Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours | Events Programme 2026

The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours presents a series of special events to accompany the RI 214th Exhibition:

11am | Discuss paintings with Ann Blockley RI

Ann Blockley RI is a renowned watercolour and mixed-media artist with an individual style developed over a lifetime of professional painting. Her pictures are evocative, atmospheric and intuitive. Her long-standing passion is for nature, inspired by the countryside and gardens close to her studio. 

11:30am | Exhibition Tour with Jean Noble RI 

Join Jean Noble RI for a tour of the RI 214th Exhibition.

Jean Noble RI believes art is an extraordinary glance at the ordinary. Her paintings are about reality without resorting to imitation. Jean tries to create personally meaningful work, working in acrylic, mixed media and water-based media in her studio from previously made sketches, except when commissions take her elsewhere. 

11am and 2pm | Meet & Greet with Lillias August RI

Lillias August RI wants to honour the things she paints. The subjects absorb her and, however mundane they may seem, August wants to give them an opportunity to speak and be valued – to re-present them. Most things have some sort of personal resonance or connotation. Like smell or sound, they evoke different feelings and memories in each of us.

11am to 1:30pm | Sketchbook Techniques with Hannah Woodman RI

Join Hannah Woodman RI in the gallery for a live discussion and demonstration on sketchbook techniques.

Hannah Woodman RI is a landscape painter who uses watercolour and gouache to render an abstracted stillness in the environment. Woodman's process starts with the elements and an attempt to capture the light, atmosphere and physicality of her surroundings, but evolves into something less tangible. Finding the space between a prescribed figurative approach and a more simplified, ambiguous one is the challenge Woodman enjoys most.

11am and 2pm | Meet & Greet with Jean Noble RI

Jean Noble RI returns to the gallery to meet and greet visitors.

11am and 2pm | Painting Demonstration and Portfolio Presentation with Alex Hillkurtz RI

Join Alex Hillkurtz RI for a painting demonstration and a chance to view the artist's portfolio. 

Alex Hillkurtz RI was born in England and grew up in California where he is a renowned storyboard artist for feature films, television, and commercials. His film credits include “Argo”, “Almost Famous”, “It’s Complicated”, and many others. Alex currently lives in Paris with his film editor wife, Tiffany, and enjoys discovering the hidden corners of the city that sketching and plein air painting allow. He uses the language of cinema to inform his images, moving beyond what one sees, and depicting what he wants others to see.

11am and 2pm | Artist Presentation with Julia Sorrell RI

Join Julia Sorrell RI for a presentation about her practice and works featured in the exhibition. 

Julia Sorrell RI's work is based on drawing, following in the British Neo-Romantic tradition. SorrelI delights in creating a visionary world of unusual shapes and forms developed from direct observation of objects in the natural world. 

11am and 2pm | Painting Demonstration and Sketchbook Presentation with Gary Cook VPRI

Join Vice President of the RI, Gary Cook, for a live painting demonstration and the chance to view his sketchbooks.

Gary Cook VPRI is a Dorset-based environmental painter creating watercolour and ink montages: a fusion of naturalistic painting and narrative script with subtle messages about sustainability hidden within the works. His style is directly influenced by his background in the newspaper industry where he was an associate editor and the senior artist for The Sunday Times for 26 years.

11am and 2pm | Painting Demonstration and Portfolio Presentation with Alex Hillkurtz RI

Join Alex Hillkurtz RI for a painting demonstration and a chance to view his portfolio. 

11am and 2pm | Painting Demonstration with Florence Yuqing RI

Join Florence Yuqing RI in the gallery for a live painting demonstration. 

Florence Yuqing RI’s creative production focuses on portraiture and figurative paintings. She explores the beauty of the flesh and the emotional and delicate nature of human beings. Florence’s work is committed to capturing the atmosphere of the subject matter in the painting, the emotion and expression of the character, which is often presented in a peaceful tone. In the past few years, Florence has been creating imaginary characters to paint from, hence the otherworldliness of her portraits.

11am | Exhibition Tour: Environment & Observation with Nicki Heenan RI

Join RI member Nicki Heenan for a guided tour of this year's exhibition, titled Environment & Observation.

Nicki Heenan RI is a landscape painter seeking to connect the viewer to the presence of the land, its granular nature and mineral composition. For Heenan, the construction of a painting is not only a function of representation but a combination of classical observances and physical substance. There is a link between art and science which allows for a sensory experience of place via materiality. By understanding the pictorial geological processes that form the landscape, Heenan hopes to better understand and respect our place within it.  

1:30pm | Demonstration: From Land to Paper with Nicki Heenan RI

Join Nicki Heenan RI for a live painting demonstration, titled From Land to Paper.

11am and 2pm | Painting Demonstration with Julie Cross RI

Join RI member Julie Cross for a live painting demonstration. 

Julie Cross RI is a recently elected member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, living in Yorkshire. Fascinated by the human form, texture and narrative suggestion, she paints expressive figures and enigmatic portraits. Her work is characterised by rich visual textures, glorious, glowing colour and strong lighting effects.

2pm to 5pm | Winsor & Newton presents: Art Mail - A Celebration of Watercolour

Alongside seeing the RI Exhibition, join Winsor & Newton to be inspired, share your art and celebrate Watercolour.

Join us to celebrate Watercolour artists worldwide with Winsor & Newton’s Art Mail campaign. Thousands of artists will be participating in Winsor & Newton’s global gallery of artists. Art Mail invites all artists to submit a watercolour on a postcard to be featured in our online gallery, with a selection shown in exhibitions in London and New York. Postcards will also be sold to raise money for the Hospital Rooms charity.

On the day, join to try a range of Winsor & Newton Watercolour materials, from curated palettes, mediums, brushes and paper. And get a chance to explore Winsor & Newton's carefully curated colours which use only the finest lightfast pigments to ensure performance and permanence.

11am and 2pm | Watercolour in Action with Harsh Agrawal RI

Join RI member Harsh Agrawal for a live painting demonstration. 

Harsh Agrawal RI aims to capture the play of light and shadow, the interplay of colour, the textures and patterns found in the environment and its interaction with humans.

Agrawal's goal is to create works that are both aesthetically pleasing and emotionally resonant, inviting viewers to experience the wonder and beauty of the world around us through art.

11am and 2pm | Painting Demonstration with Delia Cardnell RI

Join RI member Delia Cardnell for a live painting demonstration. 

Delia Cardnell RI paints landscapes, portraits and still lifes. Cardnell's landscapes are usually semi-abstract rather than photographic, due to the importance of capturing the atmosphere and essence of a place. The compositions of Cardnell's still lifes feature wild flowers, or exotic plants and often incorporate paintings, furniture and views through windows and doorways. Cardnell uses rich colours, patterns and textural variations.

11am and 2pm | Painting Demonstration by Harsh Agrawal RI

Harsh Agrawal RI returns for another painting demonstration in the gallery.

11am and 2pm | Meet & Greet with Claire Sparkes RI

Claire Sparkes RI's paintings primarily focus on people whilst also encompassing still life, interiors, and landscape. At times, Sparkes's work crosses these boundaries interrelating and layering elements. This leads to the weaving of narratives that draw upon connections through time and place, as well as between cultures, individuals and mythologies.

11am | Exhibition Tour: Environment & Observation with Nicki Heenan RI

Join RI member Nicki Heenan for her guided tour of the RI Exhibition, focusing on Environment & Observation.

1:30pm | Demonstration: From Land to Paper with Nicki Heenan RI

Join Nicki Heenan RI for a live painting demonstration, From Land to Paper.

11:30am to 12:30pm | Exhibition Tour with Juliette Losq PRI

Join President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Juliette Losq, for a tour of the RI 214th Exhibition. 

Juliette Losq’s paintings seek to describe the borderlands on the fringes of urban developments and capture the benign battles waged between man and nature. As flora reclaims the spaces with fresh growth concealing man-made structures, so graffiti artists tag the structures in an effort to stake their own territorial claim. Losq’s renditions of the (sub)urban landscape are interrupted by the threat of an unknown presence. The dark recesses allow the imagination of the viewer to place where that threat might be lurking. This creates both an uneasy feeling and a visceral thrill.

11am and 2pm | Painting Demonstration with Julie Cross RI

Join RI member Julie Cross for a live painting demonstration. 

11am | Meet & Greet with Teresa Lawler RI 

Teresa Lawler RI's time spent as a set designer has strongly influenced her paintings both in terms of creating scenic, architectural structures and in the use of deeply contrasting lighting and intense colour. Lawler's most recent work looks at stylised houses introduced into a fictitious landscape with glimpses of the city in the distance. Creating these images has enabled Lawler to travel to places that are impossible to access and are shaped from a multitude of references and sketches gathered over a lengthy period. 

11am | Meet & Greet with Roger Aslin RI

Roger Aslin RI's current painting explores two key areas – the figure and the urban environment – and is influenced by his continued interest in film and television. His key focus, through the medium of painting, is how people interact with the contemporary environment. He shows urban life in dramatic colour and shade by using a highly contrasting palette to emphasise shape and form. 

1:30pm | Exhibition Tour with Teresa Lawler RI

Join Teresa Lawler RI for a guided tour of the RI Exhibition

2pm | Meet & Greet with Roger Aslin RI

As above

11am and 2pm | Painting Demonstration and Sketchbook Presentation with Brendan Smith RI

Join Brendan Smith RI for a painting demonstration and a chance to view his sketchbooks. 

Brendan Smith RI is a firm believer in working from life and plein-air although he is equally happy to work in the studio as circumstances dictate. Watercolour has always been Smith's favourite medium but occasionally he likes to exploit the potential of other water-based media such as acrylics and gouache, both alone and in combination. Increasingly, Smith has found that he is less interested in the detail of a subject and more in the overall impression. Smith is fascinated by the ability of pigment, water and paper to produce everything from the most subtle atmospheric effects in a sunrise to the strongest tonal contrasts in a dark urban setting.