Review: 124th Annual Exhibition of the Pastel Society

I visited the 124th Annual Exhibition of The Pastel Society on Wednesday. The theme of this year’s Pastel Society Exhibition is ‘Pastel Without Boundaries’.

This post covers:

• general observations about the exhibition - compared to the previous 17 previous annual exhibitions - all of which I have seen and commented on (except for last year when I was immobile post surgery)
• artwork I liked
• things which IMO need to change and/or improve

Some exhibition metrics will follow after the end of the exhibition.

This post is later than I intended as I ran into major problems yesterday with Blogger absolutely refusing to upload images. So I waited 24 hours and it's now back to normal. However this left me more time to mull over over my thoughts on the show. 

Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2023: Catalogue Cover

The Annual Exhibition is on at the Mall Galleries until 3rd June 2023. 

• Admission is £5 but is Free for Friends of Mall Galleries, Friends of the Pastel Society, and under 25s.
• You can read the catalogue online via Issuu
• The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2023 | Award Winners - has been posted on the Mall Galleries website, so I'll not cover those in this blog post unless they happen to be one I was impressed by.

You can see my photos of the exhibition on my Facebook Page

• West Gallery [UPDATE] where I comment further on some of the points made in this review
• East Gallery
• North Galleries

Observations about the Exhibition

All that follows needs to be viewed from the perspective that I am a very big fan of dry media and pastels - so some of the comments made below are hard to make - but I think need making. 

Blogger problem - unable to upload pictures

I'm afraid I cannot write any blog posts involving images at the moment. 

Google has made a change to its software which is preventing me from uploading images to blog posts.

It's an appalling situation in Google's Chrome. This is the message I get while signed in

It's slightly better in Apple's Safari browser - which is where I found out that they want me to accept all Google Cookies so they can track all my activity.

The latter is illegal in the UK - Google should really mug up on GDPR - it's been around for quite a time (see General Data Protection Regulation ​for Artists and Art Organisations)

I suspect the change has been due to the enormous fine Meta has just received - see Meta: Facebook owner fined €1.2bn for mishandling data | BBC

Facebook's owner, Meta, has been fined €1.2bn (£1bn) for mishandling people's data when transferring it between Europe and the United States.

Issued by Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), it is the largest fine imposed under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation privacy law.

I suspect Google has changed things so they can say "we all agreed to all the cookies" - EXCEPT they obviously don't understand that in the UK we have a legal entitlement to refuse all but essential cookies i.e. they cannot make us accept all cookies!

Looks like Google is setting itself up to get a big fine too!

Peter Doig at the Courtauld Gallery

I visited the Courtauld Gallery to see the Peter Doig exhibition (which closes on 29th May) about two weeks ago. One of the reasons I've not written about seeing the exhibition before now is because I actually found it rather disappointing.

I've seen his artwork before and liked it - which is why I visited.

But in this exhibition there was little that I liked and much that felt like reworkings of stuff he'd done before - but less successfully

There is one really good painting in the show - and that's the one of the skier. However that was about it for me. 

Alpinist (2019-2022) by Peter Doig
pigment on linen

It's a painting based on an old postcard, which was then changed (eg introduction of the harlequin suit) to make it a more monumental work.

I read the reviews of the exhibition beforehand which were almost universally were complimentary - so maybe I was disappointed because they'd built it up to be better than it is.

Gallery view of other paintings by Peter Doig

Simply put - I just didn't get it. 

• Making large paintings is what people do these days. Making large paintings does not make you better than everybody else. 
• Making paintings look brutal or about alienation is what some artists do - so what makes Doig better?
• Making paintings out of photographs? Yes, happens a lot!

The reviewer who in my opinion got nearest to my response to the exhibition. was The Arts Desk review titled Peter Doig, Courtauld Gallery review - the good, the bad and the unfinished - with a strapline of 

Paintings that run the gamut from the sublime to the banal

It turned out that the person who wrote it had taught him at the Chelsea College of Art 

I once gave Peter Doig a tutorial, when he was a student at Chelsea College of Art. He had little to say about his strange images and I came away feeling I’d seen something unique, but was unable to tell if he was a very good painter or a very bad one.

I also visited the Peter Doig Etchings for Derek Walcott - and similarly came away underwhelmed.

I think the conclusion I've come to is that 

• Peter Doig is a painter who is perfectly capable of producing genuinely new and inspired - and does - now and again.
• He is also a painter who can complete quite a lot of dross inbetween. 

I'm not surprised. This is the way for many painters. It's just that many painters have more sense than to show everything they've ever painted - even if it takes them years to finish it.

However, having come to the exhibition late, I could also judge the success of the exhibition (once I had left it) by the amount of goods for sale still left in the shop. 

Let's just say there's going to be an awful lot of cutprice catalogues very soon......

The public have spoken.....

PS I think I have at last worked out why so much contemporary art disappoints me. Those that are trying to be like Doig - given he fails to impress - cannot hope to make me happy.

How to become an Associate Member of the Royal Watercolour Society

Would you like to become an Associate Member of the Royal Watercolour Society? You have until 11.59pm on Friday 2nd June to submit an application.

Membership of the Royal Watercolour Society

Royal Watercolour Society artists are elected on merit by the current Membership - a tradition dating back to the Society's foundation over 200 years ago. Any professional artist working in water-based media may apply. Our Members' work is extremely varied, both in style and subject matter, and includes paintings in gouache, acrylic, pen and ink and watercolour mixed media on paper.

The RWS:

• has a royal charter
• is based at Bankside Gallery in London - which it shares with the RE
• is currently in the soft opening phase of the new RWS Gallery at Whitcomb Street which is a new (old) gallery space near Trafalgar Square.

You need to apply to become an Associate Member first. 

When you become a full member the benefits are:  

• four major group exhibitions at Bankside Gallery each year, 
• other opportunities to exhibit in external exhibitions (recent collaborations have been with the Royal Albert Hall, the RHS and the Globe). 
• Your work will be publicised through the Society's website
• There are opportunities to run courses, have your work used for publicity, on merchandise, and to become involved in Society events.

For this you will be charged a not inconsiderable annual fee. I applaud the RWS for being transparent and upfront about this. It's the first time I've ever seen any of the Societies do this and hopefully this will become the new norm. 

My personal view is that ALL chances to apply for membership by ALL art societies should always be fully aware of the full costs and obligations as well as any benefits. Plus for the sake of transparency and complete compliance with Advertising Regulations it's always best to be up front about these things!

Application Process and Guidelines

You have to be a professional watercolour artist to apply

How does the RWS define a 'professional' artist?
All artists who submit their work for Election should earn their income (partly or wholly) from the sale of their work. They should exhibit regularly and have a clear and coherant practice.

The application process runs as follows:

• You need to apply online 
• a shortlist of applicants will be pre-selected and invited to deliver three framed, glazed paintings and a portfolio of supporting work to be judged by RWS Members. 
• If elected, you will become an Associate Member of the RWS. 
• Full Membership is achieved by Election at an RWS Annual General Meeting, if there is a vacancy.

These are the links to:

• the Election Page https://www.royalwatercoloursociety.co.uk/election/
• the Application Guidelines
• Election FAQs
• the Application Form

Deadline: 11.59pm Friday 2nd of June

RECOMMENDATIONS: 

You can only be a member of ONE of:

• either the Royal Watercolour Society
• or the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours

but NOT BOTH! 

I strongly recommend that before making an application you make sure you have been to Exhibitions by both art societies as they are very different - and also exhibit in different places. You will know when you've seen the exhibitions which one suits you and your artwork best.

Also this is not a vanity exercise and people tend to remember names, so do not waste people's time if you're just starting out and do not as yet have 

• an established practice as an exhibiting semi-professional or professional artist 
• the significant income generated from the sales of your artwork. 

The RWS has an open competition https://www.royalwatercoloursociety.co.uk/competition  and separate exhibition where you can exhibit work as a non-member and if you want to get noticed this is the best place to start - and then work towards submitting an application to become an Associate.

If you are an International Artist, please be aware that if you become a member you are expected to exhibit in exhibitions and if you fail to exhibit your membership can be revoked. 

Again - this is not a Vanity Exercise or a way to collect initials after your name - you are expected to become an active participant in exhibitions.

So maybe have a long hard think about the costs of transporting artwork to and from up to four exhibitions a year before you apply. I'd recommend having a think about transporting the artwork only and having it framed in the UK and then delivered to the Gallery. 

History of The Royal Watercolour Society

• In 1804, the Society of Painters in Water-Colours was created.
• In 1881, it changed its name to become the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours 
• In 1905 it became Royal Watercolour Society after it was granted a royal charter. 

It's now the oldest watercolour society in the world. The focus of this Society was to promote the use of watercolour - but also to exhibit only the work of its own members - which is a tradition which continues to this day. 

In the Victoria age, the RWS was referred to as the Old Water-Colour Society (OWCS) so as to distinguish it from the newer society which eventually became the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (RI). 

See my post about The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours to see the history of the two societies and why they are separate.

Links

• Royal Watercolour Society
• The two Galleries at Bankside and Whitcomb Street

What should the BBC do about the Eric Gill statue on Broadcasting House?

Yesterday I highlighted the BBC report below about how the statue by Eric Gill on the front of BBC headquarters has been attacked yet again - on my Facebook Page

Man arrested after damage done to Eric Gill statue at BBC headquarters

I asked 

I thought this might happen as soon as I saw the news that they were going to repair the damage from the last time somebody bludgeoned Eric Gill’s statue on Broadcasting House.
Despicable man!
Let’s just look at it from the perspective of “Would the BBC commission the work now if they knew the crimes he committed?”

I got a lot of comments - some of which reference other artists who had done awful things. 

To which my response is doing awful things to adults is one thing, doing awful things to children is quite another - and I repeat

The reality is now people are going to keep coming back to destroy this statue as it's symbolic of "the establishment" turning the other cheek. If the BBC has any sense they will have it removed PDQ. What happens to it can then be discussed - preferably at some considerable length.

and

"Would the BBC commission the work now if they knew the crimes he committed?”

I received one comment (from Sarah Wimperis) - which I loved and wish I'd written and which I want to highlight here - and in particular one sentence

Take it down, stop using Gill Sans font too. Make space for some work by a kinder, less cruel and perverted artist. If it was a monument to Savill or Rolf Harris it would have been carted off in shame. How about choosing a woman artist to make work to fill the space, at least they seem to have a bit more humanity plus they are monumentally underrepresented (pun intended) I really don’t get why we hang onto stuff made by beasts. History, in a way, is only a small view of our past, it is one perspective, literally his-story, I don’t often say what I think, and it is just my opinion, but Eric Gill was a monster, why not take the thing away and commission something better.

My feelings entirely. I think the BBC should address the Eric Gill issue properly and

• remove that statue so it cannot be a repeated target for those insulted by its presence on the front of "the establishment" 
• go away and have a very long discussion about what to do with it. Years would be good.
• ideally find something much more suitable, much less offensive and more related to the BBC's role in NOT looking away when difficult issues relating to abuse are raised (ref. their past track record re. Jimmy Saville / Rolf Harris / Tim Westwood etc)

Being involved in creative industries does not give you a licence to abuse or allow others to do the same - or to promote others who have abused.

Saville has been removed from all the repeats of Top of the Pops etc. 

What's the difference?

I think the Tate gets it just right

Prospero and Ariel on Tate website

REFERENCE

More on this topic for those who want to know more about the contentious topic of Eric Gill, what he did to his daughters and why it's important not to turn the other cheek and to think long and hard about why context is important when looking at art.