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Monday, October 21, 2024

Review: 61st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists

The Natural Eye 2024
61st Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists
in the East Gallery of the Mall Galleries

I saw the Annual Exhibition 2024 of the Society of Wildlife Artists in two parts last week - however they were mixed up with blood tests, innoculations, the Van Gogh Exhibition and a rather remarkable exhibition of bronze desert plants in Chelsea.  So my brain was a tad overloaded last week! Which is why this review is rather late!

Also, this week, I'm having problems syncing my photos between iPhone and Macbook and then between Macbook and Facebook.  I've managed to get one album on FB so far - but the photos aren't all in the right order and some are missing - which I find intensely irritating. (If you saw my folder and file structures you'd know why - I'm VERY organised when it comes to photos and documents).

So - mega whinge out of the way - what I did think of the exhibition?

View of the West Gallery

First, a reminder of the SWLA aims which include 

seeks to generate an appreciation of and delight in the natural world through all forms of fine art based on or representing the world’s wildlife.

Through exhibitions and publications of fine art, the Society aims to further an awareness of the importance of conservation in order to maintain the variety of the world’s ecosystems and its wildlife.
As usual, the SWLA Annual Exhibition is possibly the most contemporary of ALL the FBA Societies (and others) exhibiting at the Mall Galleries. 

It includes paintings, drawings, collage, sculpture, original prints and animation! (I'm seeing more and more videos and animation in art shows). The work is of a very high quality and I'd highly recommend all those aspiring to be selected from the open entry and exhibit in the show to view a visit to the exhibition as a MUST DO if they are to get the scope and flavour of the exhibition.

Looking towards the end wall of the West Gallery

The 61st annual exhibition of the SWLA, The Natural Eye is open to the public until 27 October 10am-5pm (closes 1pm final day). 
Please note that the gallery is closed Tuesday 22 October for a private event.

I try to show people what it looks like with my photos. These will be going online just as soon as I can browbeat my devices and software to talk to one another!! Links below.....

  • North Gallery
  • East Gallery - to be uploaded
  • West Gallery - to be uploaded
It's always splendid to see the many and various ways SWLA members - and those submitting via the open entry - choose to create artwork to display wildlife. 

There are 367 artworks in the show:

  • some 51 have been sold since last Wednesday, including lots of birds - which is impressive! 
  • The majority (excluding the sculpture) of sales are for less than a £1,000 proving yet again that 
    • the affordable art market is alive and well 
    • but artworks above £1,000 still struggle to find a buyer. (Who knows, it may change after the Budget on 30th October!)

The number of artworks is rather less than last year's 60th anniversary show - but there seem to be more larger artworks this year. 

Alongside the exhibition there has been a programme of events including a workshop, talks and demonstrations of painting and drawing. Most were last week, however on Thursday this week
  • Richard Allen will demonstrate his techniques, while showing and talking about his sketchbooks and watercolours.
  • Harriet Mead, President of the Society, will be leading a tour of the exhibition at 2pm Thursday 24 October. No booking required.
Another view of the East Gallery


While a lot of the artwork is representative, it is also very much NOT like the more conventional wildlife exhibitions which tend to be dominated by big cats and birds and a lot of hyperealism! 

For example, this year it even has its own mollusc corner!

Molluscs and spiders are on the walls this year - literally

There are, of course, very many birds in this exhibition - because there are very many wildlife artists who love to watch and paint birds. 

What's wonderful is that see very many of them do so in their habitat or aim to paint to display their behavioural traits. These are typically artworks which are created by artists who spend a lot of time observing - and sketching - and sometimes painting plein air in front of their subjects. Indeed one of the joys of the exhibition is seeking very many sketchbooks or tear sheets where an artist had drawn or painted the same subject again and again and again.

Wynona Legg SWLA is also a full time Conservation Officer with the RSPB in Norfolk

One such artist is Wynona Legg SWLA, who was delightful to meet. 

Wynona works in materials that offer immediacy when drawing subjects directly from life, most often inks, graphite, charcoal and soft pastel. Drawing is at the core of her practice and often forms the finished work. Gestural line and partly abstracted shape and form convey familiar subjects. She explores mark making, as a filter between true representation and emotional response.

She works as a conservation officer on the North Norfolk coast and draws and paints a LOT of Ring Plovers. She had the display below in the East Gallery and a Bursary Award project on display in the North Gallery.

She also won the The BIRDscapes Gallery "Conservation through Art' Award for her mixed media painting "Beyond the Blue Rope" 

I was told a wonderful story by Darren Woodhead SWLA about the watercolour painting which won him the The Art Safari Works on Paper Award. It has the great and intriguing title of November storm over Islay, with Stoat footprints.

Darren Woodhead was born in West Yorkshire in 1971, but has lived in Scotland since 1996. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London. All his work is produced outside on location and drawn directly in brush, there is rarely any pre-drawing. By working direct from life, he aims to retain the freshness and energy that working outside can give, often in extreme weather conditions.
Winner of The Art Safari Works on Paper Award
November storm over Islay, with Stoat footprints 
by Darren Woodhead SWLA
watercolour 66x102cm (91x123cm framed)

Darren paints with extreme dexterity and skill and colour/tonal appreciation - with his paper on a board which is either on his knees as he sits or on the ground. Some of you may have experienced the trials of trying to paint on an easel in places which can be more than a bit breezy and how easels have a tendency to fall over. 

Painting big as Darren often does just creates an invitation for an artwork to "take off". However if you paint while sat on the ground, you might get different challenges - as happened on this occasion. 

A rabbit ran over the painting - and was chased by a stoat. The latter managed to run across his watercolour palette first and BOUNCED across the painting leaving two ochre/brown footprints in the storm clouds - which are clearly visible when you look closely. Hence the title!

Artists change track at times and this exhibition features the new sculptures created by Andrew Haslen SWLA who lives with Parkinson's disease. He has been a really impressive draughtsman and colourist in the past, however he's now determined to continue to vbe creative and is painting more quickly and freely and at the same time developing work as a sculptor and one corner of the exhibition had a number of his sculptures.

Andrew Haslen's new sculptures in the West Gallery

Bursaries & Projects

I saw four splendid displays of unframed art produced by four projects in the field

  • Wynona Legg - Life on the upper shore (Ringed Plover families on a Norfolk beach). On her website you can also see the locations of other series of drawings created, often using a webcam to observe from a distance
  • Paul Henery - My Scottish Year
  • Juan de Souza's fieldwork drawings as winner of the SWLA Natural Eye Bursary
  • The Seabird Drawing Course Bursary
Unframed artwork and sketchbooks from two bursaries
The John Busby Seabird Drawing Week: A field sketching and painting week based in East Lothian, dedicated to the memory of John Busby, David Measures and Greg Poole. Led by Darren Woodhead and Nik Pollard, the course takes place in late June/​early July and is based at Winterfield Golf Club, Dunbar.

Awards and Prizewinners

You can find all the Prizewinners listed on the Natural Eye 2024 Award Winners page on the SWLA's new website.

The SLWA is a really informal and friendly society and on the PV day I saw brand new exhibitors being very much encouraged by SWLA members to enter their work for the bursaries which the SWLA award each year for specific projects.


REFERENCE: Society of Wildlife Artists

My blog posts include images of artwork in the annual exhibitions:

2023 - Review: 60th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists
2022 - Review: Society of Wildlife Artists Annual Exhibition 2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017

2016 - Review - Society of Wildlife Artists 53rd Annual Exhibition
2015 - Review: Society of Wildlife Artist's 52nd Annual Exhibition (2015)
2014 - Video: 2014 Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists
2013 - Review: 50th Annual Exhibition - Society of Wildlife Artists
2013 - If you want a lot of people at the Private View......
2013 - Society of Wildlife Artists - a new book and a bursary
2012 - Review: 49th Annual Exhibition - Society of Wildlife Artists
2011 - Review: Society of Wildlife Artists - Annual Exhibition
2009 - Society of Wildlife Artists - Annual Exhibition 2009
2008 - 45th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists
2007 - Society of Wildlife Artists at the new Mall Galleries

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