Sophie Bartlett: Artist Residency

Sophie Bartlett – winner of the Landscape Open 2025 – will be having a residency at Salisbury Museum in preparation for an exhibition of her work this autumn.

Sophie Bartlett (b.1962) grew up on a farm in Hampshire. She undertook an Art Foundation at West Surrey College of Art & Design (1980) followed by a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Hull College of Art (1983). On leaving art college, she worked across building and conservation sites, as well as in private dwellings and hotels, supporting her practice as an artist and painter–decorator.

She recently graduated with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art. Recent awards include the RCA Vice-Chancellor’s Achievement Scholarship (2024). Bartlett was selected for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (2024) and Wells Contemporary (2025) and awarded the inaugural Salisbury Landscape Open (2025). Sophie will be undertaking a short residency at the museum before presenting a solo show with Salisbury Museum in the autumn of 2026 (26 September 2026 to 10 January 2027).

Bartlett’s work is rooted in acts of sustained looking, working across the traditional genres of landscape, figure and still life. Her practice begins with extensive observational drawing as a means of inhabiting her subject before moving into paint.

Her paintings develop through an ongoing negotiation between perception and memory, seeking what she terms a ‘pictorial rightness’.

The studio will be open to visitors from 1.30pm to 5pm from Tuesday 26 May to Saturday 30 May.