Sunday 22nd  - Saturday 28th February 2026

Email: cariadastles@gmail.com

This exhibition showcases the work of master puppeteer John Wilson, who set up Spring Onion Puppet Theatre in the early 1990s.

John lived in London, Galway, Ireland, Totnes, Devon, UK, and Ferrarra in Italy, creating work that delighted numerous audiences across different countries.

John died suddenly in 2013 and his puppets have not been seen since then.

This exhibition will imaginatively take viewers on a walk through the journeys and shows that John created, with images, puppets and sometimes music. There will be additional activities in the gallery to accompany the puppets. These will include simple drop-in puppet-making workshops, demonstrations of puppetry performance, and opportunities to play with some of the puppets. 

Monday Life Group Exhibition 

Sunday 1st - Saturday 7th March 2026

The Monday Life Drawing Group, which has been in existence for about over 10 years, was formed when a group of friends got together to organise some life sessions.  Over the years membership has gradually changed but the basic aim, to provide a supportive and friendly space for drawing and painting from life, remains the same.

Models pose for varying lengths of time from 2 minutes to a full hour.  Most poses are approximately 20 minutes in length.

Most of the work on display is completed in the life drawing sessions themselves but some members of the group develop their work further at home using other media.

Eye Heart Hand

Peter Ursem

Sunday 8th - Saturday 15th March 2026

More information about Peter Ursem’s work:
www.peterursem.co.uk (art)
www.petrus-ursem.co.uk (writing)

Email: peter@peterursem.co.uk

This exhibition brings together recent works by artist and writer Peter Ursem.

Working in a modern Romantic tradition, Peter’s visual work originates from observation, often but not exclusively of the landscape. Why do some places speak to us and awaken feelings of longing or belonging?   Heart is a crucial station on the journey from Eye to Hand.

Based in East Cornwall, Peter is known for his relief printmaking, in particular multi-coloured lino prints and recently also wood engravings, but he also works in charcoal and oil paints, writes poetry and fiction.

Peter grew up in the Netherlands where he graduated in Literature from the University in Utrecht and in drawing, painting and printmaking from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague.He moved to Dorset in 1998 and to Cornwall in 2011, where he now has his studio in the Tamar Valley.

He works on a Victorian Hopkinson & Cope Albion press from 1852 and a new Polymetaal etching press for larger prints. In 1995 he was awarded a ‘Debut’ award from The Hague Arts Centre ‘Stroom’, and in the UK a series of Arts Council awards, including for ‘Reflections, Woodcuts of the River Stour’ (2001), ‘Intimate Space, Artist Face’ (2006) and ‘As the River Flows’ (2017). In 2010 he had a major solo show in Dorset County Museum (‘Dorset Footprint’) and in 2017 at Plymouth College of Arts (‘As the River Flows’).

Peter writes as Petrus Ursem and has published a trilogy for younger readers (The Fortune of the Seventh Stone, The Truth Teller, Black as Ink), as well as two collections of ‘friendly fables’ for adults (The Bigger Picture, Stellar Celebrations).

Chance Meeting

Rick Williams and George Birch

Sunday 15th - Saturday 21st March 2026

Open every day 10h - 17h

   ‘As beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table”  Lautreamont.

  This is our second exhibition motivated by a commonality of artistic interest and ideas, which is what drew us together as friends in the first place.  

  Our work is quite different but also intersects in many ways and we are both drawn to the surprising nature of things in curious juxtapositions, which inspired the uncanny beauty of Dada and Surrealist art. 

  We both like artists like De Chirico who evoked strangely familiar worlds in his paintings of deserted Italian city squares and in our respective ways are looking for such evocative moments.

Like mining the fissures of the Umheimlich.  

 Exhibition TBC

Sunday 22nd - Saturday 29th March 2026

Exhibition TBC

Sunday 29th March - Saturday 4th April 2026

Sunday 5th April - Saturday 11th April 2026

Sunday 12th April - Saturday 18th April 2026

"Gathering"

Nancy Pickard and Verity Newman

Open every day 10h - 17h 
Private View - Sunday 12th  April, 4 – 6pm

Friends and collaborators Nancy Pickard and Verity Newman 

(Day of the Nearly Dead…Phantasmagoria…)

return to Birdwood House Gallery

with a new and vibrant exhibition of paintings, sculpture and jewellery. 

From groups, flocks, herds, forests, mobs and murders to collections and meeting points – the gatherings and the gathered – these two artists curate the threads of our creative experience.

Sunday 31st May - Saturday 6th June 2026

Fiona Green

And Death Shall Have No Dominion 

Totnes Fringe Exhibition 

Saturday 4th - 11th July 2026