MAKING A MARK: REVIEW: 80th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

REVIEW: 80th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists

The quality of most of the 395 artworks in the 80th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists is very high.

View of some of the artwork in RSMA Annual Exhibition in the East Gallery

You can view all the artwork online - however there is nothing quite like seeing it on the wall

If you can't get to London (and I know many have issues re. time and/or expense), the next best thing is to see it on the wall in my photographs of the entire exhibition which I've been posting on Facebook ever since my visit last week. You can see them here

A view which highlights some of the 3D artwork in the East Gallery

My post last week RSMA Annual Exhibition 2025 - Award winners and Catalogue references the catalogue and awardwinners.

Note: I'm afraid I am not linking to the RSMA website as it is insecure (i.e. http prefix only and no security certificate) and it's my policy to not link to sites which may present risks to readers. Hopefully they will get this sorted before my next post about them

Review of the RSMA 80th Annual Exhibition

I always sit and write my comments in the catalogue after doing my first tour round the exhibition - and then add in more comments later after I've been around again.

However this time I nearly did not get a catalogue for free. Long gone are the days when the people behind the desk at the Mall Galleries are permanent staff who are the same on every visit who greet me because we've known each other for ages. People who know that I both review the exhibition and "drum up" both visitors to the exhibition and entrants for the call for entries in the following year.

Many of the artists who exhibit in exhibitions I review do so because they have heard about those exhibitions from me - and they tell me! I don't often boast but I have a very long and robust track record of "growing competitive exhibitions" over the last 20 years of blogging MAM. As well as the FBA Shows at the Mall Galleries, these range from the BP Portrait Award - where the entrants grew exponentially and internationally following my comprehensive coverage of it to the RHS Botanical Art Show - which has moved out of the Horticultural Halls and now exhibits at the Saatchi Gallery for several weeks each summer.

Those running the FBA Exhibitions know that my blog often provides the only decent length review they get. I have had thanks from many Presidents over the year online and in person for the profile I give to the societies. I don't need thanks - I would do it anyway. But it's always nice to be recognised for a constructive contribution - even if it is sometimes is critical of some aspect of a society/exhibition/arrangements. At the end you can find links to past reviews.

But apparently the people at the desk think I need to pay for a catalogue. Yes, I was miffed. Hence the delay in this review because I knew I was going to say something and a little distance seemed judicious....

ANYWAY.... back to the exhibition and the comments in my catalogue

The end wall in the West Gallery

I thought it a very well hung exhibition for the most part. It was helped of course by having 57 fewer artworks in the show compared to last year.

From my perspective, so long as you don't select lots of large artwork, 400 artworks should be the figure most societies should aim to hang. Less if you want big artwork - of which there was also a lot less in this exhibition.

Mezzanine wall of smaller artworks

However, the main thing I noticed this year is that this an exhibition which is much more "marine" and much less about "boats." So lots of:

seascapes
waves and wave formations - by the men and not just the women!
nature and wildlife - animals, fish and plants associated with the sea

Although it appears not everybody is happy. This was one comment on the RSMA Facebook Page where my photos were shared.

What a sad reflection of the state of marine art at this time! How is lobsters on a chopping board marine art? Its a still life for goodness sake. The RSMA has lost its way. Pathetic!

Chicken Lobsters Dockside
and Fruits of the Sea
by Loulou Williams

to which I replied

The RSMA has very much NOT lost its way.
Instead you are need to do some reading. It appears you have never read the definition for the exhibition used by the RSMA - which is very carefully defined (see pic of the definition from the Call for Entries).
The exhibition is emphatically NOT all about boats - and is all the better for that and brings in more people to view it as a result.
Plus since when are lobsters not associated with tidal water? Fresh water is lethal for lobsters and they live ONLY in tidal water that contains salt!

So what can you exhibit?

The artwork can be paintings, drawings, original fine art prints and any form of 3D artwork - and I saw some which were absolutely amazing - which I will feature in this blog post.

This is what the RSMA Call for Entries says about the scope of artwork which can be shown in the annual exhibition

Call For Entries: The definition of artwork eligible for the exhibition

In short, it's anything which "involves tidal water" in some way. In fact, according to the filters used by the Mall Galleries 359 of the 395 artworks are defined as marine or seascapes. There are in fact four paintings of lobsters in the show of which only 2 are defined as still life - which seems odd.

However I came to the conclusion that the filters could do with a review. There was apparently only one artwork which was about figures - this one (which I thought was very good - even if it was a composite of the same person sketched in three different positions)

Foraging by David Beech
oil

but not this one (see below) - which includes multiple people of all ages.

Crabbing Bridge, Walberswick by Raymond Leach RSMA
oil

I must confess some 45 years ago I used to enjoy crabbing off this bridge at Walberswick in Suffolk. Wonderful memories. Memories are of course one of the things which stirs a reach for the wallet - and artists would do well to remember this!

The show includes some absolutely amazing 3D artworks which just made my jaw drop - such as the Frisky Dolphins below which I had to keep walking round and round!

Frisky Dolphins by Derek Pearce
Bronze, 49 x 150 x 75cm
the most expensive artwork I've seen for some time!

Universally, all the portrayals of water were good - in many different media and styles. If you can't draw or paint water really well, I'd seriously suggest you hesitate before entering this open exhibition next year. You have very stiff competition.

What struck me most is the number of "wave paintings" there were in the show.

I didn't know before the show, but apparently there is an entire group of artists out there who just do wave drawings / paintings / prints. Not easy to spot them because it's so easy to be confused with "new waves this, that and the other". But apparently they find one another and follow one another - and one well known one even submitted his artwork to the show and was accepted - even though his paintings sell in art galleries for well in excess of typical maximum sale values for this show.

I give you Ramsay Gibb an artist selected from the open entry - who just paints seascapes. He won The Charles Pear Award "For an outstanding work in any medium by a non-member" with the large wave painting on the left below He normally focuses on the seas off the coast of the North of England and Scotland exhibits at the Catto Gallery. Take a look at his Instagram if you want to see nothing but cresting waves.

His two large paintings ( see below ) were by far the best and most impressive waves in the show! I thought the section he was in was a tad too crowded for best effect. I'd have lost at least one if not two of the smaller paintings and one of the boats and at least a couple of the other 3D items. After all, an exhibition should never ever look like a car boot sale. (As in all the artwork is lovely - but less really is more!)

Two large (and highly priced) oil paintings of waves swelling and breaking
by Ramsay Gibb
looking rather crowded by all the other smaller artworks

I think the price is the only reason his paintings have not sold (yet?). However his artwork will be studied by many!

Another wave which impressed was that by Tanya Avchinnikova PS I watched a lot of people studying her towering wave and all the striations within the wave formation and swell. She works in pastels which works particularly well with the subjects she chooses. Her work is both highly realistic and loose and relaxed which is a difficult trick to pull off well - which she does. Tanya is based in the UK and is a Member of The Pastel Society in the UK and a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tanya Avchinnikova PS PSA (@tanyaavchinnikovaart)

Less boats but more contemporary ones

I go so back so far in terms of reviewing this annual exhibition (see end) that I remember when there were a lot more traditional ships in imagined situations on the high seas. Now the artwork is more focused on smaller, more contemporary and sometimes working boats. Oddly there are no super yachts! Not sure why....

As such it's now much less a "boys own" show and one which is more welcoming to both women visitors and women artists.

I gather from the President's Forward to the Catalogue that the association of "marine" with "boats" is not something which is always welcomes

At a recent Society AGM one member commented that our recent collaboration with "National Histopric Ships" at Greenwich. "Not more boats" was the remark.
I'd have echoed that remark.

A Society needs to continually reinvent itself. Its artists change, its buyers change and the market emphatically changes on a very regular basis. My father was born in the 1920s and was one who was an absolute enthusiast for all that was old and traditional, from trains to airplanes to boats. However it would have been his 100th birthday earlier this month - if he hadn't died in 1998. It's time to move on - just as the generations pass so do their interests.....

Some outstanding original fine art prints

Three reduction linocuts and a monotype (the big misty one) by Joshua Miles
who had (I think) the most works hung by a candidate for membership
- and I'm not surprised!

I was absolutely amazed at some of the prints in the show. I will be very, very, very surprised if South African born Joshua Miles does not get membership of the RBSA after this exhibition.

His reduction linocuts are amazing and I have never ever seen a better portrayal of dense wet mist than his monotype.
He is an excellent draughtsman and displays extreme sensitivity to tones and colours associated with light.
(He also has a great explanation of the process of reduction linocuts on his website)

Joshua is one of those rare artists who has managed to make a living solely from his art. He spent many years painting with oils on canvas but his passion has always been with reduction block printmaking. from his bio on his website

and finally, one of my favourite artworks in the show was a linocut print of a wave a view from Saltburn pier of a big rolling wave in front of Huntcliff on the North East coast of England by open artist Susan Noble. It would be nice to see more printmakers as members of the RSMA and hence more prints in the show.....

Huntcliff Wave 1 by Susan Noble

Linocut, 40x60cm (50x70cm framed)

Some practical points (for artists, societies and the Mall Galleries)

FRAMES

I'm still struck by those whose style and colour of frames have not changed in the last 20 years. I have news for them. You need to consider whether the reason your artwork is not selling has nothing to do with price and everything to do with the frame. Having to find a frame which is better suited to more contemporary interiors is not cheap - hence your artwork looks even more expensive to those who might otherwise be interested.

If you're still using a colour which looks the colour of mud when the tide goes out, you might want to change to something somewhat lighter and less mud like!

Srirangam Mohankumar is one artist who frames in a quite traditional way - but in a colour which can fit in any interior. I personally find white a little too stark - but always gravitate to the off whites and versions of cream.

Four watercolour paintings of sailing
by Srirangam Mohankumar RBSA

SALES

I know that the RSMA has traditionally been an exhibition which has done well on sales. People who like boats very often have quite a lot of spare cash!

As of today, a week after it opened, the sales situation is as follows.

there have been 47 sales out of the 395 exhibited which is 12% of artworks on show. Exactly the same percentage as in 2024 - but they have until Saturday evening before the exhibition closes! I'm very much expecting more sales.
28 of the sales were priced at less than £1,000.
all but one of the sales were for less than £3,000

The move towards more smaller / medium sized paintings and fewer large ones is, I think, a very wise move in the current economic climate of uncertainty.

Interestingly, there are 21 paintings priced at £5,000 and above - ALL of which are still unsold as at today's date.
In the range £3,000 to £4,999 only one has sold (the pastel by Tanya Avchinnikova - see above)

There will be my (now) normal analysis of sales - with charts - after the exhibition has closed. Those who like to sell would do well to study it.

Last year I noted the following in my review - and I have to say initial impressions are that number of people followed my suggestion!

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.....

LIGHTING

I visited on a day when two members and an associate of the RSMA were demonstrating. However it struck me that more effort needed to be involved in the set up so that an artist had both light on their artwork and reference material AND their palette.

Different artists paint in different ways - some like their palette below them. Some like it at the side. Whichever, there need to be some lights to illuminate the colours so that choices are wise.

SEATING

I've noticed a tendency to remove seating from galleries when 3D artwork needs to be displayed. However given the people who tend to visit the exhibitions are very often the wrong side of 40 (and sometimes the wrong side of 60), it would be very wise - if you want return visitors - to allow people to sit and admire the art. It's a big exhibition. I'm 70 and I've given up on going to PVs because of the competition for the "not enough" seats with a tendency for speeches and awards ceremonies which seem to go on for too long. I can't say whether this happened this year because I didn't go. You can never see the art properly and it means I then have to return to view it properly and take decent photos. I've decided I'd rather go just the once - unless I'm going to meet up with people rather than view art.