_{Antler Moth © Sarah Gillespie}

Opening this weekend at Kestle Barton, Helston, Cornwall, Birded and Eyed is the second solo exhibition by Sarah Gillespie, bringing together new works in mezzotint and drawing. The exhibition takes its title from a line by the American poet Jane Hirshfield, reflecting Gillespie’s ongoing attention to the animate, watchful presence of the natural world.

Developed through sustained observation of the woods, meadows and night-life around both Kestle Barton and the artist’s home in Devon, these works continue Gillespie’s distinctive exploration of moths and other small, often overlooked, inhabitants of these environments. Her practice is rooted in close looking — an attentiveness to fragility, pattern and transformation — where the act of drawing becomes a way of registering both physical detail and a more elusive sense of encounter.

_{Breton Pine (last night and a world away) © Sarah Gillespie}

Working primarily in mezzotint, a printmaking process known for its depth of tone and capacity for subtle gradation, Gillespie brings a particular intensity to her subjects. Moths emerge from dark grounds, their wings and markings rendered with precision yet retaining a sense of movement and impermanence. Alongside these prints, drawings extend this enquiry, tracing the forms and rhythms of the surrounding landscape. All mezzotints in the exhibition will be available. A group of ‘spent’ copper etching plates from the artist’s studio will also be on display, offering further insight into the printing process and existing as objects of quiet material presence in their own right. Four large Garden Tiger drawings, commissioned by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter (2025), are included in the exhibition.

As with her previous exhibition at Kestle Barton in 2020, Gillespie’s work is closely connected to the specific ecology of the place. The gallery, set within a former farmstead and surrounded by cultivated gardens and wild margins, provides a context in which these images resonate — not as isolated studies but as part of a wider, living environment. The exhibition invites a slower mode of looking, attuned to cycles of light and darkness, presence and disappearance.

_{Clouded Magpie (lighter) © Sarah Gillespie}

Alongside Hirshfield’s words, the exhibition is informed by a line from Heraclitus — ‘nature likes to be hid’. Gillespie’s sustained engagement with camouflage and patterning reflects both the evolutionary intelligence of her subjects and the difficulty of fully apprehending them. These works suggest a world in which what is most vital often remains partially concealed, held in a state of quiet resistance to being seen. In bringing these works together, Birded and Eyed reflects on the idea of being both observer and observed — a shifting relationship between human and non-human worlds, held in a state of quiet attention.

The exhibition opens on Saturday 20 June, 2–5pm, and all are welcome. At 3pm, Sarah Gillespie will give an artist’s talk, followed by a demonstration of her printing process 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, a closed event held in early July.

On Sunday 12 July at 9am, weather permitting, Gillespie will return to Kestle Barton for a ‘moth morning’, joined by local enthusiasts. Visitors are invited to take part in a ‘reveal’ of moths recorded overnight — an opportunity for close observation and shared appreciation before the insects are released back into their natural habitat.

_{Coot © Sarah Gillespie}

Sarah Gillespie (b. 1963, United Kingdom) is an artist and printmaker based in Devon. She is widely recognised for her meticulous mezzotints and drawings, which often focus on moths and other ephemeral subjects drawn from close observation of the natural world. Her work has been exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally, including previous exhibitions at Kestle Barton, and is held in a number of public and private collections.

Kestle Barton is an ancient Cornish farmstead situated above the Helford River. Following an award-winning conservation and conversion project the beautiful old farm buildings have new uses, one of the barns becoming an elegant gallery that opened in 2010. From early April to late October each year, the gallery, garden and wildflower meadow beyond, hosts a programme of three free exhibitions and a number of other events. Surrounding barns and the old farmhouse have been converted into stylish and comfortable holiday accommodation, all profits from which go towards funding the exhibition and event programme.

_{Peppered Moth © Sarah Gillespie}

_{Unto the Wild © Sarah Gillespie}

Kestle Barton is open 28 March – 31 October 2026: Tuesday – Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays, 10:30am – 5pm.

Birded and Eyed by Sarah Gillespie is on display 20 June – 6 September 2026.

More information here.