Fen Ditton Gallery and Ancient Shepherds by Mark Poynton
Fen Ditton Gallery partnership with The Ancient Shepherds by Mark Poynton
Fen Ditton Gallery is delighted to be partnering with The Ancient Shepherds by Mark Poynton, bringing together two of Cambridgeshire's most celebrated independent establishments in a collaboration that celebrates creativity, community, and exceptional experiences.
Located just moments apart in the picturesque village of Fen Ditton, both the gallery and The Ancient Shepherds share a passion for craftsmanship, quality, and supporting local talent. Fen Ditton Gallery has earned a reputation for showcasing world-renowned contemporary art, while The Ancient Shepherds, revitalised under new ownership and with acclaimed Head Chef Mark Poynton, has become a destination for exceptional dining with a focus on locally sourced ingredients and refined British cuisine.
"Art and food both have the power to bring people together, to spark conversation, and to create memorable experiences," says Hannah Munby, Gallery Manager at Fen Ditton Gallery. "We are thrilled to be collaborating with Mark and his team to offer our community something truly special."
An extension of their own programme, the gallery will be hosting a series of rotational exhibitions with works by artists and makers from Cambridge and beyond. The first collection, launching July 2025, includes:
Willard Boepple (b. 1945)
American sculptor, Willard Boepple, is known for his large-scale abstract sculptures constructed from wood or metal. He studied at the University of California at Berkeley and the Rhode Island School of Design and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Boepple’s work in print began in 2003 when he was introduced to Cambridge master-printmaker Kip Gresham and it has gone onto become a significant part of his artistic practice. He comments of his monoprints; “The forms are laid out on a screen and the first colors are laid down in very thin, translucent layers and gradually built up with multiple layers of color, often twenty or more by the end. Like building a sculpture with color from the inside out, it is a process full of adventure, disaster, mystery, and surprise.”
David Emond (b. 1955)
David Emond has been a member of the architectural community in Cambridge for the last thirty years. He has created all his life, capturing fleeting moments as he travels through drawing and painting. He first exhibited at Fen Ditton Gallery in Art and Rivers (2022) and held his first solo exhibition Light, Colour, Pattern in 2023.
Sarah Gillespie (b. 1963)
Sarah Gillespie was born in Winchester in 1963. She is most well-known for her detailed, monochrome mezzotint that celebrate one of the UK’s most elusive insects, the moth. In 2022, Gillespie was Artist-in-Residence at the David Attenborough Building, Cambridge, where she studied the decline of British moth species. Mezzotint, meaning ‘half tone’ in Italian, is a engraving technique by which the artist uses a rocker to roughen the whole surface of the plate, making the deep black background, and the lighter and white tones are created using a process of scraping back smoothing the surface.
Felix Higham (b. 1994)
Originally from Cambridge, Felix Higham studied at Central St Martin’s before completing The Drawing Year in 2021. Higham's artistic focus centres on the intricate study of people and the dynamics of life within the spaces we construct for our use. His observational drawings conducted in pubs and cafés provide material from which Felix constructs narrative works back in the studio. Through the placement of doorways and positioning of light sources, structural interiors become pivotal in dictating the viewer’s perspective within these spaces.
Rebecca Jewell (b.1963)
Rebecca Jewell (b. 1963) studied archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cambridge and completed a doctorate in Natural History Illustration at the Royal College of Art in 2004. Her intricate drawings of artefacts and bird specimens, and her unique feather collages, are inspired both by material culture collections in museums and a cross- cultural examination of the human exploitation and veneration of birds. Jewell is a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London (FZSL), Fellow of the Linnean Society (FLS) and Member of the Art Workers’ Guild (AWG). Jewell lives in Fen Ditton. In 2022, she completed an artist residency with the Cambridge Conservation Initiative exploring the effects of climate change on the biodiversity of seaweeds.
Roger Law (b. 1941)
Roger Law was born and raised in the Cambridgeshire Fens. At 14 he left to attend the Cambridge School of Art, where he met Peter Fluck, with whom he would later form the partnership Luck & Flaw, which morphed into Spitting Image. After moving to London, Law began a successful 35-year career as a caricaturist, working for magazines, newspapers and television. When it all came to an end in 1998, Law took himself to Australia where he took up drawing and painting again, recording his adventures there. Roger eventually took those drawings and sketchbooks to Porcelain City, Jingdezhen, in China, and began making finely crafted ceramics. Law is now back in the UK and resides on the North Norfolk coast.
About Fen Ditton Gallery
Fen Ditton Gallery is a contemporary art gallery, run by mother and daughter team Lotte Attwood and Hannah Munby. The gallery is dedicated to championing artists and makers, across medium and generation, through an exciting programme of exhibitions, events and artist residencies.
For up-to-date opening hours and exhibition programme, please visit fendittongallery.com