Exhibitions at Mottisfont

Mottisfont's last owner, Maud Russell, was a lover of art. We continue those passions today with changing exhibitions in a spacious art gallery.

Our gallery

Maud Russell made Mottisfont into a vibrant hub of artistic activity from the 1930s onwards. She invited many Modern British artists, critics and designers for long weekends of croquet and creative conversation. We continue these artistic traditions today, with changing exhibitions throughout the year and a permanent display of 20th-century artworks.

Artist and collector Derek Hill was a frequent visitor. He honoured his long friendship with the Russells by leaving a substantial collection of 20th-century art to us, on display throughout the house.

For anyone unable to access the upstairs gallery, where we hold our changing exhibitions, we have digital versions of exhibitions on iPads which are available on lower levels.

Current exhibitions

Thelwell cartoon of a pony jump

Thelwell: Laughter and Landscapes 

5 January - 22 April: an new exhibition of work by one of Britain's most popular cartoonists, featuring Thelwell's plump ponies, local landscapes, and social satire. Some of this work has never been shown publically before, including a selection of early wartime sketches.

A woman with a camera leans in to a rose bush at Mottisfont to take a photograph - a portrait by The Caravan Gallery

The Caravan Gallery exhibition at Mottisfont 

9 March - July: an outdoor exhibition of 32 quirky, colourful portraits taken in Mottisfont’s famous rose gardens in the summers of 2017 and 2018. The Caravan Gallery is a collaboration between artists and photographers Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale, who tour their 1969 Bluebird caravan, working with communities to celebrate the reality and surreality of everyday life.

Coming next

Paphiopedalum fairreanum in watercolour by Pandora Sellars

Plants Portrayed exhibition at Mottisfont 

Saturday 4 May – Sunday 7 July: a selection of 34 contemporary botanical illustrations from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Artworks by Suna Imre and Eileen White.

For the Time Being exhibition at Mottisfont 

Saturday 4 May – Sunday 7 July: For the Time Being showcases ceramic compositions, prints and artist books from a one-year residency by Hampshire-based artists Suna Imre and Eileen White.