Analysis of Sales at the RSMA Annual Exhibition 2024

This post about the number of sales and the prices they sold for is specific to the Royal Society of Marine Artists. However it has a number of useful lessons for:

• more than one art society
• members and associates of the RSMA
• ALL those who enter open exhibitions by national art societies in London - and most especially those who exhibit at the Mall Galleries.

The reason I'm writing this post is because I'd like to see:

• more artists do better
• more artists make sales
• more artists improve their annual income from their artwork
• THROUGH more intelligent pricing of their artwork

Bottom line, the most realistic price for your artwork is the price which enables a sale. Otherwise, why bother pricing at all?

So far as I'm aware, I'm the only person who provides detailed analysis across various national art societies and comments on the lessons that can learned - which all can benefit from.

I've no objection to changes to "the rules" being made over time - but I do know that those which are grounded in real numbers and real life are much more likely to be successful over time.

I've established in the past that there's a strong trend which generates lots of sales in the £350-£500 price range. 

The rule which I think curtailed sales in this exhibition was the one which required a minimum sale price of £600 - when there are a lot of people buying art priced below £500.

Read on to find out why....

General commentary on Sales of Artwork

These days art sales are typically generated via

• the associated online website for the artwork - and the fact this goes online before the exhibition in the gallery opens
• 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!
• sales during the time the exhibition is open to the public.

Sales in the last couple of years have been less than usual due to the constraints on people's budgets.

Number of Sales by Price Range

By the time the RSMA Annual Exhibition closed on 28 September 2024, there had been 57 sales in total (out of 452 artworks in the exhibition) i.e. 12% of artworks "hung" sold.

The analysis in this post is based on those sales.  See my review post for the explanation of how I arrived at these numbers

The remaining unsold artwork remains available for sale on the online art sales pages website

The chart below is based on an analysis of the 57 sales - splitting them by

• the artist as follows:
• RSMA - a full or associate member of the RSMA 
• Open - an artist selected via the Open Entry
• different price ranges - based on prevailing price hurdle (eg 1,000) demonstrated at the Mall Galleries in the past

Analysis of the 57 art sales at the RSMA Annual Exhibition 2024

You can compare 2024 performance to a previous chart from 2020 

Click to see a larger version

NOTE that just 4 years ago:

• there were 56 sales in total of which:
• 17 sales were below £500 
• 48 sales were below £1,500 - and only 40 now in 2024.
• how few sales there were above £2,000 (during the pandemic)
• how the number of open artists selling has improved since 2020

In this context 

• sales in the upper price ranges have improved  since 2020 - but not by much. 
• While the bottom price range (£350-£500) has been completely eliminated by the requirement for a minimum price of £600.

I'm still completely mystified as to the metric evidence which suggested this was a good idea.

RSMA Sales Metrics 2024

I've split my comments between:

• ones related to how one can categorise the artists eg members vs Open; men vs women
• ones related to the price ranges 

Call for Entries: Royal Institute of Oil Painters

You've got less than a week left to submit an entry to the Annual Exhibition 2024  of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the Mall Galleries which opens on 28th November 2024.
I'd normally writing about this in August - but as regular readers will know I was on a lengthy break for various reasons.

So the first thing I need to tell you is that the deadline for online entries - to to submit your digital image of your artwork / form / fees ONLINE only - is Friday 4 October, 12 noon 

The ROI Annual Exhibition typically exhibits around 300 artworks by both members and those selected via the open entry. 

The ROI is the only major British art society that promotes and exhibits work of the highest standard exclusively in oil paint.

This blog post covers this Open Exhibition - and:

• who can enter
• what you can enter
• how to enter

Call for Entries - ROI Annual Exhibition 2023

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

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

WHO can Enter

Artists are invited to submit work for exhibition alongside members of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters at the ROI Annual Exhibition 2023. ROI Exhibition Page

• The competition is open to all artists over the age of 18
• It is also open to international entries - you don't even have to be live or work in the UK. 
• However International Artists need to make sure they read the Mall Galleries/FBA Notice about the need to register for VAT to get your artwork through Customs and into the UK!  
• You might also find my webpage about International Art Shipping: How to ship / export art to other countries useful.

What you can enter

Portraits of people in oils
at the ROI Annual Exhibition 2023 (East Gallery)

SUBJECT MATTER

Artists may submit work on any subject matter.

ORIGINAL ARTWORK NOT PREVIOUSLY SEEN

Basically NEW to the Mall Galleries and less than 3 years old.

ALL artwork submitted MUST

• have been completed within the last three years and 
• must NOT have been previously exhibited at the Mall Galleries (i.e. if you've submitted it to one of the other art societies that exhibits at the Mall Galleries - and it was selected for exhibition you cannot submit it to this exhibition)

ACCEPTABLE MEDIA

I declare victory for common sense!  Last year and the year before in my Call for entries posts, I had a go at the ROI and the Mall Galleries for what was clearly confusing advice as to eligible media - which IMO bordered on being in conflict with mandatory regulations re marketing - and this year it has been sorted!!

I'm really pleased to acknowledge that the ROI is truly exclusive to entries in oil paint.

The definition of acceptable media is now as follows (with my choice of highlighting for what is now EXCLUDED!)

Oils. The ROI promotes and exhibits work of the highest standard in oil paint.

Water-soluble oil paint is acceptable if framed as an oil, so as not to spoil the general appearance of the exhibition.

Acrylic is no longer accepted

Most of the selected works have always been in oil paint i.e. high 90% so this shouldn't be an issue for the look of the exhibition

However this change may well affect all those artists submitting via the open entry in acrylic who will now need to find alternative exhibitions to enter - or start painting in oils.

NUMBER OF ENTRIES

Taking pot shots at Van Gogh at the National Gallery

Earlier this year two young women each threw a can of tomato soup at Van Gogh's painting of sunflowers at the National Gallery

Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland

throwing two cans of tomato soup at

Van Gogh's Sunflowers in the National Gallery

The video below shows what they did. They apparently caused criminal damage exceeding £10k

They pleaded 'not guilty' when their case was tried at London's Southwark Crown Court.

During the hearing, the defendants said they “couldn’t have cared less” if the painting had been damaged.

On Friday, they both received significant prison sentences.

• Phoebe Plummer, 23, was sentenced to two years in prison for causing an estimated £10,000 of damage to the frame of Sunflowers 1888. Wikipedia now describes as a British climate change activist and convicted criminal
• Anna Holland, 22, received 20 months for the same offence.

Prior to this, it seems very likely the two women charged had been told there was a good chance they'd go to prison for causing criminal damage. Hence they had others pleading their case and why they should not go to jail. 

Artists plead for activists who threw soup on a Van Gogh to be spared jail
More than 100 artists, curators and academics said Just Stop Oil action was in keeping with ethos of the arts

These are the Sentencing Guidelines for Criminal Damage

Note that if damage is valued at over £10,000, the case is tried at a Crown Court and a prison sentence is more than likely. Which is what happened. So those pleading on their behalf were effectively "performance art".

Of which there was more in the trial. Why do you plead” not guilty” when the whole thing is on video - unless you want to pursue further political protest eg the 20 minute statement in court by one of the protestors as to why it should be regarded as protest.

The Judge said

“You two simply had no right to do what you did to Sunflowers, and your arrogance in thinking otherwise deserves the strongest condemnation.

“The pair of you came within the thickness of a pane of glass of irreparably damaging or even destroying this priceless treasure, and that must be reflected in the sentences I pass.”

and

“Section 63 of the sentencing code requires me, in assessing the seriousness of your offending, to consider not only the harm your offence caused, but also the harm it might foreseeably have caused. For the reasons I have explained, that foreseeable harm is incalculable. Your offending is so serious that only custodial sentences are appropriate.”

Other protestors from the same organisation had obviously anticipated a prison sentence was likely and had planned ahead.

Which is why a little time after the sentence was announced, three more protestors were involved in the same painting being the target of their protest yet again. This time, they threw tomato soup again at TWO paintings of sunflowers by Van Gogh.

Review: Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2024

This is a review of the Annual Exhibition 2024 of the Royal Society of Marine Artists - currently exhibiting at the Mall Galleries in London - until 28th September.

The exhibition is has lots of high quality artwork which is well hung and includes paintings (in various media), drawings, prints and sculpture and other 3D media.

Below this post covers

• different ways in which you can see the artwork
• a commentary on some of the aspects of the exhibition - given my commentary on a number of the artworks is contained in my Facebook albums
• an analysis of the sales to date - and a chart which shows these are spread across different price ranges and between members and open artists.

Marine scenes - water, skies and boats!
(East Gallery)

My artist to keep an eye on for the future in this year's exhibition produced the paintings top left and top right - and I was entirely unsurprised that top right sold - given it's a very contemporary painting of expensive yachts in a race at a prestigious event (racing around the Needles - in the Round the Island Race?) AND it's part of an edition of 5 and has been priced just under the £2k hurdle price! This very astute as well as accomplished artist is Alex Poyner and I fully expect her to become an Associate of the RSMA very soon - if she applies......

How to see the artwork online

I took a number of photographs when I visited the exhibition last Friday. This week I've spent a long time eliminating perspective distortions for those too high or too low for my current state of agility - and then uploading them to new Facebook Albums.  

These are the links to my photos of the:

• Artwork in the West Gallery
• Artwork in the North Gallery
• Artwork in the East Gallery

This is the only place - other than actually visiting the exhibition - where you can see the relative sizes of the artwork, which a lot of people find difficult to fathom when seeing artwork without a context and only numbers to guide them.

All my comments about artwork I liked can be found in commentary on artwork in the albums. 

You can also see 

• all the members artwork - in alphabetical order - on the RSMA website. I thought the idea of splitting the alphabet up into four separate pages and then providing clear signposts to different sections was excellent! A very fast solution to getting to see the artwork by the member whose artwork you really like!
• ALL the artwork  - by members and selected from the open entry - on the Mall Galleries website (see Annual Exhibition 2024 )
• if there was one criticism I'd make, it's that this image (below) is VERY BUSY.  The different text - in different fonts, sizes and colours - overlaying artwork makes it quite a challenge to understand quickly. I think it could be done a lot more simply - and that's the challenge I'm issuing for next year!

My comments on a number of matters

Exhibition Commentary 

To be honest, I've not got a lot to say which I didn't say last year (see Review: 78th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists) so, 

• given the context of my new priorities (see I'm back - but slowing down and walking more!) and 
• less time for writing blog posts, 

I'm going to try and be less long-winded and a bit more succinct!

Diversity

This is a very masculine art society. Hence it's always pleasing to see more and more female artists submitting artwork and getting selected. 

Norman Ackroyd CBE RA (1938-2024)

I was very sad to hear that the eminent master printmaker Norman Ackroyd passed away last week - in the  afternoon of a fine warm day (Monday 16th September) at his home in Bermondsey. He was 86

Norman Ackroyd (1938-2024)

Such a contrast to his lithographs and prints of the windswept, rainy isles and vaporous clouds in the North of Scotland and other rugged Atlantic seascapes and landscapes in the UK and Ireland. He was a complete master of portraying the coasts on the Atlantic seaboard.

His capacity for creating vaporous clouds filled with sea birds - with amorphous giant shapes representing the coastline which has stood up the beating of winds and rain from west was simply amazing - and his prints had very many fans.

Norman Ackroyd's map of all the locations (with a pin) where he been
to create etchings of that landscape in his studio in Bermondsey

There's a couple of excellent Videos of him talking about his artwork and his processes on YouTube based on the BBC series "What do Artists do all day?" which reviewed him and his work. These are they....

I remember him very well from when he led the tour on the Press Preview for the RA Summer Exhibition in 2013 - which was the best I'd ever been to. It's always stayed in my memory. He struck me then as a complete "one-off" and a really interesting man who could speak about art in plain English. Probably something to do with the northerner in me responding positively to the fact he was born in Leeds in Yorkshire!

Norman Ackroyd CBE RA
talking about hanging Gallery III at Burlington House (RA Summer Exhibition 2013)
which included works hung in honour of the late Mary Fedden RA
who had recently passed away.

This is a video of Norman Ackroyd talking about the process of selecting and then hanging a Summer Exhibition.

Life and career of Norman Ackroyd

His website summarises his life, art education and the career of Norman Ackroyd. He graduated from the Royal College of Art 60 years ago this summer.

• 1938: Born Leeds
• 1956-61: Leeds College of Art
• 1961-64: Royal College of Art, London
• 1988: Elected Royal Academician
• 1994: Appointed Professor of Etching, University of the Arts
• 1999 - 2000: Professor of Printmaking
• 2000: Elected Senior Fellow, Royal College of Art
• 2007: Awarded a C.B.E. for Services to Engraving and printing
• 2013: Elected Senior RA: 1 October 2013

He has produced work for many significant commissions and has work in prestigious collections all over the world. It also sells pretty fast at the RA Summer Exhibition

He called his medium “painting with acid”, and he was on friendly terms with a vast array of the chemicals, from the violent hydrochloric to the lively nitric, which “bites in all directions”. Daily Telegraph obituary

His work in Art Collections

His work is in the collections of very many prominent art galleries and organisations.

Selected Public Collections

Albertina Museum, Vienna

• Art Institute of Chicago
• Arts Council of Great Britain
• British Council
• British Museum, London 
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• Fogg Art Museum, Harvard
• Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Museum of Modern Art, New York
• National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
• National Gallery of Canada
• National Gallery of Norway
• National Gallery of Scotland
• National Gallery of South Africa
• Queensland Art Gallery
• Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
• The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle
• Stedelijk, Amsterdam
• Tate Gallery, London Norman Ackroyd born 1938 - Tate". Tate Britain. 
• Utah Museum of Fine Art

and numerous museums and art galleries in the United Kingdom

Ackroyd also received several public mural commissions, produced in etched stainless steel or bronze. Recent commissions included Lloyds Bank, London; British Airways, Birmingham Airport; Freshfields, London; Tetrapack, Stockley Park, Heathrow; a bronze mural for the Main Hall of the British Embassy, Moscow; and Lazards Bank, Stratton Street, London W1. RA Obituary

 

Obituaries

Other posts about his life include:

I'm back - but slowing down and walking more!

Summer break is over, health matters are in hand and moving and I'm about to resume blogging again - and I'm very nearly 70!

Study of bodily proportions by Albrecht Durer
British Library Treasures Exhibition

I've made a lot of progress with my health issues which were causing concern....

• I've had my hips x-rayed and endless blood tests
• I've had my pre-treatment chat with the physio and start early October
• Plus I've also got an appointment in early October to see the Orthopeadic people at the Surgery Centre about the hip - and then we'll work out whether it's going to shoulder replacement and then hip replacement or hip and then shoulder. (The shoulder replacement got 'bumped' in 2020 when I chose to do the ankle fusion first!)
• plus a couple of lengthy chats with my GP about the results of various tests and we're getting other issues sorted as well
• and I'm on new medication!

So steady progress and fewer worries on the health front. (see I need to take a break - before my hip does!)

I'm also very, very committed to my long walk every day - as it's the only time I feel normal (as per NICE recommendations for those with osteoarthritis).This might sound very odd for somebody with severe osteoarthritis. However, exercise helps enormously with both functionality and mobility and keeps my musculature etc in good nick for the next time I'll be relearning how to walk. No matter how much your skeleton falls apart, the bits that actually keep you walking are the tendons and ligaments!

I'm now averaging over 6,000 steps a day - which can take a long time depending on the route I take and what I stop to see en route

Average steps from my daily walk

One day this week my walk comprised walking 

• from the David Hockney Auction Exhibition at Phillips in Berkeley Square (the auction was held yesterday) 
• down to the Green and Stone Gallery on the Fulham Road in Chelsea for a PV for the Amicus Botanicus Exhibition (which is on until Saturday) 
• through Mayfair, Hyde Park, along and through Knightsbridge and into Chelsea.

The key thing is to keep finding places to walk to with interesting things to look at!

However I'm still as STIFF as a board in the evening and extremely unsteady on my feet after about 8pm - which continues to be very worrying. I'm thinking about installing grab rails at key points....

So, in terms of going forward....

• #1 priority is getting health matters sorted - so I can continue to enjoy life. 
• #2 priority is a steady unrelenting focus on keeping mobile - to keep me safe and avoid becoming even more decrepit
• #3 priority is I'm 70 next month - and I've decided I'm going to become more choosy as to how I spend my time
• #4 priority is writing about art - but more selectively.  Some posts might become more picture oriented which can be quicker to do.... I'll certainly still be writing about
• annual exhibitions of national art societies
• major art competitions - including those on television!
• #5 priority - is to mine what I've written in the past and make it available one way or another. This blog heas nearly 20 years of archives!! I'm thinking about 
• resurrecting past posts via Facebook - as I've been doing recently (and maybe Instagram) and 
• maybe writing ebooks - based on past projects and talks.
• maybe doing more Zoom talks.

How about you - how are you prioritising matters as your life progresses?