Final Call for Online Entries: RMS Annual Exhibition 2026

The deadline for ONLINE ENTRIES for the 2026 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Miniature Artists, Sculptors and Gravers is Friday 28th August 6pm (GMT)

The Royal Society of Miniature Artists, Sculptors and Gravers is the world’s foremost organisation dedicated to the centuries-old tradition of miniature art. 

What is Miniature Art

Although miniature art was considerably bigger when the society was first created, the current state of play is highlighted in this introduction to the art form by Anthony Lester (which comes from one of my earlier blog posts).

With a maximum size of 6 x 4 inches (15.24 x 10.16 cm), the painting of miniatures demands self-discipline, for where large pictures give some latitude in composition, miniatures are unforgiving of the least mistake; a tolerance of even a millimetre is hardly permitted. 

The Gold Bowl Award winning work in 2025

plus the "Honourable Mentions"

which I had the honour of judging 

with London art critic Tabish Khan

(bottom row second from left came home with me and now hangs in my hall!)

RMS Annual Exhibition 2026

Below is a quick summary of arrangements for

• the exhibition
• online entries
• submission of selected artwork by non-members

Final Call: The Discerning Eye Exhibition 2026

You have THREE DAYS LEFT to submit an entry to the Discerning Eye Exhibition which will be held at the Mall Galleries in November.

This prestigious annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London celebrates small-scale artworks by UK-based artists.

From call for entries by Parker Harris
amended by me to highlight the small nature of the artwork!

This is a very different sort of art exhibition - because it only contains small scale works - defined as a maximum diameter of 50cm in any direction.

In 2025, this exhibition featured 

• more than 730 artworks 
• by 529 artists, 
• selected from an outstanding 6,500 entries.
• curated by six invited selectors

Parker Harris post

Below is what you need to know to enter

Essential Details 

• Deadline for Online Submissions ONLY: 5PM on Thursday, 27 August 2026 via https://artopps.co.uk/checkout/165
• Exhibition: 13 to 21 November 2026 at the Mall Galleries in London.
• Prizes: Over £9,000 available across multiple categories.
• Who can exhibit?: emerging and established artists
• Artwork Rules: 
• Small-scale works - This is defined as a maximum 50cm in any direction, INCLUDING the frame
• in any medium
• all pieces must be available for sale. (a commission of 40% + VAT will be charged on all sales)
• How to Enter: You can submit your online application through ArtOpps https://artopps.co.uk/opportunities/discerningeye-26. 
• This the page with the RULES
• This is the Page with answers to the FAQs
• All entries must be entered online in the form of digital images and must be accompanied by the following information: Title, Medium, Year, Dimensions and Price.
• all images must be either JPEG or PNG files, no larger than 5MB
• if the work contains offensive material it's likely to be withdrawn from the exhibition (which is a new one on me - I can only assume Parker Harris has run into this issue on another exhibition)
• Who runs/organises the competition? 
• The exhibition belongs to The Discerning Eye. (Note: The ING Bank which has previously sponsored the competition no longer seems to be involved)
• It's organised by an art consultancy called Parker Harris 
• who use ArtOpps as the platform for dissemination of the rules etc and all digital submissions

Discerning Eye exhibition in the West Gallery last year
- which usually contains the exhibitions of four of the selectors

The Selectors in 2026

As always, this year's exhibition will be curated by six prominent figures from across the art world.

Each selector works independently, bringing their own distinct perspective to create six exhibitions within the whole. You cannot rely on looking at past exhibitions to know what sort of work would be suitable. 

However you might try reviewing the selectors' instagram accounts.... 

Tributes to Anthony J Lester (1945-2026)

To mark the passing of art critic, author and prizegiver Anthony J Lester on 19th August 2026, age 81.

I've known Anthony as an art critic and prizegiver and his wife Elizabeth Meek MBE PPRMS PPSWA for nearly 20 years, mostly from us all attending the same PVs at the Mall Galleries. However he's been doing what he was doing for the last 50 years. He was very definitely a constant of the national art society world in the UK and they were together one of the best known couples in it.

I've known for a while about his stage 4 pancreatic cancer for a while - he shared the news on his instagram

I'm borrowing the text from 

• his wife's post yesterday afternoon on her Instagram account; and 
• the Mall Galleries tribute  

except I've bullet pointed his contributions to the art world.

I'll miss seeing that red trilby hat which often came to the PVs too!

ANTHONY J LESTER
1945 - 2026

My beloved wonderful husband Tony, who was my best friend and soul mate, has very sadly passed away after a hard battle against pancreatic cancer. He was the very best and brilliant of men and will be very much missed by those who knew and loved him.

• Art Critic, journalist
• Curator,
• Picture Expert on Antique Roadshow
• Expert on BBC 'Flog it' 
• Radio Broadcaster,
• Author of many books
• Creator of the Anthony J Lester Award, presented at various charity art societies,
• art researcher, and much much more.

This is the post by the Mall Galleries with which he has been much associated over the years

For over forty years Anthony has given massive support to the Federation of British Artists at Mall Galleries.

He curated several exhibitions on behalf of the FBA, including the much-acclaimed Pure Gold: 50 Years of the Federation of British Artists (2011), The Art of a Nation: Irish Works from the Allied Irish Banks and Crawford Art Gallery Collections (2015), and Winners: Award Winning Artists 2020-2022 (2022).

In 2011 he created the Anthony J. Lester Art Critic Award, which he presented at several exhibitions at Mall Galleries, including those of the New English Art Club and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. Such support resulted in Anthony being made a 

• Companion of the Pastel Society and 
• Fellow of the Royal Society of British Artists. 

In addition to this, he was 

• a long-time Member of the International Association of Art Critics and The Critics’ Circle and 
• a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and 
• Life Member of Chelsea Arts Club.

What I hadn't realised, until researching this post, was quite how many catalogues for both art societies and artists he'd compiled and written. 

This tribute also goes on to mention something I didn't know.

Anthony was introduced to Elizabeth Meek at the Mall Galleries in 2004. He was organising and selecting the works for Not the Turner Prize, a £20,000 award for painting, while Elizabeth was arranging the annual exhibition of the Society of Women Artists. Their relation blossomed and in 2008 they married. Elizabeth introduced him to colourful hats ranging from blue to red to pink to yellow, and zany, multi-coloured shirts. The couple certainly stood out from the crowd and were frequently spotted at the gallery’s Private Views. 

Commnts from those who knew him

I am so sorry to hear this Liz. He was such a lovely man and a great support to artists. His generosity, kindness and enthusiasm will be much missed. Sending you love. X Harriet Mead PSWLA

He was always so generous in chatting to artists at Mall Galleries PV’s, I always enjoyed talking to both Anthony and Elizabeth.
The Art World will miss him, what a wonderful, colourful character he was. Felicity Flutter RI

I am so sorry to hear this. He was so well loved and respected and did so much for artists. I send my love and thoughts. Lilias August RI

 

A final thought - I'm passing on

A few years back Antony and Elizabeth "retired" and went to live on the coast in Sussex.

However, on meeting them at subsequent PVs, I learned from them an invaluable tip about the wisdom of keeping a place in London.

You want to be living somewhere with very good hospitals within very easy reach as you get older and your health starts to cause concern.

Anthony was supported by the Royal Marsden Hospital at the end. I'll let him have the final word.

I am being treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital and cannot praise the consultants, doctors and nurses enough for their professionalism and kindness. My message to everyone is enjoy every day - it's precious.

Call for Entries: The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2027

The Call for Entries for the 128th Exhibition by the Pastel Society in January 2027 has been published on the Mall Galleries website. 

Artists working in pastel and contemporary dry media are invited to submit their work for the Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2027

This post summarises what you need to know. 

• Submissions are ONLINE ONLY and 
• open from 17 August to 20 November 2026

Benefits of Exhibiting with The Pastel Society

This is an OPEN ART EXHIBITION. If you submit and are selected for the exhibition your artwork will be

• included in the catalogue
• seen by visitors to the Mall Galleries - and it gets a LOT of visitors
• viewed online via the Mall Galleries website and that of the Pastel Society - before, during and after the Exhibition
• eligible for a number of prizes & awards - and some have significant cash awards (see below)if you want to become a member, you first need to get exhibited via the open entry
• may well sell - but ONLY if you pay attention to what I have to tell you below about pricing and sales!!

Pastel Society | Annual Exhibition 2027 | Key Facts and Dates

What drew me to the Pastel Society was the thought of being surrounding by other people fascinated by dry media in particular
Curtis Holder

Venue: Mall Galleries, The Mall, London
Exhibition Dates: Wednesday 27th January - Saturday 6th February 2027
Private View (invite only): Wednesday 27th January 2027 - 5pm to 8pm, official opening at 6:30pm

Submissions: ONLINE ONLY and open until 12 noon Friday 20 November 2026
Notification of selection: Friday 4th December 2026, 12 noon
Receiving Day (if selected): Saturday 16th January 2027 10am to 5pmCollection of unsold work: Thursday 11 February 2027 10am to 5pm
Awards and Prizes - see listing near the end of this post

One of the walls in the Pastel Society's Annual Exhibition in 2026

Call for Entries

What you read below is most - but not all - the terms and conditions of entry and information about what and artist must and must not do. 

It's down to you to read the Full Details, Entry Terms & Conditions

Find out more about how to enter:

The return of the visitor map!

I've been using counters for visits and pageviews for the last 20 years. I like quick information - but I also want indepth information.

A Quick Look - on the blog

For many years, I have used clustrmaps.com to provide a visual map in my side column of where visitors to my blog come from.

I've always been completely amazed that I can sit typing at home in East London and the words that get published on my blog get read by people living all over the world - literally on every continent (bar Antarctica).

However, very sadly Clustrmaps has died.

Hence I was very pleased today to find a product which seeks to replicate it. Indeed I think it might even be the same team with a different name as they seem to have the same ethos - which is one I like and very much approve of.

Map My Visitors was created by a small team — just three guys working together. We are passionate about making web analytics accessible to everyone. We understand that tracking website traffic is essential for businesses, bloggers, and individuals, but the cost and complexity of existing solutions can be extremely overwhelming. That's why we set out on a mission to create a hit counter service that is not only accurate, fast, and responsive but also user-friendly and affordable.

You can find out more about them and what they do here.

Introducing MapMyVistors

MapMyVisitors

MapMyVisitors has a real time visitor map widget - and produces 

• either a map of where all your visitors come from (unless they are blocking their location)
• or a Globe widget (which moves!) I'm not a fan of things which move!

Visitors are either a red dot ie past visitors) or an amber or green dot ie visited recently

You can see the map near the top of the right hand side column.

Today - with just a few hours of stats on it, it looks like this

ON MY BLOG - as a widget

MapMyVisitors Widget
This is an enlarged version of the widget in the side column
after a few hours (i.e. installed on 19th August)

ON MY DASHBOARD

MapMyVisitors: This is the map on my screen re the dashboard.
Below it lists all the various locations

Statcounter

I cannot remember when I first started using Statcounter - but my stats suggest it must have been nearly 20 years ago.

I also use Statcounter to provide an incredibly detailed map - which allows me to drill down to region and city and ISP - and allowed me to identify I was being absolutely hammered by visits from people in South East Asia earlier this year when my stats went totally wild for two weeks.

This is today's map for the last 7 days

Statcounter: Visitor Map for the last 7 days
- with lots of the countries labelled

HOWEVER they don't have a nice widget sized one for my blog which I can look at really easily - hence my use of MapMyVisitors