Diploma Graduates Exhibition at the Heatherley School of Art

I was at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in Lots Road, Chelsea yesterday evening for the PV of the Diploma Graduates Exhibition.

You can visit this for free between now and Sunday afternoon (10.30am-4.00pm) at the School at 75 Lots Road, London, SW10 0RN. The nearest tube is Fulham Broadway and then it's an approx. 12 minute walk - right past the entrance to Chelsea Football Club!

I'd been invited by Sarah Jane Moon (who teaches there) to come and see what those following the Portrait Diploma Course had been producing. There are also other courses exhibiting their work. 

I often come across Heatherley graduates doing well in other exhibitions and art competitions so I made the trek from East to West London!

You can 

• see some of my photos from the show on my Facebook Page
• find out more about the courses on the website

I was very impressed by four of the artists who were producing portraits which looked like they will be followed by even better in the years to come.

As it happens they were all women!

One of the very interesting aspects of Heatherley's is the number of middle aged women students it attracts - which I find a very refreshing aspect of its student body.

Akiko Saiko with me
Her portrait had been commended by Andrew James RP

Standout artists for me were:

• Akiko Saiko (above) who has a very refined approach to painting a portrait which reveals the tonal light and shade and hence the form - which was something of a weakness in some of the portraits by some other artists. I also really liked her profile text which was engaging, simple and direct. That's the kind of effective communication which gets through to the most people. She does however need a website!
• Amy Roberts is a former fashion designer who works primarily from observation. She is very obviously not phased by either large groups, complex compositions or more complex dress. I've been waiting for somebody brave enough to take on group portraits for a long while - and it looks as if we might have somebody at long last!

Amy Roverts won the Worlds End Studio Prize with this group painting

• Marlies Forster (Instagram) - who last year won The Composition Prize 2025 awarded by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and consequently had her painting hung in the RP Annual Exhibition

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Forster London Art (@forsterlondonart)

• I also really liked Janet Marsh's Holbeinesque self? portrait of a women with a squirrel (see my blog post The King's Painter: The Life and Times of Hans Holbein by Franny Moyle for the original) which won the Susan Engledow Portrait Prize

By Janet Marsh

Note to the School: Please update your galleries with the artwork from the show so it's online at the same time as it's on show at the school. Everything on the website seems to relate to 2025.

PS My five year old post about Favourite Quotes about Portraiture has been attracting a lot of visitor of late - so I'll include it here as well to share the love some more!

What I liked at the Society of Women Artists 165th Annual Exhibition

I was mentally sending good wishes to the Society of Women Artists who had their 165th Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries last week. That was because last week was ridiculously hot weather wise in London (c.35°C / 95°F) for most of the week)!

Anybody who went would have actually enjoyed a very pleasant air conditioned gallery - with refreshments on tap!

However I was busy with other prebooked / prior commitments for the first half of the week. 

Then my brain started to fry because my 18" thick brick walled home had heated up! I was struggling to keep the temperature inside below 30°C - while my brain fried.... despite having all the windows closed and all the blinds down!

The incentive to go out - where it was even hotter - was minimal!

Which is by way of explanation as to why no visit on Tuesday and why no review.

I am eventually going to work out who painted this....

However, I did get there on Saturday afternoon, when it was a few degrees cooler, and managed to photograph the artwork in all the Galleries just before it closed.

Interestingly one comment I saw about the exhibition online was "better than the RA Summer Exhibition" and - having visited that particular exhibition with my sister (who was over from Australia) on Tuesday - I can confirm that comment was very far from fanciful in nature.

You can see my albums of photos of the exhibition on my Making A Mark Facebook Page

• West Gallery
• East Gallery 
• North Gallery

10 things I liked about the SWA Annual Exhibition 2026

• I thought a lot of the art was very much better than a lot of the open entries and some of the RA artwork in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. Below was one of the standout pieces. 
• What I noticed in particular was there was a very strong entry by the open artists. You really need to raise your game to get selected nowadays!

"Suffer the little children" by Penny Hardy
(mild steel)
who uses her sculpture to raise money for UNICEF

• The hang was excellent - and one of the best I've seen in the Mall Galleries this year so far. Parts of the hang were definitely superior. It came across as very considered. 

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.

Review: 163rd Annual Exhibition of Society of Women Artists (2024)

The 163rd Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists opened at the Mall Galleries on Wednesday.

The Red Wall in the West Gallery

[UPDATE: This blog post has been updated since first published as the online exhibition is now online - see below for links.]

It's listed as the "163rd Annual Open Exhibition" because the Society

• started as the Society of Female Artists in 1855
• started holding Annual Exhibitions in London since 1857
• became the Society of Lady Artists in 1869
• became the Society of Women Artists in 1899

Their annual exhibition is an International Open Exhibition and invites submissions from women artists around the world. An annual exhibition has been held every year except for 1941 to 1946 - due to the Second World war and 2020-2021 when Online Exhibitions were held due to the global pandemic.

There's a very interesting page about its history on their website

The society has had many notable artists among its members. Dame Laura Knight, the first woman Royal Academician, was elected president in 1932 and retained that office until she retired in 1968 to become a Patron.[9] Illustrator Mabel Lucie Atwell and Suzanne Lucas,[10] past President of the Society of Botanical Artists and the first woman president of Royal Miniature Society (now known as Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers), were also members. Current members include Daphne Todd, the first female President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters from 1994–2000 and winner of the BP Portrait Award 2010, portraitist June Mendoza, and Philomena Davidson, first woman President of the Royal British Society of Sculptors (now known as Royal Society of Sculptors).

SWA Annual Exhibition 2024

View of the West Gallery

I arrived late to the exhibition as it was an extremely hot day and there was a lot of walking involved in travelling from the Bankside Gallery where I had been to the Opening Day of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers to the Mall Galleries where the SWA Exhibition is being held until 29th June

If travelling to London to see either exhibition, I recommend you take the time to see both exhibitions - but you've only got until Saturday 29th June to see the SWA. 

There are demonstrations every day. On tomorrow and Saturday these are:

• Tessa Jane - Exploring Fragments of Time | Friday 28th June AM
• Kristine Nason - Narratives in oil and cold wax | Friday 28th June PM
• Elizabeth Nast - Depicting the ordinary in the urban landscape | Saturday 29th June AM
• Cathy Read - Dynamic cityscapes | Saturday 29th June PM

Main observations on the exhibition

This is an exhibition which:

• attracts over 3,000 entries via the open entry
• selects a large number of works for hanging or display in the exhibition - across all three galleries of the Mall Galleries
• aims to achieve a 50:50 ratio in relation to
• artwork exhibited by members
• artwork selected from the open entry
• AND in the way the artwork is exhibited

All the above is admirable and has resulted in some impressive exhibitions in the past - but less so this year.

As always with my helpful critique hat on and plainspeaking mode switched on, this is what I found

• they had over 3,000 entries to this open exhibition
• [UPDATE: they selected 239 artworks from non-members - which is way more than most art societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries select]
• they hung/show some 490 artworks in total - which to my mind is far too many for the space
• there was no catalogue available yesterday when they attracted hordes to the opening - which is a very great pity because 
• the exhibition is not online on either the Mall Galleries website or the SWA website and that means no scope for online sales. 

[UPDATE: The exhibition is now available online - if you look at the thumbnail view you can see the artworks which have sold online (but not what price they sold for). You can also see

• artworks by SWA Members
• artworks by non-members]

You can however also see what it looks like in my photographs of the exhibition on my MaM Facebook Page. However I cannot say who did what because I have had no reference when I wrote this post!

• SWA Annual Exhibition 2024 | West Gallery
• SWA Annual Exhibition 2024 | East and North Galleries

This is the list of ALL artists selected for the exhibition (both members and open entry artists). However unlike last year you cannot click their names to see their work online. I'm not sure why not - but think this change is a mistake.  [UPDATE: The selection on the call for entries site is on a different URL to that for the online exhibition]

Two excellent botanical artworks hung in the wrong space.
The one at the bottom is by Toni Dade who has just won her second RHS Gold Medal
and is currently exhibiting at the Saatchi Gallery

I have to say while I liked some of the artwork - and there's a lot which is good, I did not love the exhibition. 

• I think because this year there were just too many works which I'd have edited out (and they weren't just from the open entry). 
• I like the RA approach of "selected but not hung". By all means give yourself scope to hang as many as you need - but do not lose the big picture by hanging too many - including those which really should have been left out at the digital stage.

One benefit of the SWA approach to hanging is that they're not obliged to hang all submissions by members - which does give them some latitude. However I think they maybe need to be reviewing whether the notion that "a member's work should always be better than open entries" is a yardstick which might need to be exercised more in relation to selection.

I also observed

• lots of small artworks - which to me looked too crowded in the walls around where the tables and chairs are normally located. They were also hung much too high and much too low. If you cannot read the label easily, then you've got the hang wrong. When you select this many, you also need to very mindful of the space they need and allocate more space to allow people to READ THE LABELS EASILY! This was an issue which could have been neatly resolved by just taking more space for small artworks in the West Gallery.

one of the small works walls

• A very impactful red wall at the end of the West Gallery. However congregating all the artworks with red in one place did leave some of the other walls looking a tad  anaemic in places. Plus too much red in one space is quite hard on the eyes. Red draws the eye - but having lots of red has your eyes not knowing where to look next. I certainly didn't want to look at it for too long.

One of the walls featuring portraits and people in the North Gallery

I liked the fact paintings of groups were included
- there are far too few artists who can paint convincing groups
and these paintings by Anne Blankson Hemans were a great cultural statement

• the portrait / people section of the North Gallery impressed - a LOT. I particularly liked the diversity of styles and the imagination demonstrated by some artists in terms of how portraits and people can be painted. Hanging all the portraits together lends a coherence to the presentation and the impact of the artwork hung overall. I also saw  one very flowery wall and an animal corner. It's maybe worth thinking about whether the same approach might work for some landscapes and still lifes. If it was it was less evident.

One of the sculpture stands in the West Gallery

• as always, the exhibition includes a rich choice of scupture and 3D work done in various media. Some included subject matter on a female theme. However I was very impressed by some amazing bronze work by Jane Morgan ASWA

Strawberry Sunday by Jane Morgan
Bronze, painted in oils, lacquered

My recommendations for the next exhibition

I think my overall conclusion this year is that this exhibition "could do better" and indeed has in the past.

So I'm optimistic that, given I've delivered some critical comments in the past which led to an significant improvement, the following comments will be taken in a constructive way.

• don't have such a very SHORT exhibition - open for four days only is simply not worth the effort. This is not a "pop-up"! Exhibit every other year if you want to save money (as some now do) or find another venue for a smaller members only exhibition in the inbetween years if you want to maintain the "exhibits in London on an annual basis" record.
• do NOT omit the online version - most art societies exhibiting at the Mall Galleries are making sales before their exhibitions even open these days. 
• change your printer (and I'd very much suggest you do NOT pay the invoice for this year's catalogue - because non-delivery for a timed event is a major ****** and fails to fulfil the terms of the contract)
• focus on quality and curation. Try and be more discriminating and select fewer artworks - aim to hang/show no more than c. 400
• be much more discriminating about entries by members - some were very definitely not up to snuff - and it's not a nice task but sometimes members need to be told this. 
• stop hanging artwork too high or too low - it cannot be seen by visitors and the latter MUST BE ABLE TO READ THE LABELS or they will not sell
• nothing wrong with lots of small artworks - they tend to sell well if priced right - so allow these to have more space - at a reasonable eye level - to be seen and attract buyers
• consider having spaces clearly for landscapes or still life and see if you can achieve the same impact as is achieved for the area of portraits in the North Gallery
• if you want to hold annual exhibitions - particularly at the Mall Galleries which is not cheap - you MUST focus on the financials.
• Do encourage artwork in the affordable price ranges
• Provide guidance to artists about sale prices (I preach about this on a regular basis)
• Check high prices by size and calibre/background of the artist - you have some very good artists exhibiting - but not all are.
• Do NOT accept artwork with silly prices and no evidence that this had been achieved by this artist in the past
• ALWAYS hang quality artwork in quality places - so it gets noticed!
• be aware of the walls which are NOT normally used for hanging!!
  
  

REFERENCE

See my blog posts below for more about past exhibitions

• Review: 162nd Annual Exhibition of Society of Women Artists (2023)
• Society of Women Artists - Online Annual Exhibition 2021
• Review: Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2019
• Review: Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2018
• VIDEO Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2017 - which highlights pieces which caught my attention
• Review: Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2017 - which highlights changes made to the exhibition
• Review: Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2016
• Review - Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition 2015

Review: Women in Art Fair

I visited the inaugural Women in Art Fair (WIAF) at the Mall Galleries this morning.  The art fair is new and is the first art fair dedicated to redressing gender imbalance in the art industry.

Below I'm going to indicate:

• some positive impressions 
• artwork I liked; and 
• some aspects which need improving before the next one!

The WIAF is on this week 11 October to 13 October, 10am to 6pm; 14 October, 10am to 4pm

Entry is £5 and Concessions at £3.50. There is no catalogue or any listing of artists in the fair.

Positive Impressions

• much more contemporary artwork on show than we've typically seen in previous exhibitions by mainly/only women artists
• SOME of the artwork was excellent, a lot of it was good. Relatively little was "walk past fast".
• Some innovative media has been used for some of the artwork - which generally impressed
• There's a variety of price points on the walls with some good representation within the affordable price range - which I think will do well.

Artwork I liked

There was artwork to like in all three galleries. I'm going to highlight those which grabbed my attention.

West Gallery

View of the West Gallery from the Messanine.

Blackbird Rook is showing two works by Marilyn Hallam who reminds me very much of Bonnard. She lives and works in south east London and St Leonards-on­Sea and has a space in the APT Studios in Deptford. She develops her paintings using a number of processes including sketchbooks, drawing, tracing, collage and painting.

To me they just seemed arresting and luminous.

Two paintings by Marilyn Hallam

The end wall of the West Gallery contains six works - from the "Five Times More" series by textile/ fibre artist Maggie Scott on the end wall of the West Gallery at the Women in Art Fair. I was so impressed by them they're now the feature image on my Making A Mark Facebook Page!

"Maggie Scott creates art from the particularity of who she is: a black woman, a feminist, a daughter, a mother, an activist and a British textile artist. Born in London, Scott graduated from St. Martin’s School of Art in 1976 with BA honours in Fashion Textiles and set up her first studio in London in 1980. Scott became well-known for her sumptuously crafted felt textiles to wear. Her life as a textile artist had existed in parallel with her involvement in gender and race politics, but it was an experiment with a series of large, autobiographical textile pieces which allowed her to combine art an activism. "

Textile art by Maggie Scott
felted Marino wool on silk and stitch

Maggie Scott’s practice is informed by the experience of being black, British and a woman. With Five Times More she depicts the intimate relationship between mother and child, reflecting on both personal and collective experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood.

I was completely intrigued by how they are made. Somehow or other silk has been attached to felted marino wool and then stitched on top. Photography is definitely involved and there's a hint of a screen print about it too. I found it both simple and relatable and complex in terms of concept and process - and very impressive!

Scott’s technical practice is unparalleled in the landscape of contemporary British art, sitting at the boundary of tapestry and digital media, she employs a combination of photography, digital collage and silk and then injects colour by laboriously pushing vibrant merino wool fibres through silk in a process known as nuno felting. The intensely physical process of felting is followed by the careful process of using stich to emphasise the smaller details of an image, evoking both the physicality of childbirth and the careful attention and tenderness of what follows. In working with fibre Scott pushes a medium traditionally associated with craft into the realm of fine art. As a textile artist Scott employs distinctly feminine materials, but with soft images she speaks hard truths.

Nessie Ramm is an artist producing very unusual art and exhibiting with the brand new Women in Art Gallery in Lewes in Sussex.

I am, of course, a big fan of all those who paint plants, particularly wild/native plants - so I was riveted to see paintings of plants which can be found by the side of the road. 

Nessie produces road verge paintings combined with road signs!  The paintings below are from her 'Reduce Speed' series and are very topical - not to mention sustainable! There was an article about her my road verge work in the February 2023 issue of Countryfile Magazine

NEW: Art Fair and Art Auction at the Mall Galleries - this week!

This week there are two new initiatives this week at the Mall Galleries.

• one is in the galleries - the Women in Art Fair (WIAF) (11th to 14th October 2023)
• one is ONLINE ONLY - the Art for All | Fundraising Auction (9th - 16th October 2023)

Below is a short narrative about both - and I'll be visiting the Women in Art fair tomorrow when it opens and will report back.

Women in Art Fair

The Women in Art Fair a NEW Art Fair specifically celebrating art by women.

website: https://womeninartfair.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womeninartfairofficial/

Women in Art Fair seeks the best in contemporary art, photography, textile and sculpture; all mediums. 

Key Features:

A new initiative, WIAF is dedicated to redressing the gender imbalance in the art industry and will take over all three spaces at Mall Galleries (totalling 450 sqm)

The layout of WIAF

• West Gallery - a booth style art fair - with 9 different booths (not the 21 as indicated)
• East Gallery - a curated exhibition titled Unnatural Women - The show features seminal artists, such as Paula Rego and Jean Cooke alongside established contemporary names and emerging talent.
• North Gallery - an exhibition of artwork selected from an Open Call (which I obviously missed!)
• Theme: The World is A Family. 
• Artists were invited to submit work for exhibition, alongside galleries, for the inaugural WIAF in October 2023. 

WIAF seeks to create a positive global fair, from which women and those identifying as women, are given an opportunity to show their work and contribute to developing the exchange of ideas around gender, and culture.

It will be very interesting to see how people have responded to this new event. It sounds promising and I'm looking forward to visiting.

Event: Expert Panel Discussion

Review: 162nd Annual Exhibition of Society of Women Artists (2023)

This week sees the 162nd Annual Exhibition of the The Society of Women Artists' at the Mall Galleries. I highly recommend you get along to the Mall Galleries if you can before it closes 5pm on Saturday 10th June.

This post covers:

• how to see the exhibition
• what I liked about this exhibition - and what niggles I had 
• the Prize and Award Winners
• an archive of my past reviews of previous SWA exhibitions

West Gallery - the end wall and what you can't see from the entrance!

It's an international exhibition with artwork being produced by women artists from the UK and abroad. 

• This year it comprises 488 artworks - paintings and drawings in all media, fine art prints and ceramics, sculpture & other 3D works 
• At: Mall Galleries
• Dates: 6 June 2023 to 10 June 2023 (10am - 5pm) - it's shorter this year
• Admission: £3
• You can also see the exhibition online
• You can also see my photos in albums on Facebook:
• West Gallery
• East Gallery
• North Gallery

I was a little apprehensive going see it yesterday. However my concerns about how well I was (recovering from bad laryngitis + experiencing bad hay fever!) went out the window as soon as I arrived and my eyes were assaulted by a visual feast. There's nothing like a good art exhibition to make you feel better!

This was once I'd got past the guard on the door. Lots of visitors to the exhibition and events meant the doorman had to count people in only after people left the previous evening. When I walked in I could see why - the place was buzzing with activity and people viewing the art

What I like about the SWA Exhibition

East Gallery at the end of the day - when you scan the gallery

These are some of the things that the SWA do really well in my opinion.

The SWA create a VERY diverse and eclectic exhibition with a wide variety of media, subject matter, individual styles and LOTS of innovative artwork. 

• It's a bit like the RBA Exhibition - but on steroids. 
• It generated a "wow" from me from the top of the stairs! It's an exhibition you will not forget visiting!
• those who are interested can review my photos on Facebook (see links above) and those on the SWA's Facebook Page

West Gallery from the stairs

This is a Society which is not afraid of colour and the exhibition is always bright, colourful and energising.  I suspect this probably means dull and worthy artwork gets excluded at the selection stage.

some of the colourful artwork in the West Gallery

Colourful artwork in the East Gallery mixed with perspective on being female

This is a Society which ALWAYS has a ratio of 50:50 for member artworks and those selected from the Open Entry. This to me is the mark of an art society which takes it role in starting artists' careers seriously.

The artwork by members and non-members is mixed right across all three galleries. There's none of the nonsense of members insisting they must be in the West Gallery and all the open can go in the North! Hence there's a more unified sense with themes being used in part and a better balance across the exhibition. It feels like a more emancipated exhibition!

Review Part 2: 161st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists

Part 2 of  my review of the annual exhibition of the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries covers the exhibition as a whole in relation to:

• 469 artworks on display - with a high standard
• The ratio of members artwork to artwork selected from the open entry is 50:50. The latter has been selected from over 3,000 entries via the call for entries from non members
• a very great deal of 'fresh' artwork with "same old same old" at a minimum
• an outstanding exhibition sculpture
• a very impressive gallery of portraits
• better than some other art society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries

Yesterday I published Part 1 of my Review: 161st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists - which focused on the prizewinners.

Some of the sculpture in the West Gallery

The exhibition is open daily at the Mall Galleries 10am - 5pm - except for the last day (Sunday 11th September) when it closes at 1pm.

This is the list of artists selected for the exhibition - click their names to see their work online

Attractiveness of this Open Exhibition

This is an exhibition which:

• attracts over 3,000 entries via the open entry
• selects a large number of works for hanging or display in the exhibition - across all three galleries of the Mall Galleries
• aims to achieve a 50:50 ratio in relation to
• artwork exhibited by members
• artwork selected from the open entry
• AND in the way the artwork is exhibited

The latter 50:50 in particular is a very attractive proposition for those women artists wanting to enter open art exhibitions. It's a ratio not always achieved by the national art societies who rather too often tend to favour their members.

West Gallery

Moreover the exhibition is hung in such a way that it mixes up the artwork by members and non-members right across the exhibition. There's no "hogging" particular galleries by members and no sense of any dip in the quality of the work as you get into the North Gallery and move back - which is, to my mind, a feature of a few too many exhibitions held at the Mall Galleries.

So overall - this is an exhibition which demonstrates a very fair and even-handed approach to artwork by both members and non-members.

East Gallery - end wall

Quality of the Artwork

Review: 161st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists (Part 1: Prizewinners)

I visited the 161st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries yesterday. I highly recommend you get along to the Mall Galleries if you can before it closes on Sunday 11th September.

Two large charcoal drawings exhibited in the East Gallery

The artwork can also be seen via an online exhibition.

Here's a summary of the highlights of my review - which I apologise for truncating and posting late due to the events of this afternoon.

PART 1:

• a packed Private View
• a good range of prizes - won by SWA members and open artists

PART 2:

• 469 artworks on display - with a high standard
• The ratio of members artwork to artwork selected from the open entry is 50:50. The latter has been selected from over 3,000 entries via the call for entries from non members
• a very great deal of 'fresh' artwork with "same old same old" at a minimum
• an outstanding exhibition sculpture
• a very impressive gallery of portraits
• better than some other art society exhibitions at the Mall Galleries

The exhibition is open daily 10am - 5pm - except for the last day when it closes at 1pm.

Private View & Prizes

The Great Women Artists Podcast - and Georgia O'Keeffe

How one blog post leads to another....

The Great Women Artists Podcast was started by Katy Wessel, one of this year's Judges of the Derwent Art Prize. (see yesterday's post - Call for Entries: Derwent Art Prize 2022)

Created off the back of @thegreatwomenartists Instagram, this podcast is all about celebrating women artists. Presented by art historian and curator, Katy Hessel, this podcast interviews artists on their career, or curators, writers, or general art lovers, on the female artist who means the most to them.

I'd not come across it before so had a listen yesterday while doing my daily "keep osteoarthritis from getting any worse" walk.

I accessed it via Apple Podcasts and picked the one about Georgia O'Keeffe.

Wanda Corn and Georgia O'Keeffe

This is it - Wanda M Corn on Georgia O'Keeffe - which Katy Wessel announces via Instagram stories and publishes on Wednesdays.

Wanda Corn was the Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in Art History at Stanford University (before she retired in 2017), a very knowledgeable speaker AND has actually met Georgia O'Keeffe. 

Her talk about her work related to O'Keeffe was fascinating - but periodically interrupted by Katy Wessel saying "Oh WOW!!!"

This introduction to the podcast gives you a sense of how Katy Wessel talks to her interviewees.

I am SO EXCITED to release this episode with Wanda Corn who not only **KNEW** Georgia O'Keeffe in the 1980s, but who is the curator of the staggeringly brilliant and HIGHLY successful exhibition, Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern at New York’s The Brooklyn Museum in 2017, which toured around the US.


This was an exhibition that looked at how the renowned modernist artist proclaimed her progressive, independent lifestyle through a self-crafted person – from the way she dressed to how she posed for photographs – expanding our understanding of who O’Keeffe was, and her determination to be in charge of how the world understood her identity and artistic values.

Looking for more info about Wanda led me to these two videos about her particular interest - the clothes of O'Keeffe and how she created a 'brand image' as it were

Out of O'Keeffe's Closet: Clothes, Fashion, and Dressing Modern with Wanda Corn (1 hour 33 mins) 

Dr. Wanda M. Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor in Art History, Emerita, Stanford University, explores artist Georgia O'Keeffe's use of dress to join body and art in a common aesthetic. Painter Georgia O'Keeffe's clothing style became an intimate part of her artistic identity. She dressed like she painted, putting high value on abstraction and simplicity. Exploring how modern artists redefined themselves and their art, Wanda Corn has carefully researched the apparel of select key artists. Dr. Corn is a leading scholar of American modernism. Among Corn's numerous honors, she is the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2014 from the College Art Association, the learned society for the visual arts.

Exhibition Insights | Guest Curator Wanda Corn on "Georgia O’Keeffe Living Modern" (13 mins)

Georgia O’Keeffe’s sartorial style became an intimate part of her artistic identity. She dressed like she painted, highly valuing abstraction, simplicity, and seriality. Art historian Wanda M. Corn, guest curator of the exhibition, Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern, explores the way O’Keeffe used her distinctive taste in clothes to model for photographers, creating a public persona for herself that still dominates the American imagination.

Plus this is a Stanford News article about Art historian Wanda Corn tackles Georgia O’Keeffe

More about The Great Women Artist Podcast

It's a very eclectic list of artists which are featured in the podcast. So far there have been 75 podcasts - all of which are accessible via Apple Podcasts.

I'll probably keep listening - but pick all the ones I've heard of to listen to first!

Society of Women Artists - Online Annual Exhibition 2021

This is the second year the Society of Women Artists have opted for an Online Annual Exhibition as a Virtual Gallery. Given not knowing how effective jabs would be, what the resistance to jabs might be and whether there'd be another variant which made all this academic are some jolly good reasons to be very cautious!

The exhibition is online until 31st December - so plenty of time to view it - and view it again!

Reviewing an Online Exhibition

That said, I find it very difficult to review Online Exhibitions. I've been trying to work out the reasons why - and here's some thought to date

• I really like to walk around an exhibition - at a distance from the artwork to get a sense of the exhibition as a whole and what some if its themes or highlights (and lowlights) might be. On this circuit, I'm looking to see what catches my eye. I can "sort of" do something similar with an online exhibition - except all artwork is diminished to similar size images - which knocks my sense of scale out the window!
• Then I walk around again and look at each artwork in turn - and this time I check the labels to ee what media it is and who created it. Naturally I get a very good sense of size - which I particularly miss when viewing online. I do so wish each image had a standard size "something or other" in the picture as well or a "this is what it would like on a wall next to a standard sized sofa" to give me that sense of scale.
• Then I ponder on what I've seen - and walk around again to revisit images - and see if I've missed anything for the third circuit

When I say this is what I like to do, in reality this is what I used to do. I can't do that much walking any more so in some ways I better get myself attuned to reviewing online exhibitions because that's all I''ll be looking at for a few months (hopefully soon - if I ever get a date for surgery!).

The other thing I note particularly when I see the online exhibition and then see the real artworks on the wall is I get a very good sense of which look rather better online then they do in reality! You'd be surprised!

Finally, I'm one of those people who likes to get up very close and personal with some artworks - because I want to see "how they did it". I want to see the layers and the brushstrokes - and this, more than anything else, is what I miss when I can only view and online exhibition.

That's not to say it's not possible to really appreciate an artwork online - but on the whole I do feel you do need access to a very large image which you can zoom in on. Indeed some of the images I've been sent by museums and art galleries in the past gave me an insight into work which was better than seeing it on the wall.  The nearest analogy for what I mean is the artworks you can see in Google Arts and Culture.

Review: SWA Online Annual Exhibition 2021

I have th option of looking at:

• individual artworks
• pages of thumbnails
• artwork by artist

I opt for the thumbnails first and then the artists. 

The great thing about thumbnails is it's like my first circuit of a gallery. I'm just looking at images. I don't know who the artist is or what it's made from. I like the fact I get the title of the piece if I hover over the image.

I notice I get pickier as I work my way through the pages....

Initial impressions - as I look at the thumbnails 

• the overall quality of the artwork is good - and some is very good
• unsurprisingly, women feature in a lot of the paintings
• many artists seem very attuned to what artwork looks like on a screen and know how NOT to create flat boring artwork - however this is not a lesson which has been learned by all
• there were far fewer paintings relating to the last 18 months prior to the exhibition opening than I was expecting

I did look at a few as individual artworks on the way through. 

Individual artists whose artwork stood out for me included

I very much like the fact that artwork bvy artist not listed alphabetically by surname. I get so fed up with those whose surname is at the beginning of the alphabet not having to incur the problems associated with viewing fatigue - because it is more taxing to look online compared to in an art gallery.

I'm going to highlight the artwork that particularly catches my eye below. Some of the reasons are:

• they included red - it always works
• they had a strong monochrome shape and design
• the image read well as a thumbnail - and wasn't too complex or cluttered

Some caught my eye for the wrong reason i.e. they were trying really hard to look like other successful artists. I'm not interested in whether you look like somebody else - I want to know what your unique style looks like.

Some caught my eye as a thumbnail - and then failed to deliver when I saw a larger image. Art has to work from across the gallery (or as a thumbnail) and close up.

These are the people who stood out for me

• Linda Kritskaya Website: www.lindakritskaya.com/ Instagram: linda_kritskaya_art/ - a Russian artist who apparently does not speak English (based on her Instagram). Her three pastels of children are excellent. Her pricing is way off though which I take to be unfamiliarity with showing in the UK.

Back to School 1, 2 and 3

• Iona Howard Website: www.ionahoward.com Instagram: iona.howard - Her works in Carborundum, Collagraph and Drypoint read well on screen. Of the two, I preferred Towards The Church On Great North Fen She's a very well educated and experienced contemporary printmaker who lon the Fen Edge near Cambridge for the last twenty years - and it shows in her work. She's somebody who I'd like to see more artwork from in other shows.
• Katherine Reekie Website: katherinereekie.co.uk/ Instagram: katherinereekieartist/ Facebook: katherine.reekie - Her still life compositions using frames were novel and intriguing - both of which are characteristics I like to see in artwork. She was made an Associate Member of the SWA and received the received the ‘President and Vice Presidents’ Award’ in The Society of Women Artist’s 160th Annual Open Exhibition 2021. (Note: I intentionally did not look at the awards until after I'd reviewed the artwork)
• Sally Solomon Website: www.sollysolomon.com/ Instagram: solly_solomon/ Facebook: sollysolomon.art/  - her oil painting 'You Have No Idea Of The Gift You Once Gave Me' is very striking and the reason why it was painted was very poignant. It just goes to show that those who paint from the heart often impress.
• Sheila Goodman SWA PS http://www.sgart.co.uk - I'm a fan of Sheila Goodman which I date back to when she won The Threadneedle prize in 2009 (see Sheila Wallis wins £25,000 Threadneedle Prize 2009). 
  However her paintings in this exhibition just jumped off the page at me. I knew I knew the artist and I thought it might be Sheila a I've seen landscapes by her I've really liked in the past - and these felt similar when viewed as thumbnail.
  

Two of four Pastel Paintings by Sheila Goodman

• Ayna Paisley www.aynapaisley.com/ - Her two paintings did not jump out when I viewed the thumbnails but instantly got my attention when I viewed artworks by artist
• Doreen Langhorn  www.doreenlanghorn-artist-official-site.com - Her two paintings were instantly recognisable as pandemic related. Interestingly he one below is an imagined painting of an Art Demonstration - and the responses of different participants!

• Ninni Heldt  Website: www.ninniheldt.com / Instagram: ninniheldt/ - Her format is unusual (a 70cm circular painting) and her work is extremely distinctive and works well as a series grouped together. She also uses a traditional water golding technique. However I do think her work is overpriced.

• Eleanor Mill Website: melibertine.com/graphic/ Instagram: melibertine Facebook: Melibertine - Her graphite drawings of architecture and ruins is meticulous and handled extremely well in terms of the treatment of values and rendering. 

Two of her four graphite drawings

• Gill Morrow  Website: gillmorrowart.com Facebook: gillmorrowart/ Her porcelain bust - partially glazed with barbed wire - is amazing!

After which I'm afraid screen fatigue set in. So apologies to all those who came later. This is the reality of online exhibitions....

Award winners

You can see the Award winners on this page

Pricing

One thing I did notice while reviewing artworks is that some

 pricing is badly out of kilter for typical wall pricing that sells art at the Mall Galleries. 

I've been writing about pricing and sales by FBA Societies and analysing the prices of works which sold for some months - if not years. I have identified price thresholds (i.e. what NOT to go above), if you want to have a serious chance of selling your work - within the context of experience, expertise and name recognition - plus what price ranges can see artwork selling very quickly.

The message does not for some reason appear to have got through to many of the artists exhibiting in this exhibition. I saw some quite ludicrous prices. 

This to my mind explains why so few artworks have sold to date - despite the exhibition having been online for a month.