Dobunni Exhibition
The 2026 Dobunni Exhibition
Enjoy 6 days of art and hung poetry at The Yard Gallery in Stroud Town.
The show features the work of 6 artists and 11 poets to celebrate the power of art and words. The poems form part of Flowers for Memory, a new poetry anthology being launched at the festival, featuring writers who have attended Adam Horovitz’s poetry courses.
See the artists’ work and their bios below.
The sales commission on artworks sold will go towards the next Dobunni Poetry Festival.
Dobunni Tribal 26 - Designed by Jason Conway for the festival
How to Order Flowers for Memory
Use the PayPal form to place your order. Your purchase will be sent via InPost to an InPost Locker or to your address, as preferred. Please provide a mobile number so that InPost can notify you about your delivery.
Please get in touch if you’re outside the UK.
Profits from anthology sales go to the festival.
The art and artists bios
J. Joel Blackwater
The Adder £3000
Oil on canvas - 32×40 inches
Winter Green Man £1500
Oil on canvas - 30×30 inches
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J. Joel Blackwater is a professional painter working at this time primarily with oil on canvas. He comes from a witchcraft heritage and most of his work hinges around landscape based pagan symbology and archetypes.
He has exhibited in many galleries over the years in many different countries and his work is well known on the pagan scene.
He currently lives in Gloucestershire on a narrow boat.
Facebook: J Joel Blackwater
Instagram: j.joelblackwater
Emily Joy
In Unfamiliar Lands (not for sale)
Toned cyanotype - 40×60 cm
Made in collaboration with Alison Cockcroft
Ritual Vessel (Cow) £430
Black clay - 30×20x30 cm approx
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Emily Joy is a socially engaged artist making sculpture, installation and performative work, and facilitator of public creative projects. Her practice explores environmental and ecological friction points, where personal and ecological loss is explored through land-based connections spanning countries and cultures. Emily’s practice foregrounds collaboration and the co-creation of non-hierarchical participatory works, inviting the sharing of personal narratives to create new future possibilities focusing on common ecological responsibilities and the development of empathy. Her Welsh/German heritage has been a consistent undercurrent in work exploring identity, memory and land. Recent black clay pieces explore ritual and performative objects relating to land mythologies and deities.
Emily has exhibited throughout the UK and Europe, most recently at the Tulca Biennial in 2025. Cross-disciplinary collaborations with researchers include ongoing work with anthropologist Dr Elizabeth Hodson, author and educator Dougald Hine (Dark Mountain Project), and glaciologist Juerg Alean. Recent projects include ‘Restorying a Living Landscape’ (One Resilient Earth/Living Story Landscapes - British Council funded), ‘Land, Earth Empathy’ (ongoing project - Arts Council funded).
Jan Tarry
Collis Caelumque £295
Oil on panel - 24×24 inches
Breaking Blue £195
Oil on archival paper - 34.5×37.5cm Framed
Prelude £45
Oil on panel - 4×4 inches
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I have found that by gravitating towards the inspirations and parallels to explore between poetry and painting, my place as an artist is settling with an appreciation of authentic process to recognize, consider and develop.
I feel increasingly present to the push and pull of marks or pigment on any given surface that resonates with the nuances of rhythms, weights of words and their supportive or expansive pauses. Whether inspired by an extract of a poem, or feeling the emerging poetic effects as shapes, colour and textures appear, layer or connect, I enjoy the fleeting moments of a profound richness of experience. There is for me a vulnerability and respectful intrigue as to how this is may be conveyed to a viewer accordingly, or differently.
I consider myself fortunate to have the benefit of a working environment in the world of literature and poetry as a background to draw from, inform and support my artistic hours, and I value meeting other artists as we navigate, respond to and cope with life’s ‘variable metres’.
Ellie Thomas
Hill Fort £500
Oil on panel - 30×100 cm
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The main themes of Ellie’s work are Landscapes and the Natural Environment, which she paints in an impressionistic and simplified style. It is her main intention to convey a different ‘vision’ of a (sometimes very familiar) view.
She is passionate about creating eye catching pieces that connect with the viewer on an emotional level. Most paintings relate to her experiences of walking in the Cotswolds although she sometimes paints places that are further afield. Her love of landscape is inspired by experiences of long walks and by the deep sense of connection experienced within the landscape. Within her work, she is always careful to use a limited palette of harmonious colours that will usually convey a sense of joy and calm. Shape, form and pattern are also very important, often looking to ‘condense’ the big view, or to draw the viewer’s attention to prominent (and sometimes unremarkable) features. Ellie mainly works in acrylics since they provide opportunities for fast working and experimentation. Usually painting in opaque blocks of flat colour, she will also make use of thin glazes and sometimes impasto texture.
Ellie’s love of painting was sparked by personal tragedy in 2016 at which time she started painting as a form of therapy. She has since exhibited at several group exhibitions, and in various Gallery Spaces around the Cotswolds. Ellie was a selected finalist for the Broadway Arts Festival Competition in 2023, 2024 and 2026. Currently, her work can also be found at Abbey Galleries, Hadfield Fine Art and The White Gallery.
Ellie is currently studying for an M A in Fine Art at the University of Gloucestershire.
Instagram @elliethomasartwork
Facebook @ellliethomasartwork
Candy James
Summer Meadow £85
Mixed media on canvas - 30×30 cm
Whimsical Meadow £85
Mixed media on canvas - 30×30 cm
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Candy James (BA Hons Fine Art) is a contemporary visual artist. Her semi-abstract art intertwines nature, psychology, and identity. Using an array of mediums that can include acrylics, oils, gold leaf and diamond dust she takes her inspiration from the natural world whether it be the Cotswold countryside or coastlines of Wales and Cornwall. Candy’s work is held in private collections both in the UK and internationally.
https://www.stroudartcoop.uk/artist-list/painting-%26-mixed-media
Jason Conway
Bright Side £496
Mixed media on canvas - 61x75 cm
One Simple Breath £495
Mixed media on canvas - 60x80 cm
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Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it. – Confucius
Jason is a professional daydreamer and multi-disciplinary creative – artist, poet, writer and visual designer. His art practice is informed by the natural world and the human relationship with it, often using reclaimed materials and non traditional media for his textural work. From mixed media to photographic art to graphic illustration, his work has been exhibited in the UK, New York and Paris. Jason is a design graduate of Wolverhampton University and has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.
Jason is director or the Gloucestershire Poetry Society and Editor of Steel Jackdaw - an art and literary magazine celebrating the work of international creatives, and positive environmental and social action. His work is published in numerous magazines and anthologies, and on BBC Upload. His Debut collection is the wash of hours. Jason is an Arts Council funded poet.
Dobunni Tribal 26
Graphic illustration design by Jason Conway for the Dobunni Poetry Festival.
Prints and framed prints in a range of sizes can be purchased from the festival merchandise store.
Profit from each sale goes towards the next festival.
Private View
Thursday 15th October, 2026.
We had a full house at the Dobunni Exhibition Private View and anthology launch, with wonderful readings from a selection of poets published in the anthology. Local MP Simon Opher popped in, and lots of copies of the anthology were sold - great news for the festival, as profits from these sales go towards our next festival.
