Foals and Fables - Jessica Hills x Rose Osborn
This December, The Osborne Studio Gallery in Belgravia hosts Foals and Fables, a joint exhibition by British artists Jessica Hills and Rose Osborn. Opening on 3 December 2025, the show features twenty new works, exploring the interwoven connections of humans, animals, and storytelling, seen through two distinct but connected artistic voices.
Both artists share a deep connection to horses and the Lambourn landscape, though their expressions take different paths: Hills grounding herself in the living, breathing presence of the mare and foal; Osborn in the myth, memory, and imagination that animals inspire. The Osborne Studio Gallery has long been at the heart of London’s equestrian and sporting art scene, while also championing figurative, landscape, and bronze sculpture.
Foals and Fables brings together two artists who embody this tradition, uniting the lyrical vitality of the horse with the timeless resonance of fable. Hills, raised in Lambourn’s Valley of the Racehorse, paints mares and foals with an eye shaped by both her upbringing in the racing world and her recent experiences of motherhood. Her paintings explore the psyche of the horse, combining a deep understanding of equine anatomy with a mix of exquisite detail and impressionistic flair.
“I feel a deep connection to my heritage when I paint thoroughbreds.” says Hills. “Choosing mares and foals for this exhibition has allowed me to reflect on my experiences of being a mother at the same time as remembering myself as a child.”
Osborn, based in Lambourn, turns to the rich symbolism of animal fables, weaving folklore and imagination into striking, symbolic compositions. With bold palettes, texture, and influences from folk art and textiles, her work transforms colour and shape into a visual language that reflects universal truths about the human experience.
“Colour has become central to how I paint, I love how one transforms beside another,” says Osborn. “Reading Aesop’s Fables gave me a way to bring animals, people, and storytelling together.”
