Spring Preview: A Recap

The evening brought together friends of the gallery for a first look at the new work, alongside a story-led wine tasting experience with Danny from The Glenstead. The evening was centred around a communal table, where Danny introduced guests to his chosen wine pairing, L’Empreinte from Saint Mont. The wine, meaning ‘imprint’, was chosen for its sense of place and lineage, produced collaboratively by growers in southwest France using historic Pyrenees grape varieties. The grapes survived, Danny remarked, because someone kept tending them. Kept believing they were worth preserving. “You can taste that continuity,” he said.

Much like the work in the gallery, the wine rewarded deliberate attention rather than quick consumption, offering a multi-layered texture that balanced brightness with grounded depth. With a label featuring the literal fingerprints of its makers, it served as a fitting tribute to the many hands that contributed to something living and lasting.

The intimate format encouraged guests to spend time with the paintings while returning to the shared table for conversation, creating a relaxed and community-focused atmosphere.

“There is a difference between attending an exhibition and inhabiting it,” Danny noted. “Between passing through and lingering. Between seeing and noticing. What’s being invited here tonight is simply a little more noticing.”

The remarks echoed Hester Berry’s paintings, which are rooted in close observation of the rural environments she knows best, capturing the moments when shifting light changes the character of a landscape. Working in oils, Berry distils fields, mountains and open skies into economical compositions that focus on atmosphere and tone. For Berry, faithfully capturing light is the primary focus of her work.

“It’s the light that is the beautiful thing in it,” she says. “Light can fall on anything and make it gorgeous. Light is what you see first when you’re bleary eyed in the morning. It’s warmth and it’s life. It’s a primal thing that everyone has access to.”

Berry trained at Aberystwyth University before completing an MA in Fine Art at Wimbledon. She was shortlisted for Sky Landscape Artist of the Year in 2014 and 2015, and alongside her studio practice she teaches portrait and landscape painting across the South West of England.

The private viewing marked the beginning of the gallery’s Spring programme and introduced Berry’s work in a setting designed for conversation, shared food and time well spent. 

‘Where The Light Falls’ by Hester Berry is now open until 3rd May 2026. Click here to view the collection.