"One of the best regional art galleries in Britain!"
- Cotswold Life magazine, 2023
John Davies Gallery is the Cotswolds' flagship modern and contemporary gallery housed in a former dairy, on the edge of Moreton-in-Marsh. We are proud of our reputation, the quality of art we sell and artists we represent, and of the warm welcome we extend to every visitor we meet.
John Davies started painting at school, first working in watercolours, and later experimenting with collage and oil paints. Throughout the 1970's, while developing his individual watercolour technique and own painting practice, Davies decided he needed something to help subsidise his earnings as an artist, since his painting had become so time-consuming. He built relationships with several reputable British art dealers, visited their salesrooms, and acquired 19th and 20th century paintings to sell to other dealers. At the same time, he cultivated his own network of private clients.
In 1977 he opened a small gallery in the fashionable Cotswolds town of Stow-on-the-Wold, where he staged hundreds of exhibitions over the next decades, showing both period and contemporary work. In pursuit of more space for his expanding business, he knocked through to connecting properties on three separate occasions. The gallery thrived.
In 2007, thirty years after establishing the Stow gallery, Davies moved the business to an exhibition space within a converted 1920's dairy plant in Moreton-in-Marsh, a few miles up the road from Stow-on-the-Wold. Here in this remarkable 3,000 square foot space, Davies and the gallery team have staged hundreds more exhibitions over the past 28 years, including solo contemporary shows, group exhibitions and collections focused on different exhibition themes, periods and artists.
The gallery handles a wide variety of artworks by contemporary and non-contemporary artists, with styles ranging from traditional, representational, mid-century and post-impressionist art to more progressive styles, including semi-abstract and abstract paintings.
In 2025, the John Davies Gallery has (at a time when many of Britain's once-thriving independent galleries are struggling to survive) recommitted to presenting high-quality investment and decorative artworks and exhibitions into the future. With such a wealth of knowledge, experience and passion to experience, a visit to the gallery is a must for anyone looking to purchase a work of art for the first time or the fiftieth!
You will be warmly welcomed whether you are in search of the perfect piece, seeking advice or an 'art chat', or simply happy to browse and have a mooch through the beautiful and ever-changing artworks on our gallery walls.
We look forward to welcoming you soon!