126th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters

The 126th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters marks the visible start for a lot of people to the presidency of Tim Benson.

The consensus so far is that it's looking very different - and very powerful - with lots of excellent paintings.

The Private View of the ROI 2018 - the Main Galleries were packed!

It was difficult to see them all properly at the Private View on Tuesday because the Mall Galleries were absolutely packed with people - and indeed was still very full when I left at 5.30pm. A packed PV is the sign of a well supported art society - and effective communication with known supporters.

I'm going to go back and visit it again before it finishes on the 9th December so I can take more time and stand back and see the pics without passing people!

Exhibition Dates: 28 November 2018 to 9 December 2018 at the Mall Galleries

A new approach

In this post I'm featuring some of the points made by Tim Benson said at the Opening of the Exhibition and the Awards Ceremony.

Tim Benson, President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, speaking at the opening of the exhibition

His own website has a strapline of "building awareness through painting" and he seems very focused on carrying this theme over into the activities of the ROI.

He finished

it is this very diversity, (of age, of gender, of ethnicity, of background) that makes the ROI such an exciting organisation. I believe that this is reflected in the work that you see around you on the walls today. Each painting represents the artist that painted it, each painting offers a window into their lives, a deeply personal lens that tells of daily routines, inspirations and dreams.”

Vice President Adebanji Alade - with his portraits of his children - who also paint!

Certainly I felt the exhibition has a different look to it. Not least because the walls of the Main Galleries and Threadneedle Space are packed with some 301 paintings in oils and acrylics - but mainly oils! (see below for further comment)

Prior to this he was talking about:

• how could the ROI be a ‘progressive’ organisation? 

Now more than ever there is a schism between the world of painting and the ‘contemporary’ art world. Surely this disadvantages the art world at large? Surely in a time of increasing fracture and division the Art world should be unified? The ROI is in an incredible position to bridge that very gap, a place where painting of all genres is encouraged with neither a bias towards subject matter nor a ‘house style’. We are free to champion works that transcend traditional notions of painting just as we are free to celebrate them.

Review: Semi-Finals of Landscape Artist of the Year 2018 - Felixstowe Docks

This year Sky Landscape Artist of the Year 2018 avoided the chocolate box temptation for the semi finals (as per the huge Lavender Field in Kent in 2017).

Instead they went for the massive steel structural challenge (no grass / no trees / no chocs) of the UK's busiest container port at the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk.

Paint that - do well and you get to the final!

Apparently the Judges were looking for industrial and gritty - however the weather refused to participate and gave them bright blue skies, blistering heat and lots of wind - which took a bit of an edge off the location for the "edge" loving Judges.

The Location

Felixstowe Port - with the pods on a shingle 

It's clear from Jen Gash's blog post (see the "So what was it actually like?" section - which lists blog posts by participants) that the semi-finalists are not told before the semi-final precisely where it is.

I had scoured places all within 30 mins or so of Ipswich and hadn’t come to any great conclusions, but as the day came nearer, I started to wonder if they had chosen Felixstowe port. Jen Gash

The heat took place on 24th July 2018 and the pods were located on that bump of shingle on the Landguard Peninsula near the Landguard Fort (which Allan painted) next to Harwich Harbour at the mouth of the River Orwell - where the big container ships arrive to dock at the Port of Felixstowe. 

The latter did not have any time for art competitions and a massive container ship arrived during the course of the programme

The great big ship came along and parked itself right in the middle of the painting! Carl Knibb

If you want to have a go at the view for yourself the Landguard website provides excellent directions of how to get there!  Looks like a long trek with gear from the car park!

Some wonderful pieces of art being created at #Landguard today for the Sky Arts ‘Landscape Artist of the Year’ programme. #Felixstowe pic.twitter.com/YZhlp85PRY

— Visit Felixstowe (@VisitFelixstowe) 24 July 2018

The Artists

The artists are by now all well known to those of us who watch either Sky or via the Now TV app (see this post for how). (You can find links to my review of each episode at the end of this blog post)

So they were as follows:

• Episode 1: Fountain's Abbey Carl Knibb - (Facebook Page)
• Episode 2: Viking Bay: Paul Alcock (Facebook Instagram)
• Heat 3: Loch Fyne: Brian Ramsey (Facebook | Instagram)
• Heat 4: Studley Royal Water Garden - Greg Mason (Facebook Page | Twitter | Instagram) AND Lucy Smallbone (Facebook | Instagram)
• Heat 5: Broadstairs Beach: Jen Gash (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram)
• Heat 6: Inveraray Castle: Allan Martin [Facebook / Twitter / Instagram]
• plus Lisa Takahashi (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) the wild card painter from Episode 2

You can find interviews with each of the Heat Winners at the Cass Arts Blog. Cass Arts provides the art materials for pod artists at the Heats.

The Challenge

The first challenge was the heat.

The previous day, Harwich has apparently been the hottest place in the UK! Never ever go out without your sunscreen - even if your last Heat was one of the wettest ever!

These are the Pods - on the hottest day of the year (nearly!)

The next challenge was the view.

What I find fascinating is that "somebody" with the company which makes this programme keeps coming up with venues and views that give Tai Shan Schierenberg - the only painter among the three judges - the screaming abdabs. He openly admits that he simply can't paint some of the views.

Which leaves me wondering why that view is being offered to artists who one would like to see do well - rather than be humiliated.

For some artists, the view from the pod was a long way away.

The third challenge was the wind

Review: ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2018

This year is the 20th anniversary of the ING Discerning Eye art competition and exhibition - in terms of ING involvement. It's developed a good reputation over the years and is one I have always recommended to emerging artists.

2018 marks 20 years of sponsorship from ING, in which time more than 2500 artists have exhibited, just under 10,000 works have been hung, almost £250,000 has been awarded in prizes to exhibitors, and more than £800,000 of art has been sold on behalf of artists.

A wall in the exhibition curated by Cherie Federico

This review is more by way of information for those contemplating an entry next year than those wanting to see the exhibition - which can be seen at the Mall Galleries but closes at 5pm tomorrow.

[A family party for a really important birthday (Mother being 90!) meant I was away at the end of last week and over the weekend and hence couldn't see it sooner than Tuesday.]

The Good News

I was very pleased to see that, after very many moans by me, the website now displays very clearly:

• the numbers of invited artists and selected artists via the open entry
• the number of sales and the percentage attributed to invited artists and selected artists

The following are extracts from the archive page for each exhibition and the newsletters. I'd recommend such data should be used in future marketing material for the open entry in 2019.

2016

The 2016 exhibition comprises over 700 works by over 400 artists.70% of the artists and 60% of the works are from the open submission. Painting and drawing make up about 70% of the works, mixed media and sculpture about 13%, printmaking a further 7%, and photography about 5% this year.

You'll note that there is a major variation in counts of total works and total artists between 2016 and 2017.

2017

The 2017 exhibition comprised 465 works by 237 artists. 75% of the artists and 55% of the works are from the open submission. Painting and drawing make up over 60% of the works, mixed media and sculpture about 15%, printmaking a further 8%, and photography about 5% this year.

Of the 467 works exhibited last year (excluding those from finalists in the 2017 DE Bursary), 54% came from the open submission, giving 178 artists the chance to hang alongside the 61 artists invited to exhibit by the selectors.

Twenty three percent of all works sold, with just under 25% of open submission contributions selling and 21% of works from invited artists finding a home with new buyers. This resulted in 20 of the invited artists (33% of the total) and 54 artists from the open submission (30%) selling their works.

Around 25% of selected artworks from the open entry selling is pretty good going.

Interestingly, as of Tuesday, the curator with the best track record of sales of the works displayed was Nick Ross - one of the collector curators who had more than 12% sold.

Not Playing by "the Rules"

However somebody trashed the competition's reputation this year in various ways. My guess is this was negligence in relation to treating it a bit too much like an art exhibition and rather too little like an art COMPETITION with rules and conventions!

• Awarding top financial prizes to an individual invited to select which artists from the open entry got to participate in the exhibition (see One of selectors wins £5,000 ING Discerning Eye Prize!)

To enter work you must be currently resident in the UK, your work must be for sale, and it must be a maximum of twenty inches (50 centimentres) in any dimension. Artists can submit up to six works which can be two or three dimensional using any media.

• The Exhibition appears to include and display artwork - by Artist Curators and their invited artists - which does not meet the "maximum dimension of 20 inches" rule. 

The response to my earlier blog post suggests that many agree with me that there needs to be a much clearer protocol about the role of the artist curators and what they can and cannot do.

Sculptures by Simon Allison - part of Bridget McCrum's exhibition

Then there's the issue of digital reproductions..... (see Sadie Clayton below).

Marketing and Communication

When I visited on Tuesday, it was the QUIETEST exhibition I've visited in a VERY long time. Mostly people sitting and chatting over a cup of tea rather than looking at art.

The photos of the ING Discerning Eye 2018 - Artist Preview on Facebook suggest that the artists and their friends and the people invited by the hosts and sponsors enjoyed the PV.

Maybe it's improved since then - although my experience is that most visitors arrive in the first few days and during the first weekend - although this doesn't appear to have been the experience this time given the number of sales.

I chatted to the people behind the front desk and the cafe and apparently it had been extremely quiet since it opened last week

View of the exhibition on Tuesday afternoon

However I'd have expected to see more sales than I did.

In terms of sales I noticed that quite a few of the sales came in sets - as if invited artists displaying five or six works of art had primed people to come and buy!

Review of the Exhibition

Notwithstanding the above, the quality of the exhibition is generally good. I've also included some of my pics of artwork I liked on my Making A Mark Facebook Page



The Selectors this year are:

• ARTISTS
• Sadie Clayton
• Bridget McCrum
• COLLECTORS
• John Benjamin Hickey
• Nick Ross
• CRITICS
• Cherie Federico
• Frances Hedges

BELOW you can see images of and read my reviews of their individual exhibitions.

Review: Episode 6 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2018 - Inveraray Castle

Episode 6 of the Heats for Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year was at Inveraray Castle in Scotland.

This is the last heat - after this there are only three more episodes left!

The pods in front of Inveraray Castle and its rose garden

The Location

The location was lovely - on the estate of a very attractive Castle with views from the grounds of the landscape round about.

Inveraray Castle is is the ancestral home of the Duke of Argyll, Chief of the Clan Campbell. It's found near Inveraray in the county of Argyll, in western Scotland, on the shore of Scotland’s longest sea loch Loch Fyne, the venue for the heat which aired as Episode 3 of the Landscape Artist of the Year 2018 series. The castle is one of the earliest examples of Gothic Revival architecture.  It was also the chosen location for the Downton Abbey Christmas 2012 episode.

View of Inveraray Castle from above
- with the Wildcards' view down to the river and the bridge on the top right 

The film company were wowed by it

“The opportunity to paint the view of this historic castle, framed by the beautiful rose gardens, and overlooked by the Dun na Cuaiche folly in the distance, was too good to pass up. Plus the view of a glassy Loch Fyne reflecting the sky, surrounded by rugged mountains, gives a feeling of being on the frontier and in a truly wild place. Collectively it’s something that heats artists have never experienced in Landscape Artist before, so we just had to come." Argyll and Bute News

The Artists

Artists in their pods at the beginning of the Heat

Links to websites are embedded in their name and links to their social media sites follow their name.

Six Professional Artists

There were six professional artists - alphabetically as follows

• Dawn Beckles  [Facebook/Twitter/Instagram] - A mixed media artist specialising in painting, collage and printing. She paints still lives involving exotic flora as a recurrent subject matter i.e. not a landscape artist at all! Describes herself as currently a Londoner by ways of Barbados and Northern England. She graduated with a BA Design from the John Cass School of Art. Based at Wimbledon Studios.
• Nikolai Bojadziev [Facebook/Twitter/Instagram] - I can't find a thing about him, but what the programme told us. He's a collage artist from Bulgaria.
• Andrew Halliday [Facebook/Twitter/Instagram] - studied at Bournville Schoolof Art before graduating with a BA honours degree from Wimbledon School of Art in 1991. Based in Barnes in South-West London and Lymington in Hampshire.  Works as a framer in a gallery as well as being a professional artist. Tends to have a very colourful palette and likes artificial light.
• Martina Krupičková [Facebook/Instagram] - came to live in the UK from the Czech Republic 3 years ago. She always starts with a black canvas and uses a spatula. She graduated from a prestigious fashion design school in Brno, Czech Republica and majored in Textile and Knitwear. This is where she developed her skill in drawing and painting. This a blog post about her day by her friend who accompanied her to the Heat - see Martina Krupičková on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2018
• Allan Martin [Facebook/Twitter/Instagram] - Born in Scotland in1956. In 1978, left Glasgow School of Art with a Diploma of Art: Printed Textiles and a traveling scholarship. Worked as a graphic designer and moved to London in 1981. Had illustration and design clients in the music world. Also worked as a decorative paint specialist. Gave up his career as a graphic designer 8 years ago to dedicate himself to being a professional painter.  This is his submission (I think). 

Following the idea to at least think about challenges that appear outside a comfort zone and to consider the ethos of 'never say never’. Due to chance circumstance I found myself applying for Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2018, fully expecting to have a reply that said thank you for applying but…
I didn’t expect a call to say, “The judges unanimously loved your work and we would like to offer you a pod!”

• Keira Rathbone [Facebook/Twitter/Instagram] -  Lives in West London and makes a living from her type based artwork for the last 14 years. She uses old manual typewriters to create her artwork - using their type face for their shape and tone and to build up an impression, always working direct from life. I can't tell you a lot more since her website has crashed due to the overload of traffic of people visiting following this episode!  This is a Bored Panda article about her and her work Amazing Typewriter Art By Keira Rathbone

Artist. Travelling through life by typing scenes and the people who pass through them. LIFE is KEY . You're all characters

Two Amateur Artists

The two Amateur artists were:

• Sam Hencher - works as a visual effects artist (using Flame) working primarily on commercials and music videos. He's also an English painter and illustrator, born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1971 who has exhibited at The Other Art Fair in London.  I'm not quite sure why he rates himself as an amateur. Sam is emphatically NOT my definition of an amateur artist in terms of his standard of painting.

My work is done in watercolour or oils depending on the subject. I like to paint both landscapes/cityscapes and figuratively and am more inspired by the light and mood of the subject than the physical element that is used to convey it. 

• Nick Shaw - lives in Cumbria and works as a supermarket delivery driver. I couldn't find him online.

The Wildcards

Just some of the wild card artists and their set-ups

As ever there were also 50 Wildcard artists painting a view from a large flat area inbetween the castle and the river - and it was as crowded as ever!

There have been some "know-it-alls" doing some online complaining about the quality of the paintings done by the wildcard artists.

For my part I really think such people either know nothing or forget that plein air painting as part of a Wildcard entry is a completely different proposition to choosing your spot when you only have yourself to please while plein air painting.

A more accurate term might be "cheek by jowl" painting!

Themes and Learning Points

The themes this week are:

• Disney versus Dreich: a Scottish colour palette and flat light (a.k.a. or what to do when you can only see grey like Tai!)
• How to stand out from the crowd - and avoid painting the obvious
• Atmosphere versus Detail
• The interesting technique tip

One of selectors wins £5,000 ING Discerning Eye Prize!

There's no faster way to undermine an art competition than to "not play by the rules".
(Regular readers will remember some examples "calling out" I've done on this matter in the past)

There's one absolutely universal rule about integrity that applies to ANY competition. 
The rule essentially is that NOBODY can enter and/or win a prize IF they are:

• involved with the competition in any way, 
• and/or employed by any of the relevant companies associated with the competition 
• and/or are family members of somebody who is.

The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition is selected each year by 2 Collectors, 2 Critics and 2 Artists. Discerning Eye Art Opps

Which is why I was totally flabbergasted to find out today that one of the SELECTORS of the 2018 ING Discerning Eye Prize Exhibition has won the TOP prize of £5,000!

How did that happen?

• What does this absolutely gigantic faux pas in terms of "things that shouldn't happen in an art competition" do to the credibility of this prize in the future?
• Why are artist selectors being invited to exhibit work in the exhibition? (This exhibition is about their curation NOT THEIR ARTWORK!)
• Why is the work of artist selectors even being considered for a prize?
• Did it not occur to people, that relevant people (eg those submitting entries) might think this was a bad idea?
• Why did the sponsors think nobody would notice?
• Why did people supporting the running of this art competition not suggest that maybe this was a mistake?
• If it was the right thing to do why is there no announcement or press release?

I knew something very odd was going on because I had received no notification of or press release about the person who won the prize - as usually happens one way or another (and indeed there is no press release so far as I can make out!). Presumably at some point it dawned on people that maybe they'd not made the wisest choice in the history of the competition

There again I thought it very odd that there's been no marketing for the exhibition online on Facebook. (While the packed PV got OTT coverage on Instagram by those attending - although I should point out that the bulk of those there are the artists and their partners)

Just as I thought it extremely odd that the exhibition at the Mall Galleries were exceptionally quiet today with hardly any visitors the whole time I was there - and I gather it's been like this since the Private View.

View of exhibition curated by Frances Hedges containing the top prizewinner
(REPLACES the earlier view posted which I saw yesterday)

So what exactly is going on with the ING Discerning Eye?
Who is advising them on reputational matters and marketing? They're not doing a very good job!

THIS POST is about the prizes.

I'll be writing about the exhibition(s) later in the week - in which I'll also raise a few other matters relating to what's gone wrong this year...

Bridget McCrum wins £5,000 Purchase Prize
- despite being a selector for the competition...

ING Purchase Prize - £5,000

“Zenobia - Homage To Palmyra” 

by Bridget McCrumb (sic)

Bronze | 13x12x7 ins

£7,000

Nothing wrong with that. Bridget McCrum is an excellent and well-regarded sculptor. The sort people commission all the time.

However she is also ONE OF THE SIX SELECTORS for this art competition / exhibition!

Did a spelling mistake (see the spelling of the name in the prize listing) mean a major mistake was made in selection?  However the name is spelt correctly in the catalogue so clearly 'somebody' knew this was one of the selectors.

If you want an artwork from a well-known artist what's to stop you from commissioning her direct?

Rather than

• asking her to curate a mini exhibition of work selected for an art competition 
• then giving her a £5,000 prize for an artwork which is part of the mini exhibition of another curator.

That's seriously not on!

Such a decision means this award "looks" exactly like the sort of "mutual back-scratching" that art competitions like this are so very often accused of.

I would suggest that if the sponsors want to do the decent thing and NOT bring their art competition into disrepute, that they go back and choose another artwork. Preferably by an artist who is still making their way and very definitely NOT by a well-established and reputable artist who has been asked to curate as one of two Artist Curators - as a member of the team of the six curators of this exhibition.

Otherwise I predict a big drop in entries next year.

I do want to make it clear that 

• I do NOT think Bridget McCrum herself is in anyway culpable of any of this nonsense which has resulted in her being awarded a prize. I suspect she's probably very embarrassed by what has happened.
• This art competition and exhibition is NOT run by the Mall Galleries. The galleries merely provide the space which is rented by Parker Harris who organise the event on behalf of the Discerning Eye Organisation who are responsible for the conduct of the art competition and exhibition. The event is sponsored by ING Bank.

But SOMEBODY is responsible for this outcome!  I'd love to know who....

BELOW are images of the rest of the prizewinning works. The award cards are all the same size so you can tell something of the dimensions of each small work by their size relative to the card.

To enter work you must be currently resident in the UK, your work must be for sale, and it must be a maximum of twenty inches (50 centimentres) in any dimension. Artists can submit up to six works which can be two or three dimensional using any media. ING Discerning Eye website