About Artist Selected Artworks News Exhibitions

About Artist

Sarah Gillespie was born in Winchester in 1963. She studied 16th & 17th century methods and materials at the Atelier Neo-Medici in Paris and then read Fine Art at Pembroke College, Oxford (BFA Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art). On leaving she was awarded the Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation International Award for figurative art and has had a successful career as a painter. In 2016 she was elected a member of the Royal West of England Academy.

Her work is held in public and private collections including: The V&A museum; Pallant House; RAAM Exeter; Victoria Gallery, Bath; Government Offices for the South West; Royal West of England Academy; Sharpham Trust; Chatsworth House; Castle Howard; Damien Hirst; Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg, Russia; The Xuihui Museum of Fine Art, Shanghai, China and Calvin University, MI, USA.

Sarah Gillespie makes mezzotint prints, a centuries old, slow and painstaking intaglio method that produces unique velvet blacks and soft tones. Her work encourages us to de-center the human & refocus our gaze toward the everyday and the overlooked in the more-than-human world: moths, blackbirds and winter-suns. The making of the Mezzotints uniquely compliments the surface of the moths. Through this slow and painstaking method, Gillespie draws each moth from the toothed surface of the copper printing plate by burnishing the light, trapping the detailed pattern, tones and shape into the surface. There are no hard outlines as gradual tones edge to the darkness surrounding them.

Selected Artworks

News

Alongside her landscape drawings Sarah continues to research and make mezzotints of Britain’s larger moths. This year her work was shortlisted for the John Ruskin Prize. In addition to number of curated group shows this spring, she has a second solo exhibition in Hiroshima, Japan scheduled for March. She is currently working on a new body of work for a solo exhibition at Rabley Gallery in the Summer (2024).

Exhibitions

EXHIBITIONS

Solo Exhibitions

2024
Rabley Gallery, Wiltshire UK – Underwing
Hiroshima L-Gallery – Fragments of the wild

2023
British Art Fair – Saatchi Gallery, London
IDBL Dignes-les-Bains, France (Festival Inventerre)

2021
Rabley Gallery, Wiltshire UK – WESSEX and other MOTHS
Hiroshima-L Gallery, Hiroshima, Japan
Castle Howard, Yorkshire -MOTH
Greenhill Arts, Devon – MOTH

2020
Kestle Barton Cornwall – MOTH
Eames Fine Art London – MOTH

2019
Beaux Arts London
Beaux Arts Bath (Mezzotints)

2017
Beaux Arts London

2015
Beaux Arts London
Beaux Arts Bath

2013
Beaux Arts Bath

2012
Beaux Arts Bath

2011
Portland Gallery London

2007
Waterhouse & Dodd London

2005
Waterhouse & Dodd London

2002
New Street Gallery Plymouth

1999
Ariel Centre Devon

1997
Ombersley Gallery Worcestershire

1989
Thursday Gallery Bath

Group Exhibitions

2024
London Original Print Fair

2023
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Woowich Contemporary Print Fair (Rabley Gallery)
London Art Fair (Rabley Gallery)

2022
IFPDA New York, USA
London Art Fair, Rabley Gallery
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
MAKE SW – Artful Craft (Curated by Peter Randall-Page RA)
Fen Ditton Gallery, Cambridge – CCI Residency 3 woman show
Salisbury Museum – Insect Odyssey
Twenty Twenty Gallery – Mythical landscapes

2021
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

2020
Shanghai, China – Xuihui Museum of Fine Art – Intaglio Print Special Edition
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Groundwork Gallery, Kings Lynn “Bugs Beauty & Danger”

2019
Yekaterinburg, Russia – International Mezzotint Festival V *Prize-winner*
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

2018
London Art Fair – Beaux Arts
LAPADA art fair – Beaux Arts
Dartington Arts, Dartington Hall Trust -Artist in Residence
Discerning Eye – Mall Galleries London – Invited artist
Plymouth College of Art – Intaglio print exhibition, curated by Jevon Holman

2017
Selector for DRAWN Biennial RWA
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

2016
Elected RWA Academician
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Derwent Prize – shortlisted
Cartwright Hall (Bradford Museums) ANIMAL

2015
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

2014
Beaux Arts London MASTER DRAWINGS
London Art Fair – Beaux Arts

2013
Beaux Arts London TREE – 4 person show
Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition
Coombe Gallery – Dartmouth – ANIMALIA
London Art Fair – Beaux Arts

2012
Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition – Invited artist.
Threadneedle Prize Exhibition – Mall Galleries London
Royal West of England Academy – Prize winner.
Waterhouse & Dodd London – The Original Print Show
London Art Fair – Beaux Arts

2010
Coombe Gallery Dartmouth -Raw Materials
The London Art Fair – Waterhouse & Dodd
Waterhouse & Dodd London -‘Native Place’ with Peter Randall Page & Anna Gillespie
New Street Gallery – Plymouth. Summer Show.
The London Art Fair – Waterhouse & Dodd
Palm Beach 3 Miami – Waterhouse & Dodd
Art Hamptons NY. USA – Waterhouse & Dodd

2008
Beaux Arts Bath – ‘Crossing Over’
Roland Lewinsky Building – Plymouth.
The London Art Fair – Waterhouse & Dodd

2007
The London Art fair – Waterhouse & Dodd

2006
Las Manos Gallery Chicago -Concepts in Realism
New Street Gallery, Plymouth -The Last Picture Show
Coombe Gallery Dartmouth – group show
The London Art Fair – Waterhouse & Dodd

2005
Art London – Waterhouse & Dodd
Palm Beach 3 Miami – Waterhouse & Dodd

2004
Waterhouse & Dodd London – selected group exhibition
New Street Gallery Plymouth – with Marjorie Holland

2002
Thompsons Gallery, London – The Sea show

2001
Coombe Farm Gallery Devon –‘Elemental’
Thompsons Gallery – Stow-on-the-Wold – autumn show
New Street Gallery, Plymouth – group show

2000
Ariel Centre Gallery, Devon – two-person show
6 Chapel Row Gallery, Bath – ‘The Sea, the Sea’

1999
Kinsale, Ireland – Represented by the Kent Gallery, .
Gallery North, Toledo, USA -‘Contemporary Realists’
Royal West of England Academy – open

1998
Cheltenham Drawing Open

1997
Royal West of England Academy – Open

1993
Hong Kong – Re-design and gilding of the Giant Door Gods at Peninsula Hotel.

1990
Gallery Revel New York USA – Atelier Neo-Medici retrospective.
New York USA – Represented by Gallery Revel.
London – Restored Sir Gerald Moira’s Arthurian Cycle frieze at the Trocadero.

1988
Weir Gallery Bath – 3 person show
Thursday Gallery Bath – 3 person show
Invited member of Bath Society of Artists
All Saints Church, Bristol – restoration of the John Piper stained glass windows.
Gallerie Jean-Pierre Lavignes – 5 Person Show,

RESIDENCIES

2022
Irving Residency – France
CCI -David Attenborough Building, Cambridge University

2021
Castle Howard

2019
International Mezzotint Festival – Yekaterinburg, Russia. PRIZE for adhering to the traditions and skills of the medium
Irving Residency – France
Invited member of the Arborealist group.

2018
Artist in residence, Dartington Arts – Dartington Hall Trust

2017
Irving Residency – France

2015
Irving Residency – France

2013
Kestle Barton – Cornwall

2007
Sharpham Trust

1985
Elizabeth Greenshields International

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Meryl Lynch Bank
Rolls Royce
Victoria Gallery, Bath
Government Offices for the South West
Royal West of England Academy
Rowcroft Hospice
Sharpham Trust
Chatsworth House
Rothschilds
Damien Hirst
Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Shanghai Xuihui Museum of Fine Art
Calvin University, MI, USA
V&A Museum, London
Pallant House Gallery
RAAM Exeter

PUBLICATIONS

The MOTH mezzotints were featured in numerous articles throughout 2020 & 2021 including Pressing Matters Magazine, twice in the Guardian newspaper and on the BBC.
The Same Blackbird – with Alice Oswald & Stevie Wishart for the Quatercentenary of the OU Botanic Gardens. Pub. The Letter Press 2021
On Sentience – Essays|Drawings by Peter Reason & Sarah Gillespie Pub The Letter Press 2020
MOTH – Pub. The Letter Press 2020
On Presence – Essays|Drawings by Peter Reason & Sarah Gillespie Pub. The Letter Press 2019
The Slapton Ley Project – Pub. White Lane Press
A View from the Boathouse Window – Poems by Brian Patten, drawings by Sarah Gillespie. Pub. Sharpham Trust