Tax Tips for UK Artists - a Zoom Talk

Two weeks ago I delivered a Zoom Talk to recent art graduates about "Tax Tips for UK Artists" - and walked them through the process of starting out with their tax affairs with the HMRC and what they needed to do. 

You can find out what the Talk covers below.

Any art society or group of artists who'd like to me to deliver a Zoom Talk can get in touch with me via the Contact Form at the end of my 'Would You Like Me to Help Page' on Art Business Info for Artists. 

As well as preparing the Talk, I've also been updating the pages on my Art Business Info for Artists website about

• UK Tax Tips for Artists
• UK: Self-Assessment Video Tips

Both of these contain much of what I cover in the Talk - plus HMRC Videos explaining specific aspects of importance.

Tax Tips for UK Artists - the Zoom Talk

The talk covers

British Art Fair: how to check out a lot of art galleries in one place

Art Fairs essentially benefit serious art collectors. They offer a very easy way to look at a lot of art - across all price ranges - offered by different art galleries and dealers in one place - with nice food and drink.

After the pandemic decimated art fairs, there's a lot of effort going into making sure those being held in 2022 are a great experience for buyers. Indeed, the British Art Fair is under new ownership for this year's Fair. 

Art Fairs with reputable art galleries also offer a benefit for artists. If you're keen to become a gallery artist and want to check out a number of galleries, then this could also be the place for you! 

You can check out:

• the art by other artists represented by that gallery - and how it is presented
• the people representing the gallery
• what sort of art these art galleries think is worth paying a major fee to show to people with lots of money
• the general "vibe" you get from the stand. Does it make you feel that this could be an art gallery you'd like to approach at some point in the future.

HOWEVER - and this is VERY IMPORTANT - an artist visiting an art fair is market research activity ONLY!

• The art galleries are there to sell art to wealthy individuals. Period.
• They are really NOT interested in talking to artists. 
• The very last thing you should do is announce you're an artist looking for a gallery to represent them
• If you pull out an iPad and start pitching your art, you'll get blacklisted and your name will be mud.

copyright making a mark publications

British Art Fair (BAF) 2022

View of the British Art Fair Homepage Cover Image:
Displays by Alon Zakaim Fine Art, The Nine British Art and Alan Wheatley Art at BAF 2019.
Image credit: Piers Allardyce

The 31st British Art Fair is being staged on all three floors of the Saatchi Gallery between 29th September and 2nd October 2022.

Diebenkorn's "Notes to myself on beginning a painting"

The year 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993).

Diebenkorn was a distinguished American painter, draftsman, and printmaker

Still from the video Richard Diebenkorn on Beginning a Painting

"Notes to myself on beginning a painting" by Richard Diebenkorn

Richard Diebenkorn was an introspective man who remained skeptical of his success as an artist throughout his life. Over the years he spent countless hours sitting in a favorite chair in his studio, contemplating and looking. Perhaps it was there that he wrote thoughts that came to mind on nearby pieces of paper, some torn from other uses. The Diebenkorn Foundation

These notes were found on paper in his studio after his death.They're listed BELOW.
You can also see a digitised version of the handwritten notes in the link above.

1. Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion.
2. The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued – except as a stimulus for further moves.
3. DO search.
4. Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable.
5. Don’t “discover” a subject – of any kind.
6. Somehow don’t be bored but if you must, use it in action. Use its destructive potential.
7. Mistakes can’t be erased but they move you from your present position.
8. Keep thinking about Pollyanna.
9. Tolerate chaos.
10. Be careful only in a perverse way.

I first came across them on the RA website in relation to their exhibition of his work in 2015.

They're not the conventional dictums which appear again and again in many instruction books about painting. Some are impenetrable to people who are not Americans or not of a certain age

For example "Keep thinking about Pollyanna" only becomes clear when you understand that Pollyanna is a character in a 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter AND that she is an orphan with an unjustifiably optimistic attitude.

To me they're indicative of the characteristics of right brain thinking and an aversion to the factual, structured, linear, systematic approach associated with left brain thinking.

In fact they're the complete antithesis of "step by step" instruction. It's about an attitude of mind which seeks to be open to possibilities rather than learning systems for creating a painting.

This is a video of Diebenkorn speaking about beginning a painting.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2022

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters invite entries to the OPEN Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in November 2022. The deadline for entries is Friday 9th September 2022 so you've still got time to be get organised and get your entry in. 

This year’s theme is ‘Changing Times’, which can be interpreted widely. 

The last Private View of the ROI I went to - in 2018

I always like to give people a point of reference for entries in terms of images of the last exhibition

So I've spent this morning looking for my photos of last years exhibition - only to realise that the ROI has been really, really unlucky in that its annual exhibition is held late in the year and got caught by pandemic scares / lockdowns in both 2020 and 2021. I was being very cautious well before lockdowns, so I've not seen an ROI Exhibition since 2019!

However there is a video tour of the 2021 exhibition - which was hung - and the catalogue is available on Issuu

and a video of the 2020 exhibition - which is an hour and half long - see below

Peter Graham ROI talks about eighty of the works in this year’s show, including paintings by long-established ROI members as well as pieces by non-member artists selected from open submission.

Call for Entries - ROI Annual Exhibition 2022

You can find the official and FULL Call for Entries here on

• the Mall Galleries website
• the ROI website

Below is as a summary ONLY.

Interestingly I note the new website indicates on its home page that

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters was founded in 1882 and is the only major British art Society that promotes and exhibits work of the highest standard exclusively in oil paint.

However I note that the Call for Entries still states "Acrylic and water-soluble oil paint is acceptable if framed as an oil, so as not to spoil the general appearance of the exhibition." so I think maybe somebody needs to review the use of the word 'exclusively' on the ROI website.

Who can enter

• The competition is open to all artists over the age of 18.
• It is also open to international entries - you don't even have to be live or work in the UK. However International Artists need to make sure they read the Mall galleries/FBA Notice notice about the need to register for VAT to get your artwork through Customs and into the UK! You might also find my page about International Art Shipping: How to ship / export art to other countries useful.

What sort of artwork can you enter

• Eligible media includes: oil. Acrylic paint or water based oils are eligible if framed like an oil painting. Below is a table I constructed from reviewing the works selected for hanging in previous exhibitions. Over 90% of artwork has been in oil in the last six hing exhibitions between 2014-2019.

Number and percentage of works - by medium - in the ROI Annual Exhibitions 2014-2019

• Size: The combined measurement of works accepted will not exceed 8 feet maximum per artist
• Age: Work must have been completed within the last three years 
• Previous Exhibitions: it must not have been previously shown at Mall Galleries.
• In terms of presentation there are some very specific guidelines 
• Wide mounts between painting and frame, as in watercolours, are not acceptable.
• Glazed work is not encouraged.
• Unframed work can be accepted if on a well-presented box canvas.
• For sale: Work MUST be for sale
• the minimum sale price is £300. 
• Note that any prices must allow for the deduction of commission @45% plus VAT %20% on the commission sum - so for a work priced at £500 you will receive £230 after the deduction of commission (£225) plus VAT on commission (£45). The price also needs to cover the cost of the frame and shipping (there and back if unsold). 

This year’s theme is ‘Changing Times’, which can be interpreted widely. Artists are encouraged to contribute a work on the theme, however it is not compulsory. If a work is on the theme, please elaborate on how in the artwork description box.

How to enter

All work must be submitted online - and pre-selection also takes place online.

If you make it through the pre-selection from digital images, you're then invited to take/send your artwork to the Mall Galleries for final selection for hanging in the exhibition - in front of a panel of ROI members.

This is the process you need to follow:

Online Exhibition by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators

If you've ever considered moving on from an interest in drawing and painting animals to becoming a Natural Science Illustrator, you may well be interested to view the Online Exhibition of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.

It coincides with their 2022 Virtual Annual Conference which has finished the Core Conference - with workshops to come on 20–21 & 27–28, 2022.

2022 Juried Members' Exhibition by GNSI Artists

You can view the Online Exhibition here