Call for Entries: Society of Women Artists 164th Annual Exhibition (2025)

This is about the call for entries for the Annual Open Exhibition 2025 of the Society of Women Artists (SWA).  

The SWA seeks works of the highest standard within its specific field. The SWA continues to promote female artists and prides itself on the very diverse nature of the work shown during our Annual Open Exhibition from both our non-members and our members.

Below you can find a summary of how to enter and relevant terms and conditions - although you do need to read the complete set of details.

All the images below are from the Annual Exhibition in 2024.

SWA Annual Exhibition: Call for Entries

The Society of Women Artists exhibits at the Mall Galleries on an annual basis (although not a member of the Federation of the British Artists).  This year the exhibition will be held there between 24th June to 28th June 2025 (5 days ONLY).

The DEADLINE for entries is 8th March 2025. If you enter, you can find out whether you have been successful if you visit the SWA website on or after the 29th March 2025.

In this post you can find:

• details of the exhibition
• who is eligible to enter
• what types of artwork are eligible
• how to enter 

but, first, why enter this exhibition?

Why enter the SWA Annual Exhibition?

East Gallery, SWA Annual Exhibition 2024

The Society of Women Artists have been on an important journey of improvement in recent years. It's one which can provide lessons for other art societies - in a variety of ways.

In general the artwork has improved over time and the number of younger artists now exhibiting with the Society has improved.

There's also a keen sense of the exhibition being a place where women artists can exhibit work on themes with meaning to women - which might get overlooked by panels where men make up the majority of the members.

Artist of the Year Gallery: Artwork for Sale

This year the Artist of the Year team at Storyvault Films Ltd (SF) have developed the offering to artists past, present and future by creating a website which enables pod artists to sell their artwork.

It has some good points - and some significant weaknesses on the finance side - but nothing which cannot be addressed. Better sooner rather than later.

Artist of the Year Gallery Website - Home Page

What's on the Gallery Website

You can see:

• the artists - Artists are listed in order of their appearance on our programmes, most recent first. However not all artists are participating - partly because this is a new initiative and partly because some artists will have existing arrangements for selling their art which they won't want to compromise.
• the artworks - are produced by artists who have participated in the programmes - but not all artworks have been produced for the programmes. 
• The How It Works explanation
• Terms and Conditions (very important) - The Terms and Conditions need to be accessible via a PDF printable document for Artists to file - for the record - which they are not at present.

It's an interesting proposition because one of the things many artists struggle with is selling their artwork online - which is much less straightforward to do properly than people might think.

Consequently, just as any artist has to who is trading online and distance selling artwork has to do, this SF ecommerce operation MUST comply with all the rules and regulations around

• trading law and regulations 
• e commerce law and regulations 
  
• VAT on Art

(Note: These links go the relevant pages of my Art Business Info for Artists website)

BUT IF they're doing everything properly (see below), this site could be a BIG saving in time and effort for an artist in terms of mastering all the ins and outs of online distance selling of artwork! 

I haven't checked the site out thoroughly for ALL the aspects in detail but I assume they've done the wise thing and had 

• an expert ecommerce lawyer advising on what they must do and cannot do - and 
• an expert ecommerce adviser telling them what's the best approach for an operation like this.
• a VAT expert checking to make sure they got all the VAT aspects right.

However on a quick review, I ended up feeling a bit like "a party pooper" as I have reservations about whether SF have been wise in the approach they have adopted to 

• robust and secure monetary transactions / payment processing
• money laundering regulations for art galleries / dealers / agents
• VAT liability, transactions and associated documentation

At the end you can see how it works. 

Immediately below is a summary of the financial weaknesses I spotted which I think need addressing.

Call for Entries: Society of Women Artists 160th Open Exhibition

This is about the call for entries for the 160th Annual Open Exhibition 2021 of the Society of Women Artists (SWA).

Call for entries for the SWA open annual exhibition online

 

Like a number of other societies, this annual exhibition will be a virtual / online exhibition this year.

The SWA normally exhibit at the Mall Galleries - but given the number of months the Galleries have been closed due to lockdown, the priority for exhibiting art societies in 2021 obviously goes to the Societies which are members of the Federation of British Artists whose home is at the Mall Galleries.

Plus a digital submission means that an artist can submit artwork for exhibition MINUS travelling, transport and the framing costs.

Online Exhibition dates are as follows

• Deadline for all Digital Entries: midnight on 25 June 2021 i.e. you have a month left to submit your entry (Note: I hate midnight timings - I never know whether they mean the beginning or end of the day. "Noon" is much clearer).
• Notification of Selection (ONLINE ONLY): 16th July 2021 
• Online Exhibition Opens: 21st September 2021.
• Exhibition Closes: Sunday 29th September 2021.

I didn't review last year's exhibition as this was also online - and I'm finding reviewing online art much more difficult than exhibitions in galleries. However, you can see the standard of work this exhibition attracts in my Review: Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2019

In this post you can find:

• who is eligible to enter
• what types of artwork are eligible
• how to enter - with key dates
• details of the exhibition
• details of the prizes

but, first, why enter this exhibition? 

Why enter the SWA Annual Exhibition?

The Society of Women Artists have been on an important journey of improvement in recent years. It's one which provides lessons for other art societies.

As I've indicated in past reviews, the quality of the artwork in their exhibitions has improved enormously and there has been a greater involvement by professional women artists.  The change in the quality of the work also gave me the impression that selection had become much more rigorous and being a favoured member/friends was no longer enough to get your work selected.

I think the change has also been in part due to an injection of new and younger blood - with artists keen to "make their mark" and wanting the exhibition to be excellent - and are keen to use websites and social media to promote their art. In turn this is also reflected in a more contemporary "younger" feel to a lot of the artwork - which in turn draws a wider audience to the exhibition and helps improve sales! (It's a lesson which many other art societies might ponder on!)

There's also a keen sense of the exhibition being a place where women artists can exhibit work on themes with meaning to women - which might get overlooked by panels where men make up the majority of the members.

"Parting" by non-member Ayna Paisley
(from the 2020 online exhibition)
Acrylics, Paper Collage h: 70 w: 150 d: 4 (cms)
currently used for the Home Page of the SWA website

Two (financial) benefits are is that 

• submitting digitally to an online exhibition enables artists to submit works for consideration at a reduced cost - without the travelling, transport and the framing costs. 
• ENTRY FEES HAVE BEEN REDUCED for this online exhibition! 

Plus finally - there are PRIZES AND AWARDS! These are the 2021 awards.

• Princess Michael of Kent Award - A signed certificate
• President and Vice Presidents’ Award - A signed certificate
• The Tom Urwin Special Fine Art Award - £1500
• Karin Walker Young Artist Award - 2 x £500
• Derwent Special Fine Art Award
• Young Artist £500 (art materials) Awards
• Established Artist £500 (art materials) Awards
• The Artist Editor’s Choice Award, Feature in The Artist
• The Rosemary and Co Award £100 (brushes)
• Patsy Whiting Award £100
• Jackson’s Award £150 (art materials)

 

Call for Entries for the SWA's Annual Online Exhibition 2021

Find the full details of how to apply and the General terms and Conditions on this page

Below is a summary of that page - with some facts rearranged. 

 

Do not forget that the basic fact is that EVERYTHING is digital - communication, entries, images, and the exhibition. If you're not happy with digital then maybe this is not for you - or you need a friend who can help you.

Who can enter

• The exhibition is INTERNATIONAL i.e. open to artists in the UK, EU, and outside the EU 
  
• There is no stated restriction on who can enter. However, this is an exhibition of work by women artists!
• Women artists under the age of 35 are judged to be young artists and can submit work at a reduced fee.

What you can enter

What follows are the rules of what you can submit and what you need to know before you get on to the 'how to enter' section.

Categories of work which are acceptable:

• Paintings, pastels, drawings;
• Mixed media
• Sculpture, in all media;
• Original unique printing is acceptable e.g. engraving, lithography. Etchings must show their plate indentations. Commercially printed line work or photographically/digitally reproduced work printed with commercial machines (such as giclée work) is NOT admissible.
• Ceramics, glass and metal not of a utilitarian nature. 

This year, there is NO MAXIMUM submission size for paintings and sculpture. All works will be judged by merit. 

All artwork accepted and exhibited online by SWA MUST be 

• for sale, except by prior consent from the SWA. 
• EXCLUSIVE for the duration of the exhibition - which means that the commission is still payable even if it is listed and sold via another platform during the exhibition.

Artwork prices should include the commission of 45% for non members and 40% for members the SWA will be donating 5% of the sale price to the Charity Breast Cancer Now. 

Minimum Sale prices for works (excluding courier costs): 

• £150 for etchings or lithography or drawings
• £200 for 3D works
• £350 for everything else.

Please also note that all retail prices MUST include VAT if applicable and ALL artists liable to VAT are responsible for paying their own tax direct to HMRC. 

All costs of transport to a buyer will be payable by the buyer and accurate costs will need to be quoted to a buyer before a sale is concluded. So you need to know what the cost of packing and shipping is before you enter - or ASAP after you get selected.
[Note it does not say this in the Call for Entries - but this is how it needs to work if transactions are to be compliant with all relevant regulations for trade and ecommerce]

ARTISTS LIVING OUTSIDE THE UK PLEASE NOTE. 

• All artists without a UK residence are classified as Non-Established Taxable Persons (NETPs) and must register with HMRC (HM Revenue + Customs) for a UK VAT number before they can exhibit artworks in our Online Exhibition. 
• A valid UK VAT number is prefaced with the letters “GB”. VAT numbers relating to other countries are not valid for the purposes of this exhibition.
• You must provide the SWA with your UK VAT number before 1st September 2021. If you do not, your selected artwork(s) cannot be displayed online in the exhibition.
• see General Terms and Conditions for more details
  

How to enter

My top seven from The Figurative Art Fair

In the age of Coronavirus, the online art fair becomes the norm.

The Figurative Art Fair

Thus we have a new online art fair in The Figurative Art Fair - which is currently online on the Mall Galleries website.

It comprises

• 248 works for sale 
• by around 100 elected members of the country’s leading national art societies, including:
• The Pastel Society (PS)
• Royal Society of British Artists (RBA)
• Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI)
• Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP)
• New English Art Club (NEAC)
• Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA)
• Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA)
• Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI)

In the decade of “The Triumphant Return of Figurative Art” (The New York Times, 2015), and at a time of isolation, the societies have come together to celebrate figurative art, contemporary artists, and the spirit of artistic collaboration in their first-ever “figurative” art fair, outside of gallery walls, exclusively online.

All works are for sale and all works are also available for despatch immediately - with FREE delivery!

It's interesting how some artwork I started out to like - and then the photograph was not up to standard and I switched off straight away.  It really highlights why excellent photography is required if you're going to exhibit online. I hasten to add that most have excellent photographs.

Works which caught my eye include the following.

Quince by Charlotte Sorapore

Oil on gesso panel (framed) 35 x 29 cm

This is the one I liked the best - in part because of a really excellent photograph which revealed the wonderful surface of the painting and the mark-making. The light and the optical mixing are also wonderful. A skilled painting of a very simple subject

I'd buy it if I could afford it.

Quince by Charlotte Sorapore

Shallows by Ruth Stage 

Egg tempera (framed) 73 x 83 cm

I'm a big fan of Ruth Stage's egg tempera painting. I wanted to include two but restricted myself to one.  She has a happy knack of abstracting the real and layering up her paintings with paint and marks that make it intensely interesting such that you want to keep on looking at the surface and not just what it represents.

Shallows by Ruth Stage

Leaning Hawthorns by Sarah Bee

Acrylic on gesso primed mount board (framed) 68 x 68 cm

This is a typical Sarah Bee - acrylic underpainting of old and twisted trees and then developed on top through the use of pastel. Each one always looks fresh.

Bonfire at Akeld by Frances Bell

Oil on board (unframed) 36 x 56 cm

Frances works with a very muted and cool palette - and yet always seems to find light within her subject matter

Bonfire at Akeld by Frances Bell

Moment of Majesty, Mt Elijah above Ano Boularii, Sundown by Toby Wiggins

Oil on canvas (framed) 96 x 144 cm

This is big - and reminds me a lot of paintings of New Mexico by both Georgia O'Keeffe (see Georgia O'Keeffe's landscapes of northern New Mexico) and Lydia Baumann (see Painting Georgia O'Keeffe Country). Desert landscapes as a subject are hugely under-rated.

Moment of Majesty, Mt Elijah above Ano Boularii, Sundown by Toby Wiggins

Alcazar Gardens (Seville) by David Curtis (sold)

Oil(framed) 38 x 38 cm

This reminds me of when I visited the Alcazar Gardens and did a pastel painting plein air.

However this is an oil painting. I want to see the brush strokes in every plein air oil painting - and in this one I can. When I look at the enlarged painting it's as if it's in front of me.

I note it has sold and I'm far from surprised.

Social Distancing on the Trent by Chris Myers 

Watercolour (framed) 54 x 102 cm

The title of this one made me smile - because it provides a record of a particular time - and yet it was painted last year. A neat example of how a change of title suddenly makes a painting very relevant and contemporary.

Social Distancing on the Trent by Chris Myers

Want to buy the catalogue for an art exhibition that has closed?

The Museum Bookstore is new. It's an online store that specialises in the exhibition catalogues and art books produced by leading museums and galleries across the world.

I don't know about you but as a dedicated art bookophile, I find myself buying old exhibition catalogues more and more. Especially for those exhibitions I missed or could not get to because they were in another country. This looks to me like the sort of online bookstore a lot of artists are going to be bookmarking.

We set up Museum Bookstore for art, fashion and design lovers whether they want to read up on an exhibition they are about to visit; read more about an exhibition being held far afield, revisit an old favourite show or just add another beautiful coffee table book to their collection.

The website gives you the option of:

• shopping by category eg Art books and exhibition catalogues
• shopping by museum eg The Getty; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; 

At the moment the links are predominantly museums and art galleries in the UK and USA but there are also occasional catalogues from leading French, Austrian, Australian, Dutch, Scandinavian, Spanish museums and doubtless many more.

Middle of the art books and exhibition catalogue

They also have a blog - but sadly it lacks images

The good news is that if you like books, visiting need not be an expensive experience.

We ship worldwide and delivery is free on orders over £50.00. Like the very best days spent at a museum, we want shopping at Museum Bookstore to be enlightening, surprising and enormously good fun.

Overall, I'm favourably impressed - and it's getting a bookmark un my art books folder.