• The SAA Artists of the Year 2024 competition will run from Tuesday 12th March 2024 to noon, Friday 10th May 2024. Entries submitted after noon on Friday 10th May 2024 will not be counted.
• You may enter up to 3 entries, use this as an opportunity to pick your best work.
• If you choose more than one category for a piece of work, this will be counted as multiple entries, so choose a category that's the best fit for your artwork.
• Entries will be made via the platform 'Zealous'.
• You may edit your entries until 11:59am on 10th May.
• Entry to the SAA Artists of the Year competition is a members-only competition and is free to enter.
• You will be required to enter your SAA membership number during the entry process you can find more detail on this in our FAQs.
• Entries can be made online here.
• Entries must be good-quality photographs of your work, in good lighting, with no shadows falling across the image and closely cropped to the edge of your painting. You can find some help and advice on taking photographs of your artwork by reading this blog from Becky Gouverneur and this article from Alison C. Board.
• Textile Art, sculptures, and other 3D artworks are not accepted into this competition.
• Please do not send physical entries until asked to do so. No responsibility will be taken for any initial entries and no initial entries will be returned – please keep a copy for your records.
• All artwork must be recent (No earlier than 2022) unpublished work of the submitting artist. (Publishing to your own social media, or selling card prints in your local exhibition is fine. If your painting has been published in a widely available magazine, such as Artists and Illustrators - for example - or has won another national art award, this is disqualified.)
• If you have used another individual’s tuition, artwork or photography as source material for your painting, you must first seek their permission before entering. They should be specific in their response about whether you’re able to sell and/or exhibit the work. You should credit them accordingly “after a painting by…”, “after tuition from….”, “after a photograph by…”.
• Online entries are acceptable in .jpeg, .jpg, .tif, .tiff and .png formats. 
• Please upload one single image per submission.
• There are no Beginner, Amateur or Professional levels this year as every entry is at such a high standard.
• Selected winning finalists will be exhibited at Nottingham Society of Artists in October, as well as in the Cass Art Prize 2024 exhibition at Copeland Gallery in November; displayed on the SAA Website and printed in Paint & Create magazine, as well as any other relevant SAA publications.
• SAA may use your entry image for the purposes of advertising this and future AOY competitions, but not to recreate prints of your work.
• SAA reserves the right to disqualify any work which is found to not be the genuine work of the submitting artist, at any point in the competition.
• All entrants will receive the first notification of how their entries have fared by Thursday 23rd May 2024, with final notification to the winners taking place on 17th June 2024 via the email address associated with their entry.
• The People's Choice vote will commence Tuesday 4th June 2024.
• The People's Choice vote will run until Tuesday 11th June 2024.
• Requested paintings must be ready to hang, with wire or picture cord, when sent to the SAA.
• Selected paintings must be available to be with the SAA from the beginning of September to the end of November, or be withdrawn from the competition.
• Finalist entries must arrive at the SAA by 6th September 2024 latest for photography and exhibiting.
• The SAA Artists of the Year exhibition will take place 1st - 6th October, with a Private View for all exhibitors on Friday 4th October.
• Paintings sent into the SAA are at the cost of the artist, however paintings will be returned at the cost of the SAA.
• Winning artists can choose whether their painting is for sale at the exhibition, if for sale please allow 25% plus VAT for SAA.
• 1st Place Category winners will be entered into The Cass Art Prize 2024 and artworks will required to be available for The Cass Art Prize exhibition and be returned to you by 30th November 2024.

If you require any further information or clarification on these rules then don’t hesitate to contact us at aoy@saa.co.uk.