Review: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2026

Apologies for this late review of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2026. 

Post shoulder replacement sirgery, I'm still one finger typing - with the index finger on left hand holding down the shift key periodically - which is frustrating. Plus I ended up very tired from all my necessary outings last week and seem to be having another spate of surgery brain week this week - which makes getting started and writing anything difficult!

So this is going to be a short post. I may add to it later as I remember points I've forgotten!

If you'd like to see this exhibition, it's on at the Mall Galleries until Tuesday 19th May.

It comprises 208 paintings and drawings.

You can see 

• who won the awards in this blog post Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2026 | Award Winners
• my photos of the exhibition in albums on my Facebook Page. I try to snap every portrait in the exhibition - and then split them into albums by location
• East Gallery
• North Gallery

Just the West Gallery to go..... this is what it looked like last Sunday

view of the West Gallery

Key Points of Difference

I'm going to summarise what I saw as being the main differences from previous exhibitions

• It was another diverse and well hung exhibition. However it was only after I left and I started thinking about what was different that I realised the look of most of the exhibition has moved a very, very long way from the "stuffed shirt" main gallery that used to be the norm for very many years i.e. lots of commissioned portraits of eminent people in the government, forces, courts and education in very formal poses.

• there are still formal commissions - but most are so much more relaxed. Particularly as there are so many more women being portrayed in commissions! I particularly liked the two large portraits below - both by Jamie Routley RP

Two large naturalistic portraits by Jamie Routley

(left) Les Soeurs (The Sisters) by Jamie Routley RP 

Oil on linen, 100x110cm (105x115cm framed)

(right) The Winding Stair - Jesse Norman MP by Jamie Routley RP 

Oil on linen, 105x105cm (110x110cm framed)

• In part, I think this might well be because the artists are encouraging their clients to think out of the box rather than repeat "same as the last whoever" type portraits
• it really helps those who potentially want to commission - and make no mistake, this is primarily a marketing exhibition for RP members.
• I highly recommend, if there is no potential client in the commissions room at the back of the north Gallery that you have a look at the Commission Portfolio files if you want to see the range and calibre of artist on offer for potential commissions.

Portfolios for member artists and potential commissions

East Gallery - the Candidates Wall

• The East Gallery is a very high standard - and includes two former BP Portrait Award winners who are not RP members as artists selected from the open entry
• Wim Heldens (2011) - who I never met as I was "painting in Provence" - see Review: BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2011
• Craig Wylie (2008) - see Craig Wylie wins BP Portrait Award 2008 - which I remember very well as it was my first BP Portrait Awards night and the Chinese artist who won Young Artist of the Year beamed at me and said he read my blog before he tried again after missing out on selection the previous year!
  
• There's a fourth in the West Gallery! (see below)
• NOTE: There are three more BP Portrait Award winners in the exhibition - who are all RP members (Now HSF Award)
• Benjamin Sullivan RP (2017)
• Miriam Escofet RP (2018)
• Antony Williams NEAC VPRP (2024)

The two small paintings by the two former BP winners via the open entry are on this wall

• If you want to get noticed paint a very old artist. Which is what Neale Worley NEAC RP did in painting the centenarian figurative painter and multi award winner Anthony Eyton OBE RA RWA RWS - who is 103 next Sunday adnd has been painting for nearly 90 years! Neale won the President's Award for his effort. It's a very good painting - Anthony visits the Mall Galleries periodically and I saw him recently. Neale has also made a film about him.

SHOULDER REPLACEMENT: Half Way

It's now been three weeks since surgery ie HALF WAY through the official recovery period of sling wearing!  Pain has reduced and arm mobility is getting better. My one hand one finger typing is also getting faster! I can manage a left hand index finger on the Shift Key!

Last week was a big week for me as I went out five times on my own:

• Tuesday: Two week checkup with the clinical team at the Royal London:
• x-ray was done - which revealed nothing of concern
• silicon dressing came off, wound was inspected - looked very neat and nicely glued!
• bruises are now reducing and at the yellow stage
• my next appointment in six weeks time was booked
• Walked 2 miles back home from the hospital - along the quiet roads - photographing plants in season as I do most days on my walks

Laburnum tree in the Cemetery Park - as seen on my walk back from the hospital on Monday.
Probably Scottish Laburnum (Laburnum alpinum)

• Wednesday: In the afternoon I visited the extended Private View for the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. 
• Very civilised! Spreading the PV over several hours means there's more space to see the artwork on the walls. 
• Managed nearly three hours and took some photos.

Not quite time for the formal opening of the exhibition, speeches and awards ceremony
- but filling up

• Thursday: Visit to the Royal London again - this time to see the Physio
• reviewed the situation with me and how I was coping 
• added four more exercises to the my daily seven.
• Walked 2 miles back home from the hospital - along the quiet roads - taking more photos plants in season.  This habit started during Covid when I developed my Plants in Isolation series.
  

Iris foetidissima (Stinking Iris) in one of the parks I walk through

• Friday: Attended the May Meeting / AGM of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society - at the Physic Garden which comprised:
• a wonderful talk about the strategic aims and future development of the garden within the context of a huge number of regulatory practices for a botanic garden by Emily Hazell, Head of Plant Collections
• send off for our Chair and Plant List Organiser
• AGM - at which I presented my Treasurer's report

The CPGFS Committee at the AGM 2026
My seat as Treasurer is on extreme left - but here I'm in unofficial archivist photographer mode

• Sunday: I returned to the Mall Galleries to take more photos of the RSPP Annual Exhibition and to see the exhibition with fewer people around.
• Bumped into Gail Reid, one of the past PAOTY Heat Winners - see Review: Episode 2 Portrait Artist of the Year (Series 10)
• who I've highlighted on this blog for her very useful posts about preparing for PAOTY - READ my blog post about her blog post about Preparing for Portrait Artist of the Year - Gail Reid shares her experience and tips.

A selfie with Gail Reid, Gail operating my phone!

This week is a much quieter week and I'll hopefully get some blogging done.

Next week, on Friday morning, me and my sling will be stewarding at the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society Stand in the Great Pavilion at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. 

My visit to the RSPP Annual Exhibition was by way of a test to see if I could cope!

More travels with my sling (my official “don’t bump into me” sign!) to come....

SHOULDER REPLACEMENT: Two Weeks Later

It feels a bit odd to think two weeks ago, I'd been awake for four hours after completely out for the count for five hours, due to my shoulder replacement surgery having a major hiccup.

Tomorrow I go to see my Consultant at the Royal London who is part of a Barts NHS Trust team which focuses solely on trauma, elective shoulder, elbow, and hand surgery.  It's always nice to know they do these all the time!

What's changed?

• Pain is not quite so bad. I still take painkillers last thing at night - with the hope of a decent night's sleep plus when I need them during the day - but have stopped the routine four times a day.
• The alarming bruising is disappearing fast - from black to dark crimson to light crimson to hardly there
• I don't feel quite so post anaesthetic tired as I did for the first two weeks
• Actual sleep is still very variable but if active I don't get wiped out in the afternoon quite so much.
• The dressing is trying to come off - and my allergic itch is raring to go.
• Bought a second sling so that I can wash the first one. (Both by Willcom). this blue one is better for colder days. The first one I got is better when you need a more lightweight breathable sling for warm/hot days - experienced last week.
• the correct way to wear the sling remains a bit of a mystery after reading the diagrams and watching the videos. 
• Trying this new one with a different set-up.

my new second sling - which has a back strap (like my white one) which distributes weight better. 

• Developed a new wheeze this morning so I could wash my hair. 
• Took the sling off
• Tied my arm to my side using a belt - so I wouldn't make any "brain programmed to do this" movements - and it worked really well
• JR did squeezing shampoo into my hand and the big final rinse plus towelling dry my hair and then shaping a towel turban - and I was able to do everything else.

The Shampoo Belt! 

• Doing exercises pays dividends re movement and pain levels.  I'm not very good at the three times a day regular as clockwork - but I do more twice a day as I get changed to make up. 
• Doing regular walks is also helping - not least because it gets me outside! Not walking as far as normal - only did 15 miles last week - but this was an increase on the previous week! 
• I still cannot centre my bun - but at least it's up.

I walked 15 miles in week 2

This week I'm doing a lot of outings!

• Tuesday - see my consultant at Royal London - plus (I'm guessing I also get an x-ray to check what it looks like inside; plus they take the dressing off to take a look at the wound. I'm pretty sure I've got dissolving hypoallergenic stitches)
• Wednesday - go to Private View of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries
• Thursday - start seeing the therapists re recovery of functionality and yet more exercises to do
• Friday - delivering my Treasurer's report to the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society AGM

I'm hoping I've got the energy for all of this - but will be erring on the side of caution rather than being silly.

I reckon I'll have earned a treat after all that! ;)

SURGERY + 11 Days Summary aka "it's a bit of a struggle!"

LEFT SHOULDER REPLACEMENT SURGERY + 11 Days

SUMMARY

Bottom line - it's a struggle but getting easier to cope with as the days go by. However immobilised on one side is no "walk in the park"!

• pain under control, so long as I remember/take meds on time! (plus logged on my medication record on Apple Health - to avoid not remembering what I've taken. Surgery was complicated.  From "going under" to "waking up back in recovery" took five hours so my brain is not great on memory right now
• my large haematoma above elbow crease much improved - gone from dense black to pale crimson. Icing works!
• discovered that the whole of the back of arm plus half left under boob is yet another big bruise - which oddly does not hurt! 
• doing my 7 exercises every day
• walking locally once a day.
• I am still getting/am VERY tired most of the time - and getting used to operating at about half normal speed
• took a week for me to get a decent night’s sleep - in my riser recliner so I’m immobilised (can’t roll on surgery arm) plus much much easier to get into sleep position and get up
• am managing - at a stretch - to get my hair up each day, but it involves neck contortions, head between my knees and one handed grip application. I now specialise in the slightly off centre bun!
• getting better at getting dressed and undressed - but it’s very, very, very slow (and tedious). no point in rushing. 
• Tank tops with built in boob support are a godsend! 
• Only very thin layers fit inside the immobilisation sling.
• Do NOT need/do shoulder surgery in winter - because you cannot get a coat on!

not the most flattering selfie I've ever taken!
just finished getting dressed / doing hair - hence grumpy face after long struggle
this is about as thick as the clothing layers can get
note the hair!

• No idea what I’m going to do if it rains (dump the stick so I can hold umbrella? Dump immobiliser so I can get in raincoat? Buy a waterproof poncho? Get very wet?). At the moment, any indication of rain means I cannot go out.
• getting better at cooking one handed - helped by fact left hand works (but doesn’t move so everything needs to be brought to it). Food has to be “eating with a fork or spoon” standard. Other than microwave (pasta / curries), my hot food is limited to frying two fried eggs with two buttermilk pancakes in film of butter - both of which I can cut up (sort of). When JR cooks for me, my plate arrives with all food cut up to fork sized pieces. 

four minute lunch

Next week I'll be back at art exhibitions - starting with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2026 at the Mall Galleries.  

• I'll be at the PV on Wednesday
• although earlier in the day and will be avoiding crowds at speeches/awards ceremony.

I can just about use a computer one handed - so I'll be trying to do some posts. Probably short.

my first tube ride - one stop only!

Call for Entries: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2026

This is about the call for entries for the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - and why it's a good idea to enter if you an aspiring portrait artist.  It covers:

• reasons to enter
• who can enter
• what you can enter
• how to enter
• the timeline of important dates

Submissions are open until Tuesday 3 February 2026

You can also review my past blog posts about the RP Annual Exhibition over the last 19 years at the end.

Reasons why you should enter the RP's annual exhibition

The "Portrait Artist of the Year" competition may attract a lot of entries from would-be portrait artists in the UK - and be on television - but only one artist gets to win. 

The annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, on the other hand, welcomes new and emerging talent and ample space to give a boost to more than one artist.

The RP exhibition is an annual opportunity for artists who paint people to see their paintings hung alongside the work of their peers. As always, emerging and established talent is displayed together.

This "call for entries" gives all aspiring portrait painters:

• an opportunity to be hung in the same exhibition as some of the leading portrait painters in the UK
• a potential first step up on the ladder to becoming a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters 
• access to an extremely well used commission service for portraits
• access to a much longer term payoff than an outing on television and not winning the top prize

For all those wondering whether and why they should submit an entry to this exhibition, take a look at the following.

Expert assessment of your portrait

• ALL drawings and paintings selected for exhibition from the Open Entry are chosen by practising professional portrait artists who are full artist members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - and who use a variety of media. (click the link to check out their work)
• The Selection Committee is rotated annually. 
• There are no administrators, sponsors, gallerists, art critics, television personalities or other such éminence grise who get a say on what gets hung.
• Judges are are looking for solid skills in portraiture - but they are not averse to new styles and innovation demonstrated by emerging talent.

A prestigious portraiture exhibition - in central London and online

This is a very prestigious exhibition within the international portrait world

• It fills all three galleries at the Mall Galleries on The Mall in London
• It attracts over 4,000 entries to the exhibition - including very many entries from international artists
• The exhibition is also put online so it can be seen all over the world.

An expert commissions service

• This exhibition generates a LOT of portrait commissions. This exhibition is much less about sales and much more about being a marketing shop window (e.g. 87 (40%) of the portraits exhibited last year were not for sale as they had been done as commissions and already had owners)
• An expert Commissions Consultant service runs throughout the show. Exhibiting artists are invited to
• display additional material
• advertise portrait commissions through the Commissions department - on which a commission will be payable.

The Commission Room at the 2024 Exhibition

Entry is digital

• Hence you only need to go to the expense of framing and transport IF invited to progress to the second stage of selection. So entries which do not succeed only incur the expense of the submission fee.

Some significant prizes

This is an exhibition with some heavyweight and prestigious cash prizes. 

• The total prize fund is £35,000, including The William Lock Portrait Prize (£20,000).
• It has the most valuable individual prizes awarded by any national art society in the UK. 
• These include awards for younger artists and portrait drawing.

Your chances of getting selected

Royal Society of Portrait Artists Annual Exhibition 2025

I had an extremely pleasant time at the Private View yesterday for the Annual Exhibition 2025 of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. 

Overall it was a real pleasure to be able to meet artists and view an exhibition and the artwork in a very congenial environment. So much so it will be my abiding memory of the exhibition!

The catalogue of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2025

How to have a great Private View

The reasons for the congenial environment were:

• the Private View started at 11am and the speeches and prize giving was in the evening at 6pm, by which time I'd disappeared!
• at all times there were enough people around for it to be happily populated - but at no time was there any sort of crush or sense of standing room only
• as a result I could SEE THE ART!!! 
• More importantly for me, I was also able to talk to various artists - both members and open artists - without the sound of the constant chatter generated when you invite everybody to the same PV in a very short time slot!
• AND I was able to take photos of the galleries because they were not too crowded
• Net Result: I don't have to pay a second visit just to get photos - which always makes me rather grumpy....

Moreover, this was one of the best hung exhibition by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters that I've seen in recent years. It looks great and has got a really nice flow to it and, more importantly 90% of the artwork is worth a good look (Note: I never like everything!). I gather there was a new set of hangers this year and I think they should be encouraged to do a repeat job next year!

West Gallery

I took photos of all the artwork in the exhibition and 

• UPDATE: I have now uploaded my photos into three different folders on my Facebook Page - which you can access if you have a Facebook Account
• West Gallery
• East Gallery
• North Gallery
• plus my FB album RP Annual Exhibition 2025 - Artists with their paintings.

• my photos include the artwork I liked - as single artwork photos. It's always interesting to see which aligned with the views of the Judges. Plus there's commentary on some of the photos.

More about the exhibition after the innovations highlighted below!

• You can also see the exhibition online on this link.
• These are the Award winners - the news post about the artwork which won prizes - although you have to click it to see which prize, which I'm not a fan of - because that just turns the post into clickbait.
• This is the Events Programme

The Buyers' Preview

Royal Society of Portrait Artists Annual Exhibition 2024

I should have written about the Annual Exhibition 2024 of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP) last week - but my "mega spring clean" rather got in the way.  

Suffice to say this is one of the very best RP Annual Exhibitions I've ever seen - and I'm very sure that those who have seen it have been broadcasting that fact far and wide.

In fact, it's so good that I'd be very surprised if the The Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills) is any better.

How to see the exhibition

You can see the exhibition at the Mall Galleries. The last day is 18th May and the exhibition is open between 10am and 5pm.

View of the East Gallery from the Reception area
- the semi circle is the commission area

You can also see images of the portrait drawings and paintings hung in the exhibition on the Mall Galleries website

I've also now posted my albums of photos of the work in the show on my Making A Mark Facebook Page - and you can view them there. These are:

• North Gallery - which mainly comprises most of the artwork by those who are not members of the RP and who entered via the open entry. 
• East Gallery - which includes some impressive work by non-members of repute as well as portraits by RP members.
• West Gallery - these are mainly be members.

You can also see all the artworks which won awards or were shortlisted or received runner up awards on this link.

RECOMMENDATION: I recommend that all those aspiring to be selected for a future RP Annual Exhibition should pay particular attention to the following when viewing the artwork

• this is a very competitive open exhibition. This year the RP received 3,500 entries (which is more than BP Portrait used to get!)
• the kind of portraits selected for the exhibition - particularly those by non-members. Also note my comments below about how portraiture has changed over time and with this exhibition in particular
• the quality of the artwork - which is very high
• the media used i.e. there are drawings in a variety of media as well as paintings.

North Gallery

North Gallery

I saw the exhibition on Private View day - which is actually not the best day to see the artwork. That's because of the very high number of visitors which an exhibition like this generates. 

• You've got artists and their friends and families, plus sitters, plus people who get invited to these things - like me. 
• It is however the very best day for talking to people and seeing people you've not seen in a very long time.

Or in the case of Joshua Donkor, who I've not seen since 25th April when I met him at the RBA Rising Stars exhibition as one of the young artists shortlisted for the Rome Scholarship! 

I really liked his painting of his grandmother with one of her grandchildren - there are so few artists who can portray black skin in all the wonderful colours it can be - but Joshua can! I also liked how he built in echoes of the past in terms of photos which are suggested in the background. It's much more complex and layered than is suggested by only a quick glance.

He also received a Highly Commended Award for The de Laszlo Foundation Award for the most outstanding portrait by an artist aged 35 years or under

Worlds Apart by Joshua Donkor
(in the North Gallery - middle room)

I've been hanging on all day to find out who won what re the two biggest prizes for portraiture - but cannot find anything yet....

I'll add it in here later......

Review of the Exhibition

Overall, this is an exhibition which displays one genre - portraiture - of a very high standard - with a wide diversity of subjects, styles, sizes and media. 

It's very much changed and developed since I first started reviewing the annual exhibition 15 years go. (see the end for links to previous reviews).

The RP contains a broad collection of stylistic and intellectual approaches that continue to make a significant contribution to the ongoing tradition of portraiture in Britain today. The Society looks to uphold the values and practices of its long and distinguished history, but at the same time, it seeks to explore and develop new artistic models and perspectives. (Catalogue)

Given this exhibition is about portraiture, the artwork leans heavily towards realism although a lot does not try to look photographic.

I was very impressed. Some of the artworks were not to my personal taste - but the standards of execution were uniformly high and some portraits were - whether by RP member or open entrant - of the very highest standard 

The exhibition includes 241 portraits. Of these:

• members of the RP are showing around about 100 portraits - and I noted not all members are showing an artwork.
• There are 125 artworks selected from the open submission and 
• the remaining artworks are by artists who have been invited by a member to exhibit. 

One of my tests of how good an exhibition is revolves around how well I can remember it after I've seen it. I have an excellent visual memory for things I like and with good exhibitions I can take a tour around and see it again in my head - as attested by those who have commented on my ability to remember particular artworks and where they were hung in an exhibition in the past!

Rather than review it the same day - or even the next - I often now review it a little later to see which artworks are still shouting for attention in my head.

This review will highlight some of these below

Commissions: the end of the "stuffed shirt"

This is an exhibition which aims to celebrate the best in contemporary portraiture. 

Interestingly it's also an exhibition where I think very high quality entries from the open submission have influenced members over time.

As I commented last year, the main aspect of the exhibition which immediately struck me is how much it did NOT look like exhibitions in earlier years which have, on occasions, had rather too many stuffed shirts relating to formal commissions from organisations. 

While understanding that:

• commissions are a portrait artist's "bread and butter" income
• this exhibition is very much a marketing exercise for members of the RP
• most commissions tend to come from significant organisations who like to record the people who've headed them up

however it's interesting how the personality and the profile of the person being portrayed is now much more evident in portraits. In general, they are now much less formulaic as in "this is what we normally do..."

Of course, the more you show variation in how you can paint for a commission, the more you get more interesting commissions as people endeavour to inject their personality into the painting. 

One of the people who has led the charge to become more flexible in how people are portrayed is Alastair Adams who is a Past President of the RP.

FINAL Call for Entries: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2024

The Royal Society of Portrait Painters seeks submissions of new and traditional artistic models and perspectives in portraiture from international artists.

This is about:the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - and why it's a good idea to enter

• who can enter
• what you can enter
• how to enter
• the timeline of important dates

[ PROFUSE APOLOGIES: I thought this post was published but somehow or other it got stuck in "draft" mode - and the deadline for entries is 12 noon on Friday 26h January 2024 ]

I'm also referencing some other information which I've previously written about which you may well find helpful.

About the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

The Royal Society of Portrait Painters invites artists from all over the world to submit portraits for its Annual Exhibition in 2024......The total prize fund is £40,000, including The William Lock Portrait Prize (£20,000) and The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture (£10,000).

The Society welcomes paintings, drawings and original prints including digital/ipad prints from artists over 18, from the UK and internationally.

"The Society’s Annual Exhibition is probably the largest and most significant celebration of contemporary portrait painting in Europe. The show is always selected by a jury of practising portrait painters, no critics, no journalists, no celebrities – just painters."

Reasons why you should enter the RP's annual exhibition

For those wondering whether and why they should submit an entry to this exhibition, take a look at the following.

Entry is digital

You only need to go to the expense of framing and transport IF invited to progress to the second stage of selection. So entries which do not succeed only incur the expense of the submission fee.

The Importance of Exhibitions to Portrait Commissions

• This exhibition generates a LOT of portrait commissions. This exhibition is very much a marketing shop window.
• An expert Commissions Consultant service runs throughout the show
• Exhibiting artists are invited to
• display additional material
• advertise portrait commissions through our Commissions department on which a commission will be payable.

The Commission Area in 2023

Some significant prizes

This is an exhibition with some heavyweight and prestigious cash prizes. It has the most valuable individual prizes awarded by any national art society in the UK.

In total, the cash on offer is worth a total of £36,000. These include awards for younger artists and portrait drawing.

• The William Lock Portrait Prize: £20,000 for the most timeless portrait with a real feeling for paint and its aesthetic potential
• The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture: £10,000 plus the Society’s Gold Medal awarded for the most distinguished portrait in the Society’s annual exhibition
• The de Laszlo Foundation Award: £3,000 plus a Silver Medal for the most outstanding portrait by an artist aged 35 years or under
• The Raw Umber Studios Prize value: £2,000 for the most exciting contemporary portraiture lies at the intersection of technical excellence and 
• The Smallwood Architects Prize for Contextual Portraiture: £1,000 for a portrait in which architectural or interior features play an important part.

A prestigious portraiture exhibition - in central London and online

This is a very prestigious exhibition within the portrait world

• It fills all three galleries at the Mall Galleries on The Mall in London
• last year it attracted 4,400 entries to the exhibition - including very many entries from international artists

The exhibition is also put online so it can be seen all over the world.

Why it compares favourably to the BP Portrait and other portrait competitions

• ALL works selected for exhibition from the Open Entry are chosen by practising professional portrait artists who are full artist members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. The Selection Committee is rotated annually. There are no administrators, sponsors, gallerists, art critics or other such éminence grise who get a say on what gets hung.
• Your chances of getting exhibited: Exhibition Metrics: I haven't crunched the numbers since 2019 but back then the data analysis I did was as follows 
• about half the portraits exhibited were by non-members
• about 5% of the works submitted via the open entry are selected for the open exhibition. (This is a not untypical percentage for a top exhibition and is better than the acceptance rate for BP Portrait over several years when that was running)
• a SIGNIFICANT number of artists from overseas submit their work - with an increasing number from Asia
• your work needs to be VERY GOOD to get selected. I'd go so far as to say it needs to be better than some of the artwork submitted by members!

CALL FOR ENTRIES

This is an OPEN EXHIBITION. Artists are invited to submit works for exhibition alongside members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at their Annual Exhibition 2024.

In summary:

• All entries are via digital submission
• The deadline for entries is 12 noon on Friday 26h January 2024 
• The non-refundable entry fee is 
• £20 per work payable at the time of submitting 
• £15per work for artists aged 35 or under

Details of how artists can apply via the open entry process are set out below.

Review: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2023

This is a review of the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, now on at the Mall Galleries until Saturday 13th May, 2023. It includes:

• observations on what makes this exhibition different and the content of the exhibition
• commentary on what's different this year
• portraits I particularly liked
• tips for the Mall Galleries
• a commentary on pricing for artists

Apologies to those who were expecting this blog post yesterday - but I was unavoidably detained by an urgent visit to A&E yesterday morning!

Mall Wall of West Gallery 

Last November, I wrote my annual blog post about the Call for Entries: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2023. 

Subsequently artists who entered via the open entry were notified (you can see a list of who made it to the exhibition in my last blog post Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2023: Prizewinners and selected artists) and last week I visited the exhibition.

Last Thursday, the exhibition opened to the public. However, if you're unable to visit London, you can also see the artworks online as follows:

• RP Annual Exhibition Online (scroll down the page)
• Albums on my Facebook Page (links to which will be inserted here after this blog post is published)
• East Gallery
• West Gallery (tomorrow)
  
• North Gallery. 
• NOTE: These exclude all nudity involving "parts" which FB will just take down. Which is a pity as this exhibition has a wall which I christened "the willy wall".

You can also buy the RSPP Annual Exhibition 2023 Catalogue online. It has a stunning cover - and a not inconsiderable price! (£13)

Cover of the RSPP Annual Exhibition 2023 Catalogue

Observations about the Exhibition

The exhibition comprises 247 portrait paintings and drawings by member artists and those artists selected from the open entry.

One wall in the East Gallery

Content of the RSPP Exhibition - what makes this exhibition different

The major difference is that this is very much a one genre exhibition - relating to portrait drawings and paintings of people.

This is also the one exhibition at the Mall Galleries where artwork is not required to be for sale. We get to see a LOT of commissioned artworks which are marked up NFS i.e. 'Not for Sale'. That's because this exhibition is very much a marketing platform for those who members who work on commission. Which is also why membership of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters is so prized!

West Gallery - End Wall

Commissioned Portraits

This exhibition now has many fewer 'staid and formal official portraits'. There's still enough to remind us all of one of the main occupations of career portrait painters. 

However what I noticed is that such portraits also seemed to be "less stuffed shirt" and more informal - so a Bishop in his everyday suit and not in formal dress and a mitre! Or a portrait with a contextual background which is important to the client - but 'relaxes' the overall impression of the portrait.

I am left wondering if this is partly to do with the fact that's there's also more commissioned portraits of women? I'd love to know what the portrait painters think.

As a result, it's now a much more pleasant exhibition to view and review.

There's also much less of a difference between the portraits produced by members and those from the Open Entry.

I well remember one year that I commented to a senior bod in the society that the West Gallery (full of stuffed shirts portraits) was empty and all the visitors were in the North Gallery - where they had relegated all the artwork from the open entry. The artwork in that gallery was at the time much more relaxed, more colourful and more innovative. I think maybe the point was taken on board as I've seen a gradual and continuous shift away from the way the exhibition used to look.

Indeed the explanation about the exhibition now starts with the following statement! So maybe a marked shift in attitude as well?

This exhibition presents the very best in portraiture in all its variety and diversity

I thought the portrait study of Sir David Attenborough well illustrated a shift in "how to paint a commission"

 

David Cobley
Sir David - Study for BBC
oil on linen
£15,000

I very much liked the new area devoted to Commissions. It's part of a gallery and yet set aside making this less confusing for visitors and more private for clients. I also like the fact that some attention has been paid to providing nice comfy seats for prospective clients. Overall, it looks much more professional.

I often wonder why more attention to marketing commissions by member artists doesn't take place in other FBA Society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries. 

• The mezzanine area offers an appropriate area - if the opportunity to discuss commissions were to be more clearly signposted. After all, it's not just portrait painters who do commissions!
• the website also needs more explicit signposting (i.e. top line menu) to the opportunity to commission portraits - which is present on the RP website but NOT on the Mall Galleries website 

The new Commission Area in the East Gallery

Open Entry

This exhibition has, I think, more open entries and more artists and artwork selected from the open entry than ever before. For the 2023 exhibition, the RP got 3,466 submissions - of which c.1,000 came from artists who live outside the UK. This is more submissions than the BP Portrait Award used to get! 

It might be something to do with the fact that I have repeatedly written posts which include a section on Why it compares favourably to the BP Portrait and other portrait competitions ! ;)

I suspect the number of submissions probably has something to do with the fact that the Portrait Competition run by the National Portrait Gallery is in abeyance and will have a new sponsor when it revives. I'm expecting that to be the backend of this year. This always got a huge number of entries from international artists and it'll be interesting to see whether the Society manages to maintain this bumper number of entries in future years.

In part, I think the number of entries it attracts is because the RP have got some very good prizes open to those selected for the exhibition. Attracting and maintaining sponsorship for prizes is a very critical way of generating entries - and the associated fees which help offset the costs of the exhibition.

I will comment on pricing by open entrants below - in the context of the new Anti-Money Laundering regulations for artwork. (See Mall Galleries statement about the stricter due diligence on this matter here.)

Portrait Drawings in the North Gallery

NEW Artwork

Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2023: Prizewinners and selected artists

Yesterday the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters opened to the public at the Mall Galleries and I visited. In this post I'm going to focus on 

• those winning prizes and 
• those whose artwork was selected for this very prestigious annual exhibition.

My review of the actual exhibition will follow on Sunday and will highlight:

• commentary on what's different this year
• observations on the content
• portraits I particularly liked

Prizewinners | RP Annual Exhibition 2023

The William Lock Portrait Prize: £20,000 for the most timeless portrait with a real feeling for paint and its aesthetic potential

Charlotte, by Saied Dai RP NEAC, 

80.5 x 60.5 cm (90.5 x 70.5 cm framed)

Saied Dai's portrait of his artist wife Charlotte Sorapure is timeless. It's both classical and contemporary. It's colourful and yet shows wonderful appreciation of tonal planes and light.

He's painted his wife before but somehow this time we get much more sense of the real woman.

This couple are both very accomplished and have won many awards.

What I'd really like to see is an exhibition which includes a couple of portraits from them - painted at the same time - of each painting the other.

The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture: £10,000 plus the Society’s Gold Medal
- awarded for the most distinguished portrait in the Society’s annual exhibition

Toby Wiggins RP

Winter's Work; Russell Woodham at rest while laying a hazel hedge in the Dorset Style,

121.5 x 151 cm (125.5 x 155 cm framed)

Toby was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 2006. He won the Prince of Wales Drawing Award in 2005 and 2013, the Changing Faces Prize in 2006 and the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize for figurative painting in 2009.

In 2006, after winning the BP Travel Award, Toby made portraits of the rural community of Wessex, which were exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in 2007 and subsequently at Dorset County Museum in 2008.

One of his drawings for the painting is also in the show. My first encounter with Toby was seeing his wonderful drawings of people working in rural communities which were completed for the BP Travel Award.

Toby Wiggins
A Blackbird's Tongue: Russell Woodham, the Dorset Hedgelayer
Pencil, charcoal, ink on prepared paper

 

The de Laszlo Foundation Award: £3,000 plus a Silver Medal for the most outstanding portrait by an artist aged 35 years or under

Phoebe-Louise Stewart Carter, 
Self Portrait in the Winter,
85 x 50 cm (105 x 70 cm framed)

This is a very quiet but extremely well painted portrait. It's a curious pose as it would be one difficult to ask an artist to hold - but easier if the subject is yourself!

The RP Award 

£2,000 will be awarded to the artist whose work best represents the year's chosen theme - which for 2023 is "Clothing"

Zac Lee, 
Sunday Afternoon, 73 x 53 cm

It's unclear who Zac Lee is online. Which is a missed opportunity for this artist.

The RP Prize for the Best Small Portrait: A prize of £2,000 for the best small portrait in the exhibition, measuring not more than 38 x 30.5 cm (15 x 12 inches) unframed

Carles Belda

Study for Something Never Ends, 19 x 15 cm (29 x 25 cm framed)

To be perfectly honest, I thought there were a LOT of small portraits which were excellent and certainly provided very worthy competition for this portrait. Which is a polite way of saying I'm really not sure why this one won the prize.

I feel art societies would generally be very helpful to ALL artists if they provided a brief explanation of why someone won a prize. Its omission in this instance left me wondering....

Raw Umber Studios Prize Value £2,000.

This is a new prize in 2023 - and was won by the current Vice President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Raw Umber Studios believes that the most exciting contemporary portraiture lies at the intersection of technical excellence and creative expression. Their annual prize, inaugurated in 2023, encourages and rewards such work.

Simon Davis RP RBSA, 
Warren Ellis
61 x 51 cm (67 x 57 cm framed)

The Smallwood Architects Prize for Contextual Portraiture: £1,000 for a portrait in which architectural or interior features play an important part.

Paul's Emporium by Martyn Harris

80 x 110 cm (86 x 116 cm framed)

Rather less architectural than usual.

Missing prizes?

I couldn't find

• a drawing awarded The Prince of Wales's Award for Portrait Drawing (£2,000 and framed certificate for a portrait in any recognised drawing medium) and note it's not part of the list if prizewinners on the Mall Galleries website. If it has come to an end that would be a very great pity - although obviously it needs a name update!
• any reference to The Burke’s Peerage Foundation Award for Classically Inspired Portraiture - which also appears to no longer awarded. 

Selected Art and Artists | RP Annual Exhibition 2023

Last November, I wrote my annual blog post about the Call for Entries: Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition 2023. 

Subsequently artists who entered via the open entry were notified (you can see a list of who made it to the exhibition below) and yesterday I visited the exhibition on the first day it was open to the public.

The RSPP got 3,466 entries for this very prestigious exhibition with over 1,000 coming from artists living and working outside the UK.

Some of the names are odd - insofar as they are very obviously extremely competent career portrait painters - and yet they've not applied for membership of the RP. I can name names! :). It occurs to me that:

• either, nobody has ever told them how they can apply for membership
• or the artists like it just the way it is at the moment.

I'll be featuring some of them in my review on Sunday - in which I'll be highlighting a number of portraits I particularly liked.

However it was pleasing to see a lot of names of people I don't know. It's always good to see lots of fresh new talent.

These are the names of the selected artists - in surname, first name format.

• Ali Kazmi, Imran - Girl with the Red Rose
• Allen, Richard - Els I
• Arenson, Laura - Don't Tell Anyone I'm Here
• Arenson, Laura - December's Goodbye
• Attie, Philippe - 800-pound Gorilla
• Avila, Jeff - Uneasy Sleep
• Barratt, Wendy - Grief
• Bays, Caroline - Stripey T-shirt
• Bedeman, Oliver - T'Nia Miller
• Beecht, Thomas - Georg
• Beharrell, Jane - Girl in Black
• Belda Roman, Carles - Study for Something Never Ends
• Birch, Ashley - Artist Mother ('In a field of its own')
• Braiden, Simon - Girl on a Sofa (Gemma)
• Burton, Abigail - Mauricia
• Burton, Abigail - Priscilla
• Butterworth, Hillary - Juana
• Caldwell, Steve - Reid 2
• Caldwell, Steve - June
• Cannon, Steve - Adrian Seated
• Cannon, Steve - Self Portrait with Avocado Plant
• Classi, Angela - Gaetano
• Clatworthy, Jane - Claudio in the Red Chair
• Clayden, Sam - Josh
• Clayton, Tom - Her Name was Magill
• Coles, Lizzie - Tameka
• Comoretti, Vania - Shadow
• Conway, Anita - Clive Myrie
• Cosgrove, Ken - Shannon
• Coulson, Alan - Elly

Elly by Alan Coulson

​Alan exhibits regularly in both the UK and US, notably as part of the prestigious BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery London, where in 2012 he was awarded third prize for his portrait of Richie Culver. Alan has produced commissioned work ​​for clients including The New York Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Bloomberg Markets Magazine, Carlton Books, The Chronicle Review and Club Wembley.

• Crozier, Belinda - Friday Art Club
• Crozier, Belinda - Judith
• Cullen, Annabel - Untitled
• Davies, Kerry Lisa - Gabriel
• Day, Estelle - Small Self Portrait in Studio
• Di, Kexin - Mama
• Di Taranto, Davide - Andreas
• Di Taranto, Davide - James Edward
• Doherty, Mark - Self Portrait in Studio
• Donadeo, Jacqueline - Enough
• Dorothee, Clauss - Alex
• Draisey, Mark - Jack
• Draisey, Mark - Jatinder Singh Durhailay
• Dury, Amy - Rae
• Ejoh, Wallace - Red Shawl
• Fei, Yangtao - The End of Life of the Father Series
• Fletcher, Nancy - Portrait of Bea, Otis & Rufus
• Granitsioti Mathianaki, Panagiota - In the Studio
• Hanbury, Clementine - Self Portrait at 25
• Harris, Martyn - Paul's Emporium
• Hawkins, Julia - Self-portrait with casts
• Hayes, James - Self Portrait
• Hillman, Aelfred - Guitarist in a Red Shirt
• Holder, Curtis - Hirsute III
• Hope, Laura - Self Portrait
• Houston, Florence - Bella and Bakelite
• Hume, Celia - Juniper
• Johnson, Hero - Winter PJs
• Kinsler, Jeannie - Byrne at the V&A
• Kitson, Richard - Portrait of Suzi
• Korteweg, Anna - Portrait of Lotus
• Larin, Anna - Gaia
• Lee, Keh Wee - Sunday Afternoon
• Leho, Stephen - Leaning on the History of Art
• Lorentzen, Mette - Mom September 2021
• Marrucchi, Alessandra - Self Portrait with Pearl Earring
• McKendry, Kenny - Back to the Light
• McNicholas, Mick - Lockdown - Self-Portrait
• Medhurst, Asa - Maxim with Avatars
• Melling, George - Portrait of an Unknown Painter
• Milne, Janis - Gazelle
• Moock, Helena - Kember's Room
• Moock, Helena - Self Portrait with Covid
• Morgan, Jordan - Portrait of the Artist's Parents
• Morris, Luis - Girl on a Chair
• Morris, Luis - Self Portrait
• Morzuch, Joe - Blue Self-Portrait, 5
• Muller, Robin L - Astrid
• Munday, Daniel - Intersection
• Munro, Jason - Caspernaut
• Nelis, Daniel - Man with Closed Eyes
• Orlowski, Stefan - Estuary Days
• Ozel, Mustafa - Portrait of James Bland
• Ozel, Mustafa - Marina
• Pierrepoint, Oriane - Dr Sinan Rawi
• Poderys, Mantas - Family at the Table - Daly MacGabhanns
• Purtill, Liz - Paulus Seeing Me
• Ribeiro Lyra Leite, Filippe - Self-portrait with Striped Shirt
• Riley Shope, Tucker - Portrait of Claudio
• Rivilis, Tania - An Endless Summer Afternoon
• Robertson, Saul - Journeys
• Rooney, Alex - Henry Marsh
• Shadbolt, Daniel - Catherine
• Shaw, Sarah - Portrait of J.P
• Sidelnikova, Valeriia - Halya
• Sidelnikova, Valeriia - Mama
• Slater, Hattie - Soldiers
• Smith, Paul P - Portrait of Vanessa Lubach
• Stern, Varvara - The Wisdom
• Stevanovic, Milenko - Leontios and Michalis
• Stewart Carter, Phoebe-Louise - Self Portrait in the Winter
• Stopford, Lucy - Artist’s Son
• Stopford, Lucy - Fred
• Timko, Bernadett - Jimmy
• Toal, Sarah - Self Portrait at 64
• Vercesi, Cristina - Reflection
• Wang, Binhong - Journey
• Waterhouse, Joshua - The Surgeon
• Watkins, Rosalie - Jessica
• Wattles, Mike - Sculpture
• Wilcox, Graeme - D in Stripes
• Williams, Sophie - Brother in Stripy T-Shirt
• Wood, Steven - Aster
• Yuqing, Florence - Self Portrait
• Yuqing, Florence - Clementine
• Zeoli, Monica - Carnage
• Zhou, Congran - Grandma