History of the Gallery Mid 1980’s – 2009

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Organ & Eugene Fisk came to Wales in the mid 1980s. Together they created and ran the Kilvert Gallery of contemporary art at Ashbrook House – the former vicarage of the Victorian diarist Francis Kilvert – in Clyro, near Hay-on-Wye. The gallery became a work of art in itself as well as a residence and exhibition space.

The gallery as ‘home’ was presented as a template to inspire visitors to create what Lizzie defined as ‘The Art of Living’ in their own houses, for whilst she had ceased to paint pictures, she continued to design decorative and functional items and consult on interiors.

With the ground-floor and cellar rooms as galleries at weekends, and by arrangement on weekdays, the public spaces were full of carefully selected furniture, paintings and objects, most of them for sale. Lizzie also held solo shows for featured artists and several mixed exhibitions a year, often with a curated theme which not only created a sense of unity but provided her artists with a spring-board from which to investigate other areas of their practice.

“In the Kilvert gallery Lizzie showed highly-regarded artists such as David Inshaw, Alfred Stockham and Roger Cecil. She brought fresh attention to the illustrator Lettice Sandford, the sculptor Edward Folkard and the painter Rachel Windham. She gave first exhibitions to Sarah Thwaites and Clive Hicks-Jenkins among others, and while teaching at Hereford and St Martin’s schools of art she promoted the work of her students. Her discriminating eye took in the whimsical, the magical realist and the applied, while her adoration of animals was apparent in her championing of Robert Macdonald’s farmyard watercolours and Charles Shearer’s dark landscapes with ravens, gulls and horses.” Peter Wakelin July 2009

Exhibiting Artists Archive 1986 – 2008

Alison Alcock | Tilla Anderson | Peter Arkle | Peter Arscott | Catherine Belohoubex | Pat Birks | Peter Bishop | Caroyn Blake | Julian Blunt | Christy Bowdler | Hilary Bravo | Anne Butler | Claire Burgoyne | James Campbell | Gloria Cardona | Howard Carter | Joan Carter | Roger Cecil | Jonathan Christie | Betty Coates | Anita Cox | Richard Cox | Christine Dodd | Adam Dworski | Shan Egerton | Mary Fedden | Eugene Fisk | Maryclare Foá | Ted Folkard | Ros Fry | Graeme Galvin | Marcia Gibson Watt | Veronica Gosling | Ardyn Griffin | Sally Hargreaves | Roger Harvey | Linda Harvey | Richard Hawkins | Caius Hawkins | Neffy Hensher | Maura Heslop | Clive Hicks Jenkins | David Humphries | Ken Hutchinson | David Inshaw | Bert Isaac | Penny Jones | Francesca Kay | Nicholas Keeble | Victoria Keeble | Clare Keil Jones | Philip Kelly | Alex Leadbetter | Michael Lewisohn | Mary Lloyd Jones | Andrew Logan | Charles MacCarthy | Stewart Macindoe | Ewa Mann | Pat Marriott | Roger Marsh | Kim Marsland | Sally Matthews | William Mills | Susan Milne | Kate Milsom | Susan Morland | Derek Nice | Elizabeth Organ | Bryan Organ | Paul Osborne | Sheila Paine | Gustavius Payne | Serena Partridge | Anna Pawelka | Betty Pennell | Ronald Pennell | Jonathon Peppe | Rodney Peppe | Tatyana Peppe | Jo Perry | Michael Phillipson | Shelagh Popham | Ute Rakob | Dan Reid | Paul Richards | Maureen Richardson | Liz Ridgway | Paddy Robinson | Mary Rodd | Paul Rudall | Lettice Sandford | Edward Sargeant | John Sargeant | Charles Shearer | Antonia Spowers | Patrick Stephens | Alfred Stockham RWA | Nancy Sutcliffe | Graham Sutherland | Robert Tagg | Sarah Thwaites | Thomasin Toohie | Elsa Wainwright | Caroline Waite | Peter Wakelin | Frank Watkins | Alex Williams | Rachel Windham | Liz Winter | Joanna Wright | Alan Young |

If you exhibited at the Kilvert Gallery but have not been credited in the above list please email me