Artist : Sarah Gillespie
Title : Nottingham Catchfly & Whitespot Moth
Medium : mezzotint engraving. two plate diptych (ed 30)
Dimensions : plate size 30 x 23 cm each


ENQUIRE ABOUT THIS WORK

“It is my hope, through a process of long-looking and close attention, focusing on quieter moments of beauty and oft hidden lives, to reveal something of the natural world’s remaining loveliness and, in so doing, to see what answering grace that might awaken in ourselves.”

Sarah Gillespie is an expert in the intricate and painstaking method of mezzotint, also known as ‘the English Method’, a form of engraving using a copper plate. She sees it as a labour of love, a method of quiet application, creating an image which emerges from darkness to light. Her work is about staying still and paying attention to the natural world that we inhabit. She is not concerned with self expression, stating that “we are at our most creatively powerful when we can overcome or more precisely forget ourselves, staying open and attentive to the way things are.” 

Sarah Gillespie was born in Winchester and currently lives and works in Devon. 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). Upon leaving She was awarded the Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation International Award for figurative art. In 2016 she was elected a member of the Royal West of England Academy. Her work has been exhibited widely and is held in numerous private and public collections including: the V&A Museum; Victoria Gallery in Bath; the Government Offices for the South West; the Royal West of England Academy; Sharpham Trust; Chatsworth House; Castle Howard; Damien Hirst; Museum of Fine Arts in Yekaterinburg, Russia; The Xuihui Museum of fine Art in Shanghai and Calvin University in Michigan.