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. 

While many women paint exactly the same sorts of subject matter and views as the men, at the edges there tends to be divergence.  

• Interiors of boatyards and a focus on the engineering and architecture of "how things work" can sometimes be more favoured by men. Plus I've never come across a woman who paints old sailing ships.
• Women seem to like the quirky and the human angle. I positively cheered when I saw a painting by Samantha Guertin of larger ladies in their swimming cossies, woolly hats and thermal gloves all going in for a cold water swim on the south coast where she lives!

"Altogether" by Samantha Guertin

I can only commend the RSMA for the increasing diversity in relation to gender.

The other aspect in which this exhibition does well is the diversity of the media used for the artwork in the exhibition. The Sculpture / 3D artwork is particularly strong in this respect.

very innovative ceramic work of "Whales" by Miae Kim

One thing though,"Mixed media"as a description is a bête noire of mine given it can hide a multitude of sins!

I'd like to encourage the society to get artists to explain what they mean by mixed media and, if they have the space, to include the details in the catalogue and on the labels on the wall. 

The only art society which has ever got to grips with the fire precautions.

One corner of the exhibition - near the end wall in the West Gallery - is very irritating. It's not only got two narrow walls either side of the fire exit but it's also got very "in your face / look at me" fire alarms and narrative text for what to do. 

This is the ONLY exhibition I've ever seen which has tackled this wall wonderfully well - by putting equally strong colours right next to the alarm stuff.  It made it look as if it was part of the hang. 

See what I mean?

Prizes

I continue to be very impressed by the paintings of Srirangam Mohankumar

who is a retired doctor

This continues to be an exhibition which offers a lot of prizes - which is nice for both artist members and open entry artists alike. HOWEVER.....

• I noted discrepancies between the artwork with the prize designation on the wall and the list on the Mall Galleries website. 
• What's on the website of the Mall Galleries re awards MUST coincide with where the sticker is on the walls 
• I think I counted two (definitely at least one) where this wasn't the case (i.e. wrong image used - or maybe sticker in the wrong place?). 
• I looked again while writing this post and I think it might have been changed from when I was studying the page very closely earlier this week. Or maybe there are two pages?
• any art society worth its salt, (intended pun!) gets its list of award winners up on its website PDQ - and this has not happened. These are your premier artists for this years - please treat them as if they deserve a mention on your website!!!
• By way of contrast, I've never ever come across another FBA art society (i.e. exhibiting at the Mall Galleries) which exhibits on its website all the artwork which won prizes in the last ten years - from 2010 to 2023. That's a resource that is certainly worth reviewing by any artist contemplating an entry in future. It could be improved as a resource for the open entry if each artwork also had its size and media added.

Mall Galleries website

I'm now finding the new Mall Galleries website easier to use than I did for the last exhibition I wrote about.

If offers a nifty trick which anybody can use to find out 

• what the market likes to buy 
• what prices they like to pay

The method is is to use the filter to select just the sold pieces.

So - below is what you see if you click the "filters" which are on the left of the webpage. The select the exhibition in question and then select the "sold out" status - and it produces a page of sold artwork.

and here we have an extract from one of the pages about the 33 sold artworks as at 24th September.  You might just be able to make out the prices paid. I am not in the least bit surprised by a lot of the numbers

The cafe and the cake and the demo

I've made my views known to the gallery and on Facebook about the cake. Never ever underestimate, how much regular visitors look forward to their cup of tea or coffee and a cake while they ponder on a possible purchase.

Be nice to your collectors!

I spoke to the right person at the Mall Galleries about the siting of the demo last Friday. NEVER EVER site a demo right in front of artwork, as this one was.  (Nothing to do with the artist BTW). It needs to be in the centre of the gallery so that: 

• all artwork can be seen properly - both close up and from a distance (without interruptions); and 
• every artist who has work in the show is treated with respect.

Be nice to your artists - if you want them to exhibit with you again!

 

Analysis of Sales

The number of sales has not changed since Monday when I was doing the photo albums and first spotted this new wheeze with the website.

Here's a chart of how the sales

• divide between members and open entry artists
• split across the four different price ranges

Note that there's a fundamental truth that most sales are achieved before and during the first 2-3 days of the exhibition. The number of sales today (33) are no different to when I checked on Monday.

33 sales represents just over 7% of the artwork hung. So it's always worth exploring why more sales are not being achieved....

Chart of the
Distribution of prices sales between RSMA Members and Open Artists
across four price ranges

NOTHING about this chart surprises me. It's very similar to a LOT of other charts I've produced in the past for other art societies 

• the majority of artwork sold is priced below £1,500 - which is very typical of Mall Galleries exhibitions
• sales by open entry artists exceeds sales by members on artwork priced below £1,500
• sales by members exceed sales by open entry artists in the higher price ranges 
• BUT there's not a lot of higher priced sales.  Those achieving such prices are all well known marine artists with a following.

EXCEPT for one thing. There's a price range missing - from £350 to £500. This typically produces sales of 20% of the artwork hung in that price range, when it is included!!

Whoever designated £600 as the minimum sale value for all artwork in the RSMA exhibition has clearly never studied my charts before or reviewed the numbers re past sales. Or maybe just thinks there's something very unique and different about marine art?

There should have been a LOT more red spots on this wall of small works
- the issue was pricing!

Bottom line there could have been a lot more sales if some of the artwork had been priced lower. Most of those sales would have gone to open entry artists, where there tends to be a focus on producing more affordable artwork.

Having a focus on more affordable artwork is a clever way of getting buyers to climb the ladder to more expensive artwork. Once you've made a commitment to one artist you're likely to buy another and almost certainly will be looking at their website or Instagram account - and coming to next year's exhibition. I know - I've done it.....

Recommendations on pricing for members and open artists

I'd focus on:

• looking carefully at the artwork sold and the prices paid
• members can price pieces higher than what what might be considered as "more affordable". 
• open artists can overprice their work thinking they need to up their prices for a central London gallery

It was very clear to me as I was going around, that some artists (mainly from the open entry - but also some non-London based members) are obviously not at all familiar with the price ranges favoured by those members of the public visiting the gallery in recent times to view the exhibitions. Most sales are under £1,500. This is affordable art territory.

Essentially, I cannot emphasise too much that we're still living in tough times economically. Interest rates are coming down, but businesses associated with "splurge buys" are still closing down or cutting overheads drastically and prospects for many people are still uncertain. Plus we know the new government is about to make more changes to personal budgets. Hence the focus needs to be on ensuring appropriate pricing to create more affordable art.

That said, 

• for those who have cultivated a following amongst art collectors in the past, your higher priced work needs to reflect the current buying power of your collectors. If they're "high net worth" individuals, you can stick to what you've charged in the past. 
• however, if your collectors / buyers are typically people with hefty mortgages to go with the big house and continuing uncertainty in their lives, you might want to think about new ways to make your art still worth buying....

At least one artist has stopped producing very large artwork with very large prices and has settled instead on a strategy of exhibiting in a different format and hence more affordable (but not cheap) prices - and is generating sales.  

Others could do the same.....

I love the way that Deborah Walker has reduced the size of her work
but is still unmistakably Deborah 
AND still packs in lots of content and great painting

Members of the RSMA

I'm not going to include all the links to their websites. However it is worth noting that these are all the member artists who have artwork in the exhibition.

Members of the RSMA exhibiting in this exhibition are listed below. Note the membership lean very much towards the masculine.

A - Jenny Aitken, Colin Allbrook, Tony Allain, David Allen,

B - Paul Banning, Peter Barker, James Bartholomew, Fred Beckett, Wendy Borello, Robert Brindley, Gareth Brown, Mark Buck, Alistair Butt,

C - William Carney, Trevor Chamberlain, Brian Collins, Simon Conolly, Peter Cronin, David Curtis, 

D - Richard Dack, Madeleine Davenport, Roger C. Desoutter, Roger Dellar, Patrick Donovan

F - Neil Faulkner, Brian Flemming, 

G - John Michael Groves, Nick Grove,

H - Tim Hall, Margaret Heath, Benjamin Hope, Richard Horner, David Howell, Geoffrey Huband, Geoff Hunt, Moira Huntly,

J - Brian Jones,

K - Robert King

L - Raymond Leech, John Lines

M - Tom Marsh, Jamie Medlin, Brian Mitchell, Jenny Morgan, Srirangam Mohankumar, Patsy Moore, Benjamin Mowll, Bruce Mulcahy, Mark Myers

P - Duncan Palmer, Barry Peckham, Matthew Phinn,

R - Keith Richens, Greg Ramsden, Gillian Roberts, Nicholas St John Rosse, Alan Runagall,

S - Michael Salt, John Scott Martin, Carolyn Simpson, Christopher Slater, Elizabeth Smith, John Stillman, Haidee-Jo Summers, Martin Swan, Andrzej Szymczyk, David Thomas, Dennis Syrett, 

T - Karl Terry,

W - Deborah Walker, Tony Williams, John Walsom, John Webster, Peter Wileman, Bert Wright, Paul Wright, Rowena Wright.