FINAL Call for Entries: New England Art Club Annual Exhibition 2026

You have until 12 noon on Friday 20th March to submit your entries for the New England Art Club Annual Exhibition.

While the seriously committed will have submitted their entries already, there's still time to submit that work which you are pleased with.

Historically, the New English Art Club was founded by a group of artists dissatisfied with the entrenched attitudes of the Royal Academy

Today, its intent is spelt out by its President Patrick Cullen

At the heart of the NEAC is the search and propagation of meaningful, resonant art. It is committed to authenticity through the observation of life, as well as the task of articulating and communicating ideas with the beauty of skilful language.

FINAL Call for Entries: NEAC Annual Exhibition 2026

Entries from open artists are welcomed.

The NEAC Annual Exhibition is a showcase not only for its members but also for aspiring artists: with a history going back more than a hundred years, it is an opportunity for work to be seen alongside some of the best artists today.

I describe the process below. Here are the links to all relevant pages

• This is the official call for entries https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/open-calls/new-english-art-club
• This is the official entry portal https://mallgalleries22.oess1.uk/
• you need to locate the correct exhibition as this is the entry portal for all FBA Exhibitions at the Mall Galleries
• UNFORTUNATELY the Full Details, Entry Terms & Conditions is a pop-up page and is NOT a downloadable PDF. Which means if you want to make a record for your files / notes - you have to copy and paste into Word - and then you can print it.

NEAC is not an art society which is afraid of colour!
(NEAC Annual Exhibition 2025: End of West Gallery)

If you want to know what NEAC is about, take a look at my pics of the 2025 Annual Exhibition

Last year, the exhibition 389 artworks which included a lot which were big to very big - which made the hang look very crowded to me

Guidelines re Sales and Pricing

You can see the nature and price of the artworks which sold in 2025 by right clicking HERE and opening in a new tab

• 60% were painted in oils
• just over 20% were landscapes and cityscapes
• just over 10% were portraits
• just over 10% were still life
• the remainder covered marine and coastal (4), other (1) and abstract (2)

In terms of sales, 17 of the 50 sales were by open artists - and the majority were by women. I think it not unlikely that most of the sales were heavily influenced by women too.

For the record, although I've not crunched the numbers for 2025, there are some guidelines for open artists if you want to achieve a sale

• sales drop off once you breach £1,500 which I've identified for a long time as an important threshold for sales (i.e. not a lot above this, and these are mostly by members)
• OPEN ARTISTS tend to do better in the £500-£1000 price range and pricing - and this is consistent across a number of the art societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries

Call for Entries: Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 12)

This is about the CALL FOR ENTRIES for the NEW FORMAT for Series 12 of Landscape Artist of the Year see 

• SEE my previous blog post announcing the change in the way it works BRAND NEW FORMAT for Landscape Artist of the Year Series 12 (2027) announced!
• the deadline for submissions is Monday 23rd March 2026 - so basically you've got three more weeks.

There are lots of pros and cons below. I suggest that, in my opinion, you need to be both experienced and committed to landscape art and camera happy to do well.

Given the MAJOR change in the way the programme will be delivered, you can expect that scrutiny of entries will become MUCH more intensive.

In summary, the changes are as follows:

• 10 artists will be chosen for the whole series (rather than the 8 different artists for each heat episode - so 10 artists NOT 48 artists). Similar to number chosen for other competitions such as Throwdown or Bakeoff.
• One artist leaves each week (similar to the format used by the BBC ten years ago for The Big Painting Challenge - but this time with a focus solely on landscape and apparently without any small challenges or learning activities)

This televised art competition gives artists four hours to paint a UK landscape. One artist is eliminated each episode, and one finalist is ultimately crowned the winner. Landscape Artist of the Year website

• ALL the (remaining) artists create artworks at ALL the locations - which means every artist needs to be able to guarantee that they can make themselves available for filming.  (Don't forget locations far from home may involve two travel says as well either side). This of itself will rule out a lot of artists. More comments below

If you want to take part in the show, you’ll need to confirm that you are available for seven filming dates on weekdays in June and July, plus one in September.

• More scope for:
• showing what you can do in terms of range and consistency
• getting used to being filmed so you perform better (that's not what they say but it is what will happen) 
• Artists can still turn up to paint as "Wildcards" BUT there is NO Wildcard competition
• If you apply, your work will be reviewed by prominent judges from the art world - BUT no word as yet as to who Judges will be. (I'm doubtful as to whether they are experienced landscape artists)
• Appearance Money! If selected for the show, you will receive 
• £500 for each episode you take part in, 
• plus reimbursement for travel, accommodation, and meal expenses.
• Commission: An additional £10,000 commission will be awarded to the winner.
• The deadline for entries has been brought forward to Monday 23rd March 2026. (It was originally advertised as a date in the middle of May)

At the end of the series, the Judges will determine who becomes Landscape Artist of the Year on a MUCH larger group of paintings produced in all the different locations before the Final. i.e. 

• three to apply
• six in the heats
• one in the semifinal 
• = 10 paintings BEFORE THE FINAL!

Which can only be positive for the programme, the artists and the viewers.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sky Arts Artist Of The Year (@artistoftheyear)

More information

• This is the page about the change
• This is the CASTING PAGE page which sets out how it all works in 2026 - in more detail.

Frankly, I think the information provided is less than is needed. Hence why this blog post continues as it does.

What sort of artist are they trying to recruit for the PODS?

Having just ten artists for the entire series would, I expect, mean a different approach to selection.

Call for Entries: Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2026

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2026 is now OPEN for entries

• from artists and drawing practitioners 
• from anywhere in the world
• for a chance to be of the UK’s leading open exhibition dedicated to drawing,
• with a new first prize of £15,000.

This is one way of reading what you need to do ALL ON ONE PAGE!

You are

• you are invited to submit up to three drawings 
• Deadline for entries: Stage 1 digital submissions online must be completed by Tuesday 9 June 2026 at 5pm.

Things you need to know 

(the) exhibition has an established reputation for its commitment to championing excellence and promoting and celebrating current drawing practice in the UK.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize

....offering artists the opportunity to showcase their drawings in the UK’s leading open exhibition dedicated to contemporary drawing,

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize exhibition and awards are supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust.

It's a prize which has had many names in its time - see the end for more about its background.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2026 Exhibition

The selected drawings will be included in a high-profile exhibition held as follows

• VENUE:  Buoy Store, Trinity Buoy Wharf, 64 Orchard Place, London E14 0JY from Thursday 
• DATES: 17 September – Sunday 4 October 2026 
• TIME: open daily from 11am to 6pm.

It will also tour to various venues in the UK until 2027.

• The annual open exhibition is led by its Director, artist, curator and educator, Professor Anita Taylor who has held various posts in art education. 
• The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication and a programme of educational and engagement activities, including a symposium at Trinity Buoy Wharf.

View of the exhibition in 2024

The Prizes

In 2026, there will be a new prize structure and awards with a total value of £18,000:

• Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2026 - £15,000 - open to all artists with drawings shortlisted for the prize
• Trinity Buoy Wharf Student Award - £2,000 - All students registered on a degree programme in the Academic Year 2025/26 who submit an entry
• Three Boroughs Award - £1,000 - open to all those living and/or working in the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham and Greenwich boroughs 

How to Enter

Last Call for Entries for Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours Annual Exhibition 2026

You have 4 DAYS LEFT to submit an entry to the OPEN Annual Exhibition 2026 of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours.

Alongside the work of its elected members, leading figures in contemporary watercolour and water-based media, the RI welcomes both emerging and established artists who push the boundaries of the medium through traditional and experimental approaches.

 

Why enter this exhibition?

• This is the biggest exhibition dedicated to paintings in water colours in the UK.
• around 50% of the artworks are from the Open Submission

The exhibition is the largest of its kind, featuring over 400 of the finest works from around the world.

• displays a wide diversity in approaches to paintings using watercolour media and subject matter - from traditional to the more contemporary.
• although more contemporary artwork has a lower profile in the show and tends to favour acrylic and mixed media.
• relatively little of what I tend to term the "can't draw, can't paint, won't sell" school of painting which lacks application to both concept and craft

The overall impression is that most of the artists in the show, on the whole, are very much more inclined to paint natural scenes associated with the outdoors - and have a distinct preference for more traditional media.

To be more precise, last year:

• more than a third paint landscapes or cityscapes
• just under 20% painted portraits and human figures
• 14% painted still life and interiors
• less than 10% painted Marine and Coastal OR Wildlife and Animals OR other topics.
• very few people created abstract paintings

This is worth a study - in terms of what subjects get painted in what media
(from my review of the 2025 exhibition - see link above)

 

Call for Entries for RI Annual Exhibition 2026

The deadline for entries for the 214th Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours is 2pm on Friday 23 January 2026

• Information about how to enter starts on the Mall Galleries website
• Submission is via the OESS website
• There is a single-stage virtual judging process for ALL submitted works.
• Selected works should be delivered to Mall Galleries, London, for inclusion in the exhibition by Saturday 16th March (10am-5pm)
• The Annual Exhibition opens on 25 March and closes on 11 April 2026

Who can enter

Call for Entries: The RA Summer Exhibition 2026

This is for all artists interested in submitting their art to this year's Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.

The entry opens this Wednesday and the number of entries is limited!

First, a preamble before we get on the details of the Call for Entries.

I've always been quite ambivalent about the Summer Exhibition held by the Royal Academy of Arts each year. Which has not stopped me analysing and writing a LOT about it. See the end of this post for links to past exhibitions - and some very useful information for would-be exhibitors.

I think it is a very worthy cause, insofar as receipts help fund the free art education provided to students at the RA Schools.

On the one hand, I think it includes quite a lot of utter rubbish. 

However, it also includes art with incredible impact that you might not otherwise see - and that's not just by the member RAs.

However it is ABSOLUTELY HUGE and I now find it to be exhausting. 

• Probably my age (I'm now 71 and have osteoarthritis) to some extent, 
• but also something to do with the numbers visiting, the noise and the lack of seats in what is a VERY large exhibition (well over 1,000 artworks - some of which are large). 
• In the end it becomes a complete sensory overload. I'm pleased to say I can cope with other smaller exhibitions very much better - so not just me being older!

Of late I've stopped visiting - but I do watch the videos AND I do look at the online exhibition!

Partly because I refuse to subscribe to the RA any more - which I did for years and years and years - because frankly I don't find the annual subscription cost (currently £148) in the context of what's on offer to be persuasive any more. 

That and the fact they took away the Chesterfields in the Friends Room. After a long visit viewing art you want a comfy seat - and Fortnum & Masons over the road now fulfils that need at a much reduced cost!

Call for Entries

Entry opens for the 2026 exhibition on Wednesday 7th January 2026. 

Hence why I'm writing this now - as you will see if you read on.

The overall process - from beginning to end - is MUCH MORE COMPLICATED than anything else you apply for so you need to get it right.

The RA have been doing this for a long time and have LOTS of information for you - and you do need to read it. 

V&A Illustration Awards 2026: Last Call for Entries

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, 

Alte Zachen / Old Things by Ziggy Hanaor (© Cicada Books, B. Phillips 2022)

 

The Prizes

The prize money has increased for 2026, 

• 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.

The five categories are:

Call for Entries: UKCPS 25th Annual Exhibition 2026 - at the Mall Galleries.

Next year will be the 25th Annual Exhibition of the United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society - which will be held at the Mall Galleries in March 2026.

Below you can find out how to enter. The closing date for entries is 25th January 2025.

My post covers

• coloured pencils as a medium
• the UKCPS Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries 
• the Call for Entries
• what you can and cannot enter
• what subjects I suggest you focus on re entries (ie avoid "same old same old"!
• how to enter
• Practical matters
• images 
• framing 
• delivery
• for international artists: Regulations re VAT, Customs and money laundering 

Coloured pencils are a very contemporary art medium

In the last 25 years, the use of coloured pencils has become very sophisticated.  

There are now many professional coloured pencil artists - working on different subject matter and producing some amazing artwork using a variety of techniques and finish. I now encounter coloured pencil artwork:

• across many other exhibitions at the Mall Galleries and elsewhere 
• in art competitions - used by artists who win major art prizes eg Curtis Holder who won the Portrait Artist of the Year using coloured pencils (see Curtis Holder wins Portrait Artist of the Year (Series 7 Autumn 2020) and PAOTY Commission: Curtis Holder draws Carlos Acosta
• in the botanical artworld - all the time - CP is used extensively because of its scope for amazing control of tone and colour
• by wildlife artists - for reasons similar to the botanical artists

PAOTY Commission 2020: Carlos Acosta by Curtis Holder
(courtesy of Curis Holder)

I was once a member of UKCPS (I adore dry media and drawing) - and I used to exhibit in its annual exhibitions. This was one of my two exhibits selected for the UKCPS exhibition in 2010 (I like abstracting plants!)

Not Quite White
7.5" x 11.5", coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Silver 25th Anniversary Exhibition in 2026 

at the Mall Galleries

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, UKCPS has hired the Mall Galleries for their exhibition from 17 - 21 March at the Mall Galleries. 

This is a first for the society. It's been very good at holding its annual exhibition in different parts of the country. However, like a number of the more niche art societies, it wants to celebrate a very special annual exhibition by holding it where the major national art societies exhibit - at the Mall Galleries.

The entry to the Mall Galleries in The Mall

UKCPS Silver Exhibition - Call for Entries

This is an open exhibition; submission is open to all living artists, aged 18 or over. The artist must demonstrate compositional and drawing skills and the ability to use colour pencil.

There is a PDF explaining the Call for Entries and how to enter for this exhibition

This is the webpage which does the same thing.

What follows is my version of it, with notes and tips and recommendations. My version does not include all you need to know so make sure you read ALL of the Call for Entries and Terms and Conditions.

Who can Enter

Any artist working with coloured pencils - over the age of 18 years, living anywhere in the world

What you can enter

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

Open Call for Entries: Royal Society of British Artists - Annual Exhibition 2026

You have two months to prepare an entry for the Annual Open Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA). Online entries close on Friday 9 January 2026 (12 noon).

Find out how to enter the RBA Annual Exhibition 2026

This post explains:

• why this is a good exhibition for artists submitting via the open entry
• why the last two exhibitions have been very disappointing in terms of sales - particularly for member artists - but have lots of scope to "come back" and do as well as they have done in earlier years
• how to enter

Why submit to this open entry?

This is a good exhibition for non-members to try and get selected for, because of the variety of media, subject matter and styles which are acceptable to the RBA

This is probably the most eclectic of all the art societies belonging to the Federation of British Artists BA Exhibitions - whose home is at the Mall Galleries. My comment in this post Artwork I liked at the RBA Annual Exhibition 2025

It also has an excellent range of prizes, many of which open artists are eligible to win.

However, there are always a LOT of entries and this exhibition gets more open entries than some of the top flight art competitions in the UK (

Those who enter have a good chance of being exhibited as the RBA aims to split the artworks hung in the exhibition 50:50 between RBA members/associates and the open artists. 

Why the last two RBA exhibitions have been disappointing 

These were my blog posts about the 2025 exhibition

• Review: Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2025 (3 March 2025)
• Artwork I liked at the RBA Annual Exhibition 2025 (5 March 2025)
• RBA Annual Exhibition 2025 METRICS: Analysis of art sales & Recommendations about pricing (2nd April 2025) I suggest all members of the Selection Panel read - or re-read this post before they start selecting artwork for the 2026 exhibition. There's a lot of pointers as to where they are underselling the artists that exhibit.

The artwork selected comes from 3,843 submitted images. To give you a sense of what that represents it's bigger than the entry for some major art competitions. 

Mostly it was good work, although it certainly included artwork I personally would have edited out at the selection stage.

I start from the basic premise that major art exhibitions are for selling art as well as showing it. As in people want to recoup their expenses and generate income for an artist.

The reality is that the last two exhibitions have have had VERY LOW SALES

• 2025: 63 artworks sold (just 11% of the artwork hung) which is VERY LOW
• 2024: 52 sold from 491 hung (10%) last year - but only just (11%!!)

This is in the context of a society which, in the recent past, has generated in excess of £100K in sales at its annual exhibition (as another FBA Society did recently).

Moreover, in 2025, 60% of the artwork SOLD was generated by the Open Artists (selected via the Open Call to exhibit with the members of the RBA).

My thinking is this is because:

• open artists tend to submit smaller and more affordable artworks - priced to sell (I will allow myself to think some have been reading my blog posts which have provided clear signposts as to what sells!)
• member artists are sometimes self-indulgent and submit large works which have little chance of selling - and too many don't read my blog posts about the exhibition metrics!
• the Selection Panel sometimes seems to be 
• too indulgent to its members in terms of what they what they want to exhibit and 
• thinking too little about the business of making money from the exhibition - to fund their contribution of the costs of running the Mall Galleries.

A guide to price brackets at the last RBA Exhibition

I should emphasise that it's not just my opinion it was the members who were mainly responsible for the overall level of low sales. It's a FACT.

• There were 554 artworks hung in the show (which in my opinion is about 200 too many) split between:
• 275 artworks by members
• 279 artworks by open entry artists
• In terms of the number of artworks which sold
• 60% were by open artists
• 40% were by RBA Members and Associates

Most sales were, as I constantly reiterate, BELOW £1,500

Most sales in this RBA show were also by OPEN ARTISTS

This sort of performance is a function of:

• artwork submitted for exhibition
• the critical faculties of those selecting the work that gets on the wall.

Selection for 2026

In relation to the 2026 Annual Exhibition (26 February - 12 March), I'm really hoping that the panel of selectors will get their critical and business faculties in gear and become more discriminating by aiming to:

• RADICALLY REDUCE the number of artworks they select (i.e. the more they hang, the less they sell). 
• BE MUCH MORE RIGOROUS IN THEIR SELECTION - in relation to BOTH members and open entries - about preferring artwork that will sell rather than artwork which will just hang on a wall for 10 days and do very little for art, the artist or the RBA wanting to generate funds to run future exhibitions.  After all, this is what commercial galleries need to do all the time if they are to stay in business.

The key is to select the best and not just everything you like the look of it. 

artwork at the entry to the West Gallery in 2025

How to Enter

Artists are invited to submit work for exhibition alongside members of the Royal Society of British Artists at the RBA Annual Exhibition 2026. More details below.

Entries for PASTEL SOCIETY's 127th Annual Exhibition 2026 - closing soon

You have just under three weeks left to get a submission into the Annual Exhibition 2026 of The Pastel Society.

I've been trying to get round to this post for a while, which makes it much later than usual. However you still have time to start and finish a new work, or review what you did last year that you are proud of and submit that to the exhibition.

Benefits of Exhibiting with The Pastel Society

This is an OPEN ART EXHIBITION. If you submit and are selected for the exhibition your artwork will be

• included in the catalogue
• seen by visitors to the Mall Galleries - and it gets a lot of visitors
• viewed online via the Mall Galleries website and that of the Pastel Society - before, during and after the Exhibition
• eligible for a number of prizes & awards - and some have significant cash awards (see below)

Pastel Society | Annual Exhibition 2026 | Key Facts

What drew me to the Pastel Society was the thought of being surrounding by other people fascinated by dry media in particular
Curtis Holder

Venue: Mall Galleries, The Mall, LondonDates:
Exhibition Dates: Wednesday 21st January - Saturday 7th February 2026
Private View (invite only): Tuesday 20th January 2026 - 5pm to 8pm, official opening at 6:30pm

Submissions: ONLINE ONLY and open until 12 noon Friday 14 November 2025

Notification of selection: Friday 28th November 2025, 12 noon
Receiving Day (if selected): Saturday 10th January 2026, 10am to 5pm

Collection of unsold work: Thursday 12 February 202610am to 5pm

Awards and Prizes - see listing near the end of this post

Call for Entries

Find out more about how to enter:

• Open Calls - Pastel Society on the Mall Galleries website
• and BELOW.....

Who is eligible to enter?

• This is an OPEN exhibition and is not limited to work by members.
• There is also no restriction of where you live. It's open to artists in the UK, EU, and outside the EU
• Any artist over 18 may submit.

What media is acceptable for entries?

• All types of pastel including: soft pastel, hard pastel, oil pastel, ink pastel, water-based pastel, conté crayons or sticks, sanguine, and other dry mediums that are similar in their application including charcoal, chalk, and pencil.
• Mixed media and three-dimensional works are welcome where pastel or another dry media is the primary medium.
• HOWEVER.....

ALL work that is submitted must have a full description of the media used and any process which has been employed in the finished work beyond drawing and painting, e.g. printing, photography. 

Please note that failure to do this may result in unnecessary rejection on the grounds that work deserves to be judged on a like for like basis and because any buyer should be made aware of what they are buying.

Bottom line - no sleight of hand! This exhibition emphasises the use of dry media and the expertise of the artist in using it.

 

What can you enter?

Call for Entries: Society of Wildlife Artists - Annual Exhibition 2025

If you want to enter the 62nd Annual Exhibition by the Society of Wildlife Artists the deadline for entries is 12 noon on Friday 22nd August 2025. (Apologies for this being rather later than usual)

In my opinion, one of the best annual art society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries every year is that by The Society of Wildlife Artists. 

That's because 

• it's uncompromising about favouring artwork which has been created after studying your creature from life (i.e. it is very much NOT a fan of the type of hyperrealist artwork done from a photo without ever seeing the animal or studying it in the wild)

The Society of Wildlife Artists seeks to generate appreciation and delight in the natural world through all forms of fine art inspired by the world’s wildlife.

• displays artwork in a wide range of art media (paintings, prints, drawings, sketches, sculpture, ceramics and other 3D artwork)
• highlights a wide range of styles and colour palettes
• includes artwork developed from projects undertaken by the society and its artists during the year

It is emphatically not boring!

Plus it also has that huge asset known as a solid set of followers and collectors who are both faithful to their preferred artists and are also very interested in new art by new artists.

"The Natural Eye" Annual Exhibition 2024 by the Society of Wildlife Artists
West Gallery at the Mall Galleries

Call for Entries: 'The Natural Eye'

It's worth remembering that it's not coincidental that the name of this annual exhibition is "The Natural Eye". This connects to the emphasis which the SWLA places on artwork conceived, started and sometimes developed to completion while observing wildlife "in the field / sea / air" (past CFE post on this blog)

You can find detail of the Open Call for Entries for the SWLA Exhibition on the Mall Galleries website.

Below this post covers:

• what sort of artwork the SWLA want to see submitted by open artists
• images needed
• online submission only
• who can enter
• what you can enter
• how to submit

Plus pics of the last exhibition and links (at the end) to my blog posts about previous exhibitions and the type of artwork hung.

Key Dates are as follows

• Submissions open: Friday 23 May 2025, 12 noon
• Submissions close: Friday 22 August, 12 noon
• Notification of selection: Friday 5 September, 12 noon (log in to OESS)
• Receiving Day (if selected): Saturday 4 October, 10am to 5pm
• Private View (invite only): Wednesday 15 October, 2pm to 8pm, official opening at 3pm
• Exhibition opens: Thursday 16 October, 10am to 5pm daily
• Exhibition closes: Saturday 25 October, 5pm
• Collection of unsold work: Thursday 30 October, 10am to 5pm

There are a number of awards and prizes which you can see on this page.

"The Natural Eye" Annual Exhibition 2024 by the Society of Wildlife Artists
End wall of the West Gallery at the Mall Galleries

What kind of image should you submit

The Society is seeking works that depict wildlife subjects and evoke the spirit of the natural world.

The Selection Committee welcomes:

• All forms of two and three-dimensional artwork based on representing the world’s wildlife
• Artists with fresh visions that show imagination, artistic ability, originality and creativity
• Artworks that reveal a personal experience or true understanding of the subject

READ the "Exhibit with us" page on the SWLA website which provides excellent advice

 

Who can submit

Any artist aged 18 or over may enter, from anywhere in the world.

(If you are an international artist, you need to read the section on VAT)

What type of artwork can you submit - and what will get rejected

Call for Entries: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2025

I should have written about the Open Call for Entries to the New English Art Club weeks ago! So apologies for that. 

This is a reminder that the DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES is Friday 14 March 2025, 12 noon

Most of this post is about how to enter - but I'm starting with two important considerations as to whether and why you might want to enter.

• whose artwork gets hung
• what prices artwork sells for

View of the East Gallery at
the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition in June 2024

Who gets hung

There have been two major changes in recent times. 

• For a very long time (i.e. most of the time I've reviewed the exhibition) the open entry artists who got hung used to be dominated by members of other national art societies who also wanted to be members - but that has changed 
• The ratio of artworks by members to non-members has changed and become more like other FBA Art Societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries. (I bleated at PVs for years about "you can't call an Open an Open if 80%+ of artworks hung were by members!")

Last year the 409 artworks which were hung were distributed in the following percentages. This conforms to the now more usual notion that at least one third of artworks need to be from people who are not members of national art societies

Bottom line - there's now a much better chance of an open artist getting hung than happened in the past. 

While some open artists get more than one artwork exhibited, the majority only get one selected - so make sure you enter your very best!

Pricing is VERY important

The Messanine Wall always has a lot of small and affordable artworks

Another important thing you need to know before you proceed to consider "how to enter" concerns pricing of your artwork. 

This is important. You could waste your time if you want to sell but don't read this first.  

Below are two charts which indicate what artworks sold for in the 2023 and 2024 exhibitions across different price ranges. The second differentiates between members and open artists.

• the 2023 chart compares artworks sold to artworks hung across various price ranges. Note that sales drop off once you breach £1,500 which I've identified for a long time as an important threshold for sales (i.e. not a lot above this, and these are mostly by members)
• the 2024 chart indicates that OPEN ARTISTS do better in the £500-£1000 price range and pricing above £1,500 is tantamount to not minding spending a lot of money on entering and transporting an artwork TWICE (to and from the galleries) for no sale.

Call for Entries: John Moores Painting Prize 2025

The John Moores Painting Prize is a biennial and very prestigious biennial competition and award for the best contemporary painting. It has a £25,000 First Prize. It opened to entries TODAY.

First the summary - then the history and a note of famous past winners - and finally the details.

SUMMARY

• The John Moores Painting Prize is open to all UK-based artists working with paint.
• You can only enter online (i.e. no postal entries). Payment is also online only.
• Those who can enter are 
• aged 18 years or above on 24 March 2025 and 
• live in the UK or are UK-based.
• The deadline for an entry is 5pm Monday 24 March 2025
• All entries need to be for sale.
• All entries are judged anonymously over a two-stage selection process - but I strongly recommend you take a look at the Judges profiles first.
• It culminates in an exhibition next year at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (Saturday 6 September to Sunday 1 March 2026).

In the absence of all those art competitions which have fallen by the wayside in recent years, this is one art competition that all painters should take very seriously - not least because who has won it previously.....

History of the Award

The John Moores Painting Prize is the UK's most well-known painting competition, bringing together the best contemporary painting from across the UK to Liverpool.

The John Moores Painting Prize is named after its founding sponsor and local philathopist Sir John Moores in 1957. It always had very strong associations with the City of Liverpool. This internationally renowned prize competition is organised in partnership with  and continues to support artists and bring the best contemporary painting to Liverpool. 

Besides running the Littlewoods Empire, which made him one of Britain's richest men - even richer than the Queen, John Moores was also a keen amateur painter who had trouble finding places to exhibit his paintings - so he founded this competition to find others with the same predicament who he could then exhibit locally with. 

The John Moores Painting Prize competition has awarded more than £700,000 in prize money across 32 exhibitions, showcasing more than 2,400 works of art.

• It presents a rich history of post-war painting in Britain. 
• The first exhibition was held only six years after the Walker Art Gallery re-opened following the Second World War. 

The continuation of this art competition with its valuable first prize - when others are falling by the wayside - is because it continues to be sponsored by the John Moores Painting Prize Trust.

The winning work and short-listed pieces are always exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery as part of the Liverpool Biennial festival of visual art

John Moores with David Hockney
His first prize was £1,500, which he used to send his parents on holiday to Australia

It's had some very notable past prizewinners and paintings which won including:

• 1959 - Patrick Heron Black Painting - Red, Brown and Olive : July 1959 (now in a private collection)
• 1967 - David Hockney Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool Presented to the Walker Art Gallery by John Moores in 1968
• 1972 - Euan Uglow Nude, 12 vertical positions from the eye
• 1993 - Peter Doig - Blotter

‘Blotter’ won the John Moores Painting Prize in 1993. This was a turning point in Doig’s career and he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1994. ‘Blotter’ is regarded as one of his best works.

• 2014 - Rose Wylie - PV Windows and Floorboards

See a virtual exhibition of John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition - Winners since 1957

2025 Prizes and Jury

Prizes

• The John Moores Painting Prize (First Prize):  The First Prize winner will receive
• £25,000 and 
• a prestigious solo display at Walker Art Gallery
• The Lady Grantchester Prize, offering £5,000, with a residency and £2,500 worth of art materials supplied by Winsor & Newton. Applications from artists in their final year of study or within five years of graduation are especially encouraged to apply for the latter award.
• EACH ARTIST chosen for the John Moores Painting Prize exhibition will receive an exhibiting fee.