Devon Open Studios
6-21 September
During Devon Open Studios, artists across the county will be inviting people to see how they work. The event is an opportunity to meet the artists, hear about their inspiration and take a peek inside their studios.
Artists and makers will be demonstrating and showcasing their work in attics, sheds, galleries and other creative spaces. The art and craft on display will include jewellery, sculpture, printing, drawing, painting, ceramics, glass and handmade paper.
More than 350 artists are taking part including:
East Devon
Devon Artist Network has partnered with the Thelma Hulbert Gallery and The Beehive Community Centrein Honiton to showcase eight exciting up-and-coming artists.
Three artists will be displaying their work at The Beehive. Louise Hutton is an abstract artist whose paintings are influenced by the motifs in her dreams and her love of being with trees and by the sea. Gary Wintersworks with a variety of media, including oil pastel on found paper images taken from 1950s/60s movie review books of pin-ups and stars of the day. Norma Walton’s mixed media and collage is inspired by the Devon landscape and the colours changing with the seasons.
Kat Blockley is one of the artists whose work will be at Thelma Hulbert Gallery. She has been inspired by an archive of newspaper cuttings which she has been collecting since the 1990s. Kat stitches words and images selected from the cuttings, inspired by stitched samples of the past.
Other work at Thelma Hulbert Gallery will be Phillippa Mills’ delicate illustrations and Sarah Burt’s prints inspired by the landscape and architecture of Devon. Through her mixed media work, Gill Melling invites people to think about how we exist as part of a living system. Francesca Elliot uses a 1940s analogue camera to capture her natural surroundings.
Exeter
Members and Friends of Double Elephant Print Workshop will be showing their work at Positive Light Projects on Sidwell Street. Visitors will be able to see all forms of printmaking, and there will be demonstrations and workshops to take part in.
Martin Crack is one of the artists exhibiting with Double Elephant. Martin loves nature and captures its essence through his work. He is inspired by the light and changing nature of the sea.
With her nature-inspired quilts, Beth Osment aims to create a sense of calm. She uses natural colour palettes and simple contemporary designs to create a feeling of tranquillity in the home. Her daily walks provide inspiration – elements of plants and trees, water, the changing seasons and natural sounds. She loves the idea of people bringing into their home something that has been handmade locally with care, using sustainable materials, and which can be loved, kept and passed on.
Mid Devon
In Crediton, 14 artists and makers from across Devon are showing their work at The White Room Creative Space. Visitors will be able to see a range of artforms including knotted tapestries exploring the history and folklore of witch trials. There will be paintings inspired by nature, by landscape and by the importance of sharing a cuppa. Other artforms at the venue include basketmaking, printmaking, ceramics, papier mâché and woodworking.
Catherine West is inspired by nature, and uses natural materials for dyeing and ecoprinting, with a focus on creativity and wellbeing.
Alison Whateley also takes inspiration from the natural world, with a particular focus on the coast and moorland. She uses textiles, stitch and other media to blend textures and colours, capturing a sense of place and atmosphere.
North Devon
In North Devon, Sue Side and Nick Withers are exhibiting together. Sue’s art explores the stories hidden in the natural world. She enjoys watching the slow interaction between trees and the land where they have grown, and the drama of the starling murmuration against the winter skies. Thousands of individually ink-drawn birds overlap one another to recreate the fluidity of the aerial display.
Sue also draws human portraits. She focuses on the subtle ways we look, speak and gesture. She loves the natural warmth and versatility of drawing with graphite. “The eye is not distracted by colour”, she says, “and the smallest drawn stroke can utterly change what you see. The fact that it can also be easily rubbed out is also a quiet reminder that this is a momentary record of a time already passed in a life of constant change.”
Nick Withers’ love of the natural world began as a young child growing up and walking in the Welsh countryside. His passion for wildlife photography has taken him to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Skomer in West Wales, and the East coast of England. Nick has photographed pine martens, red squirrels, white tailed eagles, ospreys and other wildlife. He also teaches wildlife photography and runs nature-based therapy workshops, helping people to decompress and reconnect with the natural world.
South Hams
Sophie Wake is a painter who has recently started working with ceramics. She uses earth pigments from Devon, which make her feel embedded in the local environment.
Her ceramics are decorated with wild animal spirits, horses, birds and mythic creatures. During Open Studios, visitors will be able to see original paintings in oil and gouache, prints, greetings cards and her built decorative ceramics.
Georgi Gilpin uses black and terracotta stoneware clays and nature-inspired glazes to make tableware. During Open Studios, visitors will be able to see her everyday tableware,
celebration tableware, cutlery and sculptural focal pieces.
Sue Gay paints with watercolours and acrylics which she transfers to the paper using a sheet of glass, giving her work a fluid character. She draws her inspiration from medieval art and history to create work with a contemporary style.
Sue originally trained as a zoologist, gaining a PhD in vertebrate palaeontology. She studied in rooms occupied by Charles Darwin, author of ‘The Origin of Species’. Now, her ‘Origins’ paintings depict stories from Genesis using Darwin’s words.
Other pictures illustrate Chaucer’s Canterbury Tale in which the cockerel uses his wits to escape a fox. Their mischief and vitality are drawn from close observation of animals and people at her farmyard studio where she is surrounded by chickens, ducks, sheep, pigs and horses.
Teignbridge
Kate Rattray has been creating some new work using materials gathered on Dartmoor. Her paper is made from loose dried grass, she makes ink from oak galls, and draws with charcoal from Yarner Wood.
Kate’s work is themed around the landscape and how it makes her feel as she’s walking. She draws inspiration from animals and Dartmoor’s myths and legends. She’s also a poet and combines art with her writing – some of her handmade paper has words from her poetry included in its fabric.
Kate is exhibiting her work as part of a group of eight Moorland Makers who will be demonstrating, exhibiting and selling their work in a beautiful Dartmoor barn at Ullacombe. Other artists’ work will include Karen Murrell’s brightly coloured paper earrings, enamel bowls and jewellery. John Rockey is a woodturner who adds colour to his handcrafted candle-holders, bowls and other wooden items. Textile artist Sue Lewis creates artwork from local and rare breed sheep fleeces.
At TAAG Arts Hub, Teignmouth, eight artists will be working and meeting visitors to share their working practices and approaches to art making including print, sculpture, stained glass, ceramic mosaics & multiple painting media. Amongst the group are Michelle Greenwood Brown, a ceramic mosaic artist whose work is inspired by the natural world around her. Michelle has developed her own special technique to create mosaics; she carefully hand carves the individual elements which are then glazed and fired. Angela Rimmer explores the mystery and beauty of the ocean through her paintings, which invite the viewer to imagine what might lie beneath the waves. She uses vibrant blue and green colours with dynamic brushstrokes for her ‘Waves’ collection of acrylic paintings on canvas. In other paintings, she incorporates coffee with ink and paint to create serene landscapes and seascapes.
Sharon Loddey is another artist and poet – she finds that poetry helps her to clarify the ideas for her visual art. Sharon explores themes of memory, connection, and the weight of personal history.
Sharon loves the therapeutic side of art, and shares that with others. From her studio at Seale Hayne, she runs workshops for young people, emphasising the importance of the process of creating art.
Sharon’s latest series of work, ‘All That We Carry’ employs an abstract approach, integrating collage, and using a limited palette inspired by the Italian artist Giorgio Morandi.
West Devon
Olivia Parsons’ ceramics are inspired by patterns in nature. She wants people to look at her sculptures but also to touch them, pick them up and move around with them. By making work that is meant to be touched and explored, she hopes to create moments of connection.
As well as the ceramics, Olivia has made a huge white rabbit using her grandmother’s vintage electric sewing machine. She wanted to create a sense of playfulness and encourage people to interact.
Torbay
Jenny Toft’s new work, ‘The Flesh That Binds Us’, uses abstract forms and symbolic elements to explore human connection and the subtle complexities of family dynamics. She reflects on how closeness, care, and identity are shaped across generations, navigating the delicate balance between tenderness and tension, capturing the unspoken sentiments that often resonate within families.
Jenny creates in layers, first using pastels, inspired by children’s drawings. She then paints over them again and again to cover the drawings, before scraping back though the layers.
The Projectionists is a group of artists showing their work in the Projection Room opposite the old cinema in Paignton. Their artforms include oil painting, textiles, illustrations, watercolours, photography, portraiture and mixed media. One of the artists, Allison McSparron-Edwards, gave up a career as a Chartered Accountant to become an artist. She loves painting people; her work includes a portrait of a local worker in his high-vis jacket.
Information about these and all the artists taking part is available in the Devon Open Studios Guide.
Devon Open Studios is the flagship event of Devon Artist Network. The event runs across the county from 6 to 21 September. Guides are available from community venues, libraries and tourist information offices.