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‘Wessex and Other MOTHS’ – an exhibition of the works of Sarah Gillespie at The Rabley Gallery
17 July 2021 @ 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
This is Rabley Gallery’s first exhibition of works by Sarah Gillespie, ‘Wessex and Other MOTHS’. Her meticulously detailed studies of moths highlight the diverse and mysterious beauty of these night creatures. From her mezzotint prints the shimmering moths emerge humming from the darkness.
This exhibition includes recent works of an ambitious scale including ‘Peppered Moth’, 2021, and some now rare prints that are the last remaining works available in the editions and complete the collection ‘Wessex and Other MOTHS’.
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“Unseen in the dark and dismissed as ‘dull’ in favour of their flashier, diurnal cousins, the butterflies, moths are in fact more numerous and more varied. They are a major part of our biodiversity holding a vital role in the wildlife ecosystem” Sarah Gillespie
It is the moonlight refracting in the dusty scales of the moth’s wings that reveals their iridescent and intricate patterns. The making of the Mezzotints is synonymous with the surface of the moths. Through this slow and painstaking method, Gillespie draws each moth from the toothed surface of the 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.
Booking essential – click here to book
About Sarah Gillespie
Gillespie is most at home in the countryside and through the span of her career she has been a successful landscape painter. Started in 2017, ‘The Moths’ are an on-going endeavour; she is not an entomologist, but a person in tune with the fragile state of our delicate ecosystem, quietly making her mark by enticing us with beauty.
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 major public and private collections including: Victoria Gallery, Bath; Government Offices for the South West, UK; Royal West of England Academy; Sharpham Trust; Chatsworth House; Museum of Fine Arts, Yekaterinburg, Russia and the Shanghai Xuihui Museum of Fine Art.
