A top art blog for artists and art lovers: news about major art competitions and exhibitions, interviews with artists, techniques and tips for art and business
This is about the Call for Entries for the biennial V&A Illustration Awards - in 2026. Below are the basic facts of what you need to know - plus the link to where you can read more. Deadline for entry is 12.00 GMT on 5 January 2026.
The V&A Illustration Awards is a free, biennial competition celebrating excellence in illustration and contemporary practice, and judged by a panel of prominent illustrators and industry experts.
The Awards aim to reflect the contemporary UK illustration scene,
welcoming published work by UK residents or those resident anywhere in the
world working for UK clients.
Illustration: Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year 2024 Benjamin Phillips,
each of the five category winners will receive £3,500
five runners-up will get £1000.
The overall winner, the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year,
receives
an additional £5,500 (making a total of £9,000) and
their
work will become part of the V&A’s collections.
Winners and runners-up for each category will be announced in summer 2026.
Their work will be displayed in a dedicated, curated display within the
V&A.
The Awards are generously supported by the
Linder Foundation
and the Moira Gemmell Memorial fund.
What you need to know
What are the categories for entries?
In 2026, there are five categories. There are no "designated briefs" for entries in any category.
Today I saw what is thought to be one of the earliest landscape paintings in watercolour which survives in England.
I was visiting the Renaissance Watercolours display - in place of the Renaissance Watercolours exhibition that never was - at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Mainly I was there to see the album of wtercolours by the 16th century botanical artist Jacques Le Moynes de Morgues - but there were several other interesting watercolour paintings which caught my eye.
One of these was the painting of Nonsuch Palaceby Joris Hoefnagel- which was a grand hunting lodge which used to exist in Surrey in the area now known as Nonsuch Park.
Interestingly Hofnagel only visited England in 1568 - and was only here for few months. One wonders how he came to get access which enabled him to paint the palace.
Nonsuch Palace from the South by the Flemish artist Joris Hoefnagel is
one of the earliest surviving visual records of Henry VIII’s opulent
hunting lodge designed to celebrate Tudor supremacy. The artist
successfully captured a blend of traditional English architecture and
classically-inspired elements such as the spiral columns. Hoefnagel
meticulously reproduced the framed stucco panels that lined the palace
walls. With fine lines of black pen heightened with white, the artist
illustrated the moulded high-relief panels depicting Roman emperors,
gods and goddesses as well as the Labours of Hercules. Hoefnagel then
balanced the exquisite detail of Nonsuch Palace with the sweeping
countryside in muted hues of green and brown. Hoefnagel utilised this
drawing for an engraving in the fifth volume of Civitates Orbis Terarum,
an atlas of towns, in which Nonsuch Palace received a dedicated plate, a
credit to its fame.
The painting shows the south facade of the Palace - including the towers and the lavish stucco relief at the top of the walls. Plus the hunting grounds which surrounded the building.
Detail of the stucco relief at the top of the walls on the south elevation
In 1959, Hoefnagel's incredibly detailed painting was shown to be
surprisingly accurate. Archaeological excavations unearthed pieces of a
stucco figure leaning on a shield, directly beneath the point where a
similar relief is shown in the painting.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching
Andrew Marr on "The Hay Wain" by John Constable
last Friday night. This is the second episode of the second seasons of
Great Paintings of the World Programme on Channel 5.
I was
particularly struck at the end by the thought that this is precisely the sort
of programme BBC4 should be making - rather than the BBC relegating BBC4 to
becoming an archive channel!!
It appears to me that we now need to look for quality programming about art on
channels other than those 'allowed' us by the BBC.
Anyway, back to the programme......
Episode 2: The Hay Wain by John Constable
John Constable
(1776 - 1837) believed in the importance of working from life and was
dedicated to the way he wanted to paint and basing his paintings on his
drawings of the landscape, skies and 'weather'.
I thought I knew quite a bit about John Constable, having seen a number of
exhibitions of his work and written about him. However, I was surprised by
some content included in Andrew Marr's excellent, well researched and cogent
story of his life, family and development as an artist.
He came up with a number of things I either didn't know or hadn't appreciated
properly before. Such as
his experience of being shown at the RA Summer Exhibition - and the decision
to "go bigger" to get more wall space and a better position
(a sentiment not lost on many of those entering competitive exhibitions
today!)
His work experience prior to becoming a painter which led to him being a
pre-eminent painter of weather and clouds
the fact that he was a great success at the Paris Salon and sold many more
paintings in France before he became a popular artist in the UK.
Remember the protests against the Sackler Family relating to the Opioid Crisis
around about a year ago? Many were led by Nan Goldin -- and included a die-in at
the V&A and a threat to NOT exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery if they
accepted a £1million gift from the Sackler Family
There are news reports that Purdue Pharma is to close and be reinvented as a new "public benefit company" controlled by a trust or similar entity.
Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has agreed to plead guilty to
three federal criminal charges for its role in creating the nation's
opioid crisis
and will pay more than $8 billion and close down the company.
Pat on the back for Nan Goldin and other protestors I think....
References on my Facebook Page to the Opioid / Sackler scandal went as
follows:
More protests at sponsors of the arts with a shady past (and present?) .
This time Nan Goldin has arrived to protest the Sackler Courtyard at the
V&A (re. Opioid scandal and deaths in the US + associated court
cases against Sackler) Extremely odd interview of Nan Goldin on
Channel 4 Channel 4 Interviewer "but where are they going to get
the funds from?" Nan Goldin "they don't need more architecture" Channel
4 Interviewer "but where are they going to get the funds from?" Nan
Goldin "they don't need more architecture" + about 2-3 times more
at which point I despaired of the Channel 4 ever employing people who
listen to the answer.
I predicted earlier this week that Nan Goldin would "hit" the art
sponsorship connections in London - and guess what....
"The
National Portrait Gallery will be forced to turn down a gift of £1m from
members of the multibillionaire Sackler family if it goes ahead with a
prestigious new exhibition of the work of US artist Nan Goldin."
Some of you may recall that there was a lot of removal of the Sackler name
from very many buildings, art galleries
The Sackler Name
My understanding is that some Sackler names are associated with the potential for criminal charges and others are not - or less so.
For example, the Elizabeth A. Sackler - whose name is on the Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museumhas distanced her branch of the family from her uncles and cousins and called their OxyContin wealth ‘morally abhorrent’.
It's quite difficult to find an analysis of this..... It's also not helpful by lazy journalists referring to funders as "The Sackler Family" - without identifying which of the five trusts is responsible
accuses Sackler family members of knowingly breaking laws in order to enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars, while hundreds of thousands of Americans died.
While the guilty plea was welcomed, there was also anger over the US justice department’s failure to prosecute executives
AND SO....
which are the Sackler names now in the frame for potential criminal liability? (see above)
when is the Sackler name to be removed from all endowed gifts funded by Oxycontin abuse?
Or are the organisations going to wait until actual criminal liability is established? (as opposed to the company accepting responsibility and closing down?)
Here's a summary list of the art galleries and museums in London which begin to open from next week PLUS
what you need know in order to visit
which are offering extra benefits for essential workers who have kept us all supported through this health emergency.
The RA reopens next week
I won't be venturing out to see any of them in the near future. I've got a risk factor re Covid-19 so am more content viewing art online right now. All Galleries REQUIRE pre-booking in order to manage numbers and social distancing Masks will be recommended by all galleries. The list below is ordered in terms of date of reopening and amount of information available on the website.
Royal Academy of Arts
The health and safety of our visitors and staff is paramount. We will be following government advice on health and safety as a minimum, with additional measures and standards also in place. Among these measures will be a limited number of visitors at any one time, and asking that all visitors wear a face covering while at the RA.
the UK’s Emergency Services, NHS and social care workers, Blue Light Card holders will be able to visit for free. Simply book online using the promo code THANKYOU. We'll require employee ID when you arrive for your visit.
One-way routes and safe distancing guidelines are in place throughout the galleries. Prepare for a bit more walking than usual. Access information for each gallery will be published mid-July.
Open to Members: ?
Open to the Public: All Galleries reopen on Monday 27th July
The V&A Academy provides courses, workshops and talks for Adult Learners at the Victoria and Albert Museum. They are predominantly art history related and also focus on design and decorative art as well as fine art. They also include professional development courses which may well have wider application to those involved in the business of art and design.
At this time of year people often start planning any courses they want to do over the winter months - hence his post!
If anybody wants to recommend any other venue for courses please contact me
Courses
The 2019–20 V&A Academy Course programme is our richest, most varied yet. Whether you’re looking for an inspiring weekend or an in-depth exploration of your favourite subject, we welcome all kinds of learners. You can expect exclusive lectures from V&A experts, hands-on sessions with museum objects, behind-the-scenes access and day trips to see history in context.
The cost of seeing an art exhibition in London is not cheap. Enrolling for one or more Friends / Membership schemes can seem like a sensible thing to do if you like viewing art.
Certainly, I planned on visiting art exhibitions a lot when I retired and one of the very first things I did when I retired was to take out memberships at a number of the national art galleries and museums in London - and I've never regretted it - until now.
The reality is Annual Membership fees for Art Galleries and Museums keep on rising
by more than the cost of inflation (as government funding has been cut) over the course of the recession
some rises have also been pretty steep and less than transparent for those addressing some pretty ambitious development plans! I use direct debits for my memberships and got a major shock when I realised how much I was now paying for my RA membership!
Given memberships are often gifted at Christmas I thought I'd do a review of:
what each membership scheme costs
my conclusions as to which is best for what
the best value art membership scheme of all - and it's maybe a scheme you're not aware of
Some of you who have enrolled and, like me, have not looked at your direct debits lately may get a SHOCK!
National Gallery from Trafalgar Square on a late winter afternoon
Art Galleries and Museums - The cost of membership
Membership fees have changed and come museums have got very cute at working out what makes a difference to people eg
some are very family friendly with free access for more than two kids (see Tate and V&A)
some are kind to young people eg V&A
some are well suited to those who like taking their friends and guests to an exhibition
some do decent discounts on books and items in shops eg NPG and Tate
some do decent discounts on restaurant meals and throw in great views eg National Portrait Gallery (one of the main reasons members go to to the NPG!)
Free unlimited entry to all visiting exhibitions and Collection + Friends' Private Views; Friends Rates on tickets for lectures, art classes, talks & events; InView magazine (3 editions per year); Friends monthly e-news; opportunity to get involved with the work of the
Free entry to exhibitions for you and a family guest (but you have to book first for some) + Previews to exhibitions before they open to the public; Priority booking to all RA events. Private views and exclusive Friends events; all-day access to the Keeper's House; RA Magazine and a weekly email newsletter;
10% discount in the RA shop (but not on everything)
£125 standard friend + guest
£60 16-25 single + family guest [Note: NO SINGLE MEMBERSHIP]
Free unlimited entry to all four Tate galleries and any exhibitions, plus member talks, events and viewing hours.
Unlimited free exhibition entry at all four art galleries (No need to book, just turn up) +; Exclusive Members Hours away from the crowds; Access to Members Room; 10% Tate Shop discount. Free admission for up to six children
£76 single (direct debit)
£120 single + guest (direct debit)
Year 1 (Direct Debit) = 15 months for the price of 12
Free unlimited entry to all exhibitions (no need to book) + exclusive previews; priority booking for evening talks and access to specially curated Members-only events; Members' Room; V&A Magazine (three times a year); quarterly newsletter & monthly emails; free access to exhibitions for up to four children (under-18)
Free unlimited entry to all exhibitions + exclusive events (Lectures / tours / exhibition previews); Concession rates on public events including concerts, Friday Lates, lectures and art classes;
Most of the above also do Joint Membership schemes + guests but I've not included them above as I think the cost will have limited appeal to all but the most sociable and well endowed.
The Courtauld Gallery closed in September 2018 for at leas two years for renovations. Meanwhile you can see the Impressionist Paintings from the Coutauld at the National Gallery.
Some of the world famous Courtauld Impressionist paintings at the National Gallery
My conclusions
For those who like blockbuster exhibitions - consider
the British Museum (if you like historical / cultural aspects of art)
the National Gallery (for once in a lifetime exhibitions of art loaned by other national museums)
the V&A (if you like design, fashion and/or contemporary culture)
the RA - for "once in a while" blockbusters. (They certainly don't have them every year.)
If you have a young family the Tate and V&A are your best bet - both provide free admission for children under 18 (6 and 4 respectively). Others provide free access for under 12s and discounted prices for 13-18 year olds.
If you want to see exhibitions when they are less crowded, choose less busy hours of the day or extended hours which are also open to the public.
Members previews at some galleries are if anything MORE crowded than when the public are in!
Only galleries who are making a very serious effort to make the galleries less crowded for viewing by members should get your money.
If you enjoy somewhere to relax after seeing an exhibition, consider the Tate. Best view in London (across the Thames) and some comfy seats at Tate Modern. HOWEVER
most galleries forget that a lot of their membership patrons are pensioners who like to have decent sit down at some point during the day, especially after seeing an exhibition.
The leather Chesterfields in the Friend Room at the RA (sadly now gone for good) kept me as a member for a very long time! Hard seats have very little appeal....
If you want a stunning view - and a discount - with your lunch, consider the National Portrait Gallery Restaurant - which looks out at Parliament and the London Eye over the top of the National Galley. The 10% discount is a bonus!
Think very long and hard before signing up for a Royal Academy of ArtsFriends subscription
there is NO SINGLE MEMBERSHIP for those of us who like visiting exhibitions on our own -and/or not having to pay through the nose for the odd times we take a friend as well.
as a result, it's TWICE the cost of most of memberships (ie equivalent to Friend + Guest subscriptions elsewhere) - and creeps up each year without being signalled loudly.
Plus having a membership card no longer means free access whenever you want (i.e. the main reason I have a card) as you still need to book entry for members previews and some popular exhibitions - which means less spontaneity and you don't eliminate booking!).
It's much much cheaper to just book for the exhibitions you want to see and pay for tickets online.
In 1217, Henry III signed the Charter of the Forest, opening up the royal forests for the use of the people. To mark the 800th anniversary of this act, in November 2017 The Woodland Trust launches a new charter to recognise and protect those rights.
The appearance of the Arborealists in 2013 is an extraordinary phenomenon within the pervading orthodoxy in an art world that values post modernist objects, film and popular culture. Where events, interventions and installations engage the viewer, what can ‘tree painters’ (the Arborealists are for the most part painters), offer a public that is understandably titillated by Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst.
Trees in Illustration is at the V&A until next week and finishes on Tuesday 23 January 2018.
This display shows a variety of illustrations celebrating trees, woods and landscapes. Featuring watercolours by Beatrix Potter and Arthur Rackham, alongside drawings by E. H. Shepard for A. A. Milne's Pooh stories and his verses in Now We Are Six. Also included are Eric Ravilious' charming wood engravings for an edition of Gilbert White's classic The Natural History of Selborne. Exhibited here for the first time are Rolf Brandt's witty pictures for Stephen McFarlane's Story of a Tree.
I saw it last Friday and it has some simply stunning images - see above for just one example.
Trees have long been a source of inspiration for artists. This display explores the diverse representation of trees in photography – as botanical subjects and poetic symbols, in the context of the natural and human worlds.
This is not part of the exhibition but is a short video on YouTube by Bae Bien-U the Korean photographer who produced the stunning image at the top of this post. He has apparently been acclaimed for his treescapes - particularly ones of Korean Pines - for the last two decades.
I'll write more about the exhibition and the other marvellous images later in the week.
A Walk in the Woods: A Celebration of Trees in British Art
Web page for A Walk in the Woods at Higgins Bedford
A trip to Bedford will also be rewarded with another exhibition of Edward Bawden and his Studio if you go before 28th January.
The Higgins Bedford pays homage to the tree with a new exhibition celebrating the role of trees and woodland in British landscape painting. Drawn from the world-famous Cecil Higgins Art Gallery Collection, some forty watercolours, drawings and prints from the past two centuries will be on show and will include works by John Constable, John Sell Cotman, Edward Lear, Samuel Palmer, Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland and Lucian Freud. The show will highlight the importance and enduring popularity of trees in art, and explore various themes which have evolved in artists’ depictions of nature: magical and dreaming trees, trees in the countryside, the pleasures of woods and the lure of the exotic.
There's also a A Walk in the Woods Study Day on Saturday 20th January 10.30am – 2.30pm (
£20 Including lunch and tea or coffee on arrival - Booking essential)
This study day brings together speakers to explore further the subject of trees in British art. The day will start at 10.30 with refreshments and registration followed by talks by
Christiana Payne, Professor of History of Art at Oxford Brookes University, author of ‘Silent Witnesses: Trees in British Art 1760-1870’ and co-curator of A Walk in the Woods;
Fiona Stafford, Professor of English Language and Literature University of Oxford, presenter of The Meaning of Trees on BBC Radio 3, and author of the acclaimed ‘The Long Long Life of Trees’, a tribute to the diversity of trees.
David Boyd Haycock, freelance writer, lecturer and curator specialising in British cultural history of the twentieth century. Author of ‘Paul Nash’ and ‘A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War’, David is currently writing a book called ‘A Grand Epoch: Young British Artists and the End of the Century’ for Tate Publishing.
released the first visual of what one of the largest galleries within a suite of rooms will look like - in its full 'state-of-the-art' glory
confirmed the first phase of the V&A Photography Centre will more than double the display space dedicated to photography by Autumn 2018
announced that the original nineteenth-century picture gallery (known as Gallery 100) will be renamed ‘The Bern and Ronny Schwartz Gallery’ in recognition of the generosity of The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation
The render gives a glimpse inside one of the largest galleries
that will sit within the new suite of rooms dedicated to photography
The Centre has been designed by David Kohn Architects (DKA). The intention is that it will:
celebrate the original features of the V&A’s nineteenth-century picture galleries
enable a rich variation of atmosphere through the use of lighting
provide clever climate control to ensure a stable environment for fragile artworks.
include a modular system of display cases for greater flexibility and varied displays of a wide range of objects, from photographs to cameras, publications and archive materials, exploring the relationship between art and technology.
It forms part of an ambitious two-phased FuturePlan development project to dramatically reimagine the display of the photographic collection at the V&A. In addition to developing the Photography Centre, the Museum has upgraded its storage facilities to better house its photography collection. An extensive project to catalogue and digitise the recently transferred Royal Photographic Society (RPS) collection is also underway to provide web access and research resources for audiences around the world.
new Photography Page on the new V&A website - which to my mind is very much inferior to the old one! I do hope they sort out the website as well as the new Centre before the Autumn!
About Bernard Lee Schwartz (1914-1978)
Known as Bern, he took up photography late in life with great dedication and dynamism. A successful American businessman, at the age of sixty he began taking pictures and flourished as a portrait photographer, depicting well-known figures from across the globe. Bern and his wife Ronny were regular visitors to the UK and admirers of Britain’s museums and art galleries. In his short but prolific career, Bern photographed more than two hundred leading political, religious and cultural figures. His varied subjects included artists David Hockney and Henry Moore, dancers Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, and royals Prince Charles and Louis Mountbatten. Bern’s 1978 portrait of Sir Roy Strong, Director of the V&A from 1973 to 1987, has recently entered the Museum as a gift to The American Friends of the V&A through the generosity of The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation.
You might wonder why I'm reviewing an exhibition about a band on art an art blog.
There again you might wonder why a band like Pink Floyd is having a major retrospective exhibition at the Victoria And Albert Museum. The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remainsopens on Saturday (for 20 weeks until 1 October 2017).
However Pink Floyd were a very visual band. I don't find this surprising given that three of the band members were former architectural students who were used to thinking in terms of big designs and large structures. Plus right back at the beginning they knew some very smart design people in Storm Thorgeson and Po Powell aka as Hipgnosis (which it turns out was a word written on the wall of their flat by Syd Barrett. Plus they hooked up with some equally smart visual people as they progressed through their albums.
It's also because Pink Floyd were a constant backdrop to my time spent studying in Cambridge in the 70s.
Boyfriend was a big fan; Dark Side came out while I was in Cambridge and of course they are fundamentally a Cambridge band. My digs in my penultimate year were with a don who lived in Rock Road, literally right across the road from the house where Roger Waters spent his childhood and where his mother still lived. Syd Barrett lived just up the road etc etc. (I loved the Pink Floyd map of Cambridge!!)
I suspect The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains might just become one of the most popular exhibitions ever at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
this exhibition will be an immersive, multi-sensory and theatrical journey through Pink Floyd’s extraordinary world
The first three days sold out within hours of tickets opening for sale.
Before you read on, you need to understand that I am one of those people who got a ticket fast. It's been pinned on my wall above my desk for months and months!
I'll be back there on Monday to see the exhibition with my ex-boyfriend and his wife. Meanwhile I'll be emailing him to say he might want to go and buy himself another ticket - because I think the real fans are going to want to spend HOURS in this exhibition!
Not just because of the subject matter - but also because of how the exhibition has been put together. That and the fact hard core fans never just go to a concert once.....
I wrote on Facebook while I was sat in the recreation of the Live 8 concert.
Just reached the end of The Pink Floyd Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.It's one of the most visually and aurally creative exhibitions I've EVER been to. It will take fans HOURS to go through. A retrospective with non-stop music on your headphones which changes automatically and constant visual stimulation. Absolutely amazing!
It satisfies on so many levels:
it's a retrospective based around the albums and there are masses of detail and memorabilia associated with each - some of it quite extraordinary.
The Early Years and first albums
Syd Barrett wall
the sound is constant. The audio is extraordinarily clever. The thing they give you for the headphones works out PRECISELY where you are in the exhibition and plays the music or audio interview which goes with what you are looking at. I've got a four page explanation about all the sound. Suffice to say it is AMAZING!
the visuals are quite overwhelming at times - right from the entrance through a giant version of their original van, past the Hipgnosis covers, via the 'unusual photography' and animations, past the huge blowups of the schoolmaster and Pink from the Wall, and Battersea Power Station - complete with Pig through to the end, where you can relive the miracle of the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park in 2005 when the band became four again - and the music plays with visuals on all four walls in a large room which is going to be packed as soon as the exhibition opens.
before I realised there was an exhibition!
