Showing posts with label contemporary painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contemporary painting. Show all posts

Sunday, March 15, 2026

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
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
READ MORE......>>
Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, March 15, 2026 0 comments
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Monday, June 16, 2025

Review: New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2025

I think it's time for a wake up call for NEAC. I'm guessing quite a lot of what I'm going to say may be thought to be complete heresy - but I'm saying it anyway, because everybody is entitled to an opinion.

When I went to the NEAC Private View for its Annual Exhibition I had a big surprise. 

NEAC Annual Exhibition on PV night

The previous week I had been in and out of the 40th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists which looked amazing in the Galleries. They hung 466 artworks in just the West and North Galleries - themed by subject matter and colour - however most artworks were small or medium size with some large mediums. 

Prior to that I'd visited the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - which was a really impressive looking exhibition - showing a reduced number of portraits (210 artworks hung) generally as a single row for larger works which shows them to best effect -  and appropriate to those likely to commission future portraits. It was a very classy shop window for what their artists can do, some of which can be large.

I walked into the NEAC Annual Exhibition and my eyes were assaulted.  (Check out the banner image on their exhibition page link)

I saw the complete opposite of the two described above.
  • there is a huge variety of styles - which is to be expected and nothing wrong with that.
  • however artwork was stacked high and close together - making it look very busy. 
    • This is a function of how many artworks were selected AND, very importantly, how big they are. 
    • I think this maybe dates back to the days when NEAC members liked to think of themselves as budding RA members, despite the fact the society was founded by a group of artists dissatisfied with the entrenched attitudes of the Royal Academy - (where the art was piled high in the Summer Exhibition).
    At the heart of the NEAC is the search, propagation, and education of meaningful and resonant art. It is committed to authenticity through the observation of life, as well as the task of articulating and communicating these ideas, with the beauty of skilful language. At the same time, it strives to keep alive the ideals and ethos of its history. About NEAC
  • There are 389 paintings hung in the show - whereas there are rather a lot of big to VERY big paintings 
    • which made the hang seem VERY crowded to me. 
    • I thought back to the extremely good looking recent exhibition by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters - who also hang big portraits - but they had fewer works hung. 
A very large artwork on a wall where several are very often hung.
  • Lots of artworks were VERY colourful - which is so much better than dull and drab.
  • HOWEVER those colours include lots of red and orange - which can be major league "thugs" if there's too much in one painting or in paintings adjacent to one another. Particularly when groups of paintings by the same artist are hung together.
    • Bottom line too much red and orange can behave rather like the bully in the school playground whose every move is “look at me”. 
    • They shout out and can totally drown out other artworks nearby. I almost always feel extremely sorry for any artist whose quieter work gets hung near a thug.  That's because it's always had its hang dicatated by the thug.
    • There’s a reason why such "thug" paintings in museums are almost always hung with LOTS of space around them - which is not the case in this instance.
    • to hang them close to other artworks you have to choose more subdued works which then disappear into the wall when surrounded by colourful "thugs". That painting of a garden is beautiful but stands no chance next to the paintings either side. I like subdued and subtle work, which works through a range of tones - but it's been skied and cannot be studied closely - as it deserves-  in this exhibition. It's playing a subordinate role - more's the pity.
    • I'd put all the visual thugs together in a small room and let them fight it out and "get the message"!
    • PS Don't get me wrong - I love colour - but I'm not fond of visual headaches!
Vibrant colours down more subdued and subtle paintings

In this instance the very colourful artwork gets more subdued artwork either side

What could have been a nice wall of landscapes
- except another red thug needs some more subdued paintings either side

Interestingly NEAC used to regularly hang over 400 artworks in their annual exhibition - but they were typically better organised and less thuggish. While they have always had large artworks, I think some of the large artworks have got much bigger.
Our 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 painting today, held at Mall Galleries in London. About the New English Art Club
The selection and the hang also gives me a feeling of this being a somewhat pretentious exhibition.

I actually left the PV early because I found the experience of the way the exhibition was hung - combined with the number of people at the PV to be just TOO MUCH for me personally. 
  • It was an assault on the eyes and ears at the same time - and I very much dislike that. 
  • I like to look at art when it's quiet. I doubt if I'll go to another NEAV PV.
For the record I much preferred how the large artworks were dealt with by the hang in 2023.
When I walked into the Private View of the Annual Exhibition 2023 of the New English Art Club (NEAC) yesterday, I was immediately struck by the new approach to hanging the exhibition in the East Gallery (2023 Review)
However, given I always write a review and have been doing for the last 18 years  I went back on Monday to have another look in a quieter environment. 
(see the end for links to all my past reviews of NEAC Annual Exhibitions over the last 18 years - going back to 2007)

I had another surprise - namely all the artwork I could not see at the PV because of bodies!

The need for NEAC to have a BIG Rethink



I think NEAC needs to have a VERY long hard rethink its annual exhibition
Specifically about :
  • their approach to private views
    • I remember when they used to have Buyers Previews (which were for those, like me, who prefer a quieter environment when they can see the artwork before they buy it)
  • the size of artwork to hang in their exhibition
    • I'm thinking of doing an exhibitions metrics post for this exhibition which will relate size to price to sales. Should be interesting!
  • the price of artwork hung in their exhibition
    • there are some artists who sell well elsewhere and on commission - and they aren't going to sell anything at this exhibition unless they paint small - but just because they need to price high doesn't mean everybody else should!! I'd want to see verifiable records as evidence for all those pricing above £2K
In 2023, the Number of artworks sold by price range include
over £2K is just 10% of those hung
over £5K is ZERO
Under £500 is 31% of those hung
priced between £750-£1,000 is 24%
priced between £1K and £1.5K is 23%
  • how many artworks a member can submit i.e. the space given to artists
    • one very large artwork = 4 medium sized artworks. Is that fair?
    • retail prices everything on space - why not exhibitions?
  • an artist's track record on sales relative to the space they get
    • Everybody needs to make money from the exhibition - to keep the gallery and the society going and to make artists' careers worthwhile - and able to afford their membership fees!
    • Anybody thinking open artists are just "pleased to get hung" hasn't been studying the commercial realities of late. 
    • a commercial gallery would be looking at ANY artwork from a commercial perspective - and why should it be any different in the Mall Galleries or NEAC for that matter?
      • can you keep hanging artists that never sell? Independent Fine Art Galleries not far from the Mall certainly wouldn't.
    • I am amazed again and again when I ask leading members about sales how totally  unaware they are of their own society's exhibition metrics
  • the lack of ANY price guidelines to BOTH members and open artists - resulting in some interesting insights post exhibition

Specifically they need to think long and hard about what they want the exhibition to look like and how they want to present it.

So, for example, if they want more bigger works then 
  • they need to hang less and 
  • do very much better marketing to people who have the houses big enough to hang them and the funds to buy them 
Bottom line - do artists really think that those who visit the Mall Galleries have houses big enough to have space for work like this? 

I've not seen big paintings sell at the Mall Galleries for quite a while.

Back when Lewis McNaught was Director, I seem to remember there were rather more evening functions for institutions in the City - and there were rather more people visiting the space with the funds to buy big paintings.

I'm not seeing large paintings sell well - or at all - this year either.

I'm puzzled by the rationale of artists producing big paintings 
  • Lots of very big paintings are unlikely to sell. Would they have submitted them if 
    • open artists had to pay the going rate for the wall space they occupy? 
    • members were limited as to the space they can occupy? (eg x square metres)
  • The only paintings which are selling are small. I've counted (twice)
From my perspective big paintings simply reduce the scope for more smaller paintings and add nothing to an artist's career if they don't sell.  This isn't the RP Exhibition with a commission room at the back of the North Gallery!

Prizes & Awards


You can see the artwork which won prizes and the names of the artists who won on this page on the NEAC Website

Interestingly they neglect to include the size and the media and the price.

A Major New Climate Emergency Prize


The exhibition for this is in the East Gallery with every artwork having a green Climate Emergency Prize label

Winner of the Climate Emergency Prize (£2,000)
Reduce Speed Now (Self-heal, Fipronil & Glyphosate) by Nessie Ramm
Oil on aluminium road sign, 120cm x 130cm

I was extremely disappointed to see that the winner of this major new prize has an absolutely  TINY label to announce the prize. Plus it is absolutely impossible to tell who had won as it looked absolutely identical to all the other labels 

I'm particularly gutted as I chaired the panel of judges who gave Nessie Ramm an SBA Fellow Grant to help her exhibit her roadwork verges paintings on traffic signs last year. She deserves better.

Also, if you’re going to have a prize why not hang them all together? It came across as a half hearted hang giving a strong sense of they started focused and then gave up! 

The Artwork

Like last year, the people at the PV and the artwork on the walls is looking different. 

A lot of the artists I started out with many years ago are no longer with us. 
four paintings by Judith Gardner (1952-2025)
who is still winning prizes!


Artworks included the following media:
  • paintings - in oils, acrylics, gouache, watercolour, and egg tempera 
  • drawings - in charcoal, pastels, conte, colour pencils, graphite, pen and ink and mixed media
  • fine art prints (very few) - etching, aquatint, wood engraving, 
In terms of the type of art
  • Nearly 50% of the artwork is landscapes and it's well over 50% by the time you add in marine and coastal scenes.
  • 22% are still lifes and interiors
  • 15% are portraits and figures
You can see albums of my photos of the exhibition on Facebook
East Gallery - on Facebook

Paintings

What I do know is well received are:
  • paintings by artists like Melissa Scott Miller - of places people know and which are colourful and cheerful but much less “in your face” and a much more "hangable" size
  • rather a lot of paintings by women painters who are becoming very old - but are still painting. People like June Berry (now 100 years old) and Jacqueline Rizvi (now 80) 
A Quiet Street by June Berry

Still Life with Chinese Teapot by Jacqueline Rizvi
  • small paintings - by those with limited wall space left!
I liked these two sets even more for the fact they were the complete opposite of visual thugs!

two very plain landscape structures by Sarah Granville NEAC

and 
Two landscapes in egg tempera
by Christine Allman
- the third sold early

Drawings 

There seem to be many fewer drawings than I’m used to seeing in the past. 
  • Was this be because they hung large drawings? 
  • Multiple instances of thugs hung next to more delicate work as if the latter does not matter
  • however there were exceptions - such as the suite of drawings by Felicity House (now 75) who won two drawing prizes.
Watercolour and pastel drawings by Felicity House

Sketchbooks on display in the East Gallery
Sketchbooks

One excellent aspect of this exhibition is the attention to exhibiting as many sketchbooks as possible in both the East and North Galleries

Reference: Past blog posts about NEAC Exhibitions


Below you can see my reviews in previous years
I've been trying to work out how to word this review of the 2013 Annual Exhibition of the New English Art Club 2013. It might more accurately be described as a post mortem.

I've come to the conclusion that it's best just to highlight a salutary tale which is relevant to all art societies. They all have their ups and downs - and this is a tale of a big dip. Review: NEAC Annual Exhibition 2013
Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, June 16, 2025 0 comments
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Sunday, March 02, 2025

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.
READ MORE......>>
Posted by Making A Mark on Sunday, March 02, 2025 0 comments
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Monday, February 17, 2025

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:
    ‘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.
    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.
    READ MORE......>>
    Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, February 17, 2025 0 comments
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    Monday, September 30, 2024

    Analysis of Sales at the RSMA Annual Exhibition 2024

    This post about the number of sales and the prices they sold for is specific to the Royal Society of Marine Artists. However it has a number of useful lessons for:

    • more than one art society
    • members and associates of the RSMA
    • ALL those who enter open exhibitions by national art societies in London - and most especially those who exhibit at the Mall Galleries.
    The reason I'm writing this post is because I'd like to see:
    • more artists do better
    • more artists make sales
    • more artists improve their annual income from their artwork
    • THROUGH more intelligent pricing of their artwork
    Bottom line, the most realistic price for your artwork is the price which enables a sale. Otherwise, why bother pricing at all?

    So far as I'm aware, I'm the only person who provides detailed analysis across various national art societies and comments on the lessons that can learned - which all can benefit from.

    I've no objection to changes to "the rules" being made over time - but I do know that those which are grounded in real numbers and real life are much more likely to be successful over time.

    I've established in the past that there's a strong trend which generates lots of sales in the £350-£500 price range. 

    The rule which I think curtailed sales in this exhibition was the one which required a minimum sale price of £600 - when there are a lot of people buying art priced below £500.

    Read on to find out why....

    General commentary on Sales of Artwork


    These days art sales are typically generated via
    • the associated online website for the artwork - and the fact this goes online before the exhibition in the gallery opens
    • sales at the Private View - where it's a common expectation that a goodly proportion of artwork will be sold given this is an opportunity to be nice to collectors!
    • sales during the time the exhibition is open to the public.
    Sales in the last couple of years have been less than usual due to the constraints on people's budgets.

    Number of Sales by Price Range


    By the time the RSMA Annual Exhibition closed on 28 September 2024, there had been 57 sales in total (out of 452 artworks in the exhibition) i.e. 12% of artworks "hung" sold.

    The analysis in this post is based on those sales.  See my review post for the explanation of how I arrived at these numbers

    The remaining unsold artwork remains available for sale on the online art sales pages website

    The chart below is based on an analysis of the 57 sales - splitting them by

    • the artist as follows:
      • RSMA - a full or associate member of the RSMA 
      • Open - an artist selected via the Open Entry
    • different price ranges - based on prevailing price hurdle (eg 1,000) demonstrated at the Mall Galleries in the past

    Analysis of the 57 art sales at the RSMA Annual Exhibition 2024

    You can compare 2024 performance to a previous chart from 2020 

    Click to see a larger version

    NOTE that just 4 years ago:
    • there were 56 sales in total of which:
      • 17 sales were below £500 
      • 48 sales were below £1,500 - and only 40 now in 2024.
    • how few sales there were above £2,000 (during the pandemic)
    • how the number of open artists selling has improved since 2020
    In this context 
    • sales in the upper price ranges have improved  since 2020 - but not by much. 
    • While the bottom price range (£350-£500) has been completely eliminated by the requirement for a minimum price of £600.
    I'm still completely mystified as to the metric evidence which suggested this was a good idea.

    RSMA Sales Metrics 2024


    I've split my comments between:

    • ones related to how one can categorise the artists eg members vs Open; men vs women
    • ones related to the price ranges 
    READ MORE......>>
    Posted by Making A Mark on Monday, September 30, 2024 0 comments
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    Wednesday, September 25, 2024

    Review: Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2024

    This is a review of the Annual Exhibition 2024 of the Royal Society of Marine Artists - currently exhibiting at the Mall Galleries in London - until 28th September.

    The exhibition is has lots of high quality artwork which is well hung and includes paintings (in various media), drawings, prints and sculpture and other 3D media.

    Below this post covers

    • different ways in which you can see the artwork
    • a commentary on some of the aspects of the exhibition - given my commentary on a number of the artworks is contained in my Facebook albums
    • an analysis of the sales to date - and a chart which shows these are spread across different price ranges and between members and open artists.

    Marine scenes - water, skies and boats!
    (East Gallery)

    My artist to keep an eye on for the future in this year's exhibition produced the paintings top left and top right - and I was entirely unsurprised that top right sold - given it's a very contemporary painting of expensive yachts in a race at a prestigious event (racing around the Needles - in the Round the Island Race?) AND it's part of an edition of 5 and has been priced just under the £2k hurdle price! This very astute as well as accomplished artist is Alex Poyner and I fully expect her to become an Associate of the RSMA very soon - if she applies......

    How to see the artwork online

    I took a number of photographs when I visited the exhibition last Friday. This week I've spent a long time eliminating perspective distortions for those too high or too low for my current state of agility - and then uploading them to new Facebook Albums.  

    These are the links to my photos of the:
    This is the only place - other than actually visiting the exhibition - where you can see the relative sizes of the artwork, which a lot of people find difficult to fathom when seeing artwork without a context and only numbers to guide them.

    All my comments about artwork I liked can be found in commentary on artwork in the albums. 

    You can also see 
    • all the members artwork - in alphabetical order - on the RSMA website. I thought the idea of splitting the alphabet up into four separate pages and then providing clear signposts to different sections was excellent! A very fast solution to getting to see the artwork by the member whose artwork you really like!
    • ALL the artwork  - by members and selected from the open entry - on the Mall Galleries website (see Annual Exhibition 2024 )
    • if there was one criticism I'd make, it's that this image (below) is VERY BUSY.  The different text - in different fonts, sizes and colours - overlaying artwork makes it quite a challenge to understand quickly. I think it could be done a lot more simply - and that's the challenge I'm issuing for next year!


    My comments on a number of matters


    Exhibition Commentary 


    To be honest, I've not got a lot to say which I didn't say last year (see Review: 78th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists) so, 
    I'm going to try and be less long-winded and a bit more succinct!

    Diversity

    This is a very masculine art society. Hence it's always pleasing to see more and more female artists submitting artwork and getting selected. 
    READ MORE......>>
    Posted by Making A Mark on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 0 comments
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    Tuesday, June 18, 2024

    Review: NEAC Annual Exhibition 2024


    This review is rather later and shorter than I would have hoped for. However the Private View for the Annual Exhibition 2024 of the New English Art Club (NEAC) last Wednesday evening was the evening before my annual RHS Botanical Art Show Marathon started - from which I've still not surfaced. But I am having a break!

    I arrived at the Mall Galleries just before 6pm and managed to get in and race around to get photos of the exhibition before the hordes arrived. Twenty minutes later the place was full!! By the time we got to the opening speeches and the awards the West Gallery was packed and standing room only overflowed to the messanine level - from where I took this photo (below)

    Gyles Brandreth delivering an excellent speech to open the exhibition

    I've uploaded the photos to albums attached to my Making A Mark Facebook page and you can see them there:

    You can also see it online on the Mall Galleries website - and even buy artwork online!

    This is also an exhibition which is timed to coincide with the opening of the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. If you're coming up to London to see the latter, then it's very easy to walk down to the Mall and visit the NEAC exhibition too. They make a very good pair of exhibitions to see in one day.

    However this one finishes at 5pm on Saturday 22nd June.

    The exhibition is open daily from 10am to 5pm until 22 Jun 2024.The Mall, London SW1. 
    Admission £5, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries, Friends of the NEAC, and under 25s.
    Concessions available. See the Mall Galleries website for full details.

    East Gallery from the stairs

    The clash with my Botanical Art Marathon with the RHS Gold Winners meant that I haven't had time to go back and see the exhibition again, which I often do when the exhibition is very crowded at the PV. Simply because there is no space to stand back and look at the artwork and no time to reflect on which pieces keep calling to you. So another look when it's much quieter is usually very helpful - but that hasn't happened this year.

    Which makes this a difficult review to write.

    I did however note one thing while at the PV - and that was how many people I was used to seeing were not there. The whole demographic of people attending the PV has changed quite radically from what it has been for many years. I learned later that the PV was clashing with the service/memorial for June Mendoza (who died recently) and that might well account for a lot of the faces which were missing.

    However it did serve to remind me that I've been coming to these exhibitions on a regular basis for nearly 20 years since I took early retirement. I'm now a lot older than I was when I started and I've written more than a few memorial pieces for artists who have died in the last few years.

    The PV felt to me as if there was a bit of a sea change was in the offing. The art looked a bit different and the people looked a bit different.
    • So far as the art was concerned, it's more because art I'm very used to seeing is simply not there any more (eg due to the passing of artists like Ken Howard, Tom Coates, Bob Brown) - and yet I was overjoyed to see 3 artworks by 104 year old Diane Armfield in the North Gallery. I love her drawings of sheep!
    Three artworks by Diana Armfield RA HNEAC PS
    • So far as the people are concerned, I saw a lot of younger artists receiving awards - which is good and augurs well for the future
    You can see the artwork which won the Prizes and Awards for 2024 on the NEAC website. They chose a number of the artworks which kept catching my eye as I walked around.

    There are 409 artworks in the exhibition:
    • I saw some large imposing paintings - including one by the new President Patrick Cullen
    • I also saw a lot of much smaller paintings - and both members and non-members seem to have adjusted to the fact that we are not out of the woods yet in terms of the economy and making art more affordable is a good idea. At least those who gave their artwork more affordable artworks did - as these were the ones which were selling
    If you go through the online view of the exhibition you can see the prices of artwork which has sold. 
    • There are still more than a few artists who have not yet adjusted to the new economic climate. 
    • If they're selling at those prices at their own galleries, then good luck to them. 
    • If they're not, then I recommend they study the sale prices.
    I'll finish with a few artworks which caught my eye.

    I'll start with a painting of a still life / interior which I've never ever seen before - and yet the inside of a tidy organised fridge makes an excellent subject for this really effective painting by Bernadette Timko. You never know it might become a meme! This absolutely bounced off the wall as I eyeballed it and submerged everything near it. That might because I'm a bit of a foodie and I do like a well organised fridge - but I think it might be to do with very good painting!

    Fridge Still Life
    BERNADETT TIMKO
    Oil on board, 34x32cm (36x34cm framed)
    £800 SOLD

    On the subject of food, I was very pleased to see Felicity House had two more of her excellent compilation paintings associated with making a meal.

    179 - Kitchen Composite and 177 - Cashel Blue & Pears
    FELICITY HOUSE NEAC PS
    Both: Pastel, 37x52cm (48x63cm framed) Both: £850

    I was, as always, very taken with the egg tempera landscape paintings of Ruth Stage - particularly the one at the bottom which had the most persuasive clear warm water.

    349 - Boating Central Park and 350 - Clear Waters
    RUTH STAGE NEAC
    Both: Egg tempera, 45x60cm (49x64cm framed)
    Both: £1,900

    I really liked this next painting a lot. It reminded me very much of the project which Michael Landy undertook to draw all the weeds seen on the streets of London. His etchings are now preserved as the Nourishment (series), 2002-3 in the archive of Tate Britain. I've visited to see them in person and they are amazing. I very much think he's also got scope for a series here.

    295 - Not Forgotten
    AIDAN POTTS
    Watercolour, 51x36cm (62x47cm framed)
    £1,500

    James Crittendon had a standout work among some excellent monochrome drawings and fine art prints in the North Gallery. 

    JAMES CRITTENDEN PS
    Etching and drypoint, 71x50cm (86x64cm framed)
    £595

    I very much recommend that those who prefer drawings and prints to paintings make time to linger long in the North Gallery.

    Prints in the North Gallery




    Posted by Making A Mark on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 0 comments
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