Great Painting Competition Win For ROI Member Adebanj Alade

London based painter Adebanji Alade AROI has scored a super successes in this year's London plein air painting competition Pintar Rapido (roughly translated as  paint fast!). The London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea hosted 400 artists who had just a day to capture a scene within that part of London.

The rules were simple -  choose a spot in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and paint it in a day! The Artists registered at 9.00am at the Chelsea Town Hall and got the painting surfaces stamped, then they all went to their favourite chosen spots around Chelsea to work on their pieces. We were all to come back by 8pm with the finished works ready for hanging. all the works were to be on display the next day at the Chelsea Town Hall, where all the paintings would be for sale and the winning painting would receive £1,000!

Adebanji was telephoned by Professor Ken Howard RA to tell him that he had won!!!

Read the full details and see stage by stage picture on Adebanji's brilliant blog:

Fascinating Project for Lachland Goudie

In May Lachlan returned to the shipyard in Rosyth where he has been painting regularly for the last couple of years.  He has  been asked to document the construction of the Royal Navy's new flagships; the 65,000 tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

Lachlan writes: "It's an incredible project which will keep me busy for several years.  The scale can be quite overwhelming and the technical challenge of compressing so much activity onto one sheet of paper or canvas can be pretty tricky!

I'm enjoying the process and looking forward to turning many of my sketches into larger paintings in the studio."

Here is some of the striking  work he is doing as part of the project.

New Award For Tim Benson

Tim's painting of a woman with a facial disfigurement has won the 'Arts Club Charitable Trust Award'at this year's annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries. The show runs for a further week until  24/05/13 with late opening (until 7pm) on 23/05/13. For more details please click on the following link: http://www.therp.co.uk/society/exhibitions/

Tim Benson was recently elected Vice President of the ROI

New Exhibition For Naomi Alexander R.O.I.

Naomi Alexander has a new exhibition at the Shipley Art Gallery Gateshead opening on June 1. It will be opened by the Lithuanian Ambassador, Tom Butler former Bishop of Southwark and Professor Aubrey Newman.

New Exhibition For ROI President Ian Cryer

New ROI President Ian Cryer is currently exhibiting 65 new paintings of Exmoor at the Churchgate Gallery Porlock Somerset TA 24 5UA until June 1st. Titled "A Year on Exmoor" the show can be seen online at www.churchgategallery.co.uk. Ian Cryer spent last year exploring the contrasting landscape of this area of outstanding natural beauty, painting the rugged moorland and sheltered valleys as well as the life, work and sporting activities of the area. This is Ian's second one man show in West Somerset and the first first specifically of Exmoor.

New President For The ROI

At the ROI's AGM on tuesday 30th April Ian Cryer formally took over the role of President of the ROI from Peter Wileman .

He will be joined by Tim Benson as Vice President, Ian said " I am delighted to be able to serve this wonderful Victorian British Art Society with a long proud tradition and help guide it into the information age with all the opportunities new technology has to offer. We can connect like never before with a wider and wider audience as witnessed by the rapidly increasing number of people who now send in to our Annual Open Exhibition via the digital submission. I will be posting regular updates about ROI events on the blog an

Tim Benson Painting At Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibition

Tim Benson ROI will be showing this painting of a woman with a facial disfigurement at this year's annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries from 09/05/13-24/05/13. For more details please click on the following link: http://www.therp.co.uk/society/exhibitions/