PAOTY 2025: Commission Painting of Hannah Fry

This is about "The Winner's Story - Painting Hannah Fry" and the very last episode of Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year (2025)

I include this here, because of course this is not painting so much as printmaking. I guess that the good people at Storyvault Films forget that artists and painters are not interchangeable words - and one is a subset of the other.

Either that or they made up this graphic in advance of the series on the basis you might as well get all the titles done at the same time.....

Title frame for the Winner's Story - Episode 11 of Series 12 of PAOTY (2025)

That illustrates how much a PAINTER is expected to be the winner. 

Yet this year Chloe Barnes, who is a mono printmaker, won and hence this winner's story is about the process of moving from winning to getting the commission to create a portrait of Professor Hannah Fry for the Royal Society started, worked on, done and then unveiled - as a MONOPRINT.

The portrait was commissioned by the Royal Society as part of a year-long celebration of the 80th anniversary of the first women elected to its Fellowship, Kathleen Lonsdale FRS and Marjory Stephenson FRS.

The Sitter and the Unveiling

We'll start at the very beginning and then the end - with the Sitter and the Unveiling

Every year the last episode in each series of the "Portrait Artist of the Year" programmes, made by Storyvault Films and broadcast on Sky Arts, is about the £10,000 Commission awarded to the winning artist.

The Commission

Every year, the winner of the Portrait Artist of the Year Award receives a £10,000 commission to 

• create a portrait of a specific individual - who is typically well known and has contributed in a significant way to public life.
• for a particular organisation - who would like to have a portrait of that individual. 

The Client

So this year the organisation was The Royal Society 

• formally founded in 28 November 1660 and  formally known as The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, 
• It is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. It is also known as

the oldest scientific organisation in continuous existence in the world

In 2025, the Royal Society is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the admission of the first women to the Royal Society Kathleen Lonsdale and Marjory Stephenson in 1945.

The Sitter

The Sitter, Professor Hannah Fry, is the 

• first ever Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Previously she was the Professor of the Mathematics of Cities at University College London (UCL)
• President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications
• a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
• has received various awards, including latterly the Royal Society's David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2024 in recognition of her significant work in public engagement with science and for her prolific role in popularising mathematics. The medal is bronze, is awarded annually and is accompanied by a gift of £2,500.
• plus she has 1.7 million followers on Instagram @frysquared

Interestingly she is NOT a Fellow of the Royal Society - although I'm assuming that this will probably follow.

In November 2025, she also joined Goalhanger to deliver a brand new podcast The Rest is Science with educator Michael Stevens (Vsauce). This is what's currently all over her Instagram account @frysquared - NOT the portrait!

The Unveiling

First we all wait, 

Left: Royal Society people and programme presenter
Right: Chloe Barnes and Prof. Hannah Fry with her two daughters

Then we all take a jolly good look

Keith Moore, Head of Library at the Royal Society comments on the fact
this is the first print portrait of a living female scientist at the Royal Society

and then, like at all good parties, we get a pic taken with the most important person in the room i.e. the monoprint

Posing for photographs - Hannah Fry and her daughters
with the monoprint by Chloe Barnes

....and then the Royal Society publish a news statement / press release about the new portrait of Professor Hannah Fry. 

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..and then we get to see the portrait

Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life - a landmark exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery

An exhibition of artwork by Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021) is coming to the Courtauld Gallery this October. 

I've just booked my ticket to the Wayne Thiebaud - American Still Life Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery - opening 10th October to 18th January 2025. 

I'm a big fan of Wayne Thiebaud - not least because I used to love drawing food, foodstuff  and meals. I never quite graduated to cakes but I do love looking at the display in the windows of great cake shops! 

This is the blog post I wrote when he died in 2021 - An appreciation of Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - 2021). I'll be writing more about him nearer the time of thre exhibition.

Wayne Thiebaud - American Still Life Exhibition

In summary he is one of the greatest and most original American artists of the 20th century. He is famous for being focused in particular on post-war modern American subjects - typically as still life objects. 

Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud (1920-1021)

This exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery will be the first ever museum show of his work in the UK. It will present Thiebaud’s remarkable, vibrant and lushly painted still-lifes of quintessentially post-war American subjects, from diner food and deli counters to gumball dispensers and pinball machines. These are the paintings with which Thiebaud made his name in the USA in the early 1960s.

The exhibition will feature rarely lent works from major museum collections in the USA as well as the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation.

These are my two books about Wayne Thiebaud - which I periodically salivate over.

For me he's an artist who is a luscious realist of the everyday - until you get up close and realise his artwork is also abstracted from reality and the artist relishes the media he used. More Wayne Thibaud: "This for you is my world to look at" (Making A Mark September 2019)

Thiebaud - delicious metropolis, the desserts and urban scenes of Wayne Thiebaud

Wayne Thiebaud 100 
the book produced to celebrate the 100th birthday of
"one of America's most loved and respected artists"

A second exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: Delights, will focus on the artists's eponymous 1965 portfolio of prints to appreciate Thiebaud as a draughtsman and printmaker.

In 1964, Wayne Thiebaud created a portfolio of 17 prints, entitled Delights, in which he returned to the favoured still-life motifs found in his paintings and which made his name in the early 1960s: ice cream cones, rows of cakes, gumball machines and many of the other objects of everyday American life. However, these subjects look very different rendered in print, on a small scale and in black and white. As Thiebaud told his publisher, ‘When you change something, you change everything.’ Thiebaud was keen to experiment with different techniques and media, and Delights was his first foray into printmaking, a technique he returned to throughout his long career.

Previous blog posts

• An appreciation of Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - 2021)
• More Wayne Thibaud: "This for you is my world to look at"
• Wayne Thiebaud working on etchings (video)

Norman Ackroyd CBE RA (1938-2024)

I was very sad to hear that the eminent master printmaker Norman Ackroyd passed away last week - in the  afternoon of a fine warm day (Monday 16th September) at his home in Bermondsey. He was 86

Norman Ackroyd (1938-2024)

Such a contrast to his lithographs and prints of the windswept, rainy isles and vaporous clouds in the North of Scotland and other rugged Atlantic seascapes and landscapes in the UK and Ireland. He was a complete master of portraying the coasts on the Atlantic seaboard.

His capacity for creating vaporous clouds filled with sea birds - with amorphous giant shapes representing the coastline which has stood up the beating of winds and rain from west was simply amazing - and his prints had very many fans.

Norman Ackroyd's map of all the locations (with a pin) where he been
to create etchings of that landscape in his studio in Bermondsey

There's a couple of excellent Videos of him talking about his artwork and his processes on YouTube based on the BBC series "What do Artists do all day?" which reviewed him and his work. These are they....

I remember him very well from when he led the tour on the Press Preview for the RA Summer Exhibition in 2013 - which was the best I'd ever been to. It's always stayed in my memory. He struck me then as a complete "one-off" and a really interesting man who could speak about art in plain English. Probably something to do with the northerner in me responding positively to the fact he was born in Leeds in Yorkshire!

Norman Ackroyd CBE RA
talking about hanging Gallery III at Burlington House (RA Summer Exhibition 2013)
which included works hung in honour of the late Mary Fedden RA
who had recently passed away.

This is a video of Norman Ackroyd talking about the process of selecting and then hanging a Summer Exhibition.

Life and career of Norman Ackroyd

His website summarises his life, art education and the career of Norman Ackroyd. He graduated from the Royal College of Art 60 years ago this summer.

• 1938: Born Leeds
• 1956-61: Leeds College of Art
• 1961-64: Royal College of Art, London
• 1988: Elected Royal Academician
• 1994: Appointed Professor of Etching, University of the Arts
• 1999 - 2000: Professor of Printmaking
• 2000: Elected Senior Fellow, Royal College of Art
• 2007: Awarded a C.B.E. for Services to Engraving and printing
• 2013: Elected Senior RA: 1 October 2013

He has produced work for many significant commissions and has work in prestigious collections all over the world. It also sells pretty fast at the RA Summer Exhibition

He called his medium “painting with acid”, and he was on friendly terms with a vast array of the chemicals, from the violent hydrochloric to the lively nitric, which “bites in all directions”. Daily Telegraph obituary

His work in Art Collections

His work is in the collections of very many prominent art galleries and organisations.

Selected Public Collections

Albertina Museum, Vienna

• Art Institute of Chicago
• Arts Council of Great Britain
• British Council
• British Museum, London 
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• Fogg Art Museum, Harvard
• Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Museum of Modern Art, New York
• National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
• National Gallery of Canada
• National Gallery of Norway
• National Gallery of Scotland
• National Gallery of South Africa
• Queensland Art Gallery
• Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
• The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle
• Stedelijk, Amsterdam
• Tate Gallery, London Norman Ackroyd born 1938 - Tate". Tate Britain. 
• Utah Museum of Fine Art

and numerous museums and art galleries in the United Kingdom

Ackroyd also received several public mural commissions, produced in etched stainless steel or bronze. Recent commissions included Lloyds Bank, London; British Airways, Birmingham Airport; Freshfields, London; Tetrapack, Stockley Park, Heathrow; a bronze mural for the Main Hall of the British Embassy, Moscow; and Lazards Bank, Stratton Street, London W1. RA Obituary

 

Obituaries

Other posts about his life include:

How to apply to become an associate member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers

For all those printmakers who think they might be ready to move up a stage - and want to add RE after their names.

This post covers

• a very brief history of the Society
• how to apply to become an associate member (ARE) of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers - which is the first step on the pathway to becoming a full member (RE).
• what happens if you are elected an Associate Member 

A brief history of The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers

The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers is a very old art society.

• formed in 1880 - as a reaction to the Royal Academy of Arts' reluctance to exhibit etchings and engravings (ironic considering the contemporary popularity of printmaking at the RA Summer Exhibition!)
• 1888: received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria and became and became the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers
• 1911: full members began using RE after their names
• 1991 changed its name - having formerly been known as the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers - hence the RE acronym.
• It is the foremost society for all printmakers
• Printmaking methods included within the scope of the society:
• 1897: Engraving
• 1920: wood engraving
• 1987: lithography
• 1990: all forms of creative and forward-thinking original printmaking
• eminent past members have included Graham Sutherland, Stanley William Hayter, Edward Bawden, Julian Trevelyan and Michael Rothenstein.

Since its inception, every member has had one piece of work selected, providing a snapshot of the artist's portfolio at the moment of his or her election.

If elected as a full member, your name and the title of your chosen ‘RE Diploma Print’ are entered in a Roll-Book whose entries arch back to 1880.

The Society shares its home at Bankside Gallery, in London, with the Royal Watercolour Society in an association that has lasted more than a hundred years.  Each year there are various opportunities to exhibit:

• RE Members are invited to submit two works for inclusion in the Society’s major annual exhibition at Bankside Gallery 
• there are a number of opportunities to show in joint exhibitions at Bankside Gallery and elsewhere.

Demonstrations and lectures are held as part of the education programme accompanying exhibitions, fulfilling the Society’s status as an educational charity. The RE is run by its Members, all of whom are expected to take an active role in furthering the interests of the Society.

Applications for the Election of Associate Members in 2024

The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) was formed in 1880 to seek recognition for and to promote the value of printmaking as an art in its own right. Membership is open to artist-printmakers of the highest order. To this day it continues to promote original printmaking in all its forms, widen the knowledge and understanding of printmaking as a process, whilst also providing its members with artistic opportunities.

This is the Applications Page on the RE website

This is the ONLINE FORM you need to submit to apply for election as an Associate Member

You can Download the 2024 application guidelines (PDF). Links to online guidance pages are included below 

Timeline for applications and selection:

• Deadline for receipt of applications: Monday 27 November 2023 12 noon
• Notification of Shortlisted Artists: Friday 22 December 2023
• Deadline for submission of actual prints by shortlisted artists: Saturday 3 February 2024, 11am - 6pm (see Information for Shortlisted Candidates - which also outlines the provisions for all Overseas Artists)
• Collection of prints: (see details about collection)
• Sunday 4 February, 4 - 6pm & 
• Monday 5 February 11am – 1pm 
• Results are sent by email by end of Monday 5 February.

TIP Read the Terms of Election and Guidance very carefully and always aim to create a good first impression. THINK CAREFULLY about 

• whether you are ready to apply this year 
• or whether it might be better to spend the next year gathering together all you need for a good quality application which reflects your suitability for election in 2025.

Who is eligible to apply

Society of Wood Engravers Annual Exhibition

On Friday I visited the Bankside Gallery in London and viewed the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers

The exhibition opened on 7th February and continues to 26th February and I'd very much recommend this exhibition to anybody interested in fine art printmaking. 

• There are a lot of high quality artworks in this exhibition. 
• More importantly many of them are very affordable (i.e. less than £500 - with some less than £100)

The Society of Wood Engravers was founded in 1920 by artists including Eric Gill, Gwen Raverat, Robert Gibblings, Philip Hagreen and Lucien Pissarro. A break during the war years and then again in the 1970s meant that their annual exhibition ceased for a time; since their revival in 1984, they have built a reputation for excellence, attracting exhibitors and collectors from around the world

View of one corner of the exhibition

I've included an album of my photos from the exhibition in a folder - Society of Wood Engravers Annual Exhibition 2023 - on my Facebook Page.

It starts with images of the prizewinners followed by gallery views of the wood engravings in the exhibition.

View of some of the artworks in the exhibition - indicating the variation in size

I'm somewhat puzzled by where I can find a list of the prizewinners on what appears to be the two websites of the Society of Wood Engravers

• https://www.woodengravers.co.uk/
• https://www.societyofwoodengravers.co.uk/

Images from this annual exhibition can also be found on the https://www.societyofwoodengravers.co.uk/shop or the Bankside Gallery's exhibition page https://www.banksidegallery.com/exhibitions/92-the-society-of-wood-engravers/works 

SWA Feature Artist 2023: Angie Lewin

The feature artist in the exhibition is Angie Lewin

In 2006 I was elected to The Royal Society of Painter Printmakers and in 2008 to The Society of Wood Engravers. In 2010 I was elected to The Art Workers Guild. In 2016 I was elected to The Royal Watercolour Society.

What's rather odd is that the artworks are not all wood engravings.

2nd International Original Print Exhibition (2022)

I went to see the International Original Print Exhibition 2022 at the Bankside Gallery on the South Bank on Tuesday. It finishes on Sunday 2nd October.

I can certainly highly recommend it as a diverse collection of original fine art prints which demonstrate the diversity in different approaches to print-making

The prints also varied between the very colourful and monochrome.

All the works exhibited are the result of an open submission exhibition established by the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. The aim of the exhibition is to celebrate the best in all forms of contemporary printmaking.

These include

• aquatint etching
• chine collé
• copperplate engraving
• digital 
• drypoint
• etching
• giclee
• hand stencilled screenprint
• high relief carborundum
• intaglio gravure
• laser engraved woodcut
• linocut
• lithograph
• mezzotint
• mokuhanga (water-based woodblock)
• monotype
• photolithography
• photopolymer etching
• risograph
• screenprint
• silkscreen and woodcut
• soft ground
• solar etching
• stone lithography
• woodcut and stencil
• woodblock

and variations on the above.

It's also an exhibition with a wide variety of sponsors of both the exhibition and/or individual awards.

The overall bias of subject matter is either abstracted or landscape oriented with fewer images of people than you might expect. 

Review - Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition 2019

There are 514 artworks in total in the 2019 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists. They comprise paintings, fine art prints, drawings, sculpture, ceramics and other 3D work in all kinds of media and but mainly (but not exclusively) a figurative / representative style - and you can see them at the Mall Galleries until Sunday 14th July.

This post covers:

• About the Exhibition - what you need to know
• Exhibition Metrics and the Open Entry
• Prizes and awards
• Artwork I liked

Strong paintings and 3D work in the Threadneedle Space

I turned right on entering and encountered a very impressive hang in the Threadneedle Space. Lots of variety in terms of style, size and media - and some very eye-catching work

A view of the Threadneedle Space

In fact my first reaction to the very first paintings I saw was "Proper paintings - this is going to be a good one" - which is a pretty good way of influencing somebody who is going to review a exhibition!

This is an exhibition which has packed in the artwork - and some might say that it looks crowded. However I much prefer to see good art - the only time I'll complain about crowded walls is when some of the artwork should have been weeded out!

In general I liked the hang - except for the end wall in the Main Gallery which to me seemed to lack the type of "look at me" pieces that the wall demands. A woman in skimpy clothing in front of a bulls eye does not rate as "look at me" in my eyes - quite the reverse.

One odd thing I noticed is that it's a bit of a cats and dogs exhibition - I spied many more cats and dogs than I normally do - and they seem (as I also note at the RA Summer Exhibition - to be very popular!)

While there is a some variation in quality between artworks - with some outstanding pieces - the overall standard of the exhibition is good to very good. The RBA continues to maintain its improvement in exhibition standards of recent years

Works on the mezzanine level (above the stairs) to the right of the entrance
- made me think there was more good work to see beyond!

About the exhibition

View of part of the RBS Annual Exhibition 2019 in the Main Gallery

• Venue: Mall Galleries - The Mall, St. James's, London SW1, UK (link is to Google Maps)
• Dates: 4th - Sunday 14th July (closing 1pm on the last day)
• Open: Daily, 10am to 5pm during exhibitions (unless otherwise stated)
• Admission £4, £2.50 concessions, 50% off for National Art Pass holders, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries, RBA Friends and under 25 year olds

Details of the remaining events during the course of the exhibition can be found on the Mall Galleries website

View images online

If you don't visit the exhibition you can also view images online

London Original Print Fair and A Buyer's Guide to Prints

Yesterday I went to the 34th London Original Print Fair at the Royal Academy of Arts. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for all those who like fine art prints. I've been in previous years and enjoy:

• the fact I can see fine art prints by leading artists past and present
• view a lot of work by people I've never seen before - and I always come away with new 'names of artists to follow'

This is an annual event around about this time of year at the RA - who have got a massive space for the exhibition and a lot of printmakers among their members.

Tickets are £12 (on the website0 and concessions are available.

• Half-price tickets for National Art Pass.
• RA Friends receive free entry.

The fair is on 25-28th April 2019 i.e. started on Thursday and is also on today and tomorrow (10am – 6pm). 

I took "himself" (free entry on my Friends card!) who declared he was very pleasantly surprised - and interested - and would have stayed much longer if he didn't have to go and catch a train for a prior commitment.

I came away with A Buyer's Guide to Prints by Helen Rosslyn (a prints and drawings specialist and a Director and the Organiser of the London Original Print Fair) which was published by the Royal Academy of Arts last September. It's got good explanations of all the various types of prints and technical terms plus useful notes on what to expect from a printmaker, how to frame them and answers to a number of frequently asked questions by actual and potential collectors of fine art prints.

All for £9.99 which makes it affordable as well as useful and accessible!

What does it look like

I've uploaded a bunch of photos to my Facebook Page - see London Original Print Fair 2019 - if you want to see the scale and nature of this art fair for printmakers and fine art print lovers. Below are a few of the pics I took.

Which artists can you see 

The printmaking artists being exhibited by the various stands at the fair include Brueghel, Cranach, Hogarth, Monet, Whistler, Picasso, Matisse, Francis Bacon, Barbara Hepworth, Roy Lichtenstein, Lucien Freud, Louise Bourgeois, Victor Pasmore - and more from the past.

Contemporary artists include: David Hockney, Grayson Perry, Peter Blake, Norman Ackroyd (everywhere!), Chris Orr, Paula Rego, Mick Rooney, David Shrigley, Anita Klein, Adam Dant et al.

Which galleries are exhibiting

This page on their website provide links to the explanations of each stand at the 2019 Fair.

The galleries which impressed me include:

Review: Society of Wildlife Artists 55th Annual Exhibition

The Natural Eye 2018 - Feature wall of the Annual Exhibition of Society of Wildlife Artists

I hate it when I've downloaded my thoughts about an exhibition onto paper - and then start to write the review and can't find the notes!  Written in the exhibition they're fresh and spontaneous. Trying to resurrect the thoughts after I've written them down does not always work...

Duh!

However I have now found my notes of my visit to the SWLA Exhibition last Friday - in my shopping bag in among the receipts and the evening paper from last Friday!  So that's the end of notes on paper and next time my formal red Exhibition Notes Moleskine is back in action as the repository of all my thoughts on an exhibition!

So what did I think?

View of the SWLA Exhibition in the Threadneedle gallery 
featuring Old Man of the Woods, Bronze by Nick Bibby

Well first of all, the 2018 annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists at the Mall Galleries is emphatically not an exhibition of photorealistic artwork.

That's not to say detail is not observed or that technique is confined to the gestural as opposed to the precise.

Instead the emphasis is very much on seeing, observing over time and portraying the vitality of the wildlife in their natural habitat.

There is LOTS of emphasis on movement - particularly of sea birds. Indeed there are lots of very vigorous paintings in the Threadneedle space.

Paintings created from studies of birds at visits to Bass Rock and St Abb's Head
Threadneedle Space

There's also a lot of emphasis on colour - although the works in the Threadneedle Space tended more towards the blue/grey cold end of the colour spectrum (see above) with warmer tones prevailing in the main gallery.  I like the fact that there is both complete truth about colour from some artists while others like to push the boundaries and make their art "pop" off the wall!

View of the Main Gallery

This year I particularly enjoyed the two very colourful collages produced by Carry Ackroyd - (Fox on the Prowl and Swans on the River) - on the end wall of the main gallery. (see top image)

Smaller prints in the North Gallery

There is a huge emphasis on wildlife found in the UK and Europe rather than "wildlife if Africa and Asia". the latter while present does not take over the show - with big cats and elephants everywhere.

Indeed where the wildlife from other countries is included this year I found it somewhat unusual. Hence the major exhibition of the Urban Black Kites of Delhi - which was very impressive.

Awards - Society of Wildlife Artists Annual Exhibition 2018

This is about

• the awards made at "The Discerning Eye" -  the 2018 annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists. 
• the artists you can meet next week at the exhibition

The exhibition is on at the Mall Galleries until 4th November 10am to 5pm (closes at 1pm on final day)

I'm visiting two hospitals tomorrow(!) so my review of the exhibition may also be a little late in the day.

Society of Wildlife Artists - The Awards 2018

NEW The Terravesta Prize: £2,000 for the best work exhibited

The "Hyrdrothermal Vent", measuring in excess of 6 feer high, made by Jill Moger is a quite extraordinary work - I've never ever seen anything quite like it. It's explained in the catalogue for the exhibition.

A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in the earth's surface which typically form underwater along the ridges of tectonic plates which are diverging. Geothermally heated water issues from the vent. The assortment of animals surrounding them are referred to as hydrothermal vent communities.

Winner of the Terravesta Prize
Jill Moger SWLA, Hydrothermal vent
Mixed media: stoneware & ceramic183 x 102 cm
NFS

Although reptiles and amphibians predominate as Jill Moger's subject matter, she has created sculptures of many other wild animals. She is particularly drawn to the variety of life on and around the world's coral reefs and has been creating a series of work on this theme. Coral reefs are seriously endangered due to global warming and pollution and Jill believes that artists can help to highlight this impending disaster through their work.

Jill Moger is a self taught artist. She was a Vice President for Sculpture of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers from 2009 to 2013. She exhibits annually with the Society of Wildlife Artists and the Royal Miniature Society and at galleries specialising in wildlife art around the UK.

Website: http://www.jillmogersculptures.co.uk/
Sponsor: https://www.terravesta.com

Birdwatch Artist of the Year Award (£1,000 plus Swarovski equipment)

The BirdGuides.com Birdwatch Artist of the Year Award
Andrew Haslen SWLA
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Linocut (edition of 75, 9 available)

One of my favourite artists won one of the top awards.

Andrew Haslen was born in Essex in 1953. He lives in Suffolk, has a life-long love of nature and is totally self-taught. He was elected member of the Society of Wildlife Artists in 1988. He has been selected six times to exhibit at Birds in Art exhibition, Leigh Yawkey Art Museum, Wisconsin, USA.

Website: https://andrewhaslen.com/
Sponsor: https://www.birdguides.com/

Mascot Media 'Nature in Print' Award

Mascot Media Ltd 'Nature' in Print' Award
Julia Manning, Artist, Returning Tide (Shetland)
Wood cut | 60x70cm image size |Edition of 25

This is the first time that Mascot Media have sponsored a prize.

For the first time, we made an award at a show we've been attending for almost 30 years. The Mascot Media 'Nature in Print' award was for 'the most original, unusual or effective interpretation of the natural world using traditional printmaking techniques'. We chose a large woodcut by Somerset-based artist Julia Manning entitled 'Returning Tide', which features curlew over Shetland. We hope to feature this image and other of Julia's prints in the forthcoming 'Wings Over Water' book, due next May. 

Julia Manning lives in Somerset and has been a painter/printmaker for 40 years. She is a member of The Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Somerset Printmakers, The Society of Wildlife Artists and of The Royal Society of Painter Printmakers. She has work in a number of prestigious collections.

Website: http://www.juliamanning.co.uk
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Manning-Artist-185487711478339/
Sponsor: http://www.mascotmedia.co.uk

The RSPB 'Love Nature' Award

Kittie Jones Artist, Feeding Curlew
Winner of the RSPB 'Love Nature' Award

There are a huge number of paintings, prints and sculptures of birds at this exhibition every year.  This one came top this year!

Kittie Jones is a fine artist based in Edinburgh. She graduated from Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh University in 2008. She works from her studio at Coburg House Art Studios in Leith and regularly exhibits around the UK. Kittie was elected as a professional member of the Society of Wildlife Artists in 2016.
Website: http://kittiejones.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kittiejonesartist/
Sponsor: https://www.rspb.org.uk/

Dry Red Press Printmakers's Award

Dry Red Press Award
Carry Akroyd SWLA, Windhover

One of my favourite painter/printmakers who works in a variety of printmaking approaches.

Website: https://www.carryakroyd.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carry.akroyd
Sponsor: https://www.dryredpress.com/collections/art-society-ranges-dry-red-press-award

Birdscapes Gallery 'Conservation through Art' Award

Birdscapes Gallery 'Conservation through Art' Award
Esther Tyson RCA, Winter Sparrow
oil (Sold)

"For her masterful painting skill; her awareness that, in Nature, the ordinary is as important as the exotic; for her commitment to conservation-and-people projects around the world, and especially for painting sparrows!"Steve Harris, Birdscapes Gallery

Esther Tyson lives in Matlock, Derbyshire. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2003 and now combines a studio with observational outdoor practice. Esther has been involved in projects within the UK and Worldwide, working alongside organisations such as Birdlife International (Nepal, Vultures), BTO (Senegal/Norfolk, Migration), DKM (Turkey), Esther Benjamin Trust (Nepal), Free the Bears (Phnom Penh), FFI (Cambodia), Salford Council (Salford), Royal Parks (London), SWLA, Natural History Museum (the Big Draw).

Website:https://www.esthertyson.co.uk/index.html
Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/Esther-Tyson-RCA-106998002656569/
Sponsor: http://www.birdscapesgallery.co.uk/

The Ian Langford Field Sketches Award

The Ian Langford Field Sketches Award
sketchbooks by John Steel

In 2005, John Steel retired after 23 years working for Northumberland National Park as a ranger in the Cheviot Hills and latterly as park species and habitats officer.

"During my work there was always the opportunity to observe and increase my knowledge and awareness of plants and animals. All my work is field-based. I like to get habitats correct and I spend a tremendous amount of time in the field. I never fail to find something of interest, even in the worst weather." The Journal

Website: none

Sponsor: Obituary https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/26/ian-langford-obituary

WildArt 2018 (competition for those aged under 19)

WildArt2018 Age group Winners (left to right)
under 8 category: Rosa Smith
2-12 category - Clara Thorp
13-18 category - Katie Bryan
Richard Richardson Award - Katie Bryan

The Artists at the Exhibition next week

The artists are

• Monday 29 October – Robert Greenhalf
• Wednesday 31 October – Chris Wallbank and Richard Allen
• Friday 2 November – Max Angus
• Sat 3 November – Peter Partington

You can get into the exhibition for free by mentioning "Making A Mark" at the front desk - see
Visit the Society of Wildlife Artists 55th Annual Exhibition for FREE

London Original Print Fair at the Royal Academy of Arts until 6th May

I'd completely forgotten that it's the London Original Print Fair at the Royal Academy of Arts this week.

London Print Fair at the Royal Academy of Arts 3-6 May 2018

The 33rd London Original Print Fair started yesterday. The Fair is held in the Main Galleries at the RA (the ones they use for the Summer Exhibition).

This is the Exhibition Guide
There are also several events during the course of the Fair.
So, for example, this is a Printing Demonstration: Hokusai's Great Wave

Printmaking Explained

It's worth noting that Helen Rosslyn a prints and drawings specialist and a Director and the Organiser of the London Original Print Fair is the author of new book called A Buyer's Guide to Prints published by the RA - new edition Sept. 2018
( I wonder why she didn't have it published in time for this Print Fair. )

Here for those who know rather less than they'd like to about original fine art prints (i.e. they're not made using the giclee process) is some information courtesy of their website - in a section called Printmaking explained. There's lots more on the website including some great examples of that particular type of print available at the Fair. plus videos about some of the processes.

If you click the links below you'll see I'm a big fan of dry point and engravings but tend to buy linoprints - and this is mainly because I can't possibly afford the prints I do want to buy!

• Monotype Explained

The image is drawn or painted onto a smooth, non-absorbent surface. Paper is pressed against the image, usually with a printing press, to create a one-off image. Most of the ink is removed during the process, so it cannot be repeated. Therefore, a monotype is always unique.

• Etching Explained

The plate is covered in an acid-resistant layer of wax called an etching ground. The image is then drawn into this surface with an etching needle. The plate is immersed in an acid bath until the acid has bitten into the drawn lines. The ground is removed and the plate is inked and printed as with an engraving.

Here's hoping your view today is on a par with David Hockney RA's 'Rue de Seine' in Paris. It will be one of the many original works by old and modern masters available to buy at @Londonprintfair, 3 - 6 May at the Royal Academy: https://t.co/uqCrCpT7EY pic.twitter.com/yRrC1iWX8J

— Royal Academy (@royalacademy) April 25, 2018

• Drypoint Explained

As in an engraving, the drypoint needle draws the image directly onto the plate. The residue copper is left on the side of the etched lines, which then collects the ink, creating a furry effect called burr.

• Everything you've ever wanted to know about lithography

Lithography is a chemical process based on the fact that water and grease repel each other. Traditionally the design is drawn with a greasy crayon onto a lithographic stone, hence the name, from the Greek ‘lithos’ meaning stone. The stone is dampened with water, which is repelled by the crayon. It is then inked with a grease-based ink, which is repelled by the water and adheres only to the areas covered by the greasy crayon. A sheet of paper is placed on top of it and the two are passed through the press together, so that the design transfers directly onto the paper.

• Everything you've ever wanted to know about screenprint

Screenprint, also known as silkscreen or serigraphy, is a stencil-based printmaking technique in which fabric, originally silk, is stretched across a wooden frame to create a screen. Areas around the image are blocked out as in a stencil and a tool called a squeegee is then used to press ink through the unblocked areas of the screen onto paper. The process is repeated for each different element of the image. Excerpt from Helen Rosslyn's A Buyer's Guide to Prints

• Engraving

The image is engraved directly onto a metal plate, usually made of copper, with a sharp tool called a burin. The plate is inked and wiped clean, before being passed through a printing press.

• Woodcut

Woodcut is a relief printing process in which the areas around the image to be printed are cut away from a wooden block, leaving the image in relief.

All about woodcut from London Original Print Fair on Vimeo.
LOPF goes behind the scenes at Paupers Press to show you how a woodcut is made. Paupers are printing Grayson Perry RA's 'Reclining Artist' published by Paragon in 2017.

• Linocut

Linocut is a relief printmaking process in which the areas around the image to be printed are cut away from a sheet of linoleum, leaving the image on linoleum in relief. The raised areas are then inked and the image transferred onto a second surface, usually paper. Linoleum is a malleable surface that is easier to cut into than wood or metal, allowing artists to create more subtle variations and effects.

‘I find linocut to be rewardingly straightforward and I love
the fact that it is so low tech – especially if printed by hand.’ Eileen Cooper RA quoted in A Buyer's Guide to Prints. Hear Eileen's artist's talk at #LOPF at 12noon Thursday @royalacademy https://t.co/7Sb7bQRfZ7 pic.twitter.com/y1go8ze0BN

— London Print Fair (@Londonprintfair) May 1, 2018

Exhibitors

The Fair hosts 50 of the world's top international specialist dealers, galleries and print publishers.  A number of exhibitors are new this year. Exhibitors include

• Advanced Graphics London
• arts, -tis, f., Germany
• Artchina Ltd
• Aspinwall Editions, New York Emanuel von Baeyer – London Gallery Boisserée Colgone/Germany Brook Gallery Ltd 
• CCA Galleries and Worton Hall Studios Gordon Cooke
• Dreipunkt Edition, Germany
• Durham Press, USA 
• Eames Fine Art Andrew Edmunds Enitharmon Editions Flowers Gallery 
• GBS Fine Art
• Gerrish Fine Art
• Gilden’s Arts Gallery
• Glasgow Print Studio
• Hanga Ten – Contemporary Japanese Prints Peter Harrington Gallery
• Elizabeth Harvey-Lee
• Gwen Hughes Fine Art
• Lyndsey Ingram 
• Bernard Jacobson
• Jealous
• Jennings Fine Art
• Galerie Lelong Editions, Paris Long & Ryle 
• Marlborough Graphics Martinez D., Paris Moritaka, Japan Osborne Samuel Julian Page 
• Paragon
• Paupers Press
• Polígrafa Obra Gràfica, Spain
• Pratt Contemporary | Pratt Editions Rabley Contemporary Gallery
• The Redfern Gallery
• Royal Academy of Arts
• Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Sarah Sauvin, France
• Karsten Schubert
• Stoney Road Press, Ireland
• TAG Fine Arts
• Greville Worthington
• Zuleika Gallery