Dartmoor is the Artist – So shouldn’t we be giving Dartmoor more respect for its creativity ?
Saturday 24/05/25, 15:30 – 16:30, Ashburton Arts Centre
We are all familiar with the idea of landscape painting; for over 200 years Dartmoor’s wild landscapes have been portrayed by artists like J M Turner, William Widgery and many others that came after. But how much real credit can they take for copying something already there ?
Surely Dartmoor, with its atmospheric lighting, dramatic stone scenery and cast of hundreds of characters has been the original artist all along?
Through visual presentation and conversation find out how Dartmoor, and other places, have been leading the way for some of the most interesting human artists making art today – Lore & Land, Garry Fabian Miller, Matthew Shaw and Mark Jessett.
BOOK TICKETS HERE
Mark Jessett is a painter specialising in works on paper that engage with nature and the ceremonial, creating images of balance, flow and love for mark & surface. He is a founder member of the N-E-W artists co-operative and co-founder of the folk inspired Field System gallery in Ashburton.
Lore & Land – the Lore & Land collective, who are exhibiting at Field System, consists four artists and folklorists from the SW at the forefront of the new folk movement – Libby Bove, Gemma Dunnell, Abigail Tinnion and Asha Uberoi. Abigail is representing the group today – she describes herself as “interested in dirt, bones, ruin, spirits, dreams, rivers, creatures, transmutation, gods and forgotten things”.
Garry Fabian Miller inhabits The Crucible – his name for the area of Dartmoor that has been responsible for forming him and his work for many years. Recognised as one of the UK’s most progressive figures in fine art photography, his work is in collections around the world including the V&A.
Matthew Shaw is an artist, musician and author who has been driving the new neolithic turn in art. In touch with the spirits of place his polyvalent practice has been an inspiration for many, not least as he is the co-founder of Stone Club which celebrate all things mega and mini lithic.
