Review: Royal Society of Miniature Artists, Sculptors and Gravers Annual Exhibition 2025

This week I'm visiting the Royal Society of Miniature Artists, Sculptors and Gravers (RMS) Annual Exhibition 2025 at the Bankside Gallery three times. 

• Monday night: to judge the Gold Memorial Bowl (the top award) with London art critic Tabish Khan 
• Tuesday afternoon: to attend the PV and Awards Ceremony - and meet up with artists and friends
• Sunday afternoon: to collect the artwork I bought on Monday night!

It's always a pleasure to visit this exhibition as this is an art society with some very enthusiastic members who absolutely love meeting people who like miniature art.

View of the entrance to the RMS Annual Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery

The exhibition is:

• AT: The Bankside Gallery Thames Riverside, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH
• UNTIL: Saturday 22nd November 2025
• HOURS: 11am - 6pm

I highly RECOMMEND this exhibition to

• anybody who is interested in miniature art - whether these are paintings, drawings or sculpture in a variety of media
• all those art collectors who, like me, are fast running out of space for new artwork

You can see my photographs of the artwork displayed in the cases in a dedicated album Royal Society of Miniature Painters - Annual Exhibition 2025 (58 items) on my Making A Mark Facebook Page. Taken while the glass cover was still up, these provide a reasonable view of the artwork without compromising copyright.

This year it also includes a memorial exhibit of 12 miniature paintings by the late Bill Mundy RMS HS MAA MASF who died in July this year.

Portraits by the late Bill Mundy (1936-2025)

Demonstrations

The RMS have always been excellent at providing demonstrations at their exhibitions of the materials and techniques used to produce their exquisitely small artworks. The remaining ones will be taking place between 12 and 5pm 

Thursday 20th Nov - Linda Kracht watercolour on vellum & Michael Coe watercolour on vellum
• Friday 21st Nov - Peter Hayton, watercolour on paper & Christina Hopkinson watercolour on Kelmscott vellum
• Saturday 22nd Nov - Claire Russell, Verre églomisé – gold leaf on glass & Jenny Musker VPRMS watercolour on polymin

How to paint miniature portraits - is a post is about the art materials, equipment and set-up used by an experienced miniature artist which I wrote a few years ago after watching one demonstration in an RMS Exhibition! 

The Exhibition

Things I noticed this year included the following

• there seem to be fewer landscapes - particularly those involving the countryside. Which is a pity as I am a great fan of those painted by Roz Pierson.  Maybe I could highlight that other exhibitions where I have analysed sales, I've also noted that landscapes sell extremely well as a subject!

Review: ING Discerning Eye 2025

Last Thursday I went to see the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at the Mall Galleries - on my four art exhibitions on one day extravaganza! (The feet have told me not to do it again!)

The event celebrates a wide range of art media, from print to sculptures, from all regions across the UK. The exhibition celebrates small works, and so entries must have a maximum height of 50cm including framework

Three different exhibits of the six which make up the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2025

I've been covering the ING Discerning Eye exhibition since 2007 and every year it's a pleasure to see the huge range of small artworks hanging in the three galleries.

This year the open entry has been impressive and very big and you'll never ever see as much artwork in these galleries as you will in this exhibition!

Below you can find out about:

• The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition - and why it is different from any other exhibition you will ever see
• The Six Exhibitions - by six different selectors
• how to see the exhibition

(but not the prizes....)

About ING Discerning Eye Exhibition

All works must be within the maximum size limit of 50cm including frame.

Like most decent art competitions these days, it has

• a reputable backer The Discerning Eye is a visual arts focused educational charity. Its principal activity is to hold a rather unique annual exhibition
• the exhibition is sponsored by ING Bank. Hence it is known as the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition.
• offers prizes - including the ING Purchase Prize, worth £5,000. Awards will be given out to the winners in a prize giving at the start of the exhibition.
• been running since 1999.

The three key differences are:

• ALL the artwork is small
• the six selectors change every year AND each selector curates their own exhibition. In effect, there are six small exhibitions across the three galleries at the Mall Galleries by:
• two artists - 
• two curators
• two collectors
• The selectors are solely responsible for their own selection; selection is not by committee.
• Selectors can also invite artists to exhibit 
• The balance of their exhibit comes from selecting artwork via the open entry AND the selectors must choose at least 33% of their section from the open submission.

Personally speaking - having browbeaten most of the FBA Societies into understanding that if you are going to call something an open exhibition, then you need to have a very significant proportion from the open entry. (ASA regulation | The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code) etc.) They got the point - they cannot be misleading!

• I intially suggested two thirds member / one third open
• most are now near 50:50 - which has been a shot in the arm for all those with aging members who'd like to be able to paint less and need new members!

Sadly ING has not yet tightened up on their advertising of this art competition - and still need to address this.

More than 730 artworks by 529 artists have been selected from a staggering 6,500 entries, reflecting the breadth and vibrancy of contemporary British art.

REALLY?  All selected from the open entry???

Anyway - enough of important technicalities....

Members Preview  

I attended a Members Preview - which is a new venture by the Mall Galleries - and one which I very much hope will be repeated. 

Exploring Time - Tony Foster's watercolour landscapes at the RWS Gallery

There’s an amazing exhibition of very impressive watercolour paintings by Tony Foster at the RWS Gallery in Whitcomb Street. 

It's quite unlike anything else I've ever seen before in an art gallery.

For more than 45 years now English artist Tony Foster has worked in the World’s wildernesses - mountains and canyons, rainforests and deserts, the Arctic and the Tropics. Travelling slowly - on foot or by canoe or raft, and carrying his painting and camping equipment he makes his paintings in response to what he finds on his journeys.

“Exploring Time” in plein air painting treks through geological and biological time across various wilderness locations on different continents. 

This new exhibition presents over fifty watercolours painted en plein air over seventeen years, sharing the artist's reflections on the complexity of time and its impact upon the planet. Each includes notes from the artist’s experiences as well as maps and objects relevant to its location.

Divided into Geological Time, Biological Time, Human Time and Fleeting Moments, the paintings explore how time has sculpted and affected our planet. From Colorado to Tibet, the Galapagos and Cornwall, the works celebrate the wonder of nature, highlighting the importance of leaving areas of the world undisturbed.

A view of one of the basement galleries

His watercolour paintings painted plein air over 17 years are phenomenal. 

Some are of some absolutely amazing vistas in wilderness country. Some are of things he finds and records en route when trekking - which also record the small things in places in a unique way.

• You can see some of my photos of this paintings in my Facebook Post
• You can see a record of his exhibitions over the years on his website

The resulting paintings are a visual record of what he encounters on his journey: not just the landscape, but flora and fauna, notes, souvenirs and anecdotes.

A record of small objects - leaves, fruits, birds, eggs, feathers, twigs etc
found in a specific place on is travels

He also has an extraordinarily impressive CV of exhibitions across the USA and UK and coverage in articles by very many different publications. 

This exhibition will be embarking on a tour of the US from 2026 to 2028.

Approach to Drawing and Painting + Equipment

His approach to recording by drawing and painting what he sees is quite unlike virtually all landscape artists. This is his plein air method

He does not use photography or sketches but makes his paintings on site, often in the most difficult and uncomfortable circumstances. Sometimes a large-scale work (up to 8ft x 4 ft / 244 cms x 122 cms!) will take more than three weeks on site before it is sufficiently resolved to roll into its aluminium tube to be completed in his studio in Cornwall. 

Check out his painting equipment he takes with him 

Tony Foster's very lightweight painting equipment for very large paintings

Once he has found his painting site, he erects a makeshift board as an easel. When working in freezing conditions, he adds gin to his painting water to stop it icing-up. 

Events Programme

Review: Episode 7 Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 (Series 12)

You can relax - this is not like last week!

This episode of Series 12 of Portrait Artist of the Year 2025 is a better one with a number vying for shortlisting - although uneven in their contributions of both self portrait and heat painting.

Judging the artwork in Episode 7

Episode 7: The Sitters

The sitters for Episode 7
(bottom left) Jack Dee; (top right) Jacob Collier (bottom right) Fatiha El-Chorri

The three sitters in Episode 7 are as follows:

• Jack Dee - an English stand-up comedian, actor, presenter, and writer known for his sarcasm, irony, and deadpan humour. He's now rated as a comedy legend. He brought his radio - obviously still a dedicated analogue man!
• Fatiha El-Chorri (b.1981) - a British comedian and write who was born in Hackney. Currently a rising star on the comedy circuit and television presenter on Channel $'s Taskmaster and Sky "Mr Big Stuff". She bought a family plate she was given when she got married.
• Jacob Collier (b.1994) - an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator. He is known for his energetic live performances. He has won 7 Grammys and has 15 Grammy nominations. He brought three instruments with him.

I must confess I'd never ever heard of the two younger ones - but maybe I'm showing my age!

Episode 7: The Artists

The artists participating in Episode 7 of PAOTY 2025

All the artists are listed below alphabetically by surname - but are not differentiated between professional and amateur. The link to their main 'contact' site is embedded in their name and social media sites follow - if available.

The mini bio provided in the programme skips over some rather important information about some of the participating artists. As always I've dug around online, and these profiles provide more information than the programme does.

• Sarah-Lee Bailey (Facebook | Instagram) - from County Durham. She produced her first ever portrait to apply for the competition. It depicts her asleep with her new baby daughter, a doll and the family cat - all snoozing away!
• Hannah Broadhead (Instagram) - a professional artist who took part on PAOTY 2023 (painting Shirley Ballas). She graduated in 2007 from Staffordshire University and won her first art prize in 2017 (People’s Choice award Lichfield Art Prize). Her artwork was selected for the Royal institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition in 2025. Her practice explores observation and narrative. Her self portrait was a complex one of a full size self sat on the floor with her easel and art materials. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hannah Broadhead (@hannahbroadheadart)

• Joe Capps (Instagram) - a Literature graduate and practising screenwriter. His formal study stopped at A-Level and he is self-taught after that. His route to becoming a freelance artist has been defined by media exploration and stylistic refinement, culminating in a 2019 solo show, Atlas, in Kendal. He now lives in Edinburgh, where he enjoys engaging with local art groups and attending life-drawing sessions.
• James Isaacs (Instagram) - a designer and artist living in North London with his wife. Painting has always been a part of his life. During Covid he pursued portraiture and painted friends via webcam. When he's not being an artist, he's a multi award-winning designer and art director with 15 years industry experience currently working for on  internationally focused content and data driven music media.
• Hamley Jenkins (Instagram) - She is passionate about drawing and music and works as a live sketch artist in jazz clubs. In 2018 she began a residency at Jazz Live at the Crypt in Camberwell - and never really stopped!. She graduated from Bath College with a BA (Hons) in Design and Illustration in 1993. Her large self portrait was painted in just 4 hours.
• Bernie Liumako (Instagram) - a fine artist originally from Tanzania, now living with his young family in Llangollen in Wales (and somebody teach Stephen Mangan how to saw words which are Welsh! I cringed every time he said 'langollun')
• Nasreen Nazir (Instagram) - she works as a civil servant in London. She completed her self portrait using W&N Promarkers.
• Vincent Stokes (Instagram) - b. 1996 in Walsall in the West Midlands. He completed his BA in Fine Art (1st Class) from Birmingham School of Art (2014-2017); BCU in 2017, and achieved his Masters in Fine Art (Distinction) in 2018. He's a regular exhibitor in and around the West Midlanda, botably with the RBSA. He works on themes for a series of drawings - with many related to his personal life. I RECOMMEND you take a look at his instagram account!
• Millie Wilkins (Instagram) - An artist, illustrator and studio technician who has travelled and is now based in Cornwall. She did a 3D Design BA(Hons), Falmouth University and various short courses on portraiture and drawing for a graphic novel. She aspires to illustrate books and is working on some children's book submissions, represented by Gill McLay at Bath Literary Agency.

The 10 Most popular posts in the first million visits (Part 1)

One of the assets of this blog - which started 20 years ago - is there is a very considerable archive of past posts - some of which have been very popular indeed. 

I've just come across a post which highlights what were the 10 most popular posts in 2011 - after the first five years of Making A Mark. 

During this period I did regular "big projects" on specific topics - and these are reflected in the most popular posts

Below are the top five posts - with the links to each blog post embedded in its title.

Tomorrow I'll list the next 5 posts in the top 10

I've extracted a short piece of text and an image from each one - so you can get an insight as to what the post is about.

CAUTION: Given the age of the posts some of the links embedded in the post will no longer work as websites have died and been wound up.

1. 10 Tips for How to Sketch People

Drawing and sketching people is an invaluable way of developing a wide range of artistic skills.

I've been drawing people for very many years - family, friends, people in cafes and restaurants, life class models - and other artists. People often tell me how much they like the sketches I make of people I come across on my travels with a sketchbook - which I find a bit odd as most rarely have faces!

Cheers Boston!
(sketching fellow travellers at Logan Airport, Boston, USA September 2006)
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

2. Van Gogh: Drawing media and techniques

Drawing Media:

• Pencil: He employed pencil for preliminary drawings and then combined it with ink. He often worked with a carpenter's pencil. He liked to press hard and often worked on wet paper.
• Pen and ink: Van Gogh had a remarkable gift for pen drawing and graphic technique.
• Most of Van Gogh's pen and ink and brush drawings (such as the one above) are executed first in pencil first. He then inks/bruhes over the pencil marks once he is happy with them.
• some of his pen and ink drawings are drawn without any preliminary use of pencil
• During his visit to Arles in 1888, Van Gogh discovered the reed pen (made from local hollow-barreled grass, sharpened with a penknife). It changed his drawing style. He created some extraordinary drawings of the Provençal landscape, including a series of drawings of and from Montmajour (east of Arles) , in reed pen and aniline ink on laid paper. The ink has now faded to a dull brown.
• The Van Gogh Museum is conducting research into pigments and drawing inks in use in the period 1888-1890 and comparing this to the inks Van Gogh used [UPDATE: See the Research Results REVIGO: Paintings - which also comments on inks]

Trees with ivy in the asylum garden, 1889
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, May-June 1889
pencil, reed pen and brush and ink, on paper, 61.8 cm x 47.1 cm
Credits: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

3. Composition - Principles of Design

This post forms part of an introduction to the elements and principles of composition and design and follows on from yesterday's post about the elements of design. 

It's an overview. More can be written about each and every principle - and has been!

• Good composition doesn't happen by accident. A quick reminder. The analogy which I find helpful for remembering which is which is to compare the elements and principles of art and design to the ingredients and method of a recipe. Cookery and composition have quite a lot in common!
• All the elements are ingredients - they are separate and need to be combined effectively to produce a successful outcome. Each ingredient gets to play a major or a minor role in the eventual outcome. This, in part, is dependent on the quantities employed and, in part, on the nature and intrinsic power of each ingredient (think garlic and chilis!).
• It's the particular way that they they are combined - using the principles of design - which enables a successful outcome. The same ingredients can for example be combined in a number of different ways (think of recipes for eggs!)