Vivid Vistas - Andy Walker

Tuesday 3rd June - Sunday 8th June, The Setting Gallery, Tuesday to Friday 10am - 4pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

Local, award-winning artist Andy Walker presents his extraordinary, innovative and beautiful artworks in his first solo exhibition,‘Vivid Vistas’ in The Setting.

Andy’s wide-ranging portfolio, including glorious views from across the UK and Europe, comprises a number of landscapes, including some local views, seascapes and cityscapes along with botanical studies.

His technique begins with photographic studies which are then painstakingly reinterpreted by creating mosaics of thousands of hand drawn, coloured triangles, using a stylus and iPad as his virtual canvas.

All of Andy’s artwork is available as archival quality art prints or UltraHD perspex mounted prints, in strictly limited editions of various sizes.

Cut Flowers: an exhibition of botanical paper-cut collages by Shelley Saguaro

Tuesday 27th May - Sunday 1st June, Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

Shelley Saguaro is a local paper-cut artist.

Her work is inspired by the eighteenth-century artist, Mary Delany, whose detailed botanical ‘paper mosaiks’ were most often presented on black backgrounds.  Shelley’s early papercuts followed suit, sharing, too, Delany’s interest in accurate botanical detail. These days the backgrounds and the presentation of plants are more various, including some using plant-printing. However, the use of scissors, glue and paper remains a constant.

Mounted and framed originals will be on display and for sale. Greeting cards, postcards and a selection of unmounted prints will also be available.

A ‘Cut Flowers’ paper-cutting workshop at Three Storey is planned for the Autumn. 

Shelley Saguaro

Instagram.com/@saguarocutflowers

Shelley.saguaro@gmail.com

Fragile Lives, Solid Earth - Pamela Woods and Zana Milne

Tuesday 13th May - Sunday 18th May, The Setting gallery and Plot café, Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm, Meet the Artists - 17th May 6pm - 9pm

Fragile Lives, Solid Earth, an evocative exhibition featuring the works of acclaimed Stroud artists Pamela Woods and Zana Milne.

This exhibition invites audiences to explore the themes of transformation, trust, and vulnerability through the distinct yet complementary artistic voices of Woods and Milne.

Pamela Woods, known for her expressive abstract paintings, captures the emotional turbulence of an ever-changing world. Her work visualises inner transformation, reflecting both personal and collective shifts in human experience.

Alongside her, Zana Milne presents a striking collection of burnished, wood-fired ceramic sculptures. Through organic forms and unexpected compositions, Milne examines trust and precariousness, offering a playful yet profound commentary on the relational dymanics between the self, the other and with earth.

5 Stories - The Committee

Tuesday 6th – Sunday 11th March - The Setting Gallery and the Plot Café, Three Storeys, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE. Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday 10am to 3pm.

‘The Committee’ a loose band of five artists and guests who pride themselves on professionalism, passion and potency in their chosen creative practice, bring us this beautifully curated exhibition in the Setting gallery and the Plot café.

The paintings of Stroud based Joanne Casling are filled with memory and layers of thought. It is the discovering of the artwork through the process that is the subject matter of her work. The credibility of her art is obvious as it supplies a richness and depth when viewed.

@jocasling   jomaycasling@gmail.com

Maggie Howe is local artist & has various art disciplines painting, ceramics & printmaking. Her current work is all about the form, line & the light & shade of classic still life compositions. She uses subdued colours, playing with scale, movement and layers.

 @maggiehowe_art   maggiehowe9@gmail.com

Ewen Hyde is a talented Stroud based sculptor and artist who excels in his craft. He utilises mainly recycled materials to create wonderfully made, thought provoking and poignant sculptures. These artworks are often concerned with social or environmental issues.

@ewen_hyde   ewenhyde@outlook.com

Jonathan Oakes lives in Tewkesbury; his artwork is abstract by definition. He produces artworks that comment on environmental issues and human behaviours. It has been said that he has a truly individual style which is filled with potency, imagination and resonance.

@art4oka  info@art4oka.com

Based in the Forest of Dean, Eileen O’Haire uses the intricate qualities of drypoint / collagraph intaglio printing to produce the fine lines and textures which accurately capture the complexities and beauty of the various forms of the wildlife she portrays.

@woodsideprinting   eohaire@proton.me

Time - An exhibition of works by Kathy Clare, Allison Cumberbirch and Kate Kay

A joint exhibition of work by three friends who each express themselves through different media.

Tuesday 29th April - Sunday 4th May, Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm.

The Setting gallery and Plot café, Three Storeys, Old Bristol Rd, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE

Three women drawn together twelve years ago by chance on a beginner’s art access course went on to complete a Masters together. Now they are reunited, seeking to make sense of these changing times. Expressing their experience of the impact of time passing for each one of them, they are now reflecting on their past and looking forward to what the future holds for them.

Kathy Clare

Studying Fine Art gave me a new lease of life and opened the door to so many new opportunities. I love being part of an artist community of likeminded people, making new friends along the way. I enjoy the complex process of making by casting and sculpting in porcelain.   Once created, the pieces are refined with finer details of the domestic settings of my childhood memories.  Precious memories kept safely within a delicate material, giving them the empathy they deserve.  My work portrays a sense of loss, not being able to return to the golden years, that safe place of childhood. I return in my artwork, preserving moments of my memories to stop them fading in time and recollection.

Allison Cumberbirch

As a child I loved all kinds of stories … I gobbled them up and still do.  From fairy tales/myths/allegorical/domestic/historical/personal…there’s something about storytelling that has continued to compel me. The other thing I loved as a child was playing with drawing, colouring, cutting and sticking; making dolls to colour in and play dressing up with was especially enjoyed. Over time I lost this connection between stories and making which I re-discovered when I joined the Art Access course and continued to develop during my MA in Visual Communication. Drawing on multimedia surfaces I have experimented with introducing movement and 3 dimensions. I have created characters and placed them into scenes. Some playful, humorous or dark / real or imagined; propelling me towards playing with toy metaphors such as paper dolls/ puppets/ building bricks/ pop up books. This project has been a joyful reconnection with the timeless worlds of story and play.

Kate Kay

Kate ended her working life as a senior Lawyer in 2011.  A chance summer school at Stroud College led to a decade of creativity, an MA in Fine Art and more importantly friendships which have lasted for over 15 years.  She said “It was glass that got me into this.  A magical recyclable material made out of soda, lime and sand which metamorphoses into a glowing non crystalline solid which shapeshifts into any form. It is glass that I have returned to combined with breath which is automatic invisible constant and unremitting as time.

‘On the Green Edge’ Laura Dutton, Sylvia Wadsley and Emma Yorke

Tuesday 22nd April - Sunday 27th April

The Setting Gallery and the Plot café, Three Storeys, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE

Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday 10am to 3pm.

Featuring the work of three artists connected through their deep commitment to the natural environment and concerns for its fragility.

Laura Dutton  - I work in glass and make sculptures which are inspired by wonderful natural forms. My work is about our connection to nature and other organisms.

The Green Edge is a place of duality. It is a between place that holds peace and unrest, beauty and ugliness. It is a place of wildness, danger and wonderful potential. My work shines a light on organisms and ways of being that exist in the margins and edges of our consciousness, the mysterious, the unseen, the unnoticed, the vital.  

Sylvia Wadsley - Landscape painting helps me to reflect on my relationship with nature. I explore the invisible thread which connects us to the natural world and how this thread is fragile and easily broken.

For me, the green edge symbolises a boundary which separates us from nature. We live urban lives on the edge of the green wild. Our view of landscapes is often mediated by screens which further alienates us. My most recent paintings aim to re-enchant landscape. They invite the viewer to step over the green edge and enter a liminal space.

Emma Yorke - Informed by narratives of change and the instability of memory, my work develops in response to well-loved landscapes, considering what is lost (and what remains) over the passage of time.

 I work with a cross-disciplinary practice, increasingly concerned with notions of grief, care and repair as our ecological framework continues to unravel.  I experience the green edge as a space to encounter both joy and sorrow in our interrelationship with ‘nature’, recognising that, as Francis Weller writes, ‘We must restore the healing ground of grief. We must find the courage, once again, to walk its wild edge.’   

‘Connections’ - Alison Vickery

Tuesday 8th April - Sunday 20th April*

Open Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm, artist in residence each day 11am - 2pm

The Setting Gallery, Three Storeys, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE

‘Connections’ will feature an exhibit of landscapes, seascapes and floral paintings from local Amberley artist Alison Vickery.

‘Connections’ refers to the relationship that Alison has with the subjects that inspire her, the connection the paintings have with the viewer, and the connections she makes through her teaching and workshops.

Alison is inspired by the beautiful Cotswold landscape, particularly when caught in the changing light and colours of the seasons. Drawn to local waterways and their reflections, Alison also makes frequent visits to the coast to capture different moods from ferocious stormy waves to gentle ripples.

Flowers have also always been an inspiration, catching their character, essence and fleeting nature, from the first brave snowdrop to the swathes of hardy flowers that fill the borders in the Summer with a riot of colour. Drawn to local waterways and their reflections, Alison also makes frequent visits to the coast to capture different moods from ferocious stormy waves to gentle ripples.

*Alison will be running a workshop during the exhibition, and will be in the gallery on all other days between 11am and 1pm.

www.alisonvickery.co.uk

Garden of Entropy - A joint exhibition

Tuesday 1st to Sunday 6th April 2025
Open Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10 - 3pm, open evening shopping Friday 4th April, 6.30-9.30pm
The Setting gallery and Plot café, Three Storeys, Old Bristol Rd, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE

Garden of Entropy brings together a diverse collective of local artists, showcasing a range of works across various 2D and 3D mediums that reflect the vibrant and evolving artistic scene of Gloucestershire.

With contributors spanning different ages and backgrounds, the exhibition offers a dynamic blend of perspectives, united by a shared passion for creativity.

Visitors can expect an eclectic mix of sculptures, photography, paintings, ceramics, and mixed-media pieces, each revealing the distinctive voice of its creator. While there is no overarching theme, the exhibition carries subtle tones of rebellion, with some works challenging convention, pushing artistic boundaries, or offering fresh interpretations of familiar subjects.

Diversity itself stands as one of the exhibition’s focal points, with no two pieces alike. The range of styles, materials, and artistic approaches ensures a visually and conceptually rich showcase, inviting audiences to explore and interpret the works in their own way.

Timed with the arrival of spring—a season of renewal and awakening—the show reflects a similar spirit, with artists coming together to blossom as a collective. Organised by the artists, this grassroots initiative highlights the power of collaboration and community, providing a platform for emerging and established talent to shine.

Works will be available for purchase for those looking to take home a piece of the exhibition, offering a unique opportunity to support local artists and bring original art into personal collections.

Reciprocal Exchange - A Community Art Project

Tuesday 25th – Sunday 30th March - The Setting Gallery, Three Storeys, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE. Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday 10am to 3pm.

What happens when we take money out of the equation?

Studying part-time for a Master’s in Fine Art with Falmouth university, this project is Ben Welch’s response to a module about collaboration.

“I started with a simple question: what happens when we take money out of the equation? I’ve always been interested in the ways art circulates, who gets to own it, who gets to engage with it, and what we actually mean when we talk about "value."

Initially toying with the idea of asking artists to give their work away for free, the idea of exchange kept coming up, not just as a transaction but as something more human about trust, negotiation, and shared experience.

At its core, this isn’t just a community event; it is a work of art in itself. Every exchange that takes place, every negotiation between artist and participant becomes part of the piece, a tiny performance of creativity and connection.

By inviting people to offer skills, time, or handmade items instead of money, the project challenges traditional ideas of what art is "worth." It’s about breaking down barriers, making art feel more accessible, and seeing what happens when we shift the focus from ownership to interaction.

The social aspect is just as important as the objects being exchanged. The event is shaped by the people who take part their contributions, their offers, their stories. In that sense, it aligns with ideas of relational aesthetics, where the meaning of the work emerges through human interaction.

More than anything, this is an attempt to blur the lines between artist and audience, artwork and exchange, exhibition and experience. It’s an experiment in generosity, a creative intervention into everyday life, and a way of questioning how we relate to art, and to each other.

'The Movement of Colours' - Jan Petrie

Tuesday 11th March - Sunday 23rd March, The Plot café, Tuesday to Friday 8.30am - 4pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

‘The Movement of Colours’ - Jan Petrie

Inspired by nature, studio 5 tenant Jan’s work explores the interplay between colour, light and shade.

 “I focus less on literal representation, more on conveying my emotional response to the landscapes I’ve been lucky enough to spend time in.”

Two Painters - Hazel Rank-Broadley and John Rodgers

The Setting gallery and Plot café, Tuesday - Friday 8.30am-4pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

Hazel Rank- Broadley

‘Painting in watercolour was an exciting new departure for me, beginning in 2019.  I painted in oils during my studies at Camberwell School of Art and Goldsmiths’ College, where I did a degree in Fine Art, but I found the freshness and vibrancy of watercolour altogether different. 

There is a peculiar spontaneity in watercolour, as pigment reacts with water moving into a variety of specialised papers, either rough or smooth.  It is fascinating to be able to be able to work precisely, with a fine brush on botanical painting, or to allow paint to find its own direction when a mop brush is loaded with colour and then applied to wet paper, to evoke sky, sea and earth. Endless possibilities arise, and the journey is a process where time disappears, a meditation. 

I am inspired by my garden, and I love the transparency of irises in particular.  Composing a landscape I’m interested in evoking air, space, and movement, capturing or creating a moment in time.  I have learned how leaving expanses of white, unpainted paper electrifies the scene, as do diagonal lines. 

The air, sea, sand and fields of Mallorca have been particularly inspiring in 2024.  I hope that you will find something that resonates with your own joyful moments, as you study the results of my days spent painting.’

John Rodgers

‘My relationship with Greece began when I received a British Council-Greek Ministry scholarship upon leaving the Slade in London, in 1979. It culminated in an exhibition at the British Council on Plateau Kolonaki, Athens, in 1981, the first of a number of exhibitions I made in Greece, over the years.

I have included one or two early work “remainders” I had made and previously shown in Greece, the odd borrowed painting in a selection made up entirely of oil paintings but over time, I have often worked in watercolour as well, the climate lends itself to both mediums.

Both England and Greece have been key to my work as a representational painter. I began with English landscape from a very early age, working directly from life, the influence of Robin Tanner, a late friend of my fathers, in Oxfordshire at that time. The subtleties of landscape never cease to engage me. When I arrived in Greece (I first went by train) it was the timeless quality of the old Greece, I first witnessed then, albeit briefly, and the intense quality of the light, once experienced, never forgotten, that have remained informative. The aspect of looking, association, memory, reflection and some very special friendships, people and places, I have made along the way, poly kali kardia (very good hearted), as the Greeks would say!’

Studio CHY: Crafting Narratives

Tuesday 11th to Sunday 23rd February 2025

The Setting gallery, Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

Based in the heart of the Cotswolds, Studio CHY is a design-led architectural practice renowned for creating spaces that tell compelling stories. Their upcoming exhibition celebrates the inherent beauty of natural materials and the transformative power of light, showcasing how they shape bespoke projects that harmonise with their surroundings.

Each project is a unique journey, blending thoughtful narrative with architectural innovation to create truly extraordinary environments.

'재잘재잘 그림일기: Chitter-Chatter, Beyond the Everyday' - Eunju Hitchcock-Yoo

Tuesday 11th to Sunday 2nd March 2025

The Plot café, Tuesday - Friday 8.30am - 4pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

'재잘재잘 그림일기: Chitter-Chatter, Beyond the Everyday' - Eunju Hitchcock-Yoo

She, a forty-something emigrant, captures her magically mundane life in a sketch diary. 

It looks like a still life from afar, but up close, it’s a never-ending cartwheel of transformation.

This exhibition will showcase the wonderful sketches that Eunju creates to illustrate her daily life.

Born in Seoul, Eunju Hitchcock-Yoo is a South Korean artist predominantly working on theatre-game and animated film. She has been. greatly interested in participatory works that interweave the components of public space, user behaviours and mobile technology.

@tevaste

The Global Portrait Project, Part I - The First 50 Countries

Tuesday 4th - Sunday 9th February 2025

The Setting gallery and Plot café, Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

"The Global Portrait Project" by James Nickells will be 193 portraits of 193 subjects from different countries and each involved in their country in positive environmental work.

James Nickells is a British portrait artist bringing you, in this exhibition, the first 50 portraits from his ambitious Global Portrait Project.

This will be the first time all 50 portraits have ever been exhibited and will cover all UN recognised sovereign states from Afghanistan to Dominica. In addition to the portraits the exhibition is supported by online videos on The Global Portrait Project YouTube channel showing the painting process and telling each subject’s environmental story. James will be available on site throughout the exhibition to talk about the project.

Stroud Trinity Rooms fundraiser

Tuesday 14th January - Sunday 2nd February, The Plot café, Tuesday - Friday 8.30am-4pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

Help to buy Trinity Rooms for the Stroud community

Recently, Trinity Rooms, near Stroud Hospital, were in danger of being lost as a community resource, but the new tenants, Stroud Earth Community (SEC), have taken out a lease on the building and are currently running it as a community centre with a focus on green issues, food equity, and building community resilience.

SEC is aiming to raise £350,000 to buy the building and do necessary repairs – to future proof it for local people. 

Two friends of Trinity Rooms, Lallie Jackson and Fran Mosley, are hosting a sale of textiles and art objects in the Plot Café from January 14th to 26th. Come and buy – and support a wonderful community enterprise

Nailsworth News Photographic Competition

The Plot café, Tuesday - Friday 8.30am-4pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

In September this year Nailsworth News announced a Photographic Competition, which was for all ages, using cameras or phones with the theme of ‘Nailsworth’. The deadline for submissions was 15th October.

There were 63 entries representing all ages and methods. The judging panel consisted of Jonathan Duckworth and Gary McMath, both well known local photographers. Judging assessed the relevance to the title, the quality of photography (composition, light, colours, framing) and creativity (experimentation).

Entries were categorised by age: under 18, 18-60 and 60+. Each category winner receives £50 and the overall winner is awarded £100..

The 9 placed entries will be enlarged, printed and displayed in the Plot café from 7th January 2025 until Sunday 12th January. There will also be an awards ceremony at Three Storeys on 7th January. Copies of the entries will also be available online in due course, and also in the December issue of Nailsworth News.

A mixed exhibition of work by local artists.

We are delighted to be holding our third joint Winter Exhibition at Three Storeys, open this December and running into early January.

A diverse mix of works from artists, professional and amateur, living and/or working within a 10 mile radius of Three Storeys will be on display in The Setting gallery and The Plot café, for you to enjoy.

The deadline for applications is Monday 11th November at 5pm.

For further information and to apply, click here

Amberley Artisans Christmas Market

Wednesday 20th November -Sunday 1st December 2024

Tuesday - Friday 9am - 4pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm, Sunday 10am - 3pm

Evening shopping Fridays - 5.30pm - 9pm

The Setting Gallery and Plot café, Three Storeys, Old Bristol Rd, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE

The Amberley Artisans come together once again to showcase unique handmade artwork and gifts this Christmas.

‘Portraits’ Lucy Milne

Tuesday 12th - Sunday 17th November

The Setting Gallery and Plot café, Three Storeys, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE

Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday 10am to 2pm.

Lucy has worked for thirty years as a portrait painter in the medium of pastille.  Working from her studio in South Woodchester, she has travelled the country extensively, drawing adults, children, horses and dogs.  She has built up a strong reputation.

In 2022, making a bold decision, she enrolled at the well-renowned Heatherley School of Art in London on a two-year oil portraiture course to satisfy her long held desire to paint in this medium.

She won the school’s Sainsbury prize for Portraiture in her year, and her work was commended by Alistair Adams RP.
This exhibition will include a selection of her paintings from this course, as well as some recent ones of local characters.
Lucy is now looking forward to taking commissions for both oil and pastille portraits.

More information to follow.

‘From the Edge of the Sea’ Laura Dutton and Sylvia Wadsley

Tuesday 5th November - Sunday 10th November

The Setting Gallery and the Plot café, Three Storeys, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE

Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday 10am to 3pm.

Standing at the edge of the sea, I am captivated by the distant horizon, vastness, space, endlessness and the possibility of setting off into the unknown. 

I paint atmospheric seascapes which aim to impart peace and serenity, calming the anxieties and complications of the times we live in.  My seascape work is for me a meditative form of painting in contrast to my landscape work which is often around environmental concerns.

 I love to observe, absorb, gather and collect at the edge of the sea.

My process involves wandering and wondering at the strangeness and beauty of the anima of the sea and it’s treasures washed up by the wealth of the tide. These glass sculptures try to capture something of the beauty, fragility, resilience and wonder of life within the waves.

‘Sustainable Sadness’ - Dave Swinburne

Tuesday 29th October - Sunday 3rd November

The Setting Gallery and Plot café, Three Storeys, Nailsworth, GL6 0JE

Open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm, Sunday 10am to 3pm.

Dave is a walking artist based in Gloucestershire.

His artistic vision and style is inspired by the changing landscape and he is passionate about minimising the environmental impact of his photographic practice.  

Dave only works local to where he lives.