Welcoming our New Members

Felicity Flutter RI SGFA

The sea provides a constant source of inspiration for my watercolours. Excitement comes from finding something unpredictable and fleeting on the surfaces of water from a flat calm mirror like surface to wild foaming waves.

Mari French RI

David Gleeson RI

In watercolour I like to build images that work with the capricious nature of the paint and my love of observational drawing. Much of it is juxtaposing passages of layered washes with finely worked details to develop the composition. I really enjoy the fluidity, adding and taking away paint on the way to making a piece. Much of my recent work includes figures outside and inside.

My abstract landscapes reflect my experience of place through repeated layering and eroding of media and mark making, creating a rich surface history with an emphasis on space and light. My current interests concern the liminal landscapes of coastline, salt marsh and reedbeds.

Smith RI

I am a firm believer in working from life and en plein-air although I seek to include a strong element of abstraction in my work. While preferring to use watercolour in its pure traditional form I often explore its potential in combination with other water-based media.

The President and Members of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours offer their heartfelt congratulations to our Honorary Member, His Majesty King Charles III on the occasion of his forthcoming Coronation on May 6th 2023.

Art critic and broadcaster, Anthony J. Lester remembers the long and endearing relationship that HM King Charles’ family has had with the RI for over two centuries.

Caption: King Charles III (then HRH The Prince of Wales) at the RI Exhibition at Mall Galleries in 1988 with ( left to right ) Past President Ronald Maddox, Sheila Mitchell (Mrs. Charles Bone), President the Society of Portrait Sculptors and the then RI President, Charles Bone.

During its 192 years, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours has much to be proud of, not least, its sustained association with the British Royal Family. By the time that the New Society of Painters in Water Colours mounted their inaugural exhibition in 1832, it had secured as patrons, Queen Adelaide, her daughter, the future Queen Victoria, Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex and H.R.H. Victoria Mary Louise, Duchess of Kent. Queen Adelaide received watercolour lessons from Henry Bryan Ziegler (17931874) and Victoria became an enthusiastic watercolour practitioner, taking lessons from William Leighton Leitch (1804-1883), who, for twenty years, was Vice-President of the RI.

Queen Victoria and her devoted Prince Albert compiled numerous albums of prints, watercolours and photographs, the most significant being nine volumes of watercolours, which they put together between 1840 and 1861. His Royal Highness Prince Albert became a frequent visitor to the Institute’s exhibitions and was often tempted to buy – in April, 1842 one of his purchases cost 200 guineas (to put this into context, at that time a house maid’s salary was around £16 a year). During the 1850s Prince Albert rarely missed the annual shows and was often accompanied by other members of the family, including the Prince of Wales, Princess Royal, Prince Alfred, Princess Alice and Princess Beatrice.

Queen Victoria’s fifth daughter, H.R.H. Princess Beatrice was a keen watercolourist and received lessons from Edward Henry Corbould (1815-1905), who, in 1851, was appointed ‘instructor of historical painting to the Royal Family’. On 19th July, 1885 Beatrice was elected an Honorary RI and Sir James Linton (RI President) presented the Princess with an album of drawings by RI members in recognition of her approaching marriage to Prince Henry of Battenburg.

And on 20th August, 1888 at Osborne House, Linton presented Queen Victoria with a Jubilee gift of 75 watercolours by RI members and associates. Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, was also created an Honorary Member on 10th May, 1886.

Most of the Royal Family have had a mutual interest in watercolours and it was not unusual during the 19th century for the Royals to visit the RI exhibition in large groups – for example, on 9th March, 1891 The Prince and Princess of Wales were accompanied by the Princesses Victoria and Maud of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, the Duke and Duchess of Teck and the Princess Victoria of Teck. Three days later, on the recommendation of the Prince of Wales, The Empress Frederick and the Princess Margaret visited the exhibition.

Within three months of Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, King Edward VII consented to grant his patronage to the RI and to sign the diplomas of newly elected members. Like his Royal predecessors King Edward made purchase at the RI exhibitions, including Reve de Fleurs by Charles Prosper Sainton (1861-1914). Royal Patronage continued under George V and George VI.

Following the death of George VI on 6th February, 1952, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II notified the RI that she would continue the Royal Patronage, a position she held until her death. An avid watercolourist himself, King Charles III has, since 1981, exhibited, as he says, “rather hesitantly”, his landscapes with the RI and in 1984 was elected an Honorary Member.

In his Foreword for the book Then and Now: Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (published in 2019), the King recognises the long, endearing relationship his family have had with the RI. Long may it continue.

Anthony J. Lester, FRBA, FRSA