This February, creativity becomes a family affair at The Gallery Upstairs, Upton Country Park, as the Sale family unveil their first joint exhibition.
The Living Line, running from 5–11 February 2026, brings together the work of James Sale, Linda Sale and their son Joseph in an ambitious exploration of how artistic practice can move across generations. Poetry, image, text and object sit in dialogue, tracing a line that is both inherited and continually renewed.
The exhibition resists the conventions of a simple group show. Instead, it presents creativity as an ongoing conversation: poems answering images, books becoming sculptural objects, and individual voices intersecting. What unites the work is a shared ethic of craft, close attention and exchange – a belief that making art is as much about listening as it is about expression.
James Sale, the internationally recognised Bournemouth poet, contributes work marked by formal precision and philosophical rigour. His poetry treats language as a mode of thinking, where structure carries argument and emotion in equal measure.
Joseph Sale extends this tradition while subtly reworking it. His contribution pairs poetry and prose with hand bookbinding, allowing the written line to take physical form. His writing is fluid and lyrical, attentive to image and atmosphere, while his bindings foreground the book as an object shaped by material knowledge and care.
Completing the triad, Linda Sale’s mixed-media artworks provide a visual counterpoint to the written word. Working across oil, acrylic, pastel, spray paint and digital media, her pieces explore light, symmetry, nature and the human figure, often inflected with symbolic or spiritual resonance.
Reflecting on the exhibition, Linda Sale said:
“This marks the very first time that my husband James Sale, our son Joseph Sale, and I have brought our creative worlds together in a single-family exhibition. It’s a deeply meaningful moment for us – not only as artists, but as a family – sharing our individual voices and visions in one space. We hope that visitors will sense the ongoing conversation between poetry, image, and object that has shaped our lives, and experience the unique energy that comes from generations inspiring and enriching one another. We are excited to invite the community to join us in celebrating the living line that connects our work and our family.”
The Living Line
5–11 February 2026
The Gallery Upstairs, Upton Country Park, Poole BH17 7BJ
Open daily, 10.00–16.00
Free entry
