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The 24th Delamore Arts and Sculpture Exhibition gets underway at Delamore House in Cornwood on Thursday 1 May - with some brand new additions.
For the first time, a programme of workshops and demonstrations will run alongside the main exhibition. Allowing people to learn from some of the 150-plus artists taking part in the event which runs every day of May.
Devon-based Artizan Collective CIC, who are this year running the Stables Courtyard art hub at Delamore, work with hundreds of artists annually. Providing a platform for them to showcase and sell their work. Over 20 Artizan painters, sculptors, ceramicists, printmakers and jewellery makers are offering a mix of paid for ad free learning events.
Among those offering workshops is South Devon experimental ceramicist Imogen Taylor-Noble - who has gone back to using wood-fired kilns for her pieces: “I had a crisis of conscience about using fossil fuels for non-essential items, so I stopped using gas as the fuel to fire my work,” she explained.
Imogen makes her own natural glazes using smashed-up reclaimed materials. She also uses minimally extracted materials and cam occasionally be spotted collecting clumps of displaced earth from molehills: “This is clay country, and the earth here has this fabulous red colour. I’ll mix my wild clay with bought clay, most of which I source locally.”
On 9 May, from 10.45am-1.45pm, Imogen is holding a workshop called Tea Bowls of Dartmoor. “It’s based on the form of a traditional Japanese tea bowl, but with materials from our region. We’ll be using twigs to hold the hollowed-out bowls together, a process which leaves lovely decorative markings.”
Also sharing their skills are Plymouth-based sculptor Noah Taylor and jewellery-maker Rachel Darbourne. They will be holding bronze casting, cuttlefish casting and sandcasting workshops in the final week of the exhibition.
Noah, who works from his waterside studio at Flameworks in Plymouth, is well-known for the large civic commissions he’s done in Plymouth, Cornwall and elsewhere.
“Cuttlefish casting is one of the earliest casting methods used,” explained Noah. “It’s thought the first people to do it were fishermen, thousands of years ago. Before that, they’d have an ivory or bone hook which they’d cast over and over again. When they discovered they could make multiple hooks using cuttlefish, it was a game changer.” Most cuttlefish used for casting is bought commercially, but Rachel and Noah get some of theirs from the beach: “It’s how the fishermen would have discovered the process all those years ago,” said Noah.
Delamore Arts is the largest exhibition of sculptures and art in the region. This year, around 650 pieces are being exhibited. The event is best known for its big outdoor sculptures in the gardens overlooking the Dartmoor countryside.
To book any of the workshops, visit the events page on the Artizan website and click onto the Delamore Arts tab.