Exhibitions
78th art exhibition – 10th to 21st October 2024
Venue: The Ocean, Exmouth Seafront
Exmouth’s highly respected Art Group held their 78th annual exhibition in the beautiful Ocean Suite at Ocean on Exmouth Seafront, displaying a wide range of artwork in all mediums and styles, and supported the RNLI Exmouth in its 200th year. It ran from Thursday 10 October to Monday 21 October.
The yearly event once again rejoiced in the vast array of skill and talent from the group’s members and included a return by Exmouth Ceramic Group as well as the brilliant Exmouth Community College Art students. A wide variety of artwork was available to view and buy. Digital art was also on display in the bar, showcasing the breadth of talent from our members.
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Doug Gilding, the Art Group’s President, says “We hope you were able to come along to the Exmouth Art Group exhibition. We are absolutely delighted that over 2,500 people visited the exhibition over the 12 days and experienced the wide range of skills, talent and techniques of our member artists. The exhibition committee and the volunteer stewards have outdone themselves and ensured we put on a great show for the whole of Exmouth and beyond to enjoy.”
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 chose the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) who are celebrating their 200th anniversary in 2024. Rebecca was overwhelmed by the amount raised by the raffle, saying "I was extremely proud that the raffle for my painting at the Exmouth Art Group exhibition has raised a whopping £2,000 for the RNLI Exmouth. It was also great to meet Geoff, a real lifeboat crew member of both the inshore and the all-weather boats, and Ken who runs tours at the lifeboat station in Exmouth. It was fascinating to hear how it all works."
Above, Rebecca de Mendonca's donated painting, 'Evening in the Cove', was the top raffle prize this year.
The preview Evening featured guest judge and local artist Hannah Twine, who found it extremely difficult to choose from the vast array of artwork at the exhibition. Her winners were:
Norah Pearse Award
First Place - Josephine Yeaman - 'Sunset Over Dartmoor'
Second Place - Andrew Baker - 'Sidmouth'
Third Place - Janet Moger - 'Blue Harness'
Highly Commended:
Emily Biggar: 'Ellie'
Rebecca de Mendonca: 'Twilight Grazing'
Stephen Dombkowski: 'Safety in Numbers'
Dean Emmett: 'Caribbean Sea Turtle'
Hilary Ferns: 'Fruitilicious'
Doug Gilding: 'Beer Boats'
May Neilson: 'Together'
Liz Swift: 'Ye Olde Barn'
Sue Tyler: 'Two Friends'
Caroline Winyard: 'Sleepy Time'
President Doug Gilding selected the winners in the 3D Category for the Neilson Trophy:
First Place: Annette Pearson - 'Owl'
Second Place: Richard Stupples - 'Natural Edge Bowl
The public voted for their favourite piece during the exhibition, and the overall winner with the most votes was 'Still Water' by Michael Normal. Michael receives the Channel Cup Trophy.
Winners' work below:
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Photos below from the 2024 Preview Evening:
Photography kindly provided by Paul Turner, Art Group Member
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 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/
Prizes and Awards
Through generous sponsorship, we are able to offer several awards. A substantial legacy left by Norah Pearse funds exhibition prizes at our major autumn event, and Clifford & Sandy Lenn and Nick & Carol Williams donated the Channel View Cup for the artist whose exhibit is voted visitors’ favourite. In recent years, two trophies have been inaugurated by retiring Presidents May Neilson and Colin Marshall. These are the Neilson Trophy for the 3D Best in Show in our major exhibition, and the Mayor’s Best in Show Trophy at the Exmouth Festival Exhibition. The President’s Award was inaugurated in 2019 by former president Gillie Newcombe – this is to recognise the artist whose exhibit is voted members’ favourite.
For competitions, a Salver donated by Paul Butler goes to the winner of Architecture and Landscape; a Cup bequeathed by the family of Neil Ashley for Monochrome Drawing; and the Roger Matthews Cup presented to the winner at our Christmas party.
We feel our members are encouraged and inspired in such a variety of ways to get creative – and you will find examples of some of their work on this website and have an opportunity to exhibit annually in October at the stunning Ocean venue on Exmouth seafront.