The Royal Society of Marine Artists and Mall Galleries are delighted to announce the Prizes & Awards from the Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2020.
Congratulations to all artists who have been awarded prizes by our generous prize givers.
The exhibition is open at Mall Galleries until Saturday 10 October.
If you cannot make the exhibition we hope that with videos, audio, images, and statements by the winners to watch, hear, see, and read, you can experience and enjoy their works wherever you are.
The exhibition is also available to Browse & Buy online now.
The Baltic Exchange Award
John Walsom ARSMA ROI
Mylor Yacht Harbour, Low Tide
For an outstanding work in the exhibition, selected by the Society’s President on behalf of Baltic Exchange, a membership organisation at the heart of the maritime community providing services relied upon worldwide by shipping market participants. Value £2,000.
The Artist Magazine Award
Gareth Brown RSMA
Sea Flora V
Gareth will be interviewed for a feature in The Artist magazine.
The Charles Pears Award
Srirangam Mohankumar
Reflections, Pin Mill
For an outstanding work, in any medium, by a non-member. Presented by the RSMA in memory of Charles Pears, founding member and first President. Value £500.
The Classic Boat Award
Kevin Clarkson
A Breeze on the Blackwater
Kevin takes home a handsome, hand-crafted sculpture by Astins Sailing Sculptures, given for the most atmospheric depiction of a classic boat.
Originally from West Yorkshire, I have produced a number of historical maritime pieces for museums in North Kent, my adopted home, but only managed to get my first piece into the RSMA Annual Exhibition in 2019 after five or more years of trying. To be awarded a prize at this year’s exhibition is therefore something of a shock. So my advice to anyone thinking of submitting to the RSMA for the first time is - Go for it!
Inspiration for ‘A Breeze on the Blackwater’ was drawn largely from the superb works of American artists Christopher Blossom and Russ Kramer whom I have long admired. They bring to life the classic racing and working sailing vessels of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with mood, atmosphere and sensitivity of the period and without oversentimentality.
The Kenneth Denton Award
James Bartholomew RSMA
Sun on the Solent
For work on the theme 'The Sea in all its Moods'. Made possible by the generosity of long-standing member Kenneth Denton. Value £500.
Murray's Commercial Fishing Award: First Prize
Jenny Morgan RSMA
Hauling the Trawl - Sidewinder Trawlers
For work in any medium depicting commercial fishing. Value £500.
I am mainly a studio-based artist and many of my works are based on research material and general knowledge of my selected subjects, and of course an ongoing love of the sea and working vessels that ply upon it.
I developed an interest in the United Kingdom's past fishing industry later on in my career, encouraged by my late partner who was a noted Grimsby trawler skipper. I realised it was an incredible part of maritime history not generally covered, and those long-gone trawlers were very 'paintable' - despite their workmanlike appearance, they generally have graceful lines.
I am inspired by the northern waters these ships worked in, having a few years ago taken a few trips that way to immerse myself in the atmosphere and coastal scenery of places like Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Spitzbergen.
Murray's Commercial Fishing Award: Second Prize
Alistair Butt RSMA
Banding the Lobsters
For work in any medium depicting commercial fishing. Value £100.
RSMA Award for the Best Small Painting
John Lines RSMA
Waiting
For a work in any medium measuring no more than 30 cm along the longest dimension (excluding frame). Made possible by the generosity of a Life Member. Value £300.
The picture was great fun to paint, small, close tonal scale, and a great subject. I thought the old jetty was a knock out with a super structure and colours, the hopeful fisherman atop - it just had to be painted.
The only thing was that the tug had to be moved up river just a touch, but I have the artist’s licence! So I can get away with that! Painted at Blyth on the north east coast, I loved working on it.
RSMA New Generation Award
Gregory Smith
All work in the exhibition
Awarded by the Society, Gregory receives £250. The Award is open to all artists aged 35 or under at the time of submission.
I’m very happy to have been awarded The RSMA New Generation Award for my submissions to this year’s exhibition. All four depict historical subjects, which I try to interpret through the modern lens.
Primarily, I work with digital tools, covering a wide variety of freelance work and VFX, in the latter case mostly for student films. I’m now moving into illustration, as a participant of the Heroic 100 Art Campaign launched by Heroic Books. These inform my traditional media images, as I often use digital tools as part of the sketching process, and let the design ideas and approaches of digital media and film influence the designs of my paintings.
However, the creation process of the pictures themselves tends to follow a more conventional approach, consolidating a wide range of research material into a reconstruction of the subject. I build up the paint in a series of layers - usually between three and four, increasing the level of detail each time, following a carefully constructed sketch.
Topbond Marine Award
John Maule-ffinch
The Old Cranes at Bristol Docks
For works depicting marine engineering or construction activities in harbours, estuaries or marine waters within the UK. Value £250.
Winsor & Newton Oil Prize
Richard Dack RSMA RWA
Hebridean Recollections
£250 worth of Winsor & Newton materials for a notable oil painting.
The seashore has always offered me themes and material for painting. Frequently, visual and emotional responses have been joined by physical objects collected on site, which evolve and change in their relationship over a long gestation period in the quest to evoke the memory and sensation of experienced locations.
I enjoy recreating the link by juxtaposing illusory reality with physical reality, bringing together the present moment and remembered past. ‘Hebridean Recollections’ relates to memories and experiences collected from multiple visits to the Isles.