Exmouth Art Group’s 78th Annual Exhibition coming in October 2024

Exmouth’s highly respected Art Group is busy preparing for their 78th annual exhibition, being held in the beautiful Ocean Suite at Ocean on Exmouth Seafront, displaying a wide range of artwork in all mediums and styles, and a raffle supporting the RNLI in its 200th year.  It will run from Thursday 10 October to Monday 21 October, 10am to 5pm daily.

The yearly event rejoices in the vast array of skill and talent from the group’s members and have invited Exmouth Ceramic Group to return as well as the brilliant Exmouth Community College Art students, ensuring a wide variety of artwork is available to view and buy.  Digital art will also be on display in the bar with the option to purchase prints.

Doug Gilding, the Art Group’s President, says “We hope you can make it to the Exmouth Art Group exhibition.  We will use the same formula as last year’s highly successful exhibition; an improved layout that facilitates up over 400 pieces of artwork to be exhibited as well as 3D work and a large display from Exmouth Ceramic Group.  The Ocean venue is an excellent location to both peruse the art on display as well as enjoy the view from the top floor with a coffee. In addition to the art on display there will be cards and unframed folio work to purchase as well as digital art. There is a small £2 entry fee to help towards the increased cost of venue hire.”

Continuing with the tradition that the winner of the public vote in the previous year’s exhibition selects the beneficiary charity for the following year, local and internationally acclaimed artist, Rebecca de Mendonça has chosen the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) who are celebrating their 200th anniversary in 2024.  Rebecca captured a beautiful scene in her 2023 winning pastel painting of Camargue horses in ‘A Ride on the Beach’ and works primarily in pastels, creating scenes from life and back in the studio, including views across Dartmoor and of her favourite animals, horses.  She is donating an original artwork entitled ‘Evening in the Cove’.

Rebecca explains: “I felt incredibly honoured to win the Visitor’s Choice Award at the Exmouth Art Group 2023 Exhibition. As well as winning a trophy, I also got the chance to choose the charity for the 2024 exhibition.  I cannot imagine a more deserving charity than the RNLI, an organisation here in the heart of Exmouth, that is funded entirely by donations and volunteers, who are complete heroes. All of us who enjoy the sea, whether for leisure or work, feel safer knowing that the RNLI are there.”  Rebecca has kindly donated an original piece of art as the top prize in the raffle, alongside other hampers, which will no doubt attract additional ticket purchases.  She is also looking forward to the exhibition this year, saying “the group is thriving, with professional and leisure artists as members, from the age of 12 upwards. Art can help us in so many ways, and the Exmouth Art Group are really proving that!”

Tim Baker, Exmouth RNLI voluntary Chair said, "We are very grateful to Rebecca and Exmouth Art Group for nominating RNLI as it’s charity for 2024, our bicentenary year. The range and quality of art work created by members is truly impressive and we encourage everyone to take the time to visit Ocean and enjoy the exhibition."

The guest judge for this year’s exhibition is Hannah Twine, a professional artist and tutor based in Devon. Her works are inspired by the natural world, taking in the dramatic landscapes of coast and countryside, demonstrating a strong focus on light, working from life and painting landscapes ‘en plein air’. Hannah is also an established animal and figurative artist. She happily flits between mediums, creating artworks in oil, pastel, watercolour and mixed media, and runs regular classes, workshops and demonstrations across Devon and Dorset, together with painting retreats in France. Hannah says “I have enjoyed visiting the Exmouth Art Group annual exhibition the last few years and I am always impressed with the diversity and quality of the art show.  I am passionate about supporting art in the community and feel it is an essential way of bringing people together, demonstrating self-expression whilst visually recording the world around us.

“It is an honour to be asked to judge this year’s event and I very much look forward to having an early chance to see the variety of art that the members will exhibit.  Being a multi-diverse artist myself I appreciate the breadth of art subjects to include portrait, figurative, wildlife, landscape and still life along with all mediums. A balance of drama and sensitivity, laced with harmony and connection are important elements that I will be looking for.  Above all else, art that provokes a sense of feeling and has something to say is key.”

The Art Group Committee invested in new technology for the exhibition last year which elevated the event to a professional level, providing an improved customer experience and reducing paper waste.

The 2nd floor bar will be open during 11am – 3pm each day of the event to enable visitors to linger for longer with tasty food and refreshing beverages.

The Art Group welcomes new members with the facility to enable people to sign up for membership on their website or in person at the exhibition.  The website also features a gallery where people can view examples of work by some of the members: https://www.exmouthartgroup.co.uk/

Doug is very proud of the work produced for the show, summing up that it “provides a fantastic opportunity to purchase original art, either from professional artists or from our talented Art Group members, at low prices; the Group takes less than half the commission of commercial galleries which is reflected in the sale prices. All monies received from the raffle will go to the RNLI this year.”  All visitors will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite piece and to enter the raffle prize draw.

The exhibition runs from Thursday 10 October to Sunday 21 October inclusive, 10am to 5pm, at Ocean (2nd floor, lift available).

For up-to-date information, please visit https://www.exmouthartgroup.co.uk/exhibitions