Exhibition: 14-27 June, TAAG, Teignmouth
Book “Unearthing the Templer Way”
Granite, gorse, and boat graveyards have all inspired a group of artists and poets who have been exploring a historic transport route from Dartmoor to Teignmouth.
More than 20 creatives have been walking together over the last few months, delving into the heritage, landscape and geography from moor to sea. The Templer Way traces the route of the Haytor Granite Tramway and the Stover Canal, which were used to transport granite from Dartmoor.
The members of the Contemporary Markmakers and Teign Poets groups have been sketching, painting and writing to produce a book and an exhibition which share their creativity inspired by this historic landscape.
The artists and poets have come together in a special collaboration where a feature in the landscape might inspire a poem, a poem inspires a painting, and that painting inspires another poem.
Avenda Burnell Walsh is one of six people leading the project. She said:
“The collaboration has been brilliant; we started working off each other so quickly! As soon as an artist posted some work in progress, a poet would find words to go with it. It’s been beyond my expectations.”
Poet Ian Royce Chamberlain knows Dartmoor well. His imagination was captured by the Railway Crossing Keeper’s Cottage at Teigngrace. Ian said:
“It’s a scruffy old neglected bungalow; a characterful building that most people probably wouldn’t notice, but why was it that fancy? It needed writing about and nobody else was going to do it!”
One of Ann Chester King’s paintings (right) was inspired by the story of the barge workers who threw their tools into the Stover Canal when the railway arrived; they realised that their way of life and employment was coming to an end.
Bev Samler has been working with mixed media and collage. Rather than beautiful landscapes, she is drawn to details, and has focussed on thorns and barbed wire fences
Jane Ellis has used painting, mixed media and collage to create details and landscapes conveying an overwhelming feeling in response to the moor, the granite, and rocks.
As well as creating their own work, inspired by each others’, the whole group of artists and writers have made a huge piece together, each making their own marks and then linking the pieces together with colour and line.
The Unearthing the Templer Way exhibition runs from 14 to 27 June at TAAG (Teignmouth Arts action Group), 4/5 Northumberland Place, Teignmouth TQ14 8DD.
The book ‘Unearthing the Templer Way’ includes 126 colour illustrations by 15 artists, and 78 poems by 17 poets. It is available, to purchase (£15) during the exhibition from local booksellers and from http://unearthing.uk.
Gillian Taylor PR 
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