I’m very pleased to report that one of the art societies at the Mall Galleries – the Royal Society of Marine Artists – has opened its annual exhibition – with ALL relevant information online.
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| Royal Society of Marine Artists – cover of Catalogue of the Annual Exhibition 2025 at the Mall Galleries |
I spent the first few years of reviewing annual exhibitions by FBA Societies asking Presidents and officers why they didn’t have all relevant information online at the start of the exhibition e.g.
- prizewinners – as soon as they are announced
- events during the exhibition – before they happen
- how to see the the catalogue – for those who could not visit – or might be tempted to (see below)
- how to buy the artwork – for those who could not visit
Hence, it’s a real pleasure to go to the Mall Galleries website this morning and find everything I want to see on the RSMA page – BEFORE I visit the exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists today!
- Admission £6, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries and under 25s. Concessions available.
- No booking required.
- You can see – and buy – all the artwork online here
- You can view the Events Programme
- You can view the artwork of all the award winners online – see below
- You can see entries for all the artwork selected in the catalogue – see below.
and so…..
Award Winners at the Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition
You can find the images of the artwork and the names of the artists that won prizes
- on the Mall Galleries website – Click the “View Award Winners” button on this page
- in the catalogue – see below
Catalogue of the RSMA Annual Exhibition 2025
You can buy the catalogue or read the e-catalogue without visiting the exhibition.
Most of the FBA societies now use Issuu to provide a very pleasing e-catalogue online for viewing all the pages in the catalogue – including the lists of all all the artwork.
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| Examples of work by non members |
The online catalogue is particularly useful for those thinking of applying in future as it gives you a good sense of
- not only some of the artwork by non members – and the media used
- but also the pricing by non members who were selected (ie those artists without RSMA after their name in the list of artworks at the end).
I noted that it seems many artists people have become more realistic in pricing of late – but I’ll look at this in more detail in a subsequent post about sales.
One more thing….security!
One more thing which does still need fixing!
The website of the Royal Society of Marine Artists is INSECURE.
As in its prefix is http rather than https – meaning
- Google will look down its nose at it and will not give it a high ranking in its search listings
- it’s not a great idea to link to it.
Or as Google’s AI Overview puts it
You need the https prefix to encrypt your communication with a website, using the secure protocol Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) to protect your data from eavesdropping and tampering. This security is provided by an SSL certificate and ensures your information, such as passwords and payment details, remains private between your browser and the server. In addition to user trust and data integrity, search engines like Google prioritize HTTPS-secured sites, which can also improve your website’s search engine ranking.
By and large I usually make it a rule now never to look at http websites.
