Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2019 - Call for Entries

The Call for Entries for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2019 has been published and the first prize has been increased to £20,000!

This art competition

• promotes representational art in two-dimensional works in any painting or drawing media
• has a significant prize pot (see below)
• aims to display 100 of the very best original representational artworks (but in part the number depends on size and the quality of the submission)
• at an exhibition at the Mall Galleries in March 2019
• accepts submissions  up until 5pm on Monday 3 December 2018

The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize has been running since 2005 and I've been covering it since 2008 (see the end for my past blog posts about the competition which contain images of artwork selected). It's an art competition with a generally good reputation and one which is particularly relevant to

• those who enjoy representational painting 
• younger painters less than 30 years old.

About the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2019

Approximately 200 artists will be longlisted from the digital entry and invited to deliver their actual works after initial selection from digital entries. Following review by the Judging Panel, approximately 100 works will then be selected for exhibition in March 2019 at the Mall Galleries, London.

Last year a record 2,194 entries were received for the 2018 Prize. Of these

• 92 drawings and paintings (4.2% of the submission) were selected for exhibition
• by 83 artists 

Melissa Scott-Miller won the £2,000 People's Prize in Lynn Painter-Stainers 2018 with this painting

Prizes

In terms of prizes it's certainly one of the more prestigious art prizes in the UK - particularly for younger artists who are eligible for two worthwhile prizes in addition to the others.

The total pot for prize money for 2018 is £35,000 split as follows:

• the Lynn Painter-Stainers First Prize (£20,000) 
• a second prize (£4,000) 
• the Young Artist Award (£4,000) for young artists aged 25 or under. The aim is to promote and support fresh new talent. 
• the Brian Botting Prize (£5,000) for an outstanding representation of the human figure by an artist aged 30 or under 
• The Daphne Todd Prize: £2,000 

The £2,000 People's Prize which was introduced in 2018 seems to have gone and been replaced by the Daphne Todd Prize.

Lynn Painter-Stainer 2018 Prizes - Left to right:
Young Artist Prize | Second Prize | First prize

I wasn't a fan of last year's winner (see and I think it very interesting what those visiting the exhibition voted for - see first image above.

The judges will be looking for work that demonstrates the very best in creative representational painting and promotes the skill of draughtsmanship. (website)

For me, there seemed to me to be more of an emphasis on 'innovation' and 'creativity' last year and draughtsmanship seemed to take a lower profile. For example there were no drawings in the exhibition at all whereas there have been a number of works on paper in many exhibitions in the past - such as the composite work in ink on paper by the winner in 2017 - who is a Judge this year!

Winner of Lynn Painter-Stainers First Prize 2017
Lunchtime, Liverpool Street by Christopher Green
ink on paper 142 x 136 cm £5,800

Judges

The Judges Panel has changed and retained only one Judge from last year.

There are three artists - including two former first prizewinners in this competition plus two gallery directors - one commercial and one the world’s first purpose-built public art gallery.  It's a good mix.

• Christopher Green - Artist and former winner of the Lynn Painter-Stainer Prize in 2017 (see above painting in INK ON PAPER!) (I'm a big fan of his work)
• Tom Hewlitt - Director, Portland Gallery - one of London's leading Art Galleries dealing in Modern British and Contemporary paintings which has an impressive listing of Modern British Artists that it represents. It's also known for dealing in the work of the Scottish Colourists
• Robin Lee-Hall PPRP - Artist working in egg tempera and former President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and in  2010 she won the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture.
• Jennifer Scott - Sackler Director, Dulwich Picture Gallery
• Benjamin Sullivan NEAC RP - Artist and Winner of the 2017 BP Portrait Award (see my video interview with him) and winner of the Lynn Painter-Stainer Prize in 2007. I remember the latter painting extremely well and marked the start of my following Ben's achievements in art competitions. I'm a big fan of his paintings.

The panel of judges will review all entries from the digital submission process. Only works shortlisted from the initial digital submission will be received for final judging in person - at the end of January

Exhibition

The Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize Exhibition will be at the Mall Galleries in London between 5 – 17 March 2019 (Open 10am-5pm daily, free entry)

The Exhibition will be curated by the artist Sam Wadsworth and Andrew Wilton, the Honorary Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Royal Academy of Arts.

How to Enter

These are:

• these are the Rules and Guidelines which you MUST confirm you have read and understood on the entry form 
• This is the Online Entry Form
• These are the Frequently Asked Questions

Eligibility

Artists - Who can enter

• Living artists over the age of 18, who are resident in the British Isles - irrespective of whether or not they are a British citizen. 
• You can be professional or amateur artists
• British citizens living abroad cannot enter.

Two of the prizes are age-related. It is IMPOSSIBLE to tell from the website what the date is for determining age - despite highlighting this issue FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS! Plus nowhere on the Entry Form are artists asked to state their age. The "normal rule" of most other competitions, that follow good practice and specify a date, is that the determining date is the deadline for entry.

Eligible artwork - What can you enter?

• Original - which (although they don't say) means in art competition terms that you can assert copyright for your work. What the law says is that your work is derivative and not eligible to claim copyright if you have copied another original artwork done by somebody else - and that includes photographs.
• two-dimensional works in ANY painting or drawing media.
• MUST be completed in the last three years (assume the date ends on the deadline for entry)
• MUST NOT have been previously exhibited. (Presumably within the three years which ends with the deadline for entry - again no date is specified)

If your work has been exhibited in a solo or group show in a public or commercial gallery it is not eligible for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize. However, if your work has been in an open studio show or shown as part of your degree show or has been shown online, then it is eligible for the Prize.FAQs

• All works must be for sale, except for commissioned portraits (which must be marked NFS on rear). Note that Commission of 40% + VAT will be levied on works sold during or as a result of the exhibition, or by means of the website, www.lynnpainterstainersprize.org.uk. (i.e. your sale price nets you a sum equivalent to 52% of the price you state if your artwork is sold)
• available for exhibition
• You can submit up to 4 works
• Longest dimension - including frame - must not exceed 60 inches (152 cms).

Entry Fee - what does it cost?

• Entry is £15 per work (£8 per work for students).

Timeline

• 3rd December 2018 - Deadline for online entries, by 5pm (GMT)
• 21st December 2018 - Results of initial judging emailed to artists by this date
• 25-26th January 2019 - Shortlisted artists submit works to FBA 10am-5pm (4pm on Saturday)
• 29th January 2019 - Results of final round judging emailed to artists by this date
• 5 - 17th March 2019 Exhibition at Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1

(Note: the FAQs have NOT been updated for the new dates for the 2019 competition)

Entry Process - How do you enter?

This is a link to the Rules and Guidelines which you MUST read in full before you enter.

Don't blame the organisers if something happens which you didn't expect because you only skimmed them and never sat down and read them properly!

• The competition organisers are Parker Harris. You should address all questions to them 
• Either use the contact form on the competition website. Or telephone 01372 462190

Stage 1: How to enter

• ALL Entry is digital and online - via the secure https://lps.artopps.co.uk/website 
• Digital Images must be: 
• 300 dpi 
• file formats: JPG, TIFF, or PNG 
• maximum file size of 1MB (increased from previous years - at last!) - but it still means a pretty small image in terms of pixel dimensions for length and height @ 300 dpi 
• files titled using your name and at least part of the title of the artwork 
• Submit your entry online using this online entry form.

BIG TIP: Make sure you get the best possible digital image of your artwork. 

• It really does make a difference to selection. 
• When judges are looking for reasons to reduce entries, poor presentation is a really easy choice. 
• This is my blog post about How to photograph your art for a digital submission

Stage 2: How to submit work

You only need to submit your actual painting or drawing if you've passed the initial selection filter at Stage 1.

• Typically around 200 artworks make it through to Stage 2 
• If you pass, this means your art now has a 50% chance of being selected for exhibition so don;t give them an excuse to exclude it e.g. frame which is not fit for exhibition

BIG TIP: You cannot assume you can book a framer at short notice - especiallyover the Christmas/New Year period. What this means is

• if your work is not framed then you need a framer booked and on standby 
• then cancel the job once you've got the result if you do NOT get selected for Stage 2. Not nice for the framer but there really is no other option (speaks one who got caught out badly on one occasion when every framer was booked up in advance!)

You need to:

• ensure you comply with requirements for framing as stipulated in the conditions of entry 
• (See also my webpage on Framing for art competitions & open art exhibitions) 
• arrange insurance cover 
• (see my page on Insurance for Art and Artists) 
• submit work with completed forms 
• arrange delivery to: Federation of Artists (FBA), 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5BD - see also the section on my Art Business Info. for Artists website on 
• How to Ship Art and particularly 
• HOW TO: Ship your work to art exhibitions) 

Good luck if you get this far! I hope I see your artwork in the exhibition....

More about the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize (2008-2018)

2018

• Review: Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2018
• Lynn Painter-Stainer Exhibition 2018 opens today - plus events and demos
• Lynn Painter Stainers 2018 - Call for Entries

2017

• Christopher Green wins Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2017
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2017: Call for Entries

2016

• Video of Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize Exhibition 2016
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2016: Call for Entries
• Lynn Painter-Stainers 2016 - Selected artists and works

2015

• Lynn Painter-Stainers 2015 - Prizewinners
• Lynn Painter-Stainer Prize 2015: Selected Artists & Events
• £15,000 Lynn Painter Stainers Prize 2015 - Call for Entries

2014

• Review and video of the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize Exhibition 2014
• Catherine Davison wins £15,000 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2014
• £15,000 Lynn Painter-Stainer Prize 2014 - deadline approaches

2013

• Lynn Painter Stainer Exhibition 2013: Review
• Lynn Painter Stainers Prize 2013 - Selected Artists
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2013: Call For Entries (13 Oct 2012) Overview of Call for Entries for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2013 for representational painting. 

2012

• Review: Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2012 Exhibition (01 Apr 2012) - review of the 2012 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize Exhibition yesterday at the Mall Galleries 
• Antony Williams wins Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2012
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2012 - Selected artists & artwork
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2012: Call For Entries

2010

• Rachel Levitas wins Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2010 16 November 2010 
• 65 Artists selected for Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2010 28th Oct 2010 
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2010 - Call for Entries 03 Aug 2010

2009

• Exhibition review: Toby Wiggins wins Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize17 Nov 2009 
• Shortlist for Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2009 04 Nov 2009 
• 82 works selected for Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 16 Oct 2009

2008

• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - selected artists 18 Sep 2008 
• Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2008 and Exhibition 19 Nov 2008

Edward Bawden at Dulwich Picture Gallery - last few days

The exhibition about Edward Bawden at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London finishes on Sunday 9th September - and if you've not seen it yet and can do so, I urge you to get along to the Gallery to see it.  It's a fabulous exhibition.

I saw it this afternoon with Felicity House and we enthused our way around the show - finding lots to like and lots to marvel at in terms of how he worked and what he produced.

Edward Bawden, Untitled landscape with sunset, 1927, 
watercolour on paper, 
Private Collection, Photo: Mark Heathcote, 
© Estate of Edward Bawden 

If you can't get to see the exhibition, but are interested in Bawden, the alternative is an excellent exhibition catalogue which you can either buy from

• the Gallery at full price (as I did this afternoon)
• the Gallery's online shop - at full price - which has lots of very nice images of pagespreads
• Amazon - at a discount

Below is less a review of the exhibition and more an assortment of notes - about both the man and the artworks we saw. (Plus news of another exhibition about Bawden at the end)

First a few notes about Edward Bawden - not from the exhibition but rather from online sources which you can investigate at your leisure.

About Edward Bawden

Edward Bawden RA CBE (1903-1989) is hardly an unknown or forgotten artist. Born in 1903, he enjoyed a long and distinguished career as graphic designer, illustrator, watercolourist, war artist, printmaker, teacher and patron of the rts. When he died at the age of 86, a retrospective of his work had opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum

So starts the exhibition catalogue

Below is a video about Edward Bawden (in his home) first broadcast on Anglia TV when the artist was 80. It includes Bawden talking about his art - including comments on his view about the absence of a distinction between fine art and commercial art

He describes himself as a pattern maker and says he has no sense of form and could never have been a sculptor

He studied at Cambridge Art School and the Royal College of Art, was taught and mentored by Paul Nash at the RCA and was a member of the Bardfield set which included Eric Ravilious.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as a key to understand his interests and how he worked



You can find out more about him on the following links:

• Edward Bawden | Wikipedia
• Edward Bawden | The Fry Art Gallery  - lots of pics plus a biography

Edward in his studio by his friend and contemporary Eric Ravilious

About the exhibition

This brief video previewed the exhibition



This is a brief video about the exhibition - and you can see the works hung in the exhibition



These are the exhibition reviews

• The Spectator | Edward Bawden is deservedly one of Britain’s most popular 20th century artists by Martin Gayford - 
• The Economist | How Edward Bawden modernised the watercolour - Florence Hallett provides very large images of some of the works in the exhibition
• The Independent | Edward Bawden, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, review: Good wallpaper for the adult nursery - a very snotty 2 star review by Michael Glover who seems to have a habit of sneering at anything representational and who obviously no appreciation of drawing or the quintessentially English nature of this artist. Small wonder as "art critic" seems to be his side line....

The exhibition is not based on a time line - instead it has themes.

The exhibition is divided into sections focusing on:

• World Off Duty
• Gardening
• Spirit of Place
• Portraits
• Architecture
• Fable & Fantasy

Shortlist for £15,000 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 + Exhibiting Photographers

The annual Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is one of the most prestigious photography awards in the world.

For the 2018 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize - and Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery:

• 4,462 submissions were entered by 1,973 photographers from 70 countries. 
• 57 portraits from 49 photographers have been selected for display (1.27% and 2.48% of submissions and photographers respectively)
• 4 submissions are a series; and
• 4 photographers have been shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2018, the international photography award organised by the National Portrait Gallery, London. and sponsored by the law firm Taylor Wessing

This post is about the shortlisted artists and also lists the names of the photographers selected for the exhibition.

The Competition

The competition is open to everyone aged 18 and over from around the world. Photographers are encouraged to interpret portrait in its widest sense of photography concerned with portraying people with an emphasis on their identity as individuals.

Competition is INTENSE just to get selected for the exhibition. Moreover this competition has an enthusiastic international following. So to get shortlisted as well must feel like the most tremendous achievement for any photographer.

Like the BP Portrait Prize, the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize offers an important internationally recognised platform for professionals, emerging artists and amateurs alike to show their work - except in this instance the portrait are contemporary photographic portraits.

All submissions are judged anonymously. The exhibition typically displays a wide diversity of styles which reflect both cultural preferences and the individual styles of the photographers submitting entries and their approach to portraiture.

Photographers were again encouraged to submit works as a series in addition to stand-alone portraits, and there was no minimum size requirement for prints.

• The winner of the first prize will receive £15,000. 
• The second prize winner receives £3,000 and 
• the third prize £2,000.  

The prizes for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 will be announced on Tuesday 16 October 2018 at 19.00

Shortlist for Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2018

The shortlisted portraits include

• two photographs of women living in London
• a double portrait of a pair of shoppers taken in England’s capital. 
• photographs of a London mother holding her baby; 
• two photographs of children living in Africa
• a child from a remote village in the jungle of Sierra Leone’s Eastern Province; 
• a series on the all-female teams of drum majorettes in South Africa’s Western Province

The Royal Academy of Arts 2019 Exhibition Programme

The Royal Academy of Arts have announced their 2019 programme of exhibitions. There seem to be more than usual - however I guess the redevelopment created extra space!

The star of the show for me is the exhibition of self-portraits by Lucian Freud in just over a year's time

Lucian Freud, Reflection (Self-portrait), 1985.
Oil on canvas, 56.2 x 51.2 cm.
Private collection, on loan to the Irish Museum of Modern Art
© The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images

This is the listing. It doesn't include the exhibitions in smaller spaces - but it does include:

• one  blockbuster by a contemporary painter (I predict)
• one 'likely to be very popular' overview of a major theme of the Renaissance
• two solo exhibitions for Royal Academicians - and one shared with Michelangelo's drawings
• two exhibitions of artwork by two lesser known European artists
• two annual events

Making A Mark in August 2018

Fans of Making A Mark will remember the "Who's made a mark this week?" posts which I had to discontinue in 2014 as they were taking over my life.

Since then I've diversified and now have other active websites and blogs - and what you used to see on Making A Mark can now be found elsewhere.

I've been mulling on how to profile what I've written and seen and today I'm going to start a trial of a NEW MONTHLY SUMMARY of

• posts on my blogs and website updates 
• coupled with some of the posts to three of my Facebook pages

Tell me what you think of it - on Facebook!

Making A Mark in August 2018

For those who missed my posts because you were on holiday or life intervened...

All posts are from Making A Mark except

• ABI = Art Business Info. for Artists
• BBA = Botanical Art and Artists

Artists

Image of Wyeth's Studio, © Phil Bradshaw, FreshFly

• The Andrew Wyeth Movie - a hugely popular blog post. - an extended trailer for the new documentary film about Andrew Wyeth, originally planned for a 2012 release - but due to launch this month!
• BBA - Video Interview with Kathy Pickles - Between 1991 and 1996, Kathy Pickles exhibited every year at the RHS Botanical Art Show. Each year she won a Gold Medal for her exhibit. In 2015, after nearly 20 years, she returned for a sixth time - and won a sixth Gold Medal.... and I've just found the video interview I did with her at the time!
• Lucian Freud - paintings of plants and gardens - following the exhibition at the Tate I did a an inventory - in a timeline - of all his paintings of plants with:
• notes about their context and location
• links to where you can see them and 
• quotes by people - including Freud himself - about his paintings of plants and why he did them.

"The subject matter has always been dictated by the way my life has gone. I noticed that when I was under particular strain, I didn't feel so like staring at people or bodies all day." It was at times like these that the palm, the Egyptian Book, thistles, cyclamens, buttercups, substituted for sitters. Seeing through the skin

• Ken Howard gets the brush-off from police in Venice - Police tell Ken Howard to stop painting in St Mark's Square in Venice - where he has a home and has painted for the last 60 years!
• BAA - Notable Botanical Artists of the 20th Century - lists the famous and/or notable botanical artists who  did most of their work in the 20th century and are now dead and who get brief or more detailed bios on my website
• Ruskin the radical: why the Victorian thinker is back with a vengeance | The Guardian - For those interested in the wide-ranging interests of John Ruskin
• Drawings by Feliks Topolski of the workers who print the money for the Bank of England are going on display at the Bank of England Museum for the first time in 60 years! (Drawing money: images of Bank print workers go on display | The Guardian)

Calling All Artists - Art Competitions and Open Exhibitions