Artists & exhibitions

As well as an inspiring place to work, Distil Coworking Somerset is a gallery exhibiting work by local artists. We partner with individuals and collectives to promote local artwork, providing an exhibition space and supporting private viewings and open events.

Flooded with natural lights from two sides, with warm natural floorboards and neutral walls, our 21 metre main room and our 4 x 3 metre meeting room have a range of hanging spaces for art of different sizes. Art work is promoted to our extensive community of coworkers, as well as to the wider public via social media, newsletters and press. Contact us today if you’d like to exhibit at Distil Coworking Somerset.

Current exhibition: Alistair Oldham

Alistair Oldham is best known as a storyteller: a Senior Lecturer in documentary and factual multiplatform production at UWE Bristol whose short film The Bristol Bike Project has screened at over forty festivals and been translated into fourteen languages. His academic and creative affiliations include work alongside colleagues within UWE’s moving-image community.

Alongside this film practice, Oldham is an accomplished painter of abstract work - warm, vibrant pieces that favour feeling over declaration. True to his modest nature, he’s rarely shown them; this presentation at Distil Coworking Somerset is the first time his abstract paintings have been exhibited. In a space defined by cooler tones, his canvases act like a gentle hearth: colour that glows rather than shouts, softening edges and brightening the room.

Taken together, Oldham’s work - on screen and on canvas - reveals the same instinct: an attentive eye for human warmth and renewal, whether found in community projects or distilled into fields of colour.

Upcoming exhibition: Phoebe Brittain & Trisha Mason of Shepton Artists

A self-taught painter whose “stairway to heaven” studio sits at the top of her home, Trisha Mason creates upbeat landscapes and seascapes with generous colour and energy. After decades of life and work leaving little room for painting, she returned to it with joy; she now paints and creates with love and energy, portraying the happiness that she feels when out in the countryside or by the sea.

A farmer, art historian, and antiques valuer, Phoebe Brittain trained at the Florence Academy of Art and paints in oils with an eye trained on colour harmony and the formal elegance of composition. Raised in Shepton Mallet, she developed a strong connection to the landscape and heritage of Somerset and her subjects often reflect this deep affection, from the flowers of Kilver Court and to the animals on her family farm. Her paintings are quiet studies that prize balance, beauty, and the “art for art’s sake” ideals of the late 19th-century Aesthetic Movement. She is influenced by artists such as Gabriel Rossetti, as well as pioneering women like Vanessa Bell and Dora Carrington. The result is timeless, poised work that brings stillness to the everyday.

About Shepton Artists

Shepton Artists began as a friendly experiment: a handful of local artists submitting work to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The submissions didn’t make it - but the camaraderie did, and a supportive exhibiting group was born. Since then the collective has staged six successful shows and continues to grow, giving Somerset makers regular opportunities to exhibit together, including the new displays at Distil Coworking Somerset’s creative workspace. Follow Shepton Artists on Instagram and Facebook.