The Armed Forces Art Society’s 74th annual exhibition of paintings and sculpture is at The Mall Galleries, The Mall, London, from July 1 until Sunday. The exhibition will be opened by Andrew Festing, the immediate past president of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

This will be the first exhibition held under the society’s new chairman, Major-General The Rev Morgan Llewellyn, painter in oils and water colours, who has been a member of the society and associated with the annual exhibition for many years.

The society, dating from 1925, encourages and supports art in all three of the Armed Services, and the exhibition provides an opportunity for visitors to see work from a broad range of artists set in an equally wide spectrum of locations. This is not an exhibition of war scenes, but rather a revelation of the interests and imagination of servicemen and women — and their spouses — running alongside their work in the field of national defence. Some exhibitors are currently or were recently on active service in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere, while others are now retired from service life.

Members of the society include artists who are also members of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of British Sculptors. The Prince of Wales is the society’s patron and has offered some of his own work for exhibition this year.

This year exhibitors will again compete for the prize, introduced in 2006, awarded by Systems Consultants Services, of Henley-on-Thames, to be presented by the managing director, Brigadier Rick Bounsall. The National Army Museum prize will be presented by the director, Dr Alan Guy. Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon will present the prize awarded by Thales, which sponsors the exhibition.

The Worshipful Company of Painter Stainers’ prize will be presented by Robert Glover, a past master, and the Armed Forces Art Society’s prizes — one for painting and one for sculpture — are due to be presented by Andrew Festing. The illustration here, Double Partridges in Flight, a sculpture by the late Alan Glasby, OBE, GM, who died in March, was a much admired exhibit of the 2007 exhibition.

An ammunition technical officer and explosives expert of the Royal Logistic Corps, Glasby received the George Medal for gallantry in disarming terrorist explosive devices in Northern Ireland in 1974 and was appointed OBE for directing the recovery of unexploded munitions after the Gulf War of 1990-91. He was also an accomplished marksman, winning the Queen’s Medal at Bisley in 1969.

Another much admired exhibitor, whose work many visitors will be hoping to see again this year, is the artist Sue Fawthrop, who specialises in semi-abstract landscapes in England and abroad. Her technique is to work in her studio from accurate drawings but manipulating colour to express the mood she wishes to capture, whether lighting, weather or occasionally just her own. One of her paintings received the accolade of highly commended in last year’s exhibition.

The society will be making the exhibition venue available to the Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Airmen’s Families Association (SSAFA) for a reception for invited guests on July 2.

The exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London SW1, is open from 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday and from 10am to 1pm on Sunday July 6. Entrance is free.