MAKING A MARK: Review: UKCPS Silver Anniversary Annual Open Exhibition 2026

Thursday, March 19, 2026

Review: UKCPS Silver Anniversary Annual Open Exhibition 2026

After 25 years, the UKCPS is celebrating its Silver Anniversary with its first exhibition at the Mall Galleries.

It's always been an ambition of the UK Coloured Pencil Society (UKCPS) to hold its Open Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries. Making it to its 25th Birthday seemed like an opportune time to spend some money and celebrate in style.

UKCPS Annual Open Exhibition
Part of the Hang in the West Gallery

For those UKCPS people not familiar with me or my blog (although I gathered from the PV on Tuesday night that a lot were), I am

a coloured pencil addict and a past signature member of UKCPS and have written about its exhibitions a lot over the years (see the list of blog posts at the end which also give an insight into artwork in past exhibitions)
somebody who reviews all the national art societies which exhibit at the Mall Galleries - and has done so for nearly 20 years. So I've got a very good basis for saying how this exhibition compares with the norm at the Mall Galleries.

History of the UKCPS Society

The Society was founded in 2001 by Bob Ebdon and Pat Heffer.

The UK Colour Pencil Society (UKCPS) was founded in 2001 by Bob Ebdon, spurred by a letter in A&I magazine from Pat Heffer (who became a founder member, enthusiastic supporter and finally President). A few people sharing their interest of colour pencil art, who had never met except via the Internet, started the Society and it was launched at Patchings Art Centre in Nottinghamshire. The Society has grown over the years: the second issue of the quarterly magazine (September 2001) reported they had just reached the 100 member mark, and now there are just over 750 members.
I was also a coloured pencil fan and found them online a little later and subsequently became a member and exhibited with them between 2007-2010 after which I gradually withdrew as a member from all national art societies I belonged to so as to be able to do better reviews of their exhibitions!

The society is different in some ways from other national art societies.

anybody can become a member
recognition of expertise and contribution is made through

becoming a Signature Member (which I became in 2009 - see my blog post Signature membership)
progressing to Silver Signature status (pictures accepted into 5 exhibitions within 10 years) and Gold status (pictures accepted into 10 exhibitions within 15 years.)

it holds three exhibitions each year

an open exhibition for all artists using coloured pencils - which is competitive
an online exhibition for all members
members only exhibition held at the Derwent Pencil Museum, Keswick. (This year it will be 31st August to 30th October 2026)

In June 2018 it was granted charitable status - with an objective of:

promoting the art of drawing for the public benefit through the use of colour pencils
holding a public exhibition at least once a year to showcase work and provide tuition
help educate the public how to use colour pencils

The definition of a coloured pencil for the purposes of the exhibition is

"wood-cased, wax- or oil-based colour pencil"
i.e. pastel pencils are excluded.

The 25th Annual Exhibition of the UK Coloured Pencil Society

Venue: Mall Galleries - West and North Galleries
Dates: Open from Tuesday 17 March 2026 - Saturday 21 March 2026,
Hours: 10am to 5pm

Workshops: click for more information

How the work was judged

One member and two independent artists select the artwork for the open exhibition.
Another artist judge the selected artwork for awards. This year it was Curtis Holder - a leading exponent of coloured pencil artwork.

You can see all the artwork in the exhibition in two ways:

In the albums of my pics that I've uploaded to Facebook - just click the link in the listing below. BTW, if I like a work I tend to take a photo of it on its own.

Via the UKCPS website where all images of all the artwork are now uploaded

BEST PICTURE IN SHOW

Where Time Rests by Pauline Stuart

(which I had spotted as a "go back and look again" pic!)

Pauline Stuart has a remarkable story. She lives in the Lake District and is retired. She took up art in lockdown. After dabbling in watercolour she came across coloured pencils and got serious. By 2023 she was named the SAA Beginner Artist of the Year 2023, was highly commended in the UKCPS Annual Exhibition in 2025 - and has now won the Best Picture in Show. That's what I call excellent progress!

Speeches to open the Exhibition + The Awards Ceremony

Awards

The awards made by Curtis Holder are listed below.

Best Picture in Show Pauline Stuart : Where Time Rests. (see image above)
Reserve Best Picture Giulia Quaresima : Mother's Hands.
Best Pure Colour Pencil (100% pure colour pencil) Alan Woollett : Golden Eagle

Highly Commended

Disco Duck by Anna-Marie Tremain-Jones

Highly Commended (max. 5 pictures)

Fiona Kenny : Summer Evening at Sandbanks
Anna-Marie Tremain-Jones : Disco Duck
Janie Pirie : Lambs
Auxi Prats : Strings That Move You
Rachel Larkum : Making Your Mark

Pat Heffer Sarah Evans : Fried Egg & Ketchup

Pat Heffer Award
Fried Egg and Ketchup by Sarah Evans

I have three things to say about this artwork

I thought it was a very strong contender for the best artwork in the show. There again I love people who portray food well.
The price is very, very silly. There again she specialises in drawing food which she does exceptionally well and it may well be this is her "going price"!
you can however buy a print of it for a much reasonable sum! I might be tempted!

The art supplies by the various art supplies companies are as follows - which starts with one of my favourites in the exhibition - simply because it was so silly and made me smile every time I passed it. Very definitely one of those drawings which demands you come back and have another look - which is the perennial marker of a good artwork in any media.

Faber Castell Award
Here's Jack by Susan Murray

Faber Castell Award Susan Murray : Here's Jack.
Colour Pencil Shop Award Jennifer Guest : Harebells at Sanna.
Caran d’Ache Award Pam Thompson : Sad Eyes.
Derwent Award Pamela Preller : Behind the Silence.
Bromley Art Supplies Award Jennifer Guest : Hydrangea.
Lyra Award Manjima Anilkumar : Prism Benz.

Highlights of the Exhibition

The Mezzanine Wall

Very few cats and dogs - and more emotion!

The major change in this exhibition is it is no longer dominated by drawings of cats and dogs in what I tend to refer to as in "an amateur style". Those who've seen UKCPS Exhibitions in the past will know what I mean. I'm not knocking pet portraiture. I know it's very, very important to people - but I very rarely see it in other exhibitions and it's a big and refreshing change to find very few cats and dogs in this show.

That said a dog won first prize - but it was for the relationship and the emotion of the subject rather than the dog per se. It was a really sensitive drawing.

Plus two other animals won materials awards. I just smiled when I saw Here's Jack (see above). It's a real "feel good and smile" picture. Again - appealing to feelings and emotion as opposed to a straight study.

However I do feel there are rather too many animals and rather too few landscapes if you compare this exhibition with others by national art societies.

More innovation in terms of subjects to portray

One of my other favourite pieces was this one - and I am not in the least bit surprised that it has sold. People like pieces which intrigue and tell a story.

Break from the Bind by Linda Brand
how to tell a story by drawing the spines of books
(very popular at the Affordable Art Fair last year)

There was a wide range of subjects which for me indicates UKCPS is going beyond pet portraiture, even if it hasn't left it completely behind.

More experimentation with different ways of using coloured pencil

I'm most used these days to seeing coloured pencil used in hyper realistic ways for portraying botanical art. There are some stunning artists and I was surprised to see that there weren't more exhibiting in this exhibition.

Hence it was interesting to see the various ways that individual artists have developed for using coloured pencils. I know Curtis was very taken with the drawing by Anjima Anilkumar of Prism Benz in terms of how colour had been used.

I do think there is some way to go in CP artists becoming more loose and sketchy. My absolute favourite method was to use optical hatching (overlay of hatching marks in different colours at different angles to create a third colour) and I didn't see a lot of that.

I enjoyed the focus on colour by Auxi Prats - and the one at the bottom was highly commended - but I liked both! This is an artist who badly needs a website and/or Instagram account.

Two artworks by Auxi Prats
- nicely matted and framed
- would like right at home in any home with contemporary decor

The Catalogue

The catalogue is hugely impressive, with excellent colour and beautifully produced and printed.

Every artist has a coloured image of their artwork included - which, for me, made up for the lack of an online exhibition when they opened.
I also loved the tributes at the beginning to mark the 25 years. It's a long time and I saw works by people who were my contemporaries but are no longer showing in this show - just as I'm not. (I think we got old!)
I also like the fact that the font size is very accessible. Too often catalogues seem to compete to see how much content they can get on one page by reducing the font size. Which is extraordinarily annoying to all those who need reading glasses for small print.
plus full credit to the UKCPS for giving prominent credit to all their sponsors at the end of the catalogue. Too often art societies take the sponsorship and forget to give their sponsors proper and prominent acknowledgement in their catalogues.

The catalogue almost deserves a post all to itself - but for one thing. Somebody forgot to include the location and date of the exhibition. There again, if it's the same exhibition in two locations maybe that was intentional?

A full range of workshops

It's always nice to see a society taking the educational content of its Charitable Charter very seriously.

By the time this exhibition wraps up at 5pm on Saturday 21st March, seven workshops will have been held in the room at the back of the North Gallery. It occurred to me what a sensible place this could be for workshops. Various of the members provided demonstrations of the way they work or they way you can work.

Aspects to consider for the future

This is a good first exhibition - but I think it had some room for improvement

I'm not expecting UKCPS to come back anytime soon however there are some points I think are worth considering for when they do.

Another Exhibition in London

Here's my recommendations:

Promote Drawing as well as CP

See if UKCPS can collaborate with one or more of the other art societies involved with drawing to create an exhibition covering DRAWING across all three galleries in the Mall Galleries. Both societies will then get many more visitors.
possible collaborators might be

SGFA - an art society primarily focused on drawing
Urban Sketchers - where a lot of dry media and drawing is used

Review the Subscription

The ex Finance Director / Current Art Society Treasurer in me would like the UKCPS Council and members to consider the scope for an increase in subscription to help fund another exhibition.

UKCPS is a national society with 25 years under its belt and it's still going. It deserves to be exhibiting in London.
It's got a strong track record in exhibiting provincial centres around around the country - which is a credit to their history
Time to start thinking about how to progress when moving forward.
The current subscription is extraordinarily cheap for a national society
Members need to know it's OK for a national art society to have ambitions beyond those of local art societies
Maybe reflect on the rate of inflation over the last 25 years? What would the original subscription cost now if you applied the appropriate inflation?

Have more artwork on the walls if you use the Mall Galleries again.

One of the rooms in the North Gallery.
Lots of scope for a two tier hang.

Other Societies hang much more artwork in the same space. You can view my Facebook albums of other exhibitions to see what I mean. All three Galleries can easily take 400 artworks.

There is a lot of scope to show more artwork and/or to collaborate with others.

Provide advice to artists on framing for London

It's nice to be able to sell an artwork. However London shows tend to have a more contemporary feel in terms of how artwork looks. Hence I would strongly recommend (as I have done to other FBA Societies in the past) that all framing should be contemporary and speak of this year and not 30 years ago.

This is my post about Framing your artwork - a summary which contains a lot of perennial advice. One good one is to remember that if somebody likes an artwork and not the frame you have just increased the cost as they will have to reframe it - so keep frames NEUTRAL. Note in particular table of the sales relative to different types of frames.

Adopt the CPSA standard for mats

Mats, when added, should be off-white, white or neutral (gray, beige or black). Colored mats are not allowed

Where Softness Meets Fire by Sun-Kyong Clifford
- a large work which is an excellent example of
how to let an artwork shine on the wall
a slim frame and no mat - because it is float mounted

Do not be mean with mats and remember you can float mount!
Frames should be slim and simple not heavy and complex
Favour white and light wood colours for frames - which show the work well (and remember you can paint your frames - and many people do!)
Keep black frames to a minimum - some people like them but a lot of people do not. (I won't have them in my home - they are far too dominant)
Eliminate gold from frames and any mats. Gilt went out with the 90s.

I was desperate with some artwork to show the artist how their artwork could be better presented!

Produce more landscapes and draw fewer pets!

Fundamentally though, to become rated in the first division of national art societies, there needs to be a shift from the favourite subject matter of amateur artists and an embrace of more of the subject matter which is typical of FBA art socities - with landscape being the obvious weakness at the moment. Typical ratios for non-specialist societies are

50-60% landscapes
10-15% portraits
10-15% still life
balance - the rest

Technical Glitches to be overcome

In terms of another Exhibition at the Mall Galleries - be sure to make sure that

Ensure speakers and speeches and award winners are ALL properly lit

The tech guys MUST ensure the lighting is properly set up for the speeches and awards so people are not left in darkness. It doesn't help with photos.
It shouldn't have happened. It needs checking before the PV starts. I'd be asking for a refund as it is (I think) a standard part of the service.

It's not my iphone - I couldn't see them either

Attract passing footfall

The print advertising the exhibition should ALWAYS be on the left door at the entrance

in exactly the same way as it ALWAYS is for all the FBA Exhibitions - and as it was on the day the exhibition was hung (see below).
If you have followed the required spec and used the recommended printers and have hired two thirds of the gallery there is absolutely no good reason for it being anywhere but on the left door.
I cannot understand what possessed them to move it.

Where the advert for the exhibition should be.

The exhibition continues until 5pm on Saturday 21st March and online on the UKCPS website. If you are interested in coloured pencils it's well worth a visit.

REFERENCE

Past posts about UKCPS on the Making A Mark blog include

MAKING A MARK

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