An Exhibitor’s Tale
By Fiona Cotton, Portrait Society Member in Australia
It was a huge delight to discover that one of my still life paintings was selected to hang in the 2024 annual exhibition in December of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters alongside those of the ROI members. The selection of French Pot and Pomegranates was especially gratifying as this was the first time I had entered.
As I made arrangements to send the painting to the Mall Galleries in London, I couldn’t help feeling envious of this painting travelling from Australia to such an excellent location in my country of origin. I wished I could shrink inside the parcel and go for the ride.
The planned ROI events over the weeks of the exhibition including talks, painting demonstrations, the Saturday Paint Live event, as well as the after-hours portrait painting in the gallery (with wine and mince pies!) clinched my decision to blow the money on travel to London for ten days – a journey of 3 hours to Sydney, 9 hours to Hong Kong, 14 hours to Heathrow, and two hours to my cousin’s house. I did wonder if I was being a bit mad, but as the years pass, I want to seize the day more and more.
It was a decision I will never regret. The varnishing day lunch, official opening, prize giving and warm welcome by ROI President, Adebanji Alade, were exhilarating, as was meeting many wonderful artists whom I follow online, never imagining I might one day meet them in person.
The painting demonstrations I was able to catch were excellent (I’m running out of positive adjectives here)! It was fascinating to watch some wonderful ROI members at work - Rob Pointon, Ruth Fitton and Roger Dellar (images below) - seeing what they have on their palettes, how they mix their paints, what medium they use, which brushes they prefer, and so on.
The complex colour/tonal strings on Rob Pointon’s three palettes were particularly memorable! Fantastic preparation!
I visited the gallery pretty much every day and loved being able to study closely many of the paintings in the exhibition such as Linda Alexander’s serene still lifes, glorious Yorkshire scenes by David Curtis, Tushar Sabale’s wet street scene, Lotte Teale’s luscious strawberries, Susan Pollard Gillespie’s quietly contemplative ‘Soup or Cereal?’, and the masterful portrait, ‘I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!’ by Laura Arenson. There were so many paintings of wonderful quality which can still be seen on the ROI website. It was truly an honour to hang in this exhibition.
The Paint Live event went ahead with painters making for their chosen spots for the day. I am not generally a plein-air painter but decided to have a go anyway. Given my shyness painting plein-air, I chose to paint a smaller entry to the Royal Horse Guard’s Hotel in a quieter street, with its two red planter boxes, and had been working for a bit when a large tourist bus parked right between me and my view!
By this time, my fingers had become so numb I could hardly hold my brushes, probably because they were not used to the cold after the 34 degree Celcius summer heat I had just left behind. So I abandoned my effort hoping to continue in the studio.
On the night of the after-hours portrait painting, I had to go to Heathrow to catch my flight home, but I still went to watch the large number of painters and the excellent models dressed for the occasion. I wished so much I could have joined in – but getting the paints organised when the bag was all packed was just a step too far. But the wine and mince pies and company were a delightful send-off! I am now back home in the studio, invigorated by the whole experience and eager to try out new ideas and techniques.
To receive such a warm welcome by so many and to have the opportunity to see their paintings in the exhibition was both stimulating and encouraging. While I can’t mention everyone, my thanks go especially to President Adebanji Alade and Vice-President Haidee-Jo Summers for making me feel so welcome.
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