A new exhibition of mezzotints and drawings by artist Sarah Gillespie opens at Kestle Barton near Helston on Saturday 20 June, running through to 6 September.
Birded and Eyed is Gillespie’s second solo show at the Manaccan gallery, following her first there in 2020. The works focus on moths and other small inhabitants of the woods and meadows around Kestle Barton and the artist’s home in Devon, built up through what the gallery describes as sustained observation and close looking.
The Peppered Moth Story
One of the pieces in the show features the peppered moth, an insect with a story tied directly to British industrial history. During the Industrial Revolution the species rapidly adapted to turn black, concealing itself against soot-covered buildings. When clean air laws came into force in the 1960s and buildings returned to their original colour, the moth’s markings reverted too.
It is the kind of subject Gillespie has spent years drawn to. Speaking about the exhibition, she said: “I’ve been fascinated for a long time by the camouflage and disruptive patterning of moth wings and have experienced it first hand as it is hard to represent their forms when they have put millennia of evolutionary effort precisely into hiding their form.”
She continued: “As we purge our islands of nearly all wildlife, destroying habitat on a macro scale with thoughtless and relentless development and on a micro scale, continuing use of herbicides and pesticides and a persistent habit of ‘tidyness’, I am aware more and more that what is wild hides from us. Nature always has liked ‘to be hid’ but what is left now it really must hide. We are the danger.”
Mezzotint and Drawing
Gillespie works primarily in mezzotint, a printmaking process known for deep tones and subtle gradation. Moths emerge from dark grounds, their wings and markings rendered with precision while keeping a sense of movement. Alongside the prints are drawings tracing the forms of the surrounding landscape, and a group of spent copper etching plates from the artist’s studio will be on display.
Four large Garden Tiger drawings, commissioned by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery in Exeter in 2025, are also included.
Gillespie captures the moths humanely to make the works, then releases them.
Opening Day and Moth Morning
The exhibition opens on Saturday 20 June, 2-5pm, and all are welcome. At 3pm Gillespie will give an artist’s talk, followed by a printing demonstration with Simon Marsh on his press. A small mezzotint will be produced in a limited edition, with proceeds supporting Kestle Barton’s annual Festival of Children’s Literature for primary school children on The Lizard.
On Sunday 12 July at 9am, weather permitting, Gillespie returns for a ‘moth morning’. Visitors can take part in a ‘reveal’ of moths recorded overnight, for close observation before the insects are released back into their habitat.
About the Artist and Venue
Sarah Gillespie was born in 1963 and studied at the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford. Her work is held in public and private collections in the UK and internationally.
Kestle Barton is an ancient Cornish farmstead above the Helford River, with one of its barns converted into a gallery that opened in 2010. The site runs three free exhibitions each year between April and October, funded by holiday accommodation in the surrounding converted barns and farmhouse.
The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays, 10:30am to 5pm, until 31 October. Find Kestle Barton at Manaccan, Helston, Cornwall TR12 6HU.
