Sarah Gillespie – Coot

‘Coot’ is in a series of images from Slapton Ley – a freshwater wetland close to Sarah Gillespie’s home and studio in Devon, UK. The Ley is protected from the sea by only the slimmest of shingle banks and in the coming years, with rising sea levels, this ‘line’ is certain to fail.

About Sarah Gillespie

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. Sarah Gillespie makes mezzotint prints, an old, slow and painstaking method that produces unique velvet blacks and soft tones. Her work encourages us to refocus our gaze toward the everyday and the overlooked; moths, blackbirds and winter-suns.

Her work is held in public and private collections including: Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Portrait Gallery; LondonVictoria Gallery Bath; Government Offices for the South West, UK; Royal West of England Academy; Sharpham Trust; Chatsworth House; Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Current Exhibition

Sarah Gillespie: Birded and Eyed
Kestle Barton, Cornwall TR12 6HU
20th June – 6th September 2026
website

“Kestle Barton presents  ‘Birded and Eyed’, a second solo exhibition by Sarah Gillespie, following her exhibition at Kestle Barton in 2020.  the show brings together new works in mezzotint and drawing, developed through her close observation of the woods, meadows and night-life around both Kestle Barton and her home in Devon.”