Thursday, September 24, 2026

Final Call for Entries: Royal Institute of Oil Painters

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters invite entries to 
the ROI OPEN Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries 
in November and December 2026. 

View of part of the West Gallery

This is the exhibition which, in 2025, broke the Mall Galleries record for the value of artwork sold! (Of which more in another post, but I do think my witterings about price ranges have got through!)

You have just over two weeks to get a entry submitted online.

The deadline for entries is 9th October 2026 so you've still got time to be get organised and get your entry in. 
The ROI welcomes submissions on all subjects and approaches to this wonderful medium, from plein air, landscape and still life to portraiture and abstract… there is no limit except the common denominator that the work must be created in oil.
Note: As in acrylics are not oil! 

The theme for the 2026 exhibition is ‘WINTER RITUALS’. The theme invites oil painters to 
  • explore the traditions, repeated actions, gestures and rhythms that shape our experience of winter, 
  • from personal routines and acts of devotion 
  • to cultural traditions and collective gatherings. 
  • It reflects on the character, moments, identity and symbolism of contemporary life.
The ROI Themed Painting Prize will be awarded to the best interpretation. 

Below is the wall of the artworks selected for last year's theme of "Home"

The range of artwork selected for the 2025 theme of "Home"

Call for Entries - ROI Annual Exhibition 2026


Submissions are ONLINE ONLY and open until Friday 9 October 2026
If successful, you will be notified of your selection on Friday 23 October, 12 noon

You can find the official and FULL Call for Entries below on
Plus this is the link to the Full Details, Entry Terms & Conditions

Below is a Summary of the different aspects of the Call for Entry - plus MY COMMENTARY.
I would love to see more artists having the chance to exhibit alongside us at this prestigious event. When I had my first chance, I was over the moon and just being associated with this society has really boosted my career in the most positive ways.
Adebanji Alade - President

This covers:

  • WHO can enter
  • WHAT you can enter
  • PRESENTATION
  • FINANCIAL ASPECTS 
  • PRIZES AND AWARDS
  • Past ROI exhibitions - if you want to see what they look like

ROI Annual Exhibition 2025 - in the East Gallery

WHO can Enter

The competition is open to all artists over the age of 18
  • It is also open to international entries - you don't even have to be live or work in the UK. However International Artists need to make sure they read the Mall Galleries/FBA Notice about the need to register for VAT to get your artwork through Customs and into the UK!
Artists without a UK residence are classified as NETPs (Non-Established Taxable Persons) and must register with HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) for a UK VAT number in order for their work to be included in the exhibition.

What you can enter

SUBJECT MATTER


Artists may submit work on ANY subject matter.

Also required is the title, medium, size (cm), year of completion, and price of each work, plus there is the option to add an artwork description.

ORIGINAL ARTWORK NOT PREVIOUSLY SEEN


Basically NEW to the Mall Galleries and less than 3 years old.

ALL artwork submitted MUST
  • have been completed within the last three years and
  • must NOT have been previously exhibited at the Mall Galleries (i.e. if you've submitted it to one of the other art societies that exhibits at the Mall Galleries - and it was selected for exhibition you cannot submit it to this exhibition)
NOTE: I will start piping up if people submit artwork shown in another exhibition that I recoognise - and can document! The art societies might change but the visitors remain the same!

ACCEPTABLE MEDIA

  • Oils. The ROI promotes and exhibits work of the highest standard in oil paint.
  • Water-mixable oil paint is acceptable if framed as an oil.....
  • Acrylic is NOT accepted.
That's my CAPS and underlining re Acrylic NOT accepted. I had a whine in recent years about the fact acrylic was accepted - which is not oil paint which IMO bordered on being in conflict with mandatory regulations re marketing - and for the last two years it's changed to oil paint only!

I'm really pleased to acknowledge that the ROI is now truly exclusive to entries in oil paint. 

This too may have helped the sales take off! Where else can you go and KNOW that what looks like an oil painting really is an oil painting?

SIZE OF ARTWORK

  • Works should be no larger than 2.4m along the longest dimension.
  • The combined total of the longest dimension of each painting accepted will not exceed 8 feet maximum per artist
TIP: Smaller artworks sell better because those who collect art have rather a lot on their walls already and some of us have almost run out of space so tend to prefer smaller artwork. 

However, smaller does not mean less effort. It's the gems which sell.

DEAR ROI AND MALL GALLERIES: I personally cannot understand the reason for the 8 feet maximum. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Some will be portrait format and others will be landscape format. If this is supposed to be a constraint to avoid lots of very big works being submitted then give artists a maximum AREA their paintings can occupy if grouped together with a nominal spacing between each and the next - and show them what that means in terms of examples of painting sizes.

BUT, even more importantly choose your measurement scale and stick to it. 
DO NOT MIX FEET AND METRES!

Wall in the West Gallery with a lot of artwork by women artists

PRESENTATION


FRAMING


There are a number of requirements about framing which you would be very wise to observe closely
Artists are advised to use plain, simple framing in a light or medium colour.

That's because this is what sells! 

Wide mounts between the painting and frame, as in watercolours, are not acceptable. 
If collectors don't like your frame they won't buy your artwork - in which case you may have been selected and exhibited but you'll definitely be out of pocket.

DELIVERY


All artwork selected for exhibition MUST BE:
  • completely dry at the time of delivery. (If it's not, it will not be hung. You cannot sell artwork which still needs to dry!!)
  • delivered unwrapped with the relevant form and labels, which are downloadable upon notification of selection.
  • All packaging must be taken away at the point of delivery. Particularly important to all international artists. You need to use an agent who can do this for you.
The information about the exhibition contains details of courier firms who regularly deliver artwork to the Mall Galleries



FINANCIAL ASPECTS



THE COST OF AN ENTRY


There is a non-refundable submission fee of
  • £22 per work for all artists aged 35 or more 
  • or £14.50 per work for artists aged 35 or under.
The submission fee includes free admission to the exhibition (normally £7) plus access to information from the Visual Artists Association


Submission fees support the not-for-profit programme at Mall Galleries. The gallery is home to visual arts charity, the Federation of British Artists (Registered Charity Number 200048).

PLUS there are the costs of 
  • framing, transport - and collection 
  • transporting you if you hand deliver and pick up.


ARTWORK FOR SALE

  • All work must be for sale. No exemptions for portraits.

PRICING REQUIREMENTS

  • The price submitted should be the selling price, which should include commission, and is the price at which the work will be sold.
There is a minimum price per work of £500.

Unless otherwise advised, the gallery will charge a commission on the total price paid for works, including commissioned works, before, during, or as a result of the exhibition.

The price of works must include commission of 45% +VAT. If an artist is registered for VAT, then the VAT due on the selling price of works should be included in the price submitted.
Don't be silly with prices. Nobody is interested in large artworks with inflated prices which are not based on credentials and have no established market and do not sell - and hence....
Mall Galleries reserves the right to query the price of works.  

MY TIP ABOUT PRICING

Artwork needs to be affordable
This is based on my constant review of all the exhibitions by art societies which exhibit at the Mall Galleries - and subsequent analysis of prices and sales (which I have written about many times)
  • open artists dominate sales below £1,000
  • member artists dominate sales between £1,000 and £3,000
  • overpriced small paintings do not sell - which is typically why open entries have done better than members' paintings in the below £500 price bracket in the past.
  • established artists with consistent sales records can more or less quote what they KNOW their market will bear
  • but the bottom line is MOST sales are priced at below £1,500.
  • Last year 62 of 96 artworks sold (65%) were priced at £1,500 and BELOW
This would have been more if the minimum price was £300 as very many impulse buys are small works priced typically between £300-£500.

Awards and Prizes in 2026

The Young Artist Awards in the East Gallery

The ROI offers many prizes and awards:

CASH PRIZES  
  • The Roger Remington Award £4,000 for an outstanding painting
ART MATERIAL PRIZES (to a specified value)
  • Winsor & Newton Young Artist Award | 
    • First Prize £1,000 Winsor & Newton Fine Art Materials for an artist aged 30 or under Winsor & Newton Young Artist Award
    • Second Prize £600 Winsor & Newton Fine Art Materials for an artist aged 30 or under Winsor & Newton Young Artist Award
    • Third Prize £400 Winsor & Newton Fine Art Materials for an artist aged 30 or under
  • Winsor & Newton Non-member Award £150 Winsor & Newton Fine Art Materials
  • NEW Daler-Rowney Award £500 worth of artist materials for a first-time exhibitor with the ROI
  • Frank Herring Easel Award An award of a versatile easel
ROI AWARDS + THEME AWARD
  • The ROI Themed Painting Prize £500 for the standout painting on the theme of 'Winter Rituals'
  • The Dartington Crystal Chalice Presented to a member in recognition of outstanding service and contribution to the ROI
NAMED ARTIST AWARDS
  • The Peter Wileman Award £500 for an imaginative work
  • The Tony Merrick Memorial Prize An award of £250 in memory of Tony Merrick ROI (1948-2018)
  • The Fred Beckett Memorial Artist Award A crystal trophy in honour of former ROI President Fred Beckett (1933-2025) will be awarded; 
    • the winner will receive a smaller replica of the trophy to keep
  • The Le Clerc Fowle Medal In memory of Anne Le Clerc Fowle, presented annually for an outstanding group of paintings
PUBLICATION AND MEDIA AWARDS
  • The Dry Red Press Award The winning work will be published as a greetings card by Dry Red Press in their 'Prize Winners' range
  • Bristle Award The winner will be interviewed for a feature in The Artist magazine, print and digital edition 
OTHER AWARDS
  • The Lady of the Chateau Award For a work that reveals the world through a luminous, deeply personal lens — a place in the at Château de Puy Vidal in southwest France
CERTIFICATES OF COMMENDATION
  • The ROI will also present a number of certificates of commendation to artists whose work is considered to be exceptional.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?


The ROI suggests the following as potential benefits of being selected to exhibit!

Successful applicants can expect:
  • To have their selected work included in the ROI Annual Exhibition at Mall Galleries, in the gallery, and online
  • Eligibility to win prizes and awards
  • An invitation to the Private View (that means another trip to London if you don't live in London!)
  • The chance to sell their work
  • To be part of a network of exhibiting artists dating back to 1882 when the ROI was founded
  • The possibility of election to membership (for more information about becoming a member, please visit the ROI website)
I'd suggest another simpler perspective.

Potential benefits include the chance to:
  • get your work exhibited at a prestigious art gallery in London - situated on The Mall
  • sell your artwork - BUT only if you get the pricing is right!
  • win a prize - which always helps with the CV and impresses art galleries
  • get noticed by those art collectors and art galleries who visit such exhibitions looking for new talent! This is the one which really matters. You're never going to make progress unless your artwork gets seen by the right people - again and again.
  • get highlighted by me as "an artist to keep an eye on"!
If you've applied before and never been selected, you seriously need to ask yourself whether you have produced new artwork this time which might make it more likely you will get selected

If you've never visited the exhibition before - to see what sort of artwork members produce and select from the open entry - I highly recommend you do BEFORE next year's Call for Entries.
  • Exhibition opens: Thursday 26 November, 10am to 5pm daily
  • Exhibition closes: Saturday 12 December, 5pm

REFERENCE: Past Exhibitions of the ROI


I've been reviewing this exhibition since 2008. You can find links to my previous reviews of exhibitions below - which latterly include links to albums of photos of artwork selected for the exhibition which have been posted on my Facebook Page.

Posted by Making A Mark on Thursday, September 24, 2026
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