Stroud-based artist Benedict Welch will present a solo exhibition titled 'Sites of Work' at the Chapels of Rest in Bisley Cemetery from July 4th to 13th, with a private view on July 3rd. The show features 12 large oil paintings (100 x 80 cm) that explore the industrial remnants of Stroud's landscape—canals, mills, capstans, and overlooked spaces—created using digitally stitched photographs as starting points for works that embrace visible revisions and shifts in scale.
The exhibition matters because it highlights how a local artist is engaging with the layered history and physical traces of industrial decline in a small English town, using a hybrid digital-painting process to capture views too complex for a single photograph. It also underscores the role of regional art spaces like the Chapels of Rest in providing a platform for emerging artists to connect community heritage with contemporary practice.