Thursday, November 20, 2025

Review: Royal Society of Miniature Artists, Sculptors and Gravers Annual Exhibition 2025

This week I'm visiting the Royal Society of Miniature Artists, Sculptors and Gravers (RMS) Annual Exhibition 2025 at the Bankside Gallery three times. 

  • Monday night: to judge the Gold Memorial Bowl (the top award) with London art critic Tabish Khan 
  • Tuesday afternoon: to attend the PV and Awards Ceremony - and meet up with artists and friends
  • Sunday afternoon: to collect the artwork I bought on Monday night!
It's always a pleasure to visit this exhibition as this is an art society with some very enthusiastic members who absolutely love meeting people who like miniature art.

View of the entrance to the RMS Annual Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery
The exhibition is:
  • AT: The Bankside Gallery Thames Riverside, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH
  • UNTIL: Saturday 22nd November 2025
  • HOURS: 11am - 6pm
I highly RECOMMEND this exhibition to
  • anybody who is interested in miniature art - whether these are paintings, drawings or sculpture in a variety of media
  • all those art collectors who, like me, are fast running out of space for new artwork
You can see my photographs of the artwork displayed in the cases in a dedicated album Royal Society of Miniature Painters - Annual Exhibition 2025 (58 items) on my Making A Mark Facebook Page. Taken while the glass cover was still up, these provide a reasonable view of the artwork without compromising copyright.

This year it also includes a memorial exhibit of 12 miniature paintings by the late Bill Mundy RMS HS MAA MASF who died in July this year.

Portraits by the late Bill Mundy (1936-2025)

Demonstrations


The RMS have always been excellent at providing demonstrations at their exhibitions of the materials and techniques used to produce their exquisitely small artworks. The remaining ones will be taking place between 12 and 5pm 
How to paint miniature portraits - is a post is about the art materials, equipment and set-up used by an experienced miniature artist which I wrote a few years ago after watching one demonstration in an RMS Exhibition! 


The Exhibition


Things I noticed this year included the following
  • there seem to be fewer landscapes - particularly those involving the countryside. Which is a pity as I am a great fan of those painted by Roz Pierson.  Maybe I could highlight that other exhibitions where I have analysed sales, I've also noted that landscapes sell extremely well as a subject!
Roz Pierson with most of her landscapes

The Cabinet containing about 50-60% of the 3D artwork

  • The Three D artwork (for the sculptors bit of the society's title) are becoming more and more varied - and adventurous - in terms of both subject matter and media. I'm particularly loving some of the more delicate works by Justine Kochansky using more fragile media - such as eggshells! I rather liked the Porcupine which employed cats whiskers!
Artwork produced using chicken eggs and quail eggs by Justina Kochansky.
The one top right (facing away from the lens) involves two tiny magnets.

Mix of contemporary and traditional

I feel I'm seeing more emphasis on mixing both contemporary with traditional in subjects artist choose to paint. For many years, subject matter stayed pretty static - but as miniature artists contributing to the exhibition have got younger, the nature of the images they portray get more adventurous.

It is also a society which is active in promoting artwork by Young Artists - and this exhibition includes some impressive artwork by young artists in two age categories as well as a special Young Miniaturist Award.

This is a nice video by Raoof Haghihi - who I met at the exhibition, after not seeing for ages. He would have been a contender for the Gold Bowl if he hadn't already won it. This is his VIDEO about the exhibition



RMS Awards


The Gold Memorial Bowl 

Images of some of the contenders for the Gold Memorial Award
(Image by RMS)

The most prestigious award is the Gold Memoral Bowl which can only be won once. 

This year Tabash and I were asked to judge and we chose The Changing Face – Blooming 30's (enamel on silver) by Chinese artist Jinghui Nie @jinghui_enamel 

The Changing Face – Blooming 30's
(enamel on silver)
by Chinese artist Jinghui Nie

This is what she had to say on her instagram account for her enamel work
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to @gilliehb , my enamel painting teacher! Without her teaching and guidance, I could never have created these miniature enamel works.

I am also extremely grateful to @royalminiature , as well as all the judging experts, for recognizing my work. Here, I have seen so many outstanding and fascinating miniature paintings and sculptures, and I feel truly honored to receive this prestigious award.

I love and am utterly captivated by the art of miniature painting, and this award will undoubtedly inspire me to continue my creative journey


 

The Gold Bowl Honourable Mentions 

Artworks considered for the Gold Memorial Award
- minus the egg which was too delicate to move
As you can see the one that won was the smallest.

This is the artwork we considered for the top award. You can see their relative size. Bear in mind that the MAXIMUM size of a miniature artwork is a maximum exterior frame size of 6 by 4.5 inches (i.e. the artwork has to be smaller).

The one top right was painted by Pauline Trim - who I know from her RHS Gold Medals - and is called Winter Slumbers and will be added to my wall of small works by RHS Gold Medallists!

The Gold Bowl Honourable Mention award winners are...
I've not been able to find a full list of the awards online.

However an instagram post indicated other Awards included the following - although I know there are even more
  • President’s Special Commendation – Large work – Jenny Musker VPRMS MASF WFM TWASI HS MPSGS – A Rare Encounter
  • President’s Special Commendation – Miniature work – Maria Belousova – Creature of no Ocean
  • The Bill Mundy Sovereign Memorial Portrait Award and Award for First Time Exhibitor – Fatima Dona Molinero – Face – The Lady of Helike @fatimadona_miniatures
  • The Bidder and Bourne Sculptors and Gravers – Paul Eaton VPRMS MAA HS MASF MPSGS – The Reed Dance @sculpturebypauleaton
  • RMS Group Award – Sponsored by Golden Bottle Trust – Tracy Hall RMS HS MAA
  • Peter Charles Booth Memorial Award – Stephen Overy PVPRMS – Old Post Office Stanton
  • Anita Emmerich Presentation Award - Anne Marie Walters ARMS – Girl Suri Tribe @annierack.nc30
  • Anthony J Lester Art Critic Award – Penny Davis ARMS – Orpheus @pennydavisjewellery
  • The Elizabeth Meek Award – Raoof Haghighi – Girl with Hello Kitty Tattoo @raoof.h
  • Award for Innovation – Sponsored by Gold Bottle Trust – First – Jack Savage SRMS – I’m a Real Boy @jacksavart
  • Joan Cornish Willies Award for Outstanding Traditional Miniature Oil Painting – from Paul Willies – Kayleigh Buttigieg ARMS – Origins @buttigieg.art
Artwork on a Theme 2025 – Sponsored by Ray Winder PRMS 
  • The Changing Face and Award for Innovation – Sponsored by Gold Bottle Trust – Highly Commended – Marie Walters ARMS – Woman Mursi Tribe @annierack.nc30
The Young Miniaturist Awards
  • Young Artist Award (age 18 – 30) – Sponsored by Elizabeth Meek – Jack Savage – I’m a Real Boy @jacksavart
  • Young Miniaturist Award (age 14 – 17) – Sponsored by Claire Russell and Linda Kracht First – Emilia Kalnikaite – Ladybird
  • Young Miniaturist Award (age 14 – 17) Highly Commended – Julia Bednarczyk – The Changing Face of Privacy
  • Rising Star Award – Skye Seipp – A Bosh Metamorphosis @skye_eseipp
Young Miniaturist Award (age 14 – 17)
Sponsored by Claire Russell and Linda Kracht First
Emilia Kalnikaite – Ladybird

and this was her miniature painting - of a ladybird on a rosebud.

Ladybird by Emilia Kalnikaite (age 17)


Points for RMS Consideration

I offered a couple of points for RMS to consider last year - and the glare on the glass covers of the display cabinets was being addressed this week before the exhibition opened.

So in that vein, I'm going to continue to push at an open door.....

The Catalogue

For an art society which is so focused on small sizes and in particular, the maximum size a miniature work of art can be, I'm somewhat surprised that the catalogue of very small artworks in the exhibition makes no reference to size. 

To me, in this context, size is as important as media and support materials

Lack of any online exhibition

I've got used to seeing art exhibitions online - in one way or another. However, there's nothing on either the RMS website or the Bankside Gallery website.  In an age when many sales of artwork are online, it seems very odd to have an exhibition without any images online. Even if it's just images of artwork in the cases.

I know miniature artists are more wary than most of having their artwork online. However I feel sure there must be a satisfactory solution for all concerned. 

I'm left wondering whether it would be worth employing a photographer to photograph the entire exhibition once it's in the cases and then uploading those images - at a suitable size and dpi - to a website.

I find that very many collectors are now used to viewing online - before they decide to visit an exhibition and also buying online. Hence, more effort put into creating a digital image exhibition might pay dividends in the longer term.

The Group Award

While not taking anything away from the very high calibre work of this year's winner (Tracy Hall), I do wonder whether the Group Award might focus more on exhibits which are presented as a group on a theme i.e. they are similar in size and format and subject matter.

To be able to develop a theme across five or six artworks takes some doing!  There were also a number of artists in the exhibition who had compiled their submissions along these lines.

REFERENCE

Website - https://royal-miniature-society.org.uk/

Previous reviews of the annual exhibition

and 

Posted by Making A Mark on Thursday, November 20, 2025
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