Monday, January 27, 2025

Review: The Pastel Society 126th Annual Exhibition (2025)

I recommend you go and see the 126th Annual Exhibition of The Pastel Society. It opened at the Mall Galleries last week and is on for another two weeks.  This is an OPEN exhibition and is not limited to work by members and it contains 382 artworks in.....

All types of pastel including: soft pastel, hard pastel, oil pastel, ink pastel, water-based pastel, conté crayons or sticks, sanguine, and other dry mediums that are similar in their application including charcoal, chalk, and pencil.

In addition this is what The Pastel Society is about

“Membership of The Society will be granted through a strict assessment of technical skill, originality, innovation, enthusiasm and a willingness to promote the objectives and activities of The Society.”

I've visited three times so far

  • at the PV last Tuesday when the Mall galleries were packed with people; 
  • again on Thursday morning - with the aim of photographing the exhibition for all those who cannot get to see it in person and 
  • again yesterday morning. Can I recommend viewings on Sunday mornings - they're nice and quiet!
The Private View - and this was after some people had gone home!

This post provides you with:
  • facts about the exhibition - and how to see it
  • events
  • prizes
  • what's different about the 2025 exhibition
  • when is a pastel not a pastel

Facts about the exhibition

You can see the exhibition at the Mall Galleries until 8th February 2025. 
  • Open every day (10am-5pm)
  • Admission £6, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries and under 25s. Concessions available. No booking required.
  • Catalogue is available at the Gallery - or you can view it online
You can also see the artworks in the exhibition ONLINE via
The artwork I liked typically gets a photo of just that work....

The West Gallery

East Gallery on PV night.
During the exhibition it's being used for educational learning events

North Gallery

There are a number of events over the course of the exhibition. Plus there's also an Art Event Evening on Tuesday 28th January. (6pm to 8:30pm) - but this is now sold out!  The events allow you the opportunity to find out about different dry media and approaches to using them.

An event last Thursday.

You can also see a video about the Society and its exhibition on the websites.



Prizes and Awards



You can view a list of who won which award - with an image of the artwork which won it.

You can also see the artworks which won awards on The Pastel Society Instagram account

You'll also find that I took a photo of each artwork which won an award with the 'sticker' next to it in my albums of the artwork in the three galleries (see links above).

There was one artwork which I personally thought richly deserved a prize for "alla prima pastel mark-making" and that was September by Rebecca Prout. There was no other artwork in the exhibition which got anywhere near the skill involved in this technique in this exhibition. Putting your pastel mark down and then not touching it again while constructing a figurative artwork is a rare skill! There is layering but absolutely no mixing or feathering or smudging whatsoever in this artwork. I was amazed it did not win a prize - especially since it so very obviously superior to the one located to its left which did win a prize! 

Medium: Soft pastel
Size: 70x100cm (80x110cm framed)

Note to the awards panel for next year, Rebecca uses Unisons (which I recognised straight away in terms of colour, tones and texture!) She has been collecting Unison for some time (all Unison Fans should watch this video on her Instagram). She also grows her own plants!

NOTE: Alla prima is an Italian phrase that means 'at first attempt'. It's usually only seen in wet paints. It's not often used by pastel artists over the entirety of their artwork.

Sales


I'll be doing a further post after the end of the exhibition which will review sales across the different price ranges. You can see how The Pastel Society did in 2024 in Pricing your art for Open Exhibitions - a review of a sample of exhibition metrics for 2024

I did however notice on Thursday that a big long wall of artwork by members had not one sale. However by Sunday, this had changed and there were a few sales on the same wall. I do think member artists need to pay a LOT more attention to the price ranges which attract sales. I know the artists who have already done their homework - they're the ones with the red dots!

Overall by lunchtime yesterday, some 53 of the 382 artworks (14%) had been sold, with Sheila Goodman and Ian Rawlings with three each and a number of artists with two each.

What's different about the 2025 "Benchmark" Annual Exhibition?

This exhibition is called "Benchmark" and I learned that in recent times, The Pastel Society has been giving each annual exhibition a name which includes 'mark'. ;)  Last year it was "ReMARKable"
Benchmark: something that serves as a standard by which others may be measured or judged (technical skill, originality, innovation and enthusiasm) Catalogue
The main thing for me that it looks great - and is well hung.  It's also different, in part because it appears to have got lots of new people exhibiting work and doing so in  new ways.

There's much more variety of both subject matter and methods and techniques and approaches used. This all makes for an interesting exhibition. I think some of this has probably come about because younger artists now appreciate much better the opportunities that an open by a national art society offers - and consequently lots of them apply.

See my comment below as to why I wasn't a huge fan of some of the oil pastel artwork.

I'm pleased to see that some of my criticisms levelled at the exhibition two years ago have now been addressed and I've been impressed by the scope, content and delivery of the entire exhibition - although I do think it could do more in terms of social media marketing (as in daily in the lead up to the opening of the exhibition and first week).

New art and artists


These two pastel artworks by Penelope Fulljames who is a very experienced artist - but new to working in pastels - were a standout to me. My eye kept coming back to them. It just goes to show that anybody who has developed expertise in creating artwork can switch to pastels and create yet more good artwork! 

I do hope she exhibits again next year - I'll be looking to see if she does. To me she has all the hallmarks of a future member....

Millpond in full flood and Floods 2024
by Penelope Fulljames
(soft pastels) 

I'm used to seeing watercolour artists getting lots of plaudits for their hyper realistic treatment of items that have rusted - but I'm not sure I've seen a lot of it in this exhibition. This artwork is also in coloured pencil. Looks like those who like rusty watercolours also like rusty coloured pencil artworks!

Rusty Smiths Crisp Tin by Robert Strange (sold)

There's lots more I like - but that would make for a very long post! Take a look at my photo albums on Facebook to see the ones which merited an individual photo.

When is a pastel not a pastel?


I'm very much minded to ask "what is a pastel?"

That's because I could see that there seemed to be a big increase in people using oil pastels - but using them in a variety of ways - with some using techniques which made them resemble oil paintings. I think that causes confusion for people - especially since this is essentially a "dry media" society. The surface of an artwork in this exhibition should look as if a pastel has been used.

I know there has been discussion about mixed media in the past and I seem to recall the conclusion then was that any secondary media should NOT be dominant. e.g. it was OK to use acrylic gesso underneath on the support to provide an underpainting but it must NOT be a dominant part of the artwork. i.e. you should be looking at the pastel work and not the gesso marks.

So in this context - I do NOT expect to see artworks which masquerade as oil paintings with IMPASTO surfaces in a pastel society exhibition. 

I think oil pastel artworks which try very hard to look like oil paintings need to be in the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters - and you won't ever persuade me otherwise.  There are ay number of artists who have painted well (and seperately) in oils and pastels (Wolf Kahn springs to mind) but you could always tell the difference between the two.

What I'd hate to see is oil pastels trying to be oil paintings invading this exhibition - which is the only one available for exclusively dry media. Acrylics tried to invade the ROI - but have now been banned.

I'm not saying ban oil pastels from this exhibition. There are oil pastels in the exhibition (eg Carry Ackroyd's "Shingle Beach" below) which I would not know without looking very closely or at the label whether they were soft pastels or oil pastels - because of the way the pastel has been used. At no point does it make me think of an oil painting. 

Shingle Beach by Carry Ackroyd
oil pastel

What I am saying to the Pastel Society is please be very much more explicit about how you expect oil pastels to be used and BAN the use of techniques used by oil painters to create impasto surfaces.

Bottom line - in my opinion Texture should 
  • ALWAYS be a product of an artist's expertise in MAKING MARKS - and 
  • NOT a product of the art medium you've mixed with your pastel.
The pastel stick on its own - in an artist's hands - is what should always reign supreme in any pastel society / exhibition.


More posts about Pastel Society Exhibitions (2006-2024)

Below you can access and review my previous posts about Pastel Society exhibitions during the last 19 years - from my archives. 

This was this year's Call for Entries post
As you can see I've reviewed this exhibition every year since 2006!

Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, January 27, 2025
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