Royal Watercolour Society - FINAL CALL for RWS OPEN

You have until midday on Monday 6th of January 2025 to submit an entry to the RWS Open 2025.

This post covers:

• what is the RWS Open?
• why enter the RWS Open?
• how to enter

What is the RWS Open?

The RWS Open is run by the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS). 

It was formerly known (until recently) as the Contemporary Watercolour Competition.

The RWS chooses to invite open entries for an exhibition at the Bankside Gallery via a SEPARATE open competition rather than, as most art societies do, via an annual open exhibition dominated by artwork by members.

The RWS has FINALLY stopped calling it the "the largest open-submission water-media exhibition in the world". I'm guessing that's because I kept calling them out on this - EVERY SINGLE YEAR - because it simply isn't. My last comment on the topic being.....

I think the RWS would be well advised to read and study carefully The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) which is the rule book for non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing communications (marketing communications).

FACT: In the UK, the annual exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours selects and exhibits far more artists via the open entry to its Annual Exhibition which is way, way bigger than anything held at the Bankside Gallery. It's such a very silly idea to boast about something which it is so easy to disprove.

Around half of the 465 artworks on display in their 2024 (RI) Exhibition ....are by non-members.

Whereas, the RWS Open in 2024 exhibited 144 paintings in total - although it never ever quotes numbers for the actual entries received and the actual number hung. Nothing like numbers to bring some reality to the situation!

Instead this year, the RWS are now saying (my underlining)

the RWS Open is one of the largest open-submission water-media exhibitions in the world, attracting thousands of submissions nationally and internationally each year.

Which is fine. So I'll now stop sniping on this topic and reserve my comments for the calibre of the artwork they select instead. 

See my Review of the RWS Open 2024 for extensive comments on the quality of the artwork.

Frankly, speaking in my best "Emperor's New Clothes" voice, some might be OK in a teenagers school art exhibition - but nothing more than that. "Scrubby" and "scruffy" were two works which came into my head as I looked at some of the artworks.

I am also total dumbfounded at some of the prices people are asking for so little work, effort and/or skill. As I often comment, one can only assume that these are works by people who have no idea what price to put on their work - and what else people can buy for that sum of money.

I'm somewhat puzzled by the calibre of the thousands of entries if the artwork that was selected and exhibited was the best on offer. 

Also if (let's say - because we don't know) 2,000 entries were received, that means that only just over 7% were selected. 

I live in hope that this potentially important open exhibition will turn a corner. 

Maybe 2025 will the year?

Why enter the RWS Open?

The primary benefit of this competition is it acts as a platform for applying for membership of the Royal Watercolour Society. 

Another Portrait Competition - for Self Portraits

The biennial Self Portrait Prize - sponsored by The Ruth Borchard Collection - opened its Call for Entries yesterday.

The deadline for entries is 2nd May 2025.

From the artworks submitted the 2025 prize judges will select

• a winner of the £10,000 Ruth Borchard Prize and
• a number of distinguished entries will be acquired for the "Next Generation Collection".

Below you can find:

• a synopsis of what I think about the exhibition 
• a summary of what you need to know to enter.

You don't have to be a portrait artist to enter. Just an artist capable of producing an interesting self portrait.

The Self Portrait Prize: What I think

The aim of this biennial art competition is to promote and celebrate the art of the self portrait.

So far as I am aware, this is the ONLY self-portrait competition which has been going for a while. Other self portrait competitions pop up from time to time, but none last.

This one offers the following features which I think makes it very credible:

• The biennial Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize was launched in 2011. The website contains links to the past competitions. The winners to date are:
• 2011: Celia Paul
• 2013: Thomas Newbolt
• 2015: Shanti Panchal
• 2017: Benjamin Ogbebor
• 2019: David Dawson
• 2021: Lucy Jones
• 2023: Colin Davidson

• It offers a prize of £10,000 - which, for me, is the threshold value for taking an art competition seriously. Notwithstanding all those who do seem to have forgotten that we've had a fair bit of inflation of late (as in the Portrait Artist of the Year Award of a £10,000 Commission should now be offering nearer £15,000 given the number of years it's been offered)!
• It is sponsored by The Ruth Borchard Collection. Ruth Borchard (1910-2000) was a German writer who decided, at the end of the 1950s, to start a collection of self-portraits by artists.  She had a budget (£21 guineas) and collected 100 by 1971. READ MORE about she went in search of artists on the website. 
• The panel of judges for each competition include those with serious credibility in this field - as well as some who might be thought of coming "from left field"
• The exhibition is generally held in a reputable art gallery - and this year it will be the Southampton Art Gallery.

That and the fact that I enjoyed visiting the exhibition when it was held in London. What I particularly liked about it was the criteria are very open and the artists take advantage of this - and consequently there is 

• more diversity in approaches to the self portrait
• a huge range in the nature of the self portraits selected for exhibition - from size to the wide variety of media employed in artwork on view

It's very much for those who like to be innovative and dare to be different - as the first prize (see above) in the 2023 competition exemplified. Or as one commentator put it - it includes artists who like pushing the boundaries!

You can see examples of artwork in the 2015 and 2019 below - and see more on the website.

View of the 2015 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2015 Exhibition at Piano Nobile

This is a video about the 2021 Self Portrait Exhibition