Review: Sunday Times Watercolour Contest 2015

Yesterday I visited the kickoff twenty-four hr menses of the 28th exhibition of Sunday Times Watercolour Competition at the Mall Galleries. If you lot desire to reckon the exhibition you lot demand to cook a appointment this calendar week equally the exhibition is only on until Sabbatum 19th September. It's opened upward every twenty-four hr menses (10am until 5pm) too admission is free.

Yesterday I visited the kickoff twenty-four hr menses of the  Review: Lord's Day Times Watercolour Competition 2015
Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015 - Prizewinners
Left to right:
Left - Winner of the The Smith & Williamson Cityscape Prize: Drip... Regents Canal, London past times Leo Davey
Middle - First Prize: Blue Room past times Akash Bhatt
Right - Second Place: Land, Sea, Place past times Michael Williams
This postal service is about:
  • the exhibition of selected plant - at that spot are xc paintings inwards total inwards the exhibition
  • which artwork I liked the best
  • the catalogue - too recording of eligible media
  • plus word of a novel back upward for icon amongst watercolour....
You tin read my previous posts nearly the exhibition here:
I'm tempted to expire dorsum on Sabbatum to reckon what sold!

Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2015 - The Exhibition


View of the exhibition from the MezzanineThe prizewinners are inwards the middle of the left manus wall
As you lot tin reckon most of the plant are medium to large sizes
I ever cook a banking concern complaint of the initial impression an exhibition gives me when I'm starting to expect at it. This is what I wrote equally shorthand:
  • large watercolours
  • looks similar a "proper" watercolour exhibition (as compared to the exhibition for this watercolour competition)
  • nicely hung
  • huge multifariousness of styles of painting 
  • generally real restrained too neutral framing (not competing amongst the work)
  • neither the catalogue nor the labels specify the media used
On a farther note, to a greater extent than oftentimes than non many paintings were presented good - soundless a number of paintings did non exercise goodness from expertise inwards framing.  A number of artists could exercise amongst spending to a greater extent than fourth dimension too expertise on presentation. For example, a few know how to float mountain good spell the attempts of others are unsmooth to expect at and/or appear to run the risk of becoming detached or deteriorating.

This is a prestigious fine art contest non a pupil show. Given the number of paintings beingness submitted to this show, is it likewise much to inquire that the organisers too selectors ensure that every icon genuinely selected for hanging should also exhibit excellent presentation or at the real to the lowest degree presentation which meets acceptable standards for a commercial gallery?

I for certain had difficulty equating some of the prices asked amongst the character of the presentation too I for certain know galleries which would reject to hang such works.

Next - lots of images too I expand on those full general observations nearly the exhibition.....

Starting amongst the smaller paintings - this is the wall devoted to the smaller paintings - i of these is highlighted inwards the department on artwork I liked.  By too large, the artists made the correct choice inwards selecting subjects and/or styles which suited working on a smaller scale.

The wall of smaller paintings
- correct click too opened upward inwards novel tab to reckon a larger pic.
It includes (top left) 2 paintings past times last year's prizewinner Kathryn Maple.  She continues to demonstrate calligraphic elements to her paintings inwards watercolour.

Yesterday I visited the kickoff twenty-four hr menses of the  Review: Lord's Day Times Watercolour Competition 2015
Paintings past times Katherine Maple,Winner of the Lord's Day Times Watercolour Competition 2014
(Top) Behind bars £1,800
(Bottom) High on stilts £1,800
These are the paintings on the mezzanine - the grade that you lot move inwards the exhibition.

Paintings at the entrance to the exhibition
A colourful corner
Above is a closer expect at i of the colourful corners. One of the paintings - top left - appeared to conduct maintain been rolled prior to framing too the number had the number of beingness a distraction when looking at the painting.

Below is a dissimilar handling for the other grayness characteristic wall - where the emphasis was on the plainly elementary too monochromatic. These 2 paintings underlined the multifariousness of approaches to producing watercolour paintings.

Interestingly Peter Lloyd Jones was omitted from the master copy listing of selected artists. He plant using ink on a large scale. Julie Ball was also selected for the RWS Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2015 - too her icon Common Fly 1 was highlighted inwards my post.  Her way of creating artwork amongst acrylic pigment continues to fascinate!
Julie's serial of function Navigational Error, is the outcome of a written report using a digital microscope of the dirt too debris left on the machine windscreen next a journey. The findings were parts of flight insects which were non easily seen amongst the naked eye. Digital images of the microscopic findings were saved and.... reproduced inwards Acrylic paint. 
(Left) Willow too Wild Thing (£4,000) past times Peter Lloyd Jones, ink on paper. 48x48ins
(Right) Common Fly 1 past times Julie Ball acrylic 
Another corner has 2 paintings past times 2 artists who exercise figurative paintings
  • Gordon McDowell has been a prizewinner on 2 previous occasions - he won the Cityscape Prize inwards 2010 with a similarly complex icon of buildings inwards Toledo too inwards 2013 he won minute prize amongst a splendid icon of the horses on top of St Mark's inwards Venice. Gordon is real definitely a skilled painter of large too complex urban scenes!  I've tried drawing the Campo inwards Sienna too it's a beast inwards terms of perspective!
  • John Cahill also paints real realistic views - but his genre is the landscape inwards the country. The conditions too vegetation are created past times a sophisticated pointillist technique using acrylic too gouache. 
(Left) Piazza del Campo (£3,250) by Gordon McDowell
(Right)  Winter Cottages (£4,600) by John Cahill
I loved the hang of paintings on the halt wall of the gallery - real subtle too sophisticated too non "in your face". Well done to Deborah Walker RI (Winner of the Turner Medal inwards 2014) for some other centre halt wall seascape!

A sophisticated blend of darks, greys, blues too white
This is business office of  the correct manus wall - equally you lot expect into the gallery

More paintings

The artwork I liked


This department is devoted to function I liked. In the principal I'm only going to allow the images exercise the talking too volition link to the artist's website inwards their call inwards the caption. However I volition overstep a few comments where the draughtsmanship, role of watercolour too science amongst brushwork merits comment

Staring amongst the modest too working upward to the big!

This modest portrait 'Journalist' caught my eye. Frances Chapman demonstrates first-class draughtsmanship too grapheme inwards her portrait summation her icon is impeccable. The tones are built upward using a pointillist technique using optical colours.  She has previously exhibited at the 2008, 2010 too 2011 exhibitions of the Lord's Day Times Watercolour Competition too I tin good sympathise why. Her drawings are also delightful.

It occurs to me that if she submitted a rather larger icon she could live inwards amongst a yell of i of the major prizes. I for certain recall her talent too science merits a prize. I'm only surprised she submitting or had non been selected for exhibitions past times the RI or RWS of slow - although she did win the St Cuthbert Mill Prize inwards the RWS Open inwards 2011.

Yesterday I visited the kickoff twenty-four hr menses of the  Review: Lord's Day Times Watercolour Competition 2015
Journalist (£495) past times Frances Chapman20cm x 15cm, watercolour
You tin reckon a bigger epitome on her website inwards the portraits department (link inwards title)
Another modest monochromatic icon of an commons dependent area that appealed to me was The Washing Up past times Diane Gerrard which for some argue I forgot to bring a goodness photograph of - but worth a cite for its "one touch" approach to watercolour painting.

Tamariu (£250) past times Dennis Lewis (an creative soul without a website)
What I similar nearly Dennis's approach to icon is that he's a painter
who gets it correct amongst the kickoff stroke of a brush on paper
too his compositions are ever good
I've ever been a fan of people who exercise repeat paintings of the same view. Below is South Series - tiny paintings of ocean too heaven amongst precise dates, times too locations past times Martyn McKenzie. You tin reckon a much bigger nicer version on his cook novel  website (just click his name)

South Series past times Martyn McKenzie

As an avid sketcher of gardens I ever beloved other people who pigment gardens good - peculiarly if they are gardens I also know!  Karen Bowers seems to function plein air amongst watercolour too so produces paintings inwards oils from her sketches dorsum inwards the studio. You tin reckon both this watercolour painting (on 2 sheets of paper) of the bulb gradient at Hidcote too an crude oil icon of the same scene on her website.  The watercolour is beautifully "wet too washy" too also has some fine icon of negative shapes using darks.

Yesterday I visited the kickoff twenty-four hr menses of the  Review: Lord's Day Times Watercolour Competition 2015
Hidcote (£900) past times Karen Bowers
Watercolour xxx x 56 cm
Beach escape (£6,000) past times Annabelle Shelton
Watercolour on Aluminium, 120cm x 120cm 
2014
Annabelle Shelton's Beach Escape is a existent "come over hither too expect at me" painting. I thought it deserved a prize for to a greater extent than than i reason.
  • It was the kickoff i to zap my eyes when I walked into the gallery. 
  • It has dandy colour, dandy behavior upon too lots to involvement the eye. 
  • I peculiarly liked the fact it exclusively focused on the people too removed all the distraction of their surround amongst the exception of the beach umbrella.
Shelton creates paintings on Aluminium, which are extractions of people inwards house too figures floating inwards a white infinite to exercise semi-abstracted circles, clusters too lines when bunched together. More lately she has been working amongst landscapes that are only partially revealed whilst soundless composed inwards negative space.
  • I was absolutely fascinated nearly how it was painted too this was the icon which grabbed the most 'up unopen too inspecting' time.
  • It's got no mat, no glazing too no frame!
The side of Beach Escape past times Annabelle Shelton
No mat, no glazing too no frame!
It's painted on an aluminium panel
so  presented inwards the same way equally a box canvas
I could non function out what she'd painted it on (see the epitome at the side). I thought it powerfulness maybe live a thick Bristol Board - but wondered nearly the archival issues.

However, I got the  answer from her website - it's watercolour on ALUMINIUM! Which is real definitely a novel i on me.

I know the crude oil painters conduct maintain started using aluminium dibond panels (very strong, stable, archival too real light) but I hadn't realised that some watercolour painters has also started to experiment amongst this medium equally a back upward for their paintings.

There again, when you lot recall nearly it, if you lot role lightfast watercolour paints the only thing stopping you lot from exhibiting a watercolour icon similar a box canvass is the back upward - because newspaper tends non to live robust enough. So if you lot solve the back upward occupation amongst an archival character panel too are picky amongst your paints too cook sure they are accredited lightfast summation destination the icon amongst a suitable varnish so you lot tin start to exhibit watercolours without glazing - equally Annabelle does.  The epitome at the side looks at her exhibit upward unopen too side on.

I've included some links at the halt of this postal service to to a greater extent than data nearly icon amongst watercolour on aluminium!

The catalogue

The catalogue is £2 too is non i of those super sophisticated affairs. It has a foreword from the organisers, 3 pages nearly the prizewinners too so a acre listing of the selected artists - amongst the titles of the function too the price.

It is NOT informative nearly dimensions or medium used. This data is also missing from the labels.  The lack of data nearly media is to my hear is a major too serious omission.  It agency that visitors to the exhibition may recall a icon is inwards i medium when it's genuinely inwards another.

I know I saw artwork which was inwards traditional watercolour, gouache, acrylic inks too acrylic paint. For all I know it could conduct maintain included water-based oils equally well!

Interestingly the terms of the contest is that the entry must live "a icon inwards a water-based medium" - which I recall powerfulness hateful a icon inwards water-soluble crude oil paints could real good live eligible.

I never desire to reckon this contest expire the way of some of the so-called watercolour exhibitions too expire swamped past times acrylics too other media. That's because this is i of the few exhibitions where you lot tin genuinely reckon the total attain too multifariousness of ways inwards which traditional watercolour tin live used - too long may that expire along to live the case.  I'd personally similar to reckon acceptable media express to traditional watercolours, gouache too inks.

Alternatively, I'm sure there's an creative soul out at that spot who powerfulness similar to bring the challenge to reckon if they tin larn a icon inwards water-mixable oils selected adjacent year! If you lot do, exercise delight tell!

If you'd similar to reckon to a greater extent than of the Lord's Day Times Watercolour Competition you lot should either


    For those wanting to reckon what the contest was similar inwards previous years..........

    2014

    Painting amongst watercolour on aluminium


    Here is some data nearly icon amongst watercolour on aluminium

    Product Information 

    One of the best ways I conduct maintain constitute to overcome the limitations of size is to role an aluminium composite panel primed amongst watercolor gesso then, subsequently the icon is completed, protected amongst a finishing varnish.

    Supplies:




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