Review: Royal Society of Miniature Artists, Sculptors and Gravers Annual Exhibition 2025

This week I'm visiting the Royal Society of Miniature Artists, Sculptors and Gravers (RMS) Annual Exhibition 2025 at the Bankside Gallery three times. 

• Monday night: to judge the Gold Memorial Bowl (the top award) with London art critic Tabish Khan 
• Tuesday afternoon: to attend the PV and Awards Ceremony - and meet up with artists and friends
• Sunday afternoon: to collect the artwork I bought on Monday night!

It's always a pleasure to visit this exhibition as this is an art society with some very enthusiastic members who absolutely love meeting people who like miniature art.

View of the entrance to the RMS Annual Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery

The exhibition is:

• AT: The Bankside Gallery Thames Riverside, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH
• UNTIL: Saturday 22nd November 2025
• HOURS: 11am - 6pm

I highly RECOMMEND this exhibition to

• anybody who is interested in miniature art - whether these are paintings, drawings or sculpture in a variety of media
• all those art collectors who, like me, are fast running out of space for new artwork

You can see my photographs of the artwork displayed in the cases in a dedicated album Royal Society of Miniature Painters - Annual Exhibition 2025 (58 items) on my Making A Mark Facebook Page. Taken while the glass cover was still up, these provide a reasonable view of the artwork without compromising copyright.

This year it also includes a memorial exhibit of 12 miniature paintings by the late Bill Mundy RMS HS MAA MASF who died in July this year.

Portraits by the late Bill Mundy (1936-2025)

Demonstrations

The RMS have always been excellent at providing demonstrations at their exhibitions of the materials and techniques used to produce their exquisitely small artworks. The remaining ones will be taking place between 12 and 5pm 

Thursday 20th Nov - Linda Kracht watercolour on vellum & Michael Coe watercolour on vellum
• Friday 21st Nov - Peter Hayton, watercolour on paper & Christina Hopkinson watercolour on Kelmscott vellum
• Saturday 22nd Nov - Claire Russell, Verre églomisé – gold leaf on glass & Jenny Musker VPRMS watercolour on polymin

How to paint miniature portraits - is a post is about the art materials, equipment and set-up used by an experienced miniature artist which I wrote a few years ago after watching one demonstration in an RMS Exhibition! 

The Exhibition

Things I noticed this year included the following

• there seem to be fewer landscapes - particularly those involving the countryside. Which is a pity as I am a great fan of those painted by Roz Pierson.  Maybe I could highlight that other exhibitions where I have analysed sales, I've also noted that landscapes sell extremely well as a subject!

Royal Family Order of King Charles III: Portrait by Elizabeth Meek MBE PPRMS

The New Royal Family Order - created for King Charles III

The new Royal Family Order, which features a miniature portrait of the Monarch, was unveiled recently and this post is about how it came about. I interviewed the Artist who created the miniature portrait the day after it became public knowledge!

This post covers:

• What is a Royal Family Order?
• What does the Order comprise - and who did what
• The Miniature Portrait painted by Elizabeth Meek.

The new King Charles III Royal Family Order was worn for the first time at a reception and State Banquet for the Japanese Emperor and his wife at Buckingham Palace.  HM Queen Camilla wore the Royal Family Orders commissioned by her husband  and the late Queen.

The Royal Family Order

To provide some context - the Royal Family Order is a decoration conferred by the monarch on female members of the British Royal Family.

• They have been created and conferred since 1820. They are usually the first honours given by the new Monarch to the female members of his or her family.
• It's usual for the colour of the ribbon used to attach it to a gown to change as the monarch changes.
• It's typically worn on State Occasions - such as State Banquets for a Visiting Head of State. 

Royal Family Orders have been given since 1820. Usually they are the first Honours awarded by a new Sovereign to Royal Ladies. 

To date, Queen Camilla is the only Royal Lady to receive one. However I think it very likely that we will see both the Princess Royal and the Princess of Wales wearing one in the near future - as both were absent due to ill health at the time of the banquet.

Copies of the miniature portrait are made to create the Royal Family Order worn by female relatives of the King.

Below, The King and Queen with The Emperor and Empress of Japan at the State Banquet at Buckingham Palace.

 

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What does the order comprise?

Creating a Royal Family Order is very much a team effort - although I'm focusing on the miniature painting which sits at the centre of the order in this post.

The Royal Family Order comprises:

• a miniature portrait of the Monarch, typically at the beginning of their reign
• a jewelled encasing which features loose jewels from the Royal Collection
• a ribbon which is used to hang the portrait and its case - and to hide the method used to attach it to the dress worn for the occasion! The colour of the ribbon can vary.

The new Royal Family Order commissioned for the female relatives of King Charles III was created by the following individuals and comprises:

• a miniature portrait by leading professional miniature portrait painter Elizabeth Meek MBE PPRMS. 
• This was based on a photograph of the monarch wearing the uniform of Admiral of the Fleet and his array of decorations taken by the official Royal Photographer Hugo Bernard at Windsor Castle in 2023. This depicts the King wearing the ceremonial day uniform of a Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet with the collar of the Order of the Garter, the Royal Victorian Chain, the riband of the Royal Victorian Order, the badges of the Order of the Bath and Order of Merit and various medals.
• A miniature Tudor Crown sits at the top of the jewelled casing that surrounds the portrait. This includes diamonds weighing 10.41 carat - which came from loose jewels in the Royal Collection. This was created by British jewellery designer Fiona Rae Goldsmiths has been designing and making jewellery for over 34 years, after graduating from Central St Martins and receiving a business loan from the Prince's Trust. She was recently granted a Royal Warrant from HM King Charles III. 
• The enamelled reverse of the case depicts the King's cypher in gold. The case and goldwork was engineered by Seth Kennedy, a scholar from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust.
• The casing for the portrait is suspended from a pale blue moiré silk bow created by the leading milliner Philip Treacy who makes lots of hats for the Queen.
• His Majesty personally selected the colour of the ribbon, which is based on the Family Order of his great-grandfather, King George V. 
• This marks a change from the yellow that decorated the late Queen’s Order.
• Those wearing the Royal Family Orders usually arrange them in layers on the left shoulder.

You can see an image of Queen Camilla wearing the new Royal Family Order with that created for HM Queen Elizabeth 11 in this Tatler article Queen Camilla debuts King Charles' new Family Order at Buckingham Palace: everything we know about the honour

The Miniature Portrait - by Elizabeth Meek

Now on to the art involved!