Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Review: 62nd Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists

The Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists has got off to an excellent start - with LOTS of red (and green) dots adorning various of the artwork hung in all three galleries at the Mall Galleries.

The end wall of the West Gallery

This is my annual review of the SWLA Annual Exhibition 2025. It's taken a long time to write at the same time as posting albums of photos of the exhibition and I'll probably come back and add bits in I've forgotten!

Except where otherwise indicated, quotations are from either the SWLA website or my past posts about this exhibition. They underline key points about the society and their particular approach to producing artwork and exhibiting

The Society of Wildlife Artists seeks to generate appreciation and delight in the natural world through all forms of fine art inspired by the world’s wildlife. SWLA website

In summary:

  • there are 363 framed artworks and 3D artworks in the exhibition - and you can see them online here
  • 71 were sold in the first six days (excluding the numerous sales of unframed prints) which 
    • equates to 20% of the artwork hung or displayed 
    • AND exceeds last year's total sales.
  • about 90% of the wildlife seem to be birds this year - there are lots and lots of birds from around the UK and further afield
  • there is also artwork portraying 
    • UK mammals including field mice, squirrels, hares, foxes, wolves, stags, otters, seals, slugs, butterflies and insects!
    • plus wild animals from other countries including elephants, pangolin, sting rays, jellyfish and octopus
  • the artwork is from life - not photos - and is based on artists working in the field to sketch and make studies. A number of the framed artworks are in fact studies made in the field - literally! To illustrate what happens the exhibition also has a display of many photographs of working in the field
It's worth remembering that it's not coincidental that the name of this annual exhibition is "The Natural Eye". This connects to the emphasis which the SWLA places on artwork conceived, started and sometimes developed to completion while observing wildlife "in the field / sea / air"
The exhibition opened on 16th October and is open every day 10am to 5pm until 25 October.
In my opinion, one of the best annual art society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries every year is that by The Society of Wildlife Artists. (Me  - in Call for Entries: Society of Wildlife Artists - Annual Exhibition 2025 
East Gallery Feature Wall

This review is a multi-media experience! I have published and annotated three albums of photos from each of the three galleries over the last three days and the links are below
Some of the comments I might have included in this post are actually in the annotations of individual photos in these albums.  So this is in effect a multimedia post!

Some of the artworks which stood out to me below are highlighted in these albums and below.

Catalogue

There's an excellent catalogue available for sale in the exhibition. Or you can read the online version on Issuu

SWLA 62nd Annual Exhibition Catalogue Cover

Award Winners

You can see all the award winners on the Mall Galleries website.


Review: Overview of the Exhibition

In general I only need to repeat about this exhibition what I said in the Call for Entries

  • it's uncompromising about favouring artwork which has been created after studying your creature from life (i.e. it is very much NOT a fan of the type of hyperrealist artwork done from a photo without ever seeing the animal or studying it in the wild)
  • highlights a wide range of styles and colour palettes
  • includes artwork developed from projects undertaken by the society and its artists during the year
I think I see more contemporary style art in this exhibition than in any other FBA Exhibition. If your idea of wildlife art is hyperrealistic renditions of snow leopards and tigers and elephants then this is NOT the exhibition for you. You will also not see that type of artwork in the exhibition.

This is also a Society which is very keen on devoting itself to the study of wildlife in the UK and has various projects and activities that it engages in each year which do just that. See comments about their new Massingham Heath Project - which is new this year - below.

It's also a Society which takes seriously it's charitable role in seeking to educate aspiring wildlife artists

The Seabird Drawing Bursary (North Gallery)

What's different in 2025


In a nutshell:
  • less large and more smaller artwork
  • lots more sales compared to 2024 - with prints doing really well
  • some very interesting new open artists
and what's the same is lots and lots of birds!

Size of Artwork


I think I'm noticing more small to medium sized artworks and fewer large to very large artworks.  I would regard a conscious move in that direction as being extremely sensible as the diminished appetite for big expensive artworks continues to dominate the art world.  I now regularly see lots of unsold larger artworks on a regular basis in other FBA Exhibitions.

It's also because those of us who like to collect art have very little wall space left. Buying a large artwork means consigning several smaller works to the stacks!

That said, more smaller works can mean there are fewer obvious "look at me / punctuation points" around the Galleries. I can live with that. It's still a very good looking show where the excellence is in the integrity of the observation and the working from life.


That said - I found some of the punctiation points to be small works which sang out. Like this painting which was framed in a way I do not normally like - but the bird was determined to stand out! I am totally not surprised it sold quickly.

I think artists who focus on an eye-catching small artwork will always reap a reward.

"The little brown job shines" by Andrew Ellis
Acrylic on board; 40x28cm (60x49cm framed)

Sales and Pricing - so far


This is an exhibition which is doing really well on sales with an awful lot of red dots.  
  • The most important things to say to members and artists exhibiting in this exhibition is that there's going to be a lot of sales. 
  • the number of artworks sold compared to 2024 has already been exceeded by some margin
  • I wouldn't be surprised if gross receipts to go some way above £100K given where it's got to so far.
The price points selected by most artists for their artwork are typically spot on for size and media. This no doubt accounts in a very large part for the very large number of sales. 
  • However some open artists are somewhat "out of synch" with their pricing 
  • This might be because open artists have not stopped and checked the prices of the artwork in last year's exhibition (still online - still capable of being checked) - in particular for similar sized artwork of a similar type (eg small prints priced above £500 does not suggest research has been done).
Some of those producing fine art prints are doing very well - sales of framed and unframed edition prints by Carry Ackroyd and Max Angus in particular are flying off the wall (below) - with smaller prints doing extremely well. Back to that theme of "small". 

It's worth remembering that 80 of the 363 artworks are prints i.e. 22% of the show - but they have scope to generate more than 22% of the sales in numerical terms because some also offer unframed limited edition prints. It's a very important part of the show. (The Mall Galleries needs to add in a filter category for unframed limited edition prints)

As you can imagine, this tickles my braincells and I'm really looking forward to doing the exhibition metrics on this one. I might even do a bit more than usual - as I have a theory as to why it's doing so well.

I'm currently pondering on the purchase of one of the editioned prints.... I buy small works only and typically buy with a limit I set a while ago. (Very little wall space left!)

A wall of framed prints by Max Angus and Cary Ackroyd
- which are also offered as unframed edition prints
Framed sales are red spots and edition prints are green spots.

Part of the long Print Wall in the Print Bay. 

Hanging a lot of the prints together helps focus the mind of the buyer.  It makes it very easy to compare styles, size and price. Where prints are hung elsewhere, they're typically hung in a group.

Members vs Open artists


This year, every time I've looked up a name of somebody who is not a member I've typically been very  impressed by their work on their website. This is an exhibition which is attracting excellent wildlife artists from around the world - some of whom are not members even though logic says they should be!

It'll be interesting when I get to go my Metrics post to see how sales compared between open and member artists. In other art societies, I've noticed a trend towards more sales by open artists below £1,500. It'll be interesting with this exhibition to see if open artists are pitching at the right price. 

Subject Matter


I bet if I counted up the number of artworks about birds in this exhibition would come out at about 90%. There seem to be more this year. There's certainly lots and lots.

I do think as an exhibition about wildlife art a focus on prizes for eg small mammals or UK native wildlife might stimulate more interest in a wider range of subject matter.

That said I did spot a lots of smaller mammals among the sculpture.

East Gallery - End Wall

Wildlife Artists in the Field

Nature of the media


There's a great range of media used in this exhibition with an emphasis on drawing media and media that's easy to use when on location. 

These are NOT artists who set up easels. These are artists who squat on a stool next to a huge birdscope at some distance from the wildlife they want to draw / paint - because they want to record their natural habits in their natural habitat - not what they do once they've spotted an artist!

They're also people who sketch extensively in the field - and then come home to work up new paintings in their studios.

Media new to me this year included:
    Animation and Digital Prints
    by Will Ross
    When Will worked as an Animator and Designer in Soho on shows such as Peppa Pig and Hey Duggee, he would often pop over on my lunch break to the annual Society of Wildlife Artists exhibition at the Mall Galleries to see the incredible artwork created by some of the most talented wildlife artists in the world. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought he would one day have something hanging on the walls!

Sculpture and 3D Artworks


The sculpture and 3D artwork in this exhibition is invariably very good with many works excelling and going beyond what you thought was possible. Interestingly there's a good representation of women sculptors amongst those exhibiting. Helped by the fact that the President is a Sculptor with a great eye for great sculptors

How exactly did Bill Prickett SWLA make this octopus? It is carved from an oak burr and set on Portland stone within a precisely sized glass dome

Within a fragile skin by Bill Prickett SWLA
Oak burr, Portland stone and glass, 20 x12 x12cm

Next to it he has two wonderful rays. The paler one is carved from another oak burr and mounted on acrylic, while the darker one is a Giant Manta Ray created from birchwood. He obviously has a huge talent for carving curves....
“I aim to portray aspects of wildlife in the natural world, sometimes as an accurate depiction of nature, but at other times I concentrate on capturing the essence of a particular animal’s behaviour or character and sculpt a more stylised piece that draws heavily from my own personal experiences.”
Sculpture by Bill Prickett SWLA

The WOW! moment in the show were the wolves. I loved the three wolves created by open artist Sally Matthews. Once spotted I kept walking round and round them looking at them from every angle.  The scale, shape, detail are all amazingly persuasive - even the fact they are made from Flax tow, wood, horse hair, ash and lime with PVA glue on a steel frame. One of them has now sold - and they're not cheap!

Wolf (I), Wolf (III) and Wold (III) by Sally Matthews
Flax tow, wood, horse hair, ash and lime with PVA glue on a steel frame, 85x140x30cm

Lucy McEachern is an Australian sculptor - and an open artists - working in bronze who is new to me

A bronze by Lucy McEachern on the left


2D Artwork which impressed.


I've highlighted a lot of the artwork which impressed in the annotations of the albums of photos.

Artwork I liked included:
  • typically all the artwork which was photographed on its own - see the albums
  • Federico Gemma's concertina sketchbook about the Massingham Heath project - which you can view in this Facebook video
  • the artwork about how birds look in the skies - with at least three different artworks capturing the movements as the birds move together

Peter Partington (1941-2025)


I was very impressed by the size of the tribute to the inimitable Peter Partington (1941-2025) who died in March age 84. There's not many artists who get a pictorial tribute this size. However he was a very unique man. 

You can read tributes to him on pages 18-19 of the catalogue and on this page on the SWLA website which expresses love for him and his work in every paragraph.
Peter Partington was a much-loved member of the SWLA, contributing to countless projects, exhibitions and books with his lively artwork. Moreover, Peter brought humour and good nature to every private view or artists meeting that he ever attended – he was always great company and will be sorely missed. 
The Peter Partington Tribute Wall

The Massingham Heath Project 2025


The SWLA has had projects to engage its artists to work as a group for a number of years. 
The SWLA is delighted to announce a major new project which will run for a full year from May 2025. The Massingham Heath Project will see over thirty of our member artists follow the seasons and changing flora, fauna and landscape of an exciting rewilding project in West Norfolk. Massingham Heath Project | SWLA website

In 2025, a group of 30 SWLA artists visited the Massingham Heath Project for the first time - and had their project covered by the local TV channel

A group of artists are visiting a heathland rewilding site to capture its changing flora, fauna and landscape.
The results of the visit this summer are well displayed in the North Gallery - and lots of the artwork is also for sale unframed - and is also selling very well! 

The project will culminate in a book to be published in autumn 2026, with text from author, naturalist and Norfolk Wildlife Trust ambassador Nick Acheson.

Apparently the Massingham Massive turned up to the PV and bought lots of art!

There is also a TALK on Thursday 23 October at 2pm where Harriet Mead and Tim Baldwin will co-present an illustrated talk about the SWLA Massingham Heath Project.


Gallery Tips

No benches in either the East or North Gallery is, in my opinion, a big mistake. 

Very many people who attend these exhibitions are typically older with cash to spare - who like buying art. People whose joints can ache / legs can wobble from time to time (i.e. it's not just me!). 

Otherwise people move around galleries without benches or chairs faster so they can get back to somewhere which feels a more comfortable place to be.

If large wooden benches are a problem when showing sculpture, then keep a stock of extra chairs to place in gallery corners.

So 

  • be very nice to the older people who buy art (like me!) - and give them somewhere to sit down - even if it's just a couple of strategically placed chairs. If you get to sit down, you can gaze at the artwork you're thinking about buying.
  • Or get more younger people to come and buy art!
UPDATE: Apparently the benches were all moved to the West Gallery for the PV and have not been moved back - but one will now return to the East Gallery.

My next post about the SWLA will look at the metrics of the final result in this exhibition which is selling very well!


REFERENCE: Society of Wildlife Artists

My blog posts BELOW include images of artwork in the annual exhibitions:
Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, October 22, 2025
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