Postal Services to the USA cancelled across the world! What does this mean for artists?

At midnight on Sunday, I spotted a post on social media which indicated there was going to be a major issue for ALL ARTISTS - anywhere in the world - who sell artwork to buyers in the USA.

MOST POSTAL SERVICES AROUND THE WORLD 

HAVE CANCELLED DELIVERY TO THE USA

+ 

ART SALES TO THE USA ARE GOING TO CRASH

I spent most of yesterday and this morning working on a new page for my website - called Shipping Art to the USA i.e. https://www.artbusinessinfo.com/shipping-art-to-usa.html 

Today, being a bank holiday is not the best day to announce it's now public - however the proverbial will be hitting the fan today and tomorrow.....

My new web page for all those caught out by the change in tariffs / border control
and the comprehensive suspension of postal services
Link is https://www.artbusinessinfo.com/shipping-art-to-usa.html

I know a lot of artists - across the world - who regularly sell art to Americans are very worried about what this means for their business.

My new website includes sections about

• three key drivers around the problem for artists
• what has been happening in the last month
• what it means in practical terms for artists
• what it means in different continents and countries around the world.
• plus lots and lots of references

The irony in the title is that the AIRLINES are the current driver leading to the comprehensive suspension of aircraft for carrying post to the USA.

"No longer shipping" courtesy of Astral Synergy Productions

Bottom line, yet again, the change in policy at motormouth speed is way in advance of the systems developments required to deliver what the USA wants which is

• cancellation of the exemption from tariffs for all post and parcels with a value of between $800 and $100 
• all post/parcels for imports MUST arrive in the USA marked up "Delivery Duty Paid" (this is Trump's notion of how to get the other countries to pay him money)
• On top of this there's an argument going between lawyers as to whether Trump can cancel the almost universal exemption of certain classes of art from any form of tariff duty payable.

The airlines have seen the writing on the wall and they are NOT HAPPY! (I'm assuming they worked out the reality, i.e. masses of small packages not going anywhere fast and stuck on planes because space has run out in normal storage areas before packages are processed). 

So they pulled the plug! Well done the airlines is what I think!

So given the complete carcrash of a mess which is currently exploding around the world, I thought I better get on with my new page!!!

So what I've published is my "best effort to date" BUT it is neither comprehensive nor do I guarantee everything on it is correct. However I've included a lot of references to people writing about this issue in other places and will continue to review and update in the coming days.

This is the short section providing headlines about implications for artists

Implications for Artists
- as producers and exporters of art to buyers in the USA

I'll be writing more about this - but right now I'd like to have lunch and get out in the sunshine and "have some time off"!

Call for Entries: Royal Society of Marine Artists

You might think the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists is just for artists who paint boats - and hence a very niche marketplace - but you'd be wrong. 

Indeed, in my opinion, it's well worthwhile checking out what sort of artwork is acceptable in this exhibition - which attracts a lot of collectors.

The Call for Entries for the next annual exhibition closes at 12 noon on Friday 26 July - so plenty of time to check out whether any of your artwork fits with their criteria and get an online submission completed!

You can check out my review of the last annual exhibition here - Review: 78th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. It includes links to my albums of photos of the exhibition on my Making A Mark Facebook Page

The RSMA leads the way by being:

• the OLDEST marine art society
• the BIGGEST marine art society - in terms of members
• the ONLY marine art society with an online exhibition which opens before and continues after the gallery exhibition.

This is an exhibition which generates a decent level of sponsorship of various awards valued at £10,500.  
 

What is the criteria for entries?

What's the scope of subject matter?

It's NOT just about boats!

The Royal Society of Marine Artists seeks submissions of art inspired by the sea and marine environment, including harbours and shorelines, traditional craft and contemporary shipping, creeks, beaches, wildlife - in short anything that involves tidal water.

• Subject matter MUST be: 
• essentially marine in nature, 
• relating in some way to tidal waters of the world; 
• Subject matter MAY be: topographical, historical, still life, and figure painting are all welcomed.
• Works relating to non-tidal rivers, inland lakes and waterways etc. are NOT ACCEPTED. 

The RSMA Annual Exhibition in 2023 - in the East Gallery

What can you submit?

In reality, most are paintings with some drawings and sculpture and few prints.

• Number of artworks: up to six works - but note that a maximum of four might be selected. Typically it's more often one or two for people new to the exhibition
• Size of artwork: Works should be no larger than 2.4m along the longest dimension.
• Acceptable media: 
• Paint: Oil, acrylic, watercolour, 
• Prints: original prints of any media, 
• Drawings: eg pastels, graphite, charcoal
• 3D/Sculpture
• mixed media, textiles
• Age of artwork: submit new work not previously exhibited
• Essential: All works must be an original creation by the artist
• Sales: 

• All works must be for sale. 
• There is a minimum price per work of £600 - which I said was a BIG mistake last year - and I believe sales were reduced as a result
• Prices for prints should start as 
• framed £325, 
• unframed £200.

In 2021, the vast majority of sales (80-85%?) are artworks were priced at less than £1,000. There were a LOT of buyers for small artwork priced at less than £500.

Last year, 419 artworks were listed in the catalogue. Of these 354 remain listed as unsold on the online website for online sales.

Who can submit entries?

Making A Mark is 18 years old!

Making A Mark is now an adult - and 18 years old! ;)

I should have really done this on Friday which was this blog's 18th birthday in terms of "going public" - but I've been having a major clear out and chuck event - which will continue this week aka "no tubes running all week and it's freezing as well" 

What happened in 2023

Making A Mark continues to have followers all over the world - mainly but not exclusively from people in English speaking countries

This is the map of where visits came from in the last year.

In 2023, this blog had 

• c.250k visitors for what I think was an average of just under 3 blog posts a week
• 1,159,103 pageviews according to Blogger during the last 12 months - which is just under 100k pageviews a month.

Not bad going for somebody who is semi-retired - at least from daily blogging!

Making A Mark at 18

What's happening in 2024

The main event in 2024 is that I will hit my 70th birthday.

I started to wind down from daily posting back when I was 65. As age and the osteoarthritis progresses, I've become ever more conscious of needing to spend time 

• keeping me mobile - hence a lengthy walk every day, which is the only time I feel like I used to when I was younger. Notwithstanding I can barely move in the evening after sitting down for too long.....
• being able to do things while I'm still around  
• being able to do things with my partner is still around - in sound body and mind

So I won't be looking to increase what continues to feel like a diminished rate of posting for somebody who blogged on a daily basis for years.

What I will be doing is endeavouring to introduce people to more of my archive of 4,469 posts about art since January 2006. 

• Especially as a number of them were on thematic subjects and posted over a period of time. For example, back in 2007, I was starting my Van Gogh Project - see Introduction to the Van Gogh Project
• Plus highlighting some blog posts from the same month in previous years. Such as 
• Skating and sketching in London (2007)
• Holbein in England - and at Tate Britain (2007)
• Plant Motifs and Art (#2) at the V&A (2007)

Plus continuing to post on things which interest me - particularly art society exhibitions / open competitions and popular art programmes on television.

But I am very gradually slowing down to make more time for me.....

Call for Entries: Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2023

This is about the Call for Entries for the Annual Exhibition 2023 of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. It covers:

• Exhibition Dates and Prizes
• Who can enter
• What you can enter
• How to enter

The deadline for digital entries only is 12 noon on Friday 28 July.

One of the walls in the RSMA Annual Exhibition in 2022

The RSMA seeks submissions of art inspired by the sea and marine environment, including harbours and shorelines, traditional craft and contemporary shipping, creeks, beaches, wildlife - in short anything that involves tidal water.

The Exhibition and Prizes on Offer

The RSMA Annual Exhibition 2023 - at the Mall Galleries

The Society's annual exhibition is widely recognised as a showcase for the best in contemporary marine art, with selected work from the open entry hung alongside the work of RSMA members.

The exhibition will be 

• open to the public between 21st - 30th September 2023 
• at the Mall Galleries in London.

There is an invitation only Private View on 20th September. 

If you want to know what it will look like, take a look at some of my reviews of previous exhibitions listed at the bottom of this blog post.

Prizes and Awards

This is an exhibition which generates a decent level of sponsorship of various awards. Notably, unlike most of the art societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries, the prizes and awards in this annual exhibition are predominantly monetary in nature - with over £9,000 in cash awards and over £350 value in art materials - plus two publication awards

I've categorised them below. You can see what won last year in my post  Royal Society of Marine Artists - Prizes and Awards 2022

Making a Mark is 17 years old. What next?

This blog first went public on 5th January 2005. It's now 17 years old AND has just passed 19 million pageviews from nearly 6 million visitors.

The statistics run continuously in the right hand column in desktop or tablet view

Making A Mark's Visitors come predominantly, as you would expect, from English speaking countries. 

However, despite reduced blogging over the last 18 months of the surgery and recovery journey - it continues to have a global presence as you can see from the map of last year's visitors. 

The red dots are locations which generated visitors in 2022.

The Top 10 countries which generated the most visits are listed below in order of the total number of locations in each country

1. the UK - 2152 locations
2. the USA - 5685 locations
3. Canada - 650 locations
4. Australia - 1105 locations
5. India - 283 locations
6. Ireland - 147 locations
7. France - 715 locations
8. Germany - 512 locations
9. Philippines - 110 locations
10. Netherlands - 280 locations

Others generating more than a 1,000 visits included: New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Pakistan, Russia, Sweden, South Africa, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia.

Many thanks to those who think Making A Mark worth a visit or opening an email on a recurrent basis. You are the people who really keep this blog going!

For the first 10 years, I was publishing blog posts on an almost daily basis (usually with a "day off" on Saturday!) - including my very popular "Who's made a mark this week" post every Sunday. I gather many people thought there was a team behind the blog - but although it regularly ranked in top art blogs it's only ever been me!

In 2006, I published 348 blog posts!

When I got to 60, I retired AGAIN - but also started two new websites! I now publish roughly 150-200 Making A Mark posts each year - generally during the week - with rather less this year due to the surgery/recovery during February-April 2022.

The Future

I'm loathe to give up my "first born" and anticipate continuing blogging into the future. 

HOWEVER I now have much less time for blogging as I MUST spend very significant time each day taking exercise to stop myself completely seizing up with osteoarthritis and/or falling - because it's in my ankle, both hips and shoulder.

So now, age 68, my main priority is to walk daily with a focus on creating new challenges for myself e.g. increased steps, reducing how many times I need to sit down, how long I can walk  without a stick, walking up and down inclines etc etc. (PS Never ever take mobility for granted - keep moving!)

I'm pleased to say my daily walking is having a beneficial impact. Apple Health has a great walking steadiness measure and since I started walking again in May (after my surgery and the three months on one leg and a knee scooter) I've gone from "Very Low" to almost "OK" over the last 7 months and have significantly reduced my risk of falling most of the time..... However I'm still very stiff and often stumble whenever I start to walk though - which remains a significant concern.

Bottom line - my challenge going forward is to work out how to write about art while walking! I've no problem rabbiting away while doing Zoom Art Business Talks, so I need to have a ponder.....

NOTE: I'm currently "on a seasonal break" BUT will be back next week - and one of my first posts will be about the Call for Entries for the RA Summer Exhibition 2023.

Call for Entries: Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2022

The Royal Society of Marine Artists issued its invitations to marine artists to submit entries for for its annual exhibition. It wants to see more art inspired by the sea and marine environment 

This open exhibitions invites submissions of subject matter which MUST be essentially marine in nature i.e. involved with TIDAL water. This includes:

• harbours and shorelines,
• traditional craft and contemporary shipping, 
• creeks and beaches, 
• wildlife and marine workers
• in short anything that involves tidal water.

Paintings of non-tidal rivers, inland lakes and waterways etc are not permissible.

The deadline for entries is noon on Friday 8th July. 

You can find out more on the page providing details about this OPEN exhibition.

I've summarised key points below.

The Exhibition

The RSMA always holds its Annual Exhibition every Autumn at the Mall Galleries in central London. This year the exhibition dates are Thursday 22nd September to Saturday 1st October 2022

Four good reasons to enter

The Annual Exhibition by the Royal Society of Marine Artists

1. People who like boats are often wealthy - meaning they're more likely to have funds to spare to buy artwork!  This is important within the context of an economy where lots of people are being careful about their spending, t
2. This exhibition ALWAYS attracts a lot of people interested in buying marine artwork. This exhibition has typically had very good sales in the past.
3. It ALWAYS has a LOT of decent prizes. You can find out more about them here.
4. Prizes awarded in the past have been dominated by strong work by non-members - which is always good to see for those who submit work via the open entry. 

However, in order to do well, you MUST have and demonstrate a genuine interest in marine art. 

That's because expert and enthusiastic customers also mean those who can spot errors in artwork painted by those new to the subject and/or painting from photographs with no other observational prep. undertaken. I well remember being taken round the exhibition once by somebody who pointed out all the "made-up" paintings - it was a revelation!

This was my Review: Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2020 - which also shows you the range, type and quality of artwork on display.

Call for Entries

This is an OPEN EXHIBITION which tends to display paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints.

Below you can find

• a summary of how to enter the next annual exhibition.
• a list of prizes (see end)
• an archive of posts about past exhibitions - which contain a lot of images of the type of artwork that gets selected for exhibition.

What sort of artwork can you submit?

SUBJECT: The RSMA seeks submissions of art inspired by the sea and marine environment. 

 

It makes two statements about the scope - as follows

Online Conferences for Art Societies - a sustainable solution for getting more artists together?

Why don't more regional and national art societies hold Online Conferences?

When you're a local art society there's nothing to stop you limiting your activities to your locality - because, in all probability, that is where most of your members live. They'll either turn up or not to group events depending on how much they like being social and sociable.

However - if you're a regional or national organisation - why do we still behave as if everybody has to go to one place to get together to discuss / see / learn about / demonstrate our favourite art genre / medium?

In these days of reducing our carbon footprint, surely we need to be doing more in terms of finding alternative and more sustainable solutions which allow people to get together and enjoy what they like best about their art - and learn from one another and others.

One of the major benefits of the C19 saga (count the ways you can say "you know what" without triggering google filters!) is that more and more people have learned about the technology for getting online. I think if I'd been an investor in Zoom I'd be very happy right now!

What we saw in 2020

Lots of Annual get-togethers and annual conferences by art societies - which occur predominantly in the USA were cancelled in 2020. However this happened early enough in the year for a number to have time to work out how they could "replatform" the conference - out of a hotel and onto Zoom. 

Those who had some gumption got their act together, had a major think - and took the Conference Online. I think this might well be because there's a considerable amount of income for art societies generated by these conferences.

Which is how, in October 2020, I came to be sitting in my armchair for four days straight and participating in Online in October the very first Virtual Annual Conference of the American Society of Botanical Artists.

Given this was very much a "suck it and see" and a somewhat "seat of the pants" exercise it's amazing how well it worked. They took their normal convention schedule and digitised it - which meant a series of sessions which were mini workshops, evening ones which were lectures or presentations and then a social at the end of the day. In a lot of ways it was very much like the Conference I attended - and spoke at - in Pittsburgh in 2019.  However, the major difference was I was always five hours behind and social interaction - which was the only time members faces got on screen - was always in the middle of the night for me so I didn't actually make it to any of the socials. However I got through most of everything else after buying the "all in" option.

How did others cope with the change?

I took a look online and came across other examples of online conferences organised by different art organisations

Art Societies

• The Glass Art Society - has a very international outlook and may well have held the first online conference by an art society in May 2020

the organizers of the annual Glass Art Society conference pivoted from their extensively planned in-person event in Småland, Sweden, to the artist organization's first-ever online conference in May 2020.

• The Art Society had an Online Conference about Life Drawing in October 2020

Other member organisations

• The Museums Association went online in 2020 - and recorded the Conference highlights for members to refer back to

Overall, there was a lot of feedback and learning from the first tries at this new form of social interaction online - and lots to build into the learning for the conferences in 2021.

Major benefits seen from 2020 events

Call for Entries: Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2021

You have six weeks left to submit artwork for the Annual Exhibition in 2021 of the Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA. The deadline for entries is 9th July 2021.

The RSMA wants to see submissions of art inspired by the sea and marine environment for its annual exhibition which opens on 30 September 2021 at the Mall Galleries in London.

The RSMA seeks submissions of art inspired by the sea and marine environment, including harbours and shorelines, traditional craft and contemporary shipping, creeks, beaches, wildlife - in short anything that involves tidal water.

RSMA Annual Exhibition 2020 - East Gallery

Three good reasons to enter

The Annual Exhibition by the Royal Society of Marine Artists

1. ALWAYS attracts a lot of people interested in buying marine artwork - and people who like boats a lot often have funds to spare to buy artwork! This exhibition has typically had good sales in the past.
   
2. ALWAYS has a LOT of decent prizes
3. Prizes awarded in the past have been dominated by strong work by non-members - which is always good to see for those who submit work via the open entry. 

However, You need to have and demonstrate a genuine interest in marine art to do well. Expert and enthusiastic customers also mean those who can spot errors in artwork painted by those new to the subject. I well remember being taken round the exhibition once by somebody who pointed out all the "made-up" paintings.

This was my Review: Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2020 - which also shows you the range, type and quality of artwork on display.

Call for Entries

This is an OPEN EXHIBITION which tends to display paintings, drawings, sculpture and prints.

Below you can find

• a summary of how to enter the next annual exhibition.
• a list of prizes
• an archive of posts about past exhibitions - which contain a lot of images of the type of artwork that gets selected for exhibition.

What sort of artwork can you submit?

SUBJECT: The RSMA seeks submissions of art inspired by the sea and marine environment. 

 

It makes two statements about the scope

Art and Brexit #4 - all change as from 1 January 2021

There's 11 days left.....

• Have you prepared for Brexit? Or just put your head in the sand and hoped it would go away?
• Do you know what changes will happen? Or are you just hoping most of it stays the same?
• Have you read the official guidance? Or do you not like grappling with officialese and are waiting for somebody else to tell you what to do?

Frankly, I'm assuming most artists - including those who buy goods made in the EU and those who export permanently or temporarily to the EU - have not quite got their heads around Brexit yet....

This is a bit of a memory jogger about where we've come from and  a prompt re. what the future looks like from an art business perspective. 

Brexit Guidance for Art and Artists
- web page on my Art Business Info for Artists website

Frankly - who knows what's going to happen on 1 January 2021!!

it would appear at the moment that on the 1 January there will still be a "no deal" situation. However there is also thinking that there might be a deal in the New Year.
My bet is they will extend the time for negotiations because of all the hassle and distractions associated with Covid-19.

Whatever.....

Brexit on Making A Mark

Here's a list of my Brexit posts to date:

• What does it mean for UK and EU Art Students and Schools? (2016)
• Brexit #1: Do or Die? (September 2019) - includes some thoughts and reflections about what makes a difference when the going gets tough
• Brexit #2: The Pre-Election Update (November 2019) - especially relevant to
• all those who trade outside the UK
• all those who are not living in their country of birth.
• (Brexit #3) Artists and the Brexit Transition (July 2020) - highlighting my new webpage and the blog post below

Brexit on "Art Business Info for Artists"

• Brexit Transition Info. for Artists (July 2020) - highlighting my new webpage.....
• Brexit Guidance for Art and Artists This webpage covers what we know to date about:

• Likely areas of impact
• Official Government Guidance
• Trade, Customs, Tariff Codes, Tax and documentation for import / export / shipping
• Changes to VAT Rules
• Import and export of art - sales
• Import and export of art - for exhibition only
• Travel
• Settlement - for both UK and EU citizens
• Official Guidance for Art Organisations
• Copyright and intellectual property rights

Do let me know if there is anything specific you want to know which you can't find on my page. I might well develop an FAQs page for artists - but only if there is demand.

Official Government publications

• The art market sector from January 2021 (published 4 November 2020) by Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Its contents cover:
• Your employees
• Your data
• Visiting Europe
• Your organisation and services
• Movement of goods

• EU Exit: Transition Period Guide published by the Arts Council (last updated in September 2020) 
• Guidance: Exporting or importing objects of cultural interest from 1 January 2021 | Gov UK - What you need to know and do to export or import objects of cultural interest from 1 January 2021.

Recent articles about art and Brexit

There's been quite a few articles in the last couple of weeks as the art press remember it's all change come the end of the year!

• The art trade benefits from the UK's low import duty. What will happen to it after Brexit? | The Art Newspaper - As talks with the EU resume to reach a last-ditch trade deal, the lawyer Louise Williamson looks at what UK import rules might look like after 1 January
• How can UK art businesses prepare for the end of the Brexit transition period? | Apollo - written by a lawyer

Michael Gove said on 1 December that ‘A lot of what businesses need to do is the same whether or not we get a free trade agreement or not. There’s no harm in doing these things because they’ll be necessary come what may.’

......and finally

PS Have all of you who use art materials made in Europe stocked up?

How to pack, mail and ship art - domestically and internationally

How to pack, mail and ship art - to buyers, exhibitions, other countries - is one of those critical "NEED TO KNOW" topics for ALL those selling art online

Since the Pandemic started a lot of artists are now selling more art online - either compared to pre-pandemic or for the first time.

This post is for all those who

• EITHER "don't know what they need to know" 
• OR need a refresher 
• OR need to check on what has changed

REFERENCE / BOOKMARK: If you think you might want to reference this page again, why not

• bookmark it digitally and/or 
• print it off (click the title to get a seperate complete page for this blog post)

A Compendium of Information & Advice about Packing & Transporting Art

Most of the information and advice I provide about packing, mailing and shipping fine art is now provided in the "Ship Art" section of my website Art Business Information for Artists.

I'm assured by very many artists that there is nothing else like this section on the Internet!

I've certainly not found anything which merits the subtitle I've given it i.e.
A Compendium of Information & Advice about Packing & Transporting Art

Here's the reason why I started to develop and then record information about packaging. My first exhibition was in the USA!

Is your knowledge about packaging and shipping art "a big black hole"?

Starting out, I found packaging and shipping artwork one of the most challenging aspects of selling art - particularly when it needs to be sent to another country.
I worked hard to find out more about the best ways to pack and ship art - and started making notes! Fine Art Transport

Outline of contents

Fine Art Transport Home Page

This is a major section of my website - providing a lot of detailed information and advice

This contains

• Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about packaging, posting and shipping art - which shows you where you can find the answer
• ​10 Top Tips for Packaging and Shipping Artwork

​Packing Fine Art

How to wrap and pack artwork for shipping 

How to weigh, measure, wrap, pack and label artwork which needs to be transported. This page covers:

• SUMMARY TIPS: How to create a package for artwork
• HOW TO label a package
• HOW TO measure dimensions, volume and weight
• HOW TO: wrap and pack framed and/or glazed works
• ​HOW TO: package and ship giclee prints / drawings / works on paper
• HOW TO: wrap and pack unframed and framed pastel paintings
• HOW TO: package and ship 3D - sculpture and ceramics

Packaging Material for Shipping Art 

Packaging materials for wrapping, packing and shipping art

This page includes the pros and cons of different types of packaging - for different purposes.

It looks at ​

• TWO types of packaging for packaging art for shipping ​INTERNAL and EXTERNAL.
• Internal Packaging: This helps to make it look good and keeps it dry . Plus it protects the work should your package get opened by customs.
• External Packaging: During transit - or while in storage - external packaging helps to protect and keep the artwork safe from harm
• PLUS NEW: where to source green / more environmentally friendly packaging materials - which has become of increasing concern for many artists since I first started developing this resource.

Couriers, Movers and Shippers

How to Mail Art

How to mail art - using General Mail and Parcel Services 

This post covers general mail and parcel services for mailing paintings, drawings and prints in the UK and USA

There's a general consensus that

• the local mail service is fine for sending smaller packages
• however big parcels need a professional courier service

The next question is "Do you need a general mail / parcel / courier service OR a specialised service used to dealing with fine art?"

This page provides an overview of the generic (i.e. non-specialist) post / parcel / courier services on offer in the UK and USA

UK Art Movers and Carriers

UK Art Movers, Couriers & Fine Art Transport Services 

What you need to know; what your courier needs to know & which couriers move artwork

Call for Entries: BP Portrait Award 2020 (Part 1)

This is my annual summary of what you need to do to enter the BP Portrait Award - for 2020.
This post is going to be published in two parts and tells you about

Part 1

• why this exhibition has changed in the last two years - and I'm afraid not for the better
• reasons from the past as to why you should enter this competition for a first prize of £35,000
• my recommendations as to a possible approach for 2020.

Part 2 (will follow shortly) 

• how to enter - for those who have mulled over the content of this post and my two previous posts reviewing the 2019 exhibition (see below)
• UPDATE: SEE Call for Entries: BP Portrait Award (Part2) - How to Enter

View of the BP Portrait Award 2019 in The Porter Gallery

But first a preamble

Much of what I am going to say was first aired in June in my posts.

• BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2019 (Part 1): Overview critique. I've had months to reflect - and I haven't changed my mind about my overall critique
• BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2019 (Part 2): Analysis - which highlights what has CHANGED about this competition in terms of number of paintings, size and media, type (eg the range between whole body and head study), composition, colour and subject

I am restating key points here because it appears nothing has changed - and it's now time to take stock.

"the most prestigious painting competition in the world"

I've been calling the BP Portrait Award "a prestigious art competition" for well over a decade.
Indeed I used to always START this "call for entries" blog post with a long list of reasons why it was a great exhibition to enter.

However ONLY the National Portrait Gallery is still calling it "the most prestigious" portrait competition. (i.e.ignoring those who simply reproduce text from press releases)

I'm not sure I am continue to call it "prestigious" going forward - for a number of reasons. Hence why I've changed the order and am now starting with this preamble to avoid any artists being disappointed.

Few others seem to have commented on the points I have identified - at least in print. Maybe those that feel as strongly as me would still like to get into the exhibition - so don't want to ruin their chances through being seen to express negative comments. I certainly wouldn't blame them for behaving like that.

However I personally don't submit work and - for very many years - I have instead focused on enabling artists to succeed. So if anybody is less than impressed by what I have to say I'm not really concerned - so long as the artists understand my perspective. When it needs saying, it needs saying!

Bottom line the key points are that the exhibition:

• is selected by people who have much less expertise in portraiture than hitherto
• is now housed in a much smaller space with less wall space to hang paintings
• hangs fewer paintings - of which many are small head studies
• hangs them badly - because paintings are now skied making it impossible to inspect the work of the artist

This for the exhibition which continues to attract the biggest number of visitors to the National Portrait Gallery - although less than it used to - despite other exhibitions attracting the "blockbuster" label!

If there is a sensible rejoinder I'd very much like to hear it - and provide a blog post in which to publish it....

The gallery space is now much SMALLER

This exhibition was always held in the larger Wolfson Gallery (Room 42) - for very many years. Certainly since I started reviewing it - and I know it was in there when I used to visit it before that.  This is also a space which is a large quadrilateral which makes it easy to bring in extra dividers to increase the hanging space and route people around the exhibition - and still have room for people to manouvre around the exhibition.

It moved.

In 2018 and 2019 it has been in the Porter Gallery (Room 34).  Presumably at the instigation of the new (then) Director who oddly enough is NOT a specialist in portraiture.

• The Porter Gallery has two spaces providing a SMALLER gallery - which does not promote an orderly flow
• Since 2018, works were executed to open up the gallery and make it look more attractive - and this year the space had no dividers. The net effect was that the space looked much better - but the exhibition did not - because there was an EVEN SMALLER HANGING SPACE than in 2018!
• It also completely EXCLUDES the BP Travel Award exhibit which is now hung elsewhere and is probably not seen by the majority of visitors to the exhibition.

Sophie Ploeg - an ex BP Travel Award Winner (2013) wrote a good commentary on the problems with the space and the hang in her review of the 2018 exhibition

It's so small a space that they are unable to hold the announcement of the winners in there and that is now done in the Ondaatje Wing Main Hall (where the tickets are sold and school parties assemble).

As a result of using this gallery - here are some of the consequences......