Expressions in Blue: Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff

Last night I was at the PV for two NEW exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens:

• Expressions in Blue: Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff - reviewed below;
• Botanical Blues - a selection of botanical paintings from The Shirley Sherwood Collection in Gallery 6 - which will be reviewed shortly on my Botanical Art and Artist News Blog. This showcases works from botanical artists including Susannah Blaxhill, Jinyong Feng and Ursula Romero, depicting many remarkable plant species which can be found in Kew’s Living Collections.

About the Exhibition

This is the largest solo exhibition to date of monumental ceramics in made by Felicity Aylieff. 

It's certainly a "must see" for anybody interested un unusual approaches to creating porcelain, enamelled posts and BIG pots.

 

I gather the exhibition - which opened at the weekend has attracted large numbers very keen to see the monumental porcelain. 

It's certainly an exhibition quite unlike any other exhibition I've ever seen of ceramics.

Felicity Aylieff with her monumental Qing Hua porcelain pots

I'm somewhat surprised to see it at Kew Gardens - as opposed to the shrine of ceramic treasures which can be found in the Ceramics Collection on the sixth floor and other main galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

I gather the reason it's at Kew is because 

• the gardens allow some of the monumental pots to be located outside - and there are two huge ones right outside the museum (which I couldn't see last night in the dark) but you can see in my friend Laurence Hill's photosgraphs of the exhibits
• some of the pots have been decorated with patterns derived from plants and specifically paintings included in the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Botanical Art

I think overall I'd have preferred to see an emphasis by Kew in its marketing on the particular aspects of the exhibition which relate to plants - given that this is a Gallery of BOTANICAL Art - rather than being enticed by the huge monumental blue and white pots (see publicity image above) - nice as they are.

In other words, given the exhibition is at Kew and not the V&A, what's special about the ceramics in relation to plants?

Monumental 'Qing Hua' pots decorated with cobalt blue chloride
The people at the Private View give an indication of the size of the pots

It includes:

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2024 to tour UK

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2024 is currently on show at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London E14 0JY. All the shortlisted and award-winning drawings can be seen at the exhibition - which finishes on Wednesday 16 October 2024 - prior to the exhibition touring to Salisbury, Falmouth, Dundee, and Manchester - until October 2025.

View of The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2024 exhibition
first prize winner on extreme right

The Exhibition

The exhibition at Trinity Buoy Wharf is free to visit from 11am to 6pm. 

Another view of The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2024 exhibition

Future Venues

• The Salisbury Museum (26 October 2024 - 26 January 2025), The Kings House, 65 The Close, Salisbury SP1 2EN
• Falmouth Art Gallery (1 February - 10 May 2025) Municipal Buildings, The Moor, Falmouth TR11 2RT
• Drawing Projects UK (14 May - 10 August 202 Dundee DD1 1EX
• Manchester Waterside Gallery (18 August - 11 October 2025) 1 Waterside, Sale M33 7ZF

From a worldwide submission of contemporary drawings

• 94 drawings by 88 artists were shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2024 exhibition.
• 21 drawings by 20 practitioners were shortlisted for the Working Drawing Award. 

The selected artists include an ex-teacher of mine! They are:

Max L Adams / Elisa Alaluusua / Lucy Algar / Thomas Allen / Tim Allen / Allou / Jeanette Barnes / Geoff Bartholomew / Sophie Bartlett / Akash Bhatt / Chris Blackburn /Jane Bottery / Eric Butcher / Ruth Chambers / Sarah Chapman / Sara Choudhrey / Hyeyeon Chung / Sara Clark / Gary Clough / David Conway / Aleksandra Czuja / Gerry Davies / Gary Dennis / Emma Douglas / Sarah Duyshart / Jamie Eade / Roy Eastland / Sian Ellis Tillott / Mark John Evans / Kristian Evju / Jonathan Farr / Nicolas Feldmeyer / Celu Ferreira / Charlie Ford / Todd Fuller / Stefan Gant / Ann Gillies / Adam Gray / Christopher Green / Catherine Greenwood / Richard Gregory / Susie Hamilton / Simon Head / Jessica Heywood / Roland Hicks / Fiona Hingston / Ciaran Hughes / Melinda Hunt / Julia Hutton /Owen Johnson / Janette Kerr / Jen Wei Kuo / Tomasz Lacy / Gary Lawrence / Bridget Lesly / Cheryl Lewis / Jo Lewis / Shihui Li / Edward Liddle / Yutong Liu / Juliette Losq / Peter Matthews / Janet Melrose / Jamie Mills / Jilly Morris / Justine Moss / David Mumby / Hannah Naify / Simon Page / Camilo Parra/ Esteban Peña Para / Ben Platts-Mills / Keira Rathbone / Jane Reid / Abbie Schug / Charlene
Scott / Brian Shields / Ilona Skladzien / Jake Spicer / David Symonds / Emma Tabor / Sally Dee Trewartha / Marika Tyler-Clark / Felicity Warbrick / Lynda Whitehouse / Phill Wilson-Perkin/ Hamish Young / Martha Zmpounou

View of The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2024 exhibition

I personally found the artwork in the exhibition to be of a high quality with a lot of impressive drawings - which varied a lot in terms of media and size and techniques employed. Many of the drawings are large. Many do not employ conventional display methods. The hang is also very good.

It's certainly well worth a visit.

In my opinion it's also better than the one held last year. (see Two Drawing Awards: Winners & Future Exhibitions).

Tomorrow I'll be uploading my photographs of the exhibition to an album on my Making A Mark Facebook Page - and will be highlighting there those artworks which caught my eye.

Awards and Prizes

This 3D work won The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize
(see below for more details)

All the artworks submitted were reviewed by the Judging Panel who then selected the shortlisted drawings and award-winners. The Panel was:

• Mary Evans, Artist & Director of UCL Slade School of Fine Art, 
• Gary Sangster, Curator & Writer, Co-Director of Drawing Projects UK, and 
• Jennifer Scott, Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery in London - reviewed 

The four award winning drawings, collectively received £17,000.  The prizes awarded were as follows...

First Prize (£8,000) 
Out of Round: An Abbreviated Outline of British Studio Pottery
2024, steel wire, 170 x 100 x 8cm
by Max L Adams

Max L Adams' award-winning drawing references the Studio Pottery Movement, which in art history marked a shift towards fine art within the craft of ceramics, highlighting the tension between artistic freedom and traditional norms. 

‘My drawings, Out of Round, provide an outline of the Studio Pottery Movement and the subsequent flattening of its forms into icons of regional identity, anti-industrial labour, and domesticity,’’ 

Max L Adams was born in 1992 in Michigan, USA, and is now based in London. He holds an MFA in Arts & Humanities from the Royal College of Art (2023-24) and a BFA in Studio Art from Wheaton College, USA (2011-15). His work has been featured in group exhibitions such as Completion in Motion in Peckham, London (2024) and Finding Place in Crawley, West Sussex (2024). 

Second Prize (£5,000) 
(Left above): The 5th Arch, 2023
graffiti markers, drafting pencil on Bristol paper, 145 x 106cm 
by Owen Johnson. 

Owen Johnson’s award-winning drawing, The 5th Arch, represents a repeated gothic cathedral door motif. Taken from a geometric circular checkerboard arrangement, the motif is organised in a diamond structure, with the shadows of a late summer evening employed to create depth. 

‘The 5th Arch” is a drawing about a space created from memory and through repetition. The drawing is part of a series I have been developing for sometime exploring architecture, pattern and colour

Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1976, Owen Johnson has exhibited widely across the globe and has become well known for his glasswork. He holds a BA in Visual Arts from the Australian National University, Honours in Fine Arts from Monash University, Melbourne, and a PhD from the Royal College of Art in London.  He's currently a Professor at Sheridan's Faculty of Animation, Arts & Design (FAAD) which is Canada's largest art school.

Student Award (£2,000)
Window, 2024
ink on linen (diptych), 120 x 15cm
by Hyeyeon Chung. 

Student Award Winner, Hyeyeon Chung was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1992. She holds a BA in Korean traditional painting from Chung-Ang University and an MA in Fine Art: Drawing from the University of the Arts London.

‘I weave monochrome worlds, fusing scenery and memories. My creative process is marked by meticulous, almost compulsive repetition; a ritual of craftsmanship and dedication. Grounded in intuition, it possesses the precision of a printer's hand,’’

Her award-winning drawing is inspired by contemporary landscape and diasporic experiences, with a focus on cultivating awareness and fostering new perspectives with drawing a pivotal aspect of her practice. 

 

Working Drawing Award (£2,000)

Plan for Cato Mural, Year 8, Spa Fields, 2023,

watercolour on watercolour paper, 76 x 58cm

by Emma Douglas

‘‘It represents his 8th Year. Since his death, my work has evolved into a project of recording the marks he made during his life, the places that we visited and the images that linger after someone has left,’’ 

Born in London in 1965, Emma Douglas holds a BA in Fine Art from Middlesex Polytechnic and an MA in Printmaking from the Royal College of Art. She has exhibited in both group and solo shows across the UK including The Jerwood Drawing Prize, Flowers Gallery, Arusha Gallery and Norwich Cathedral. She currently lives in London. 

This drawing is the plan for a mural the artist installed in Spa Fields, Skinner Street, London. It is the 11th work in a series of 22 murals she is doing in memory of her son Cato who died in 2010 aged 21 years. 

Her instagram account records the prolific and various ways in which she records the life of her son Cato Heath. Each of the squares in her coloured square murals is colour coded to represent one activity - such as physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, speech therapy or Doctors appointments.  

Winner of the Working Drawing Award: Emma Douglas

The Working Drawing Award celebrates the role of drawing within architecture, design and making processes and was chosen by 

• Benjamin Derbyshire, Chair of HTA Design LLP, a leading multidisciplinary design practice, 
• Andrew Grant, Landscape Architect, Founder & Director of Grant Associates, and 
• Caroline Grewar, Director of Programme at V&A Dundee.

About the Drawing Prize

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize is supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust, and widely regarded as the foremost open exhibition dedicated to drawing in the United Kingdom. The 2024 edition marks the 7th year of generous support from the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust and is the 30th edition of the annual open drawing exhibition.

NOTE The Drawing Prize has had a number of names in its career - usually influenced by whoever its current sponsor is. It was founded founded in 1994 by Anita Taylor and Paul Thomas as the Rexel Derwent Open Drawing Exhibition. From 2001-2017 it became known as the Jerwood Drawing Prize from 2001 to 2017 and was delivered in partnership with Jerwood Charitable Foundation. The present sponsor is the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust who became the principal benefactor in 2018. The constant throughout is Anita Taylor.

Two Drawing Awards: Winners & Future Exhibitions

This post is about

• The Trinity Buoy Drawing Prize and highlights
• its background
• details about the 2023 Exhibition and Artists
• the award winners in 2023 - plus as much as I can glean from what they've revealed about themselves online!
• future exhibitions around the UK in 2024
• the Biennial Evelyn Williams Drawing Award £10,000 - selected from artists exhibiting as part of the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Exhibition.

First of all - mea culpa. I completely forgot to go down to Trinity Buoy Wharf (not the easiest of places to get to) for the exhibition of the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize.

The exhibition in London closed on Sunday but is now going on tour around the UK in 2024 to:

• The Gallery, Arts University Bournemouth, 16 February to 12 April 2024;
• The Arts Institute, Plymouth University, 4 May to 29 June 2024;
• The Turnpike Gallery, Leigh (run by Wigan Council) 13 July to 14 September 2024.

It's very sad that there's no online exhibition - which is almost standard practice for all art competitions these days. There is apparently a fully illustrated exhibition publication - although I'm not sure how people can get hold of this.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize

Basically this is a Drawing Prize created in 1994 by Professor Anita Taylor who is currently the Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee and Director of Drawing Projects UK.

Over the years, it has been known by various different names as she has been involved in founding and judging a drawing prizes using various different titles/names over a number of years with various sponsors and held in various places - while she moved around the country in various art academic roles. 

None of the prizes in previous incarnations continue to exist - and yet there's a notion they are all the same prize despite the names of different sponsors. It's not a notion that I've seen previously referenced but there's no doubt that the underlying continuity is essentially that one person invented the prize and is involved with them all.  I've never been quote able to understand why it's not called the Anita Taylor Drawing Prize plus the name of whoever is the current sponsor.  (A bit like the Lynn Painter Stainers Prize operated)

Apparently her listing of research output identifies a number of the drawing exhibitions as just that "non-textual research outputs" - which surprised me - and then it didn't.

I'm not a fan of this individual for a very specific reason relating to a different competition - which some of you may remember - but let's just leave it at that.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2023

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize is supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust.

In 2023, there were

• over 3,000 submissions
• from 1,450 candidates
• representing 40 countries.

123 drawings by 111 practitioners were shortlisted for inclusion in the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2023 exhibition were selected for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2023 exhibition

The Awards in 2023 with a total value of £27,000 in 2023 - being in two parts:

• £15,000 for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 
• First Prize of £8,000,
• Second Prize of £5,000,
• Student Award of £2,000
• Judged by:
• Laura Hoptman, Executive Director of The Drawing Center, New York;
• Dennis Scholl AM, Collector, Arts Patron, President & CEO of Oolite Arts;
• Barbara Walker MBE RA, British Artist (and first winner of the Evelyn Williams Drawing Award 2017)

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Prizewinners 2023

Interestingly, three of the four prizewinners drew buildings. The prizewinners were announced at a Launch and Awards Announcement on 28 September 2023
 

First Prize £8,000

Jeanette Barnes won the first Prize of £8,000.

Her drawing, as always, is a charcoal drawing of a buildings which is huge - as both subject and drawing - and is also associated with a major new development in London. In this instance the drawing is related to the development of the new Battersea Tube Station and the surrounding area.

Jeanette Barnes' award-winning work is a dizzyingly immersive and dynamic portrayal of Battersea's development in London, anchored by the new underground station. Battersea power station’s iconic chimneys only just edge into the picture, which focuses on the rise of newer buildings, and the ebb and flow of people. The work’s scale, 1.50 metres by 2.13 metres, invites viewers to step inside the drawing, feeling the vibrant and chaotic energy of the bustling city. The Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Announces 2023 Winners

New Battersea Tube Station & Developments (2023) by Jeanette Barnes
Compressed charcoal on paper, 150 x 213cm.

Review: A Girl about Town by Rosa Sepple

Rosa Sepple PPRI seems to have settled on 50 paintings as a goodly number for a solo show. This is how many paintings she has in her latest exhibition "A Girl About Town" which is on at the new RWS Galleries at 3 Whitcomb Street (next to the National Gallery) in central London.

If you're an artist, I recommend you take a look at an exhibition by an artist who is renowned for having a very good track record in solo shows and sells lots of paintings!

If you're a collector, I recommend you take a look at artwork which is very different from most art you see in galleries and exhibitions.

Rosa Sepple and the Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (SOLD)

The exhibition has been organised by Adrian Hill Fine Art who has been selling Rosa's artwork to a very enthusiastic set of collectors for quite a while. He's one of those gallerists who's got a very good portfolio of artists he represents and others whose work he sells. The paintings are all presented extremely well using the same black frames which are used for all Rosa's paintings.

The exhibition at the RWS Whitcomb Galleries, 3 - 5 Whitcomb Street, London WC2H 7HA is on

• From:  Tuesday 12th - To: Saturday 23rd September
• Hours: 11am - 6pm daily (Saturday 23rd 11am - 2pm Only)

On Private View night I walked into a gallery with a LOT of red spots for sales already in evidence plus a number of green ones for those reserved prior to the collector visiting the show.

To date (14th September), after the exhibition has been open for 4 days she's sold 24 paintings of the 50 paintings with three more reserved. So basically she's almost certainly sold half the show with more than a week to go! 

In essence, it's art from the perspective of a young woman - with sparkle - with dreams about what might be! Rosa's paintings are very much uniquely hers.  For those who are interested, the subject matter sales split as follows:

• Party Girls
• Single women
• Couples 
• Landscapes (typically maritime and Venice)

However, aspects of Rosa's paintings do remind me of two artists who have been extremely popular in the UK:

• Beryl Cook - the fascination of things which rather larger middle aged women do - with various added fun components; and 
• the landscapes and narratives of LS Lowry with added whimsical components. 

Rosa Sepple is an artist who likes to paint narratives which tell stories or evoke feelings of "fun" and/or "feeling good". If your paintings can make others smile and feel good too, you can sell a lot of paintings! 

"Dance to the Music" by Rosa Sepple

Interestingly it also reminded me that, in general, I see very few paintings by women of things women like to do. Which is maybe a thought to ponder on for all the female artists out there. 

Personally, I like her larger narrative paintings with lots of people doing lots of things. They have the capacity to make me stop and look for a long time - in much the same way as LS Lowry paintings have done for many people in the past.

I also very much like her skills in the use of collage and frottage to give the paintings textural interest.

The Village Green by Rosa Sepple

Rosa makes it her practice to develop and hold a number of solo shows - in liaison with Adrian Hill - for her very unique subject matter and style which draws a number of avid collectors. It's not the sort of art you see in every gallery - you need somebody who believes in you and Adrian certainly does that. 

I have to highlight that it's not the sort of art I buy. The first time I saw her work - a long time ago in the RWS Open at the Bankside Gallery - I found myself saying to myself, in a fairly pompous huffy way, things like "But you're not allowed to put lots of glitter in paintings!" However I was VERY wrong!  Sparkle can sell paintings!

I now absolutely and totally get why her art is so popular with so many people. Many of the paintings remind me of parties I went to back in the 60s and 70s and people do like fun paintings!

Party Girls by Rosa Sepple in "A Girl About Town"

Party girls in the Basement Gallery

The exhibition also looks absolutely splendid in the brand new RWS Whitcomb Galleries (one on the ground floor and two more in the basement). It's looking very much like an excellent place to hold a solo show. (As somebody who is disabled, I also was very impressed with the lift and facilities for visitors)

I had to wait until the end of the Private View evening to get photos of the galleries without LOTS of people in front of the paintings.

Two Basement Galleries

One final point to ponder

Imaginative and stimulating art in "Planet Future" Exhibition

The theme of the annual art exhibition for sixth form colleges is "Planet Future"

This is the national art exhibition for sixth form college students. It contains a lot of very thoughtful imaginative and creative art from students at various sixth form colleges in the UK.

I was impressed by the diversity of media used, topics tackled and different approaches used to portraying messages about sustainability and the current and future risks to planet earth.

"The sustainability agenda has never been more important and the exhibition highlights students' hopes and fears about the future, while also showcasing their enormous creativity and innovation,"
Alex Burghart, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education - who launched the exhibition.

As I began to look at the art it struck me that there's a bit of a gulf beginning to open up between art created by younger people - who are focused on things which matter a lot to them - and artwork by much older people in other exhibitions where the artwork seems to be more traditional and very often demonstrates little interest in topical issues.

 

My favourites included the following. 

• Click the links in the title to see a much larger image online. 
• I've also included links to the students where I could find them online.

Hope for the future by Ruby Currie (Woodhouse College) 

I particularly liked the use of the textile art and its use of various messages addressing many different aspects of contemporary life and issues of concern and the designs she used to catch attention. 

The RWS Open at the Bankside Gallery

The RWS Open is back and on display at the Bankside Gallery between 4th and 20th March. This post reviews what I can see online (while sat on the sofa with my post surgery non weight bearing ankle elevated on my knee scooter!)

Jennifer McRae

David: West End Summer

watercolour on paper

63 x 130cm

£9500

Why the RWS Open is different

The Royal Watercolour Society has a different approach to open exhibitions when compared to most other national art societies. It has 

• a special open competition and 
• an exhibition dedicated ONLY to those who are non-members.

I'm bound to say this is, very probably, because they exhibit at the Bankside Gallery which is smaller than other venues used by national art societies and hence including open entries in a mixed exhibition with members would mean 

• either fewer works by members (which they wouldn't like!)
• or the number of non-members who were exhibited would get squeezed - which would mean they wouldn't attract a lot of entries.

Anyway - after a year's break due to the Pandemic (when all the art galleries were closed a year ago) - the RWS Open can now be seen at the Bankside Gallery - except by me. I'm not back on both feet for at least another three weeks and probably not walking until the end of April.

So - how to review this exhibition? Well all I can do is look at it online - so that's what I'm going to do.

The RWS Open Online

The first things I noticed are that 

• it's changed its name:
• it used to be known as The RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition (see the 2020 competition/exhibition)
• it's now branded as The RWS Open

Formerly known as the Contemporary Watercolour Competition (among many other names during the exhibition's 50+ year history), the RWS Open is the largest open-submission water-media exhibition in the world, attracting thousands of submissions nationally and internationally each year.

• the Online exhibition is NOT on the Bankside website. Instead ALL the images of the artworks are on the RWS website. That means that 
• the RWS website can archive ALL its past exhibitions online. 
• Let us not forget that storage of images is not expensive and it seems crazy to go to all the trouble of putting on an exhibition only to pass up the opportunity to continue selling images from the exhibition or by artists in the exhibition after the exhibition closes! 
• I think this is very sensible strategic marketing move and one which I wish more art societies would copy!

One thing which remains unchanged is that Selection is down to a small group of RWS members. For the 2022 RWS Open, the selectors were the President of the RWS plus three other members and a guest Judge

• Jill Leman PRWS (jillleman.co.uk) President of the RWS
• David Remfry RA RWS (davidremfry.com) He used to be Professor of Drawing at the RA Schools
• Chloe Fremantle RWS (chloefremantle.com) - elected to membership of the RWS in 2021 so a new eye in relation to what's on offer
• Wendy Jacob RWS (wendyjacob.com) - paints in gouache and is a regularly selected for various juried exhibitions 
• Brit Pruiksma (Founder of Mothflower) - the Instagram account @mothflower is a curated account of artwork which now has some 60k followers since its creation in January 2020.

The Online Exhibition

Some comments on how the online exhibition works and then I highlight the artists whose artwork I liked.

Display online

The fairly small thumbnails (compared to some other exhibitions) provide name of the artist and whether the artwork has won a prize.

The display scrolls easily on my iPad Pro (i.e. it's not limited by pages) except for the fact it works better in portrait mode than landscape.

However in my opinion, the RWS website makes THREE BIG MISTAKES 

POLL: What was the best place to sell your art in 2021

I'm going to revive my monthly opinion polls in 2022. On the whole, I think they provided some very useful feedback for both professional and amateur artists and those who aspire to do more with their art - particularly in relation to the business side of art activities.

Most polls have continued in terms of 

• either charts of the results on this blog (see below) 
• or ongoing live polls on my Art Business Info. for Artists website

I'm starting the year - an the monthly polls - by reviving polling about the best place to sell art. I've run this a number of times and had interesting results each time.  

MOST PROFIT: What was the best place to sell art in 2021?

My first topic is PROFIT

• WHICH place/option - which generates sales of your art - also generates the most profit?
• the "most profit" might be due to e.g.
• LOTS of sales - even if the profit margin between income and expenses is low
• VERY LOW EXPENSES - so that all sales max out your profit
• HIGH VALUE SALES - which make you a lot of money - even if expenses are high

You can find the Poll below

Below the Poll I explain what platform I've used to generate it and anything else you might want to know

POLLS PLATFORM

My previous platform (CrowdSignal) no longer works for me, so I'm switching to Google Forms. I've just spent a lot of this afternoon learning how to use them for Polls of this sort - but may not have got it right! Do let me know if you run into any problems.

Don't worry, I've set the poll up so that no personal data (like emails) is asked for or collected. 

With any luck we should get a result which indicates the three most popular options for generating PROFIT in 2021 (i.e. income you generated for an option less the expenses associated with that particular option)

I'll also be putting this Poll on my website Art Business Info so that it can continue to collect data on the most profitable places 

You can also find the poll on this page too How to Sell Your Art

Previous Polls

Below you'll also find links to the poll results in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012

• 2014 - Most Revenue or Best Profit? What was the Best Place to sell Art in 2013?
• 2014 - POLL: Selling Art in 2014 - Is the best place for generating cash the same as the best place for making a profit?
• 2012 - 2012 Poll Results: What's the best place to sell art? (Part 1) - this reveals 4 places where (1) the most money & (2) the most profit were made from selling art in 2011/12.
• 2012 - What's the best place to sell art? Trends in selling art 2008-2012: (1) direct from the studio; (2) via third party galleries ad art societies.
• 2012 - The Best Place to Sell Art - (Part 2 More Trends Trends in selling art 2008-2012: via temporary venues and online websites.
• 2011 - What's the MAIN way you have sold art in the last 12 months? (Poll results)
• 2010 - What's the MAIN way you have sold art in the last 12 months? (Poll Results)
• 2010 - What's the best place to sell art? Trends in selling art 2008-2012: (1) direct from the studio; (2) via third party galleries ad art societies.
• 2009: MAM Poll (August) results: the MAIN way you've sold art in the last 12 months
• 2008: What's the MAIN way you sell your art? - The Results.

What's been different in 2021 for me

This last year has been VERY different for me when it comes to blogging about art.

• Firstly because of all the obvious constraints on getting around and going to art exhibitions during the first part of the year.
• Secondly because walking became so much more difficult - and painful - for me (due to bone on bone osteoarthritis in my right ankle)
• Thirdly because, by the summer, I'd become increasingly preoccupied with getting ready for ankle fusion surgery - in terms of the need to think about 
• all the things that needed to be done to be able to live on one leg for three months 
• from doing the research and getting kit to be able to get around on one leg after surgery - for up to 12 weeks (and maybe more)
• making my home more disabled friendly 
• plus some hard graft in decluttering!

See

• Get ready for surgery: Update #1
• SURGERY UPDATE #2: Still prepping with a steep hill to climb
• SURGERY UPDATE #3: I've finally got a date!
• Surgery postponed - my list of exhibitions in London to visit

Of course, no sooner had I written the last post then Omicron turned up - so I've been much less keen to mingle!

Plus I got the results on my NHS App from a lateral X-Ray of both hips at the end of last month. The bad news is and I've got osteoarthritis in both hips too - with the right one being the worst. Which explains the pain in my right hip and extremely distracting collapsing movement it exhibits from time to time - with absolutely no notice! Think leg suddenly gives way beneath you....

It resulted in fewer blog posts this year compared to earlier years as in 

• fewer exhibitions to visit - for external reasons
• fewer exhibitions to visit for personal reasons
• some were just completely inaccessible to people like me - too many stairs and no lifts
• others I was less able to walk around exhibitions which take a lot of walking round - and a lot of walking to get to them (as in I can't walk for two days afterwards if I walk too much!)
• less time for blog posts!
• very distracted by other matters.
• and very, very tired - because movement is very tiring and pain is tiring - and it's difficult to sleep when you're in pain.....  It's also not easy to acknowledge that one if getting older and less able and less energetic.

Me at the Annual Exhibition of the Pastel Society on 14 July 2021 

But I did get a rollator - and the rollator has been to quite a few exhibitions. Mainly those which don't involve lots of walking just to get there. 

My very light carbon fibre rollator which now goes to every exhibition (minus stick)
- on its first outing back in June at the NEAC Annual Exhibition

Plus I've now lost 43.2kg / 6.8 stones / 95+ lbs since June 2020 - which has helped to reduce the pain and make me more mobile - and better able to cope with the one-legged post surgery challenge in future.

HOWEVER, the net result has been:

• fewer posts about exhibitions I've seen
• more posts about exhibitions posted late - because I'm now very tired after an exhibition outing
• more posts about the art which transferred to television / video / Zoom
• more time spent watching Zoom and webinars and talks
• more time spent doing other stuff!

Later this week I'm going to highlight some of the more popular blog posts in 2021

Mobility issues for those interested in art

In the meantime I've been considering writing more, in future, about disabled friendly - and less friendly - places for others who are interested in art and viewing art but also have mobility problems / accessibility issues.

I'd be interested to know whether other people would find this useful.

Yayoi Kusama - her life and art

I watched a documentary film about Yayoi Kusama this last week which I found fascinating.  

She's exhibited internationally all over the world and her artwork has achieved both the highest turnover at auction in one year and the highest price paid for a female artist. 

Her current exhibition at Tate Modern is sold out until it finishes in October 2021 - but if you'd like to see more of her work and find out about her as an individual and as an artist It's a programme worth watching.

Yayoi Kusama

Kusama: Infinity

Kusama: Infinity (1 hour 20 minutes) is a documentary made by director Heather Lenz in 2017, published in 2018 and broadcast by Arena in 2019 - and repeated last Monday on BBC4. 

It's available for the next 24 days on BBC iPlayer. I'm going to be rewatching it before time is up!.

It provides an insight into the extraordinary life and world of this internationally renowned artist.

Kusama: Infinity - the Life and Art of Yayoi Kusama

Call for Entries: Society of Wildlife Artists Annual Exhibition 2021

If you want to enter the Annual Exhibition by the Society of Wildlife Artists the deadline for entries is Friday 20 August, 12 noon

Last year's SWLA Annual Exhibition

The images in this blog post are from last year's annual exhibition.

Call for Entries

It's just under a year since the last time I wrote a Call for Entries for this annual exhibition - when we weren't too sure whether it would be held. In the end it had the close early

Hopefully this year it will the normal exhibition at the normal time for the normal number of days.However there's a pretty good chance I won't see it if I have my surgery before it opens.

Anyway - back to what you need to know

Artwork in the West Gallery

 

Online Selection Only - digital images essential

Artists need to be aware that their artwork will be judged on the basis of the digital image submitted - and NOT on the actual artwork itself - as selection by the Panel will be done remotely and online.

So it doesn't matter how good your artwork is if you don't produce a decent digital image for submission......

This means 

• don't create a small image at a high (print quality) resolution - as it will only be viewed on a screen. 
• Instead, create a large image at an OK resolution i.e. all detail is crisp and clear

If you're not confident about producing decent digital images see my guides:

• how to photograph art - for artists
  
• how to scan art

NORTH GALLERY

If you've not submitted before the best thing to do is VISIT the show first.

The next best thing is to REVIEW

• the online catalogues - which includes photos of members' artwork
• my blog posts reviewing past exhibitions (see end) which provide LOTS of images of artwork selected for the show from the open entry as well as artwork by members 
• artworks in last year' exhibition 
• on the Mall Galleries website 
  
• in my photo albums of the different galleries on my (public) Making A Mark Facebook Page - see the links below
  
• West Gallery
• East Gallery
• North Gallery

Who can enter?

Artists are invited to submit work for exhibition alongside members of the Society of Wildlife Artists at their 58th Annual Exhibition, The Natural Eye 2021

The 58th Annual Open Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists is open to non-members and there's always a good number selected and hung throughout the exhibition.

In addition, it's open to artists from outside the UK - and every year we see entries from international artists selected for the exhibition.

What can you enter?

Review: Annual Exhibition of the New English Art Club 2021

I visited the Annual Exhibition 2021 of the New English Art Club at the Mall Galleries on Tuesday - and it was as if everything were normal again. Apart from the face masks, the galleries were full of the "double jabbed" all keen to see this year's artwork

What was odd was that there was rather less of "this pandemic year" than one might expect. Did artists not think it was relevant - or were they bored of it.

However, there was some excellent artwork recording life as lived over the last 15 months. I particularly liked the large painting produced by Sarah Godsill who is an artist who relates to the need to record historical memories. I couldn't agree more! I do however think her pricing is VERY ambitious - and I'll comment more on pricing later...

Spring Lockdown by Sarah Godsill (OPEN ENTRY)
whose work centres around figures
Interconnected (right) is by David Cobley

The reality for me is we never ever think war art is unusual - so why, given there was a LOT of very focused art producing during the Pandemic, is there so very  little in this exhibition? (Given the submissions for the previous exhibition had largely been submitted prior to the pandemic). It just seemed rather odd to me....

Was it filtered out by the selectors - or did they just not receive enough good submissions? Will we ever know? (I'd love to know which it was if anybody would like to tell me!)

The Annual Exhibition 2021

You can see my photos of the exhibition on my Making A Mark Facebook Page - which is accessible by everyone in these three albums

1. NEAC Annual Exhibition 2021 - East Gallery
2. NEAC Annual Exhibition 2021 - West Gallery   
3. NEAC Annual Exhibition 2021 - North Gallery

Incidentally, I mostly try to exclude people from my photos - they're in no way representative of the number of people in the galleries!

Thank you to all those who say they like looking at the exhibition they cn't get to in this way. You'll also find my blog post Three Virtual Views of the New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2021 helpful if you want to find out more about the art and who painted - and whether it is still available!

The Annual Exhibition continues until 5pm on Saturday 3rd July.

A number of my photos are annotated with details of the painter - particularly if it was work I liked, even more so if the artist had been selected from the Open Entry.

Artists whose work I liked

Below I'm noting the artwork I liked by artists selected through the OPEN ENTRY - with links in their names to their websites. 

 

NEAC is, after all, a good place to spot up and coming artists with new takes on how to create good art.

Art Galleries and Museums in London are open again!

Just a reminder - as if you needed one(!) - that the larger art galleries and museums (i.e. those which are not commercial/retail art galleries) have reopened today and you can now visit art exhibitions and permanent art collections!

See also my earlier post about Art Exhibitions in London opening in May 2021

 

The National Gallery - photographed before recent times

In general, in order to contain numbers, timed tickets are required for all visitors - which need to be booked in advance - hence details of how to contact in listings below

THE FOLLOWING REOPENED IN LONDON AFTER LOCKDOWN ON 17TH MAY 2021.

Below is a reminder of art galleries and museums in London.
This is by no means an exhaustive list - but hopefully might remind people of a few places which need their support - and a visit!

Later this week I'll be looking at the Art Fund's Summary Report of "Looking ahead: Museum Sector Research May 2021 Summary Report.

The future is not completely bleak - but neither is it totally rosy!

The past year has given many organisations an opportunity to refocus and experiment. They are determined to show their resilience, to evolve and carve out new futures. However, this is tempered by significant levels of overstretch and exhaustion.

Central London

Free to all | Some exhibitions have priced entry | Opening this week

British Museum

Great Russell Street, London, Greater London, WC1B 3DG
020 7323 8181 | Website

Opening times:  Daily: 10.00–17.00 

National Gallery

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London, WC2N 5DN
020 7747 2885 | Website
Opening times: Daily 11am-6pm (Fri 11am-9pm) 

A different way round the National Gallery

Tate Modern 

Bankside, London, Greater London, SE1 9TG
020 7887 8888 | Website
Opening times: Daily 10am-6pm 

Tate Britain

Millbank, London, Greater London, SW1P 4RG
020 7887 8888 | Website
Opening times: Daily, 10am – 6pm (last admission 5.15pm) 

Bankside Gallery

Thames Riverside, 48 Hopton Street, London, Greater London, SE1 9JH
020 7928 7521 | Website 

 

The Queen's House

Romney Road, Greenwich, London, Greater London, SE10 9NF
020 8858 4422 | Website
Opening times: Daily, 10.30am – 4pm (reduced hours due to COVID-19). 

 

William Morris Gallery

Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow, London, Greater London, E17 4PP
020 8496 4390 | Website
Opening times: Opening 18 May 

 

Within The Reach of All: The Century Guild at the William Morris Gallery

V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum)

Cromwell Road, London, Greater London, SW7 2RL
020 7942 2000 | Website
Opening times: Temporarily closed - Opening 19 May 

Sir John Soane's Museum

13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, Greater London, WC2A 3BP
020 7405 2107 | Website
Opening times: Opening 19 May 

 

South London Gallery (Art Fund Museum of the Year 2020)

65-67 Peckham Road, London, Greater London, SE5 8UH
020 7703 6120 | Website
Opening times: Opening 19 May 

 

Whitechapel Gallery

77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, Greater London, E1 7QX
020 7522 7888 | Website
Opening times: Opening 19 May 

  

 

Priced entry | Opening this week 

 

Barbican Art Gallery

Level 3, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, Greater London, EC2Y 8DS
020 7638 8891 | Website

 

Garden Museum

Lambeth Palace Road, Lambeth, London, Greater London, SE1 7LB
020 7401 8865 | Website
Opening times: Daily 10.30am-5pm

Queens Gallery 

Buckingham Palace, Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA 

website

Opening times: 10am - 5.30pm (last admission 4.15pm)

Design Museum

224-238 Kensington High Street, Kensington, London, Greater London, W8 6AG
020 3862 5900 | Website
Opening times: Opening 18 May  

• 10.00 – 18.00 (Sunday - Thursday)
• 09.30 – 21.00 (Friday - Saturday)

Apsley House

149 Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner, London, Greater London, W1J 7NT
020 7499 5676 | Website
Opening times: Opening 19 May

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art

39a Canonbury Square, London, Greater London, N1 2AN
020 7704 9522 | Website
Opening times: Temporarily closed - Opening 19 May

Reopening on future dates

 

A few galleries and museums are opening at a later date. They're listed below in order of their date of opening

Royal Academy of Arts

Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, Greater London, W1J 0BD
020 7300 8090 | Website
Opening times: Opening 18 May 

 

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Gallery Road, London, Greater London, SE21 7AD

02086935254 | Website

Opening times:Temporarily closed - Opening 19 May

Whitechapel Gallery

77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, Greater London, E1 7QX

020 7522 7888| Website 

Opening time: Temporarily closed - Opening 19 May

Guildhall Art Gallery

Guildhall Yard, London, Greater London, EC2V 5AE
020 7332 3700 | Website
Opening times: reopening on 2nd June

The Wallace Collection

Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, Greater London, W1U 3BN
020 7563 9500 | Website
Opening times: reopening on 3rd June

Leighton House Museum

12 Holland Park Road, London, Greater London, W14 8LZ
020 7602 3316 | Website
Opening times: Temporarily closed - Re-opening 9 October 

The Courtauld Gallery

Somerset House, Strand, London, Greater London, WC2R 0RN
+44 (0) 20 3947 7600 | Website
Opening times: Temporarily closed for a major transformation project. DUE TO reopen in late 2021.

Temporarily Closed and not reopening this year