its inception in 2008, DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year has attracted more than 17,500 entries and through entry fees, exhibition sales, and sponsorships, has raised nearly £2 million for wildlife causes.

The Wildife Artist of the Year 2024 is Sarah Lake.

Winner of Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024 - Sarah Lake
Artwork: "Jara"
Papercut 77 x 80cm SOLD (£1,800)

Sarah Lake is a very impressive wildlife artist from Kent with a unique approach to creating her art. All her artworks are created by cutting paper with a surgical blade and layering to create the shapes and tonal values of an animal or bird. Her award winninf artwork is the picture of an elephant's trunk - with the end curled round. This is what it looks like close up.

Last night, she was won the Wildlife Artist of the Year Award and sold all her artwork in the show (two proper artworks and two postcards) and I think this prize has just raised the profile of her artwork and her career - and her medium of choice.

A macro view of the elephant's trunk created as a papercut artwork by Sarakh Lake

Last year she won the Wings Category with a picture of a pelican - and I commented at the time that I thought it was the best artwork in the show

Her work is based on photographs which she analyses to extract the different tonal values. She explains her practice on her website.

It's been her practice in the past to donate most of her art for auctions which raise funds for wildlife conservation.

Her £10,000 award is split between a £5,000 cash prize and a £5,000 donation to a conservation charity / project of her choice.

The Runner Up

The runner up was a sculpture called "Guardian of the Forest" by Aki Mimura

Wildlife Artist of the Tear: Runner Up

'Guardian of the Forest' (Abstract World) by Aki Mimura

Limestone on Sandstone base

25 × 14 × 18 cm 

This was entered in the abstract category because it's a very stylised version of a bird - which I think is an owl.

Aki Mimura is a Japanese sculptor who used to be a professional watch designer for 11 years and now lives in Italy and works in sculpture.

I continue with the winners of the various categories below

Wildlife Artist of the Year Exhibition 2024

DSWF Wildlife Artist of the Year 2024 has attracted entries from exceptionally talented amateur and professional artists all over the world.

This year the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) is celebrating its 40th anniversary - and displayed a film last night which indicates the work it has been doing

The Judges for the Awards in 2024 were made up of

• conservationist: Melanie Shepherd, Chair of the DSWF Board of Trustees (and former CEO of the Foundation)
• artists: Hazel Soan and Gary Hodges, 
• artists: Mandy Shepherd and Emily Lamb (David Shepherd's grandaughters)
• wildlife photographer: William Fortescue
• gallery owner: Simon Trapnell (founder of Nature in Art)
• interior designers: Wendy Feess.
• PR and advertising experts: Karrie Goldberg (Founder of The Kagency and Outernet)

The Awards Ceremony was livestreamed on YouTube and can be seen in this video.  Apparently the set-up only took a couple of hours. I though it was a wonderful way of engaging with the international community who are all very enthusiastic about this competition - and send lots of entries!

You can also see my Facebook album of photos of 

• the winner AND all the category winners 
• lots of general views of the exhibition - and the rest of the artworks (in PV mode)!! 

Category Winners

The category winners are listed below. 

Review: Annual Exhibition 2024 of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters Sculptors and Gravers

The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors & Gravers (RMS) is back at what now seems to be its NEW home at the Bankside Gallery on the South Bank of the Thames - next to Tate Modern. 

Its "Art in Miniature" Annual Exhibition 2024 opened last week and continues until Saturday 6th July.

As we return to the Bankside Gallery with its extra space and friendly staff, I hope our artists and visitors will also be able embrace the summer weather and popular location again.

I highly RECOMMEND it to anybody who is interested in miniature art - whether these are paintings, drawings or sculpture in a variety of media.

Especially for those collectors who, like me, are fast running out of space for new artwork!

The society is also promoting artwork by Young Artists - and their exhibits included some impressive artwork.

What is Miniature Art

Although miniature art was considerably bigger when the society was first created, the current state of play is highlighted in this introduction to the art form by Anthony Lester (which comes from one of my earlier blog posts).

With a maximum size of 6 x 4 inches (15.24 x 10.16 cm), the painting of miniatures demands self-discipline, for where large pictures give some latitude in composition, miniatures are unforgiving of the least mistake; a tolerance of even a millimetre is hardly permitted. 

 

A Right Royal Connection

The major Royal update since last year is three fold:

Firstly - the continuation of the Royal Patronage of the Royal Miniature Society by His Majesty King Charles III was announced in May 2024. 

That much anticipated letter back in early May this year from Buckingham Palace informing us that his Majesty King Charles lll would be continuing as our Patron was wonderful news. The RMS is deeply honoured and proud to continue its long association with the Royal Family. RMS Catalogue

Secondly - the President Ray Winder and Executive Secretary Claire Hucker attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party in May to celebrate the Creative Industries. Ray had his interest in miniatures rekindled in 2013 when he visited the Annual Exhibition for the first time and a decade later he is now both the President and the winner of this year's top award.

Ray Winder with his sculpture which won the Gold Memooral Bowl Award

Thirdly - the opening of the RMS exhibition to the public coincided with the announcement that the Honorary President Elizabeth Meek (who was the RMS President from 2004-2013) was responsible for the official miniature portrait of King Charles which now forms part of the brand new Royal Family Order which is worn by female members of the Royal Family on State Occasions. As it had been the previous evening when Queen Camilla wore it for the first time at the reception of the Japanese Royal Family. 

(More about this in a subsequent post)

Elizabeth Meek - pictured with press coverage of the new Royal Family Order
and her miniature portrait of King Charles III
- which she's been keeping very quiet about for the last year!

Review of the Annual Exhibition

• The exhibition is open daily from 11-6pm until 6pm on Saturday 8th July.
• Entry is free and the essential exhibition catalogue is £3.
• Nearest tubes and rail stations are at 
• Blackfriars Railway and Tube Station and - Thameslink, District and Circle Lines
• St Paul's (across the Millenium Bridge) - Central Line

I don't think they'll be moving any time soon. This space suits them perfectly - especially as it's a hop skip and short jump from the very modern Blackfriars Station with its great connections via Thameslink trains to stations north and south of London.

This is a review of the exhibition, however for those who cannot get to London to see it you can see all the artwork

• on the RMS website (grouped by artist):
• Member Submissions  - Miniature Art 1 and Miniature Art 2 and Sculptures
• Non-members (31 artists selected) - page 1 
• Young Miniaturists
• on the Bankside Gallery website - good quality images of all the artwork

You can also download the printed catalogue as a pdf

If I sit and think about what's changed with this exhibition......

Overall this exhibition leans firmly towards more traditional subject matter. 

However, in general, the theme seems to broadly revolving around change from the more traditional subject matter and media of the past to more contemporary themes.

• I think I'm seeing fewer portraits - which in some ways is sad as this is what miniature art is best known for - and also this is what generates most commissions. Older more experienced members are still setting very high standards for the quality of portraiture.
• the subject matter is broadening. There's much less of the "twee" ilk and much more which echoes both ancient and contemporary art. I think this might be in part because 
• more younger artists are getting involved with miniature art
• a greater awareness of the history of miniature art in the past
• the media used to produce miniature 3D artwork is changing and broadening. The sculpture is increasingly becoming more interesting.

Sculpture - mainly by members

A group exhibit of miniature artwork in 3D by Dana Kerr (Young Artist)
won the The Bidder and Borne Sculptors Gravers Award

• I'm seeing novel techniques being used for miniature art - which are rooted in very traditional techniques. For example, the use of gold leaf and verre eglomise techniques - which involves painting artwork backwards from the front backwards (see the article on this topic Technique In Verre Eglomise by Claire Russell RMS MASF MPSGS. Her group of animal portraits using gold leaf was outstanding.

Winner of the Elizabeth Meek Award and the Peter Charles Booth Memorial Award
Images of Geckos, Lizards and Dragons by Claire Russell

I'll pop a link in this post to the awards when they go up on the website. It's very much oriented towards social media site listing at present.

My recommendations for the next exhibition

In general, the display cabinets and artwork are well displayed - but for one thing.

 

I have to confess that I felt like I was fighting more with the lighting this year. Some of the lights were angled straight down rather than set up at an angle. As a result I was getting terrific glare off the glass from some of the lights above the display. That's hard on the eyes and required constant readjustment to avoid the glare and deters lingering long looking at the exhibit.

TIP: Check the positions of all lights above cases to to reduce glare on the glass to a minimum. I think maybe if the light is set at an oblique angle rather than straight down it would reduce glare as some display cabinets were more affected than others and it seemed to relate to the angle of the light.

TIP: Non-members need to think more carefully when naming the images they submit as these carry over into the exhibition online and some of the names which came up on the website when an artwork was clicked were less than helpful!

HOWEVER, I note that the RMS already has a page on its website titled Renaming Art Files and Sending Via Email in order to address this issue. Full marks for prompt attention to detail!

REFERENCE

Website - https://royal-miniature-society.org.uk/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/royalminiature/

Twitter / X - https://x.com/royalminiature