Arts and Culture - Arts and Crafts

experienceDevon’s tailor made holiday itineraries enable you to enjoy the authentic art, food, music, heritage, local culture and arts courses of the English south west. Discover Henry Williamson, Charles Kingsley, Doone Country, Rudyard Kipling, Damien Hirst and see for yourself what inspired J M W Turner and James Ravilious.

North Devon is fast becoming a Mecca for the visual artist and crafts person, who cannot fail to be inspired by it’s natural, rugged sublime beauty. Although the area had been visited by J.M.W.Turner and Thomas Girtin at the turn of the 19th century it was bypassed by artists for much of the 20th century in favour of St Ives and Newlyn in West Cornwall. But massive changes have happened here in the last 30 years; the rural economy based on farming and so eloquently documented by James Ravilious for the Beaford Archive, has been much replaced by small creative enterprises.

The fishing village of Appledore has developed it’s own arts community with a plethora of artist’s studios and galleries, including that of the leading ceramicist Sandy Brown; and two international arts festivals every year, one showcasing the visual arts and the other literature. Damien Hirst has his factory on the edge of Ilfracombe, where his artwork is made, and a café in town is adorned with his original art.

Arts and crafts can be enjoyed at the many galleries and venues in North Devon that show quality exhibitions year round. experienceDevon can also arrange for you to visit artists at their studio, for a special insight into how they make their artwork or to make a purchase.

The dramatic and beautiful coast and interior of North Devon provide settings for literature and more recently for TV. Charles Kingsley was so inspired that he wrote his classic book ‘Westward Ho!’,a seafaring tale set in Elizabethan England. Also Rudyard Kipling penned ‘Stalky and Co’ based on his four years studying at the United Services College in Westward Ho!. Henry Williamson lived at Georgham, near Croyde, and wrote most of his nature books here including Tarka the Otter based on the sister rivers, Torridge and Taw. Tarka now has many places named after him, for example the immensely popular Tarka Trail. R D Blackmore’s Lorna Doone is set in the 11th Century and was inspired by the author’s childhood and youth spent in wild and beautiful Exmoor. More recently, Sense and Sensibility was made for the BBC and was filmed at on the rugged coast at Welcome Mouth, Stoke, near Hartland.