If you like the idea of having your work on show in a London gallery, the Royal Watercolour Society are now taking submissions for their annual RWS Open exhibition, to be held at the Bankside Gallery. If you make contemporary paintings on paper using water-based media, you might like to have a go at entering. Their deadline is January 6th.
Being part of an exhibition where your work has been selected by judges, and lit nicely on a gallery wall, can feel very special. It’s a chance to get your work noticed, meet other artists, maybe even sell your work, and generally feel good about your painting practice.
The cost of entering open competitions can mount up (galleries and competitions cost a lot to run!), so choose wisely to make sure you only enter competitions that are suitable for your work. I always recommend that artists visit the same open exhibition the year before to get a feel of what a particular competition is looking for. There’s always a distinct flavour to what is selected. If you can’t get to the exhibition, you can probably still find the selected works online.
You should research who the judges are too. What type of work do they align themselves with? What work do you think they will be looking to select?
Most open competitions request that you upload a photograph of your work with your application, so make sure that you take a really good photograph; in focus, in good light, with no reflections, cropped at the edges, and with colours and tones that match your painting.
If you did your research, and you sent in an amazing photograph of your work, and it still didn’t get selected, try not to get too down about it. There will have been a lot of good entries like yours and there’s a lot of luck involved in catching the judges eye at the right time too. I do believe however, the more competitions you enter, and the more open exhibitions you visit, the more knowledgeable you will become, and your chances will increase.
There are plenty of open competitions that have deadlines coming up, so start clicking the links below to find the ones that fit your work the best:
Society of Graphic Fine Art
Deadline: 4/1/25
RWS Open
Deadline: 6/1/25
Royal Society of Portrait Painters
Deadline: 4/2/25
Royal Society of British Artists
Deadline: 8/1/25
Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2025
Deadline: 14/01/25
Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours
Deadline: 28/01/25
The Artist and Leisure Painter Open Art Competition (TALP Open)
Deadline: 17/2/25
Jackson’s Art Prize
Deadline: 25/2/25
And coming soon…….