Ignore the torrential rain and gale force winds, Summer is here.  No it really must be, because the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2017 has opened.  Every year for the past 249 years unknown artists have had the chance to hang works next door to the most well known artists of the day. Joshua Reynolds, founder of the RA, has his statue adorned with a garland for each Summer Exhibition – this time he has a sash and looks very dashing.

Inside the main gallery, the light streamed in from the skylights making it possible to forget the rain outside.

Most of the 1,ooo works on display are for sale, the programme comes not only with details of the art and artists but also a price tag.  This makes my game of ‘what would you take home if you could?’ that I play in every gallery that I visit, just that bit more exciting here because if my piggy bank has enough in it, I just might.  These are the things that caught my eye and their price tags.

£25,000 would buy me this Cornelia Parker sculpture, I love the way that it hangs on invisible wires.

These figures, an ensemble called Watching by Wendy Freestone, look quite large in this photo.

Step back and look at the wideshot and they are tiny, but I would get a lot of items for my £12,000.

This spiky chap is entitled the Art of Being Right.  Artist Lee Wagstaff has attached a price tag of £12,000.

This sailing ship reminded me of my great aunt’s jewellery box.  She had a mass of fake pearls and glitzy paste brooches, shame that most of them have gone now or I could tried to create my own, saving the £26,300 needed to buy Ann Carrington’s Pearl Ship.

Sadly my budget does not run to any of these.  Which would you choose?

For a recap of my visit to the Summer Exhibition in 2014, 2015 and 2016 click on the blue dates.

SUMMER EXHIBITION 2017

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
13 June – 30 August 2017
Open: 10am – 6pm daily (Fridays 10pm)
Admission: Adults £14 includes a List of Works, concessions available