When it comes to our homes, creating a visually stimulating environment isn’t simply a nice to have, it’s a necessity. Sensitively chosen art paired with inspired interiors creates a 360-degree experience, which is why we’re collaborating with luxury Cotswolds-based interior designers Louise Jackson Interiors.

What are we doing when we buy art? What need are we satisfying? What behaviours are we displaying? We explore the role art fills in both our homes and mental spaces.

A piece of art gifted with spontaneous generosity would be the catalyst for an art collection and eventually lead to the creation of ArtÓ. We explore the work of the late abstract painter Julian Fisher and its resonance over time with compelling insights from his family.

We presented the model’s perspective in our first blog focusing on life modelling and are delighted to get the artist’s angle from figurative painter Hamish Blakely. For him, the experiences of sitter and artist for a nude painting meet in a ‘very enticing blend’ and he agrees it’s not simply a case of the model being brave in bearing all.

ArtÓ was delighted to welcome McCormac Vintners on Friday 12 May for the UK launch of Henri David-Heucq champagne at an evening celebrating aesthetic value and sensory appreciation alongside the personal approach.

With this year’s Gifford’s Circus named Les Enfants du Paradis, uninitiated audience members could be forgiven for assuming the show reaches for aesthetics over athleticism. It’s immediately apparent however that strength and skill are at the heart of every performance, adding a sensuality of their own making thanks to elegant execution of significant expertise.

An encounter with the Renaissance masterpiece, and its replicas and cultural ripples, is an exercise in humility and openness as Gallery Ambassador Emma Bovill discovers on a visit to Florence.

If sitting for a portrait painting workshop was an intimate experience, modelling for a life drawing class would prove to be an intense one, not due to the reality of bearing all but for the unforeseen physicality of it. ArtÓ Gallery Ambassador Emma Bovill explores the process with Discovery Art Class.

When the work of 500 artists collides in one place under the banner of ‘fresh’ you know you’re not about to walk through fifty shades of sepia. Founded in 2017, the Fresh Art Fair Cheltenham 2023 more than lived up to its name presenting a varied and lively, almost juicy, array of artworks across 50 stands alongside live demonstrations and talks, proving once again that provincial is by no means parochial.

It’s in our nature to support not only fellow independent businesses but any venture that gives artists opportunities to not just strive but to thrive. We were delighted to be invited to the awards ceremony for the ‘New Life’ art competition hosted by Park Gallery, Cheltenham, at The Queens Hotel on 20 April, to see this philosophy in action.

A visit to the sensory restaurant Dans Le Noir in London prompts ArtÓ Gallery Ambassador Emma Bovill to consider the way we interact with art, exploring conventions around the act of physical touch, our instinctive and learned behavioural responses, and our attitudes to sculptures versus paintings as we explore the art of the tactile.

Being an artist’s model isn’t a casual encounter, it’s deeply personal for all involved. I knew my fourth and last session sitting for Lindy Allfrey's weekly half-day portrait workshop was going to be laced with emotion and that it would be my job to try and contain it, at least while I was in the act of posing. But the peculiar thing about being still, especially while others move purposefully around you, is that the mind becomes acutely alert and inquisitive.

If my first experience as an artist’s model was a pure distillation of joy, the subsequent two sessions sitting for Lindy Allfrey’s weekly portrait workshop were of a deeper hue. Fitting really, when that’s exactly what the artists were doing, adding complexity and depth to pieces they had already started, developing their vision and committed to their craft.

One of pleasures of working in an art gallery in a relatively small but creative community is the bonds you quickly form with like-minded people. Lindy Allfrey is an award-winning artist and champion of the arts in Stow-on-the-Wold. I felt no trepidation in approaching her as a potential subject for her portrait workshops and only huge privilege to be accepted.

As an art gallery we find ourselves drawn to a range of interests that provoke genuine and fervent reaction. An exploration of whisky makes sense to us because there is a similarity of pace when it comes to appreciating art, there is so much to be had from savouring.

An exploration of versions is part of ArtÓ’s genetic makeup. As we ponder the questions of exclusivity versus greater reach, uniqueness and repetition, we count ourselves lucky to have connected with experts in this field, the Centre For Print Research at the University of the West of England in Bristol.

A provocative photoshoot at ArtÓ showcasing Bowen Dryden wedding dresses is challenging traditional perceptions of the bride. Brides Beyond Boundaries brings together a partnership of creative talents to set bold yet intricately made haute couture gowns against a backdrop of striking contemporary art in a series of scenarios that rip up the rulebook of how we expect brides to behave.‍

When one of our treasured artworks goes missing in action on the way to its new home we don't just sit down and take it.

What was it that made a Star Wars fan, proudly sporting a NERD lanyard, visit ArtÓ on the very same day as our limited-edition series of nine reimagined Star Wars posters arrived back from the framers into the gallery?

ArtÓ Gallery Ambassador Emma Bovill explores items in our collection that evoke memories of her experience of the Day of the Dead in South America.

We've teamed up with Formula One chief mechanic turned carbon fibre sculptor Alastair Gibson to auction some incredible sculptures in aid of Zip Zap Circus which inspires and empowers young people in South Africa through performing arts.

What would the former workers of The Brewery Yard have thought of a contemporay art gallery on the site? We like to think that a passion for their craft would have been a point of shared synergy.

ArtÓ Gallery Ambassador Emma Bovill gets a feel for carbon fibre on an immersive day in the studio with Alastair Gibson and the Carbon Art 45 team.

We catch up with Cheltenham-based illustrator and muralist Martyna Sabadasz to hear about her latest projects and find out what inspires her creativity.

ArtÓ Gallery Ambassador Emma Bovill finds herself taken back to encounters with piranhas in the Amazon basin when coming face to face with Alastair Gibson’s latest collection of carbon fibre sculptures.

We discuss some of the brands and artists we work with that ensure we stay true to our vision of accessibility, community and fairness.

We visit pioneering carbon fibre artist Alastair Gibson at his studio to see his creative process in action and see more than art in flow.