Call for Entries: Wildlife Artist of the Year 2022

If you're a wildlife artist and want to raise your profile you should consider entering the Wildlife Artist of the Year Competition - sponsored by the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation is association with BBC Wildlife. The deadline for entries is 11.59pm (UK time) on the 31st March 2022.

Last year the DSWF's Wildlife Artist of the Year competition broke records with 

• entries from 1,199 talented artists 
• from 70 countries 
• who submitted a total of 2,307 pieces.

This post is about:

• the prizes
• who can enter
• what to enter - in the different categories
• how to enter and the deadline

I've previously written about this competition - when it was exhibiting at the Mall Galleries - and you can read my past posts about the exhibitions at the end .

Prizes

DSWF has introduced a new emerging artist award for 2022 which celebrates first time entrants.

Prizes include 

• Overall winner and Wildlife Artist of the Year: £10,000 (including a £5,000 conservation donation to a DSWF project of the winner’s choice), 
• Runner-Up: £2,000 (including a £1,000 conservation donation to a DSWF project of the winner’s choice). 
• Each of the category winners and the winner of the newcomer award will receive £500.

The Exhibition

You should note that in 2022 - as in recent years - the exhibition is virtual and artwork can no longer be seen in person.

The sale of all shortlisted artworks will be via the DSWF website (davidshepherd.org) and other virtual media. Accordingly the quality of the digital image will be critical to the selection of an entry

No allowance will be made for poor digital images, bad quality photographs or low resolution videos. 

This was the video introducing the 2021 virtual exhibition

 

How to enter

Categories

Entries must correspond to one of the seven categories described below.  Detailed descriptions of each category are available in the Terms and Conditions.

Michael Skalka knows about art materials!

I first "met" (as in online) Michael Skalka many years ago when I was looking into the lightfastness of art materials. At the time, Michael was 

• Chairman of the D01.57, Artists' Paints and Related Materials subcommittee of the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) - which he still chairs.
• Conservation Administrator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington (for over 37 years) - where he managed the daily operations of the Conservation Division. He retired recently.

We started to correspond about lightfastness and have continued off and on over the years. 

Since he retired he's started a retirement project and is posting about fine art materials on his new website/blog Syntax of Color. This site provides a HUGE amount of expert and reliable information about fine art materials and their constituents (past and present) - which is very accessible.  I did a massive online colour project back in 2008 and learned an enormous amount about colour and pigment/materials performance (and have continued to remain interested in the topic ever since) - but Michael continues to publish consistent good quality information on a regular basis which I've not come across before which is both very interesting and informative. Plus he writes well!

I highly recommend Syntax of Color to all those interested in using colour in their art and looking to develop their knowledge of the fine art materials they use.

FIND OUT more about what it covers below - it also covers a number of related fine art materials for painters.

What does Syntax of Colour cover?

The Syntax of Color website provides the following - with examples:

• Various posts about PIGMENTS and different colours - including ones from the past  e.g.
• Through Thick or Thin? - a commentary on the thickness and viscosity of paint in tubes
• Permanent Green Light - how it came about and how to make it
• Henry Levison: A Debt of Gratitude - a history of permanent pigments
• HISTORICAL Artist Materials e.g. 
• Frankly My Dear, I Don’t Give a Lake! - about the origins and traditions of lake pigments and paints
• CHEMICALS used in Art  e.g.
• The Unvarnished Truth - a commentary on the use of old and contemporary varnishes for paint

While not having done a survey, I would safely say that no conservator would advocate the use of epoxy resin as a surface coating for a work of fine art.

• COLOR MEASUREMENT  e.g.
• The Color of Everything - about the contribution of the brewing industry to the measurement of colour.
• informative posts about HEALTH and SAFETY e.g.

The RWS Open at the Bankside Gallery

The RWS Open is back and on display at the Bankside Gallery between 4th and 20th March. This post reviews what I can see online (while sat on the sofa with my post surgery non weight bearing ankle elevated on my knee scooter!)

Jennifer McRae

David: West End Summer

watercolour on paper

63 x 130cm

£9500

Why the RWS Open is different

The Royal Watercolour Society has a different approach to open exhibitions when compared to most other national art societies. It has 

• a special open competition and 
• an exhibition dedicated ONLY to those who are non-members.

I'm bound to say this is, very probably, because they exhibit at the Bankside Gallery which is smaller than other venues used by national art societies and hence including open entries in a mixed exhibition with members would mean 

• either fewer works by members (which they wouldn't like!)
• or the number of non-members who were exhibited would get squeezed - which would mean they wouldn't attract a lot of entries.

Anyway - after a year's break due to the Pandemic (when all the art galleries were closed a year ago) - the RWS Open can now be seen at the Bankside Gallery - except by me. I'm not back on both feet for at least another three weeks and probably not walking until the end of April.

So - how to review this exhibition? Well all I can do is look at it online - so that's what I'm going to do.

The RWS Open Online

The first things I noticed are that 

• it's changed its name:
• it used to be known as The RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition (see the 2020 competition/exhibition)
• it's now branded as The RWS Open

Formerly known as the Contemporary Watercolour Competition (among many other names during the exhibition's 50+ year history), the RWS Open is the largest open-submission water-media exhibition in the world, attracting thousands of submissions nationally and internationally each year.

• the Online exhibition is NOT on the Bankside website. Instead ALL the images of the artworks are on the RWS website. That means that 
• the RWS website can archive ALL its past exhibitions online. 
• Let us not forget that storage of images is not expensive and it seems crazy to go to all the trouble of putting on an exhibition only to pass up the opportunity to continue selling images from the exhibition or by artists in the exhibition after the exhibition closes! 
• I think this is very sensible strategic marketing move and one which I wish more art societies would copy!

One thing which remains unchanged is that Selection is down to a small group of RWS members. For the 2022 RWS Open, the selectors were the President of the RWS plus three other members and a guest Judge

• Jill Leman PRWS (jillleman.co.uk) President of the RWS
• David Remfry RA RWS (davidremfry.com) He used to be Professor of Drawing at the RA Schools
• Chloe Fremantle RWS (chloefremantle.com) - elected to membership of the RWS in 2021 so a new eye in relation to what's on offer
• Wendy Jacob RWS (wendyjacob.com) - paints in gouache and is a regularly selected for various juried exhibitions 
• Brit Pruiksma (Founder of Mothflower) - the Instagram account @mothflower is a curated account of artwork which now has some 60k followers since its creation in January 2020.

The Online Exhibition

Some comments on how the online exhibition works and then I highlight the artists whose artwork I liked.

Display online

The fairly small thumbnails (compared to some other exhibitions) provide name of the artist and whether the artwork has won a prize.

The display scrolls easily on my iPad Pro (i.e. it's not limited by pages) except for the fact it works better in portrait mode than landscape.

However in my opinion, the RWS website makes THREE BIG MISTAKES 

Review: Elisha Enfield LAOTY 2022 - The Winner's Commission

This is a review of the eighth and final programme - The Winning Commission - in the 2022 series of programmes about Series 7 of Landscape Artist of the Year broadcast by Sky Arts. It comments on the Commission in terms of:

• the subject;
• the painting;
• the programme; and 
• the client.

Winners Film: The victor of the 2022 competition expresses their artistic prowess through capturing a spectacular location in paint. (S7, ep 8)

The Winning Commission
Episode of 8 of Series 7 of Landscape Artist of the Year

 

The Commission - the subject

The £10,000 Commission from Manchester Art Gallery  is intended to celebrate the industrial heritage of the North West.

2022 is the 20th anniversary of the completion of the work done to make the Rochdale Canal navigable again. It was the first of three transpennine canals to be opened in the 19th century. The canal is 32 miles long and has 91 locks between the Calder & Hebble Navigation at Sowerby Bridge and the Bridgewater Canal at Castlefield Junction in Manchester.

The challenge was both to capture something of both the canal - which crosses the height of the Pennines between Yorkshire to Manchester and the associated industrial buildings associated with the Canal.

The Commission - the painting

Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year Commission of the Rochdale Canal

Elisha Enfield created her painting of the Rochdale Canal  last summer in Oil on a Wood Panel measuring 50 x 70 cm - which is big for her.

The Unveiling

The commission painting on the Easel at the unveiling ceremony
Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year Commission of the Rochdale Canal
by Elisha Enfield for Manchester Art Gallery
Oil on Wood Panel, 50 x 70 cm
2021

Elisha has written an interesting post about the painting on her website.

I personally think it will look very good alongside the paintings of Manchester by LS Lowry and the misty atmospheric paintings by Adolphe Valette.

Having seen the Gallery in the programme, I just could not imagine Thomas Macgregor 's preferred palette of orange red/green paintings hanging on the wall - although his submission promised otherwise. By the same token, I rated Afsheen Nasir - but her Final commission was disappointing and her commission painting might have looked underwhelming in this context

Which rather goes to UNDERLINE the importance of two paintings in this overall process:

• the submission painting - which effectively sets the scene and allows the Judges to speculate on whether or not you might be a good fit with the the Client, the prize money and the Commission
• the Final Commission painting - where you need to really knock the Judges socks off - because you are in effect auditioning properly for the Final Commission.

In other words, we spend 5 or 6 weeks watching heats where 8 artists and wildcards participate in each heat - BUT.... 

Ukraine Support Pledge - how artists can participate

The Ukraine Support Pledge - for Artists and Art Lovers - has been launched by

• Artist Support Pledge founder Matthew Burrows and
•  artist curator Zavier Ellis of Ellis Smith Projects 
• see https://www.instagram.com/ukrainesupportpledge/
• see https://artistsupportpledge.com/#jp-carousel-1767

It follows similar principles as the Artist Support Pledge which Matthew initiated during the pandemic - but this time ALL the money raised will be DONATIONS to a charity supporting people affected by the war.

How to participate in the Ukraine Support Pledge

You can make art or buy art - or both!

• You can make work for the campaign or just your regular work. 
• Your aim should be to raise donations to support the charity helping people affected by the invasion of and war in Ukraine
• Artist Support Pledge will keep you updated on progress.

To participate and support the people of Ukraine, please follow the guidelines below. 

🔵   Post images of your artwork on Instagram to sell for a suggested DONATION of £200 ($200, €200, A$300, C$300, ¥20000) each.

🟡   Add the USP, text and QR code tiles. This tells people what it is and how to take part (use a repost app, screen shot or copy from the website www.artistsupportpledge.com).

🔵   Include the hashtags #ukrainesupportpledge and #artistsupportpledge.

🟡   Ask buyers to DM (message) you to purchase the work.

🔵   Payments should be made 

• DIRECTLY to Global Giving Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund 
• via our Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/UkraineSupportPledge (you can add this to your bio).

🟡   Request that the donor message or email you a screenshot for proof of donation as well as their shipping address.

🔵   Ship artwork to the donor.

That's it!

For more information on your donations, please go to: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-crisis-relief-fund/

#ukraine #standforukraine #stopwar
@ukrainesupportpledge @artistsupportpledge @matthewburrowsstudio @zavierellisstudio @ellissmithprojects
@globalgiving

About the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund