The Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition is currently open at the Mall Galleries in London, presenting a broad and varied picture of marine art today.
The sea has always provided artists with far more than a single subject. It encompasses coastline and open water, harbours and estuaries, working vessels, coastal communities and the continually changing effects of light and weather. This breadth is reflected throughout the exhibition, which brings together work by members of the Society and selected artists from the open submission.
There is something particularly valuable about seeing these paintings and drawings together. Each artist approaches the marine environment differently: some through close observation and traditional representation, others through a looser or more interpretative response. Collectively, the exhibition demonstrates that marine art remains a living and evolving tradition.
As a full member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, I am proud to have my painting The Amusements, Wells-next-the-Sea included in this year’s exhibition.
Wells is a place to which I return repeatedly. I am drawn to the meeting of architecture, human activity and coastal light—the familiar structures of the town set against an atmosphere that can change from one moment to the next.
In making the painting, I was interested in more than producing a recognisable view. My aim was to retain something of the experience of being there: the movement, visual complexity and decisions made while responding to the subject. For me, this direct engagement with a place is where a painting begins to acquire its own life.
That process of looking—of slowing down sufficiently to notice what is actually present—is central to my work. The coast provides an inexhaustible subject because it never remains entirely still. Even when returning to a familiar location, the experience and the resulting painting are always different.
The annual exhibition is an opportunity to encounter this diversity of experience through the eyes of many different artists. For anyone interested in the sea, landscape or contemporary representational painting, it is well worth seeing before it closes.
Exhibition details
Royal Society of Marine Artists Annual Exhibition 2026
Mall Galleries, London
16–26 September 2026
Open daily, 10am–5pm