Yesterday I had a very enjoyable time at the Mall Galleries in London selecting paintings for this year’s
R.S.M.A. annual exhibition. (17th to 29th October).
As usual there were hundreds of paintings in for consideration and selection began at 10.30 in the morning and finished at around 4.30pm.
For anyone who has not sat on a selection committee, it’s a very enjoyable, but tiring process as a balanced and fair assessment of each artists work is essential. Paintings and Sculptures that are accepted for exhibition require a substantial majority of votes from the members on the selection committee, and subsequently the paintings hung are of the highest standard.
I always feel for all the unsuccessful artists, especially the ones that nearly got their work accepted, there’s sometimes very little between a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ and all I can say to disappointed artists is to try again next year and don’t be too downhearted.
One interesting thing cropped up at yesterdays selection and that was the submission of a painting copied from one of my own works! Although flattering that someone thought that the painting merited copying, it is a golden rule that all work should be original; subsequently the painting was immediately disqualified.
It never fails to amaze me how many paintings are submitted each year, and the dedication and enthusiasm of all the artists is to be commended. A big thank you to all those artists comes, I’m sure, from the R.S.M.A. membership, as without your support and interest Societies like ours would not exist.
Not all the works can ever hit the mark on ‘selection’, but overall I feel that we will have another ‘First Rate’ show.
To view the paintings I will be exhibiting this year, please follow this
link.
