Poets and Painters

An exhibition celebrating a happy working partnership between visual artists and poets.

To complement the work on display, two separate poetry workshops will key in to the close relationship between art and poetry, and the exhibition also marks the launch of a book: Poets, Painters and Printmakers.

Sharing a common stimulus, 13 artists and poets have worked alongside one another over the last three years, every month or two making a field trip for creative inspiration.

“Our subject matter flows from expeditions to remote or atmospheric locations. Some work happens on the day, artists and writers thriving on the buzz of jointly focused creativity, each looking to grasp and hold the essence of place or situation. Others make copious notes or sketches for development later. The joy of being part of it is in sharing the collective heat from all those creative sparks.“

It's no surprise that Dartmoor has retained a fascination for all involved, as the project grew from a creative dialogue initiated by two artists who felt moved to respond to poems by two members of the Moor Poets organisation, and as the group has grown, many sociable hours have been spent at Haytor Quarry, Foggintor Quarry, Spitchwick and Hound Tor. But Dartmoor has by no means been the only source of inspiration, and the exhibition and book also include evidence of time spent at Sharpham, Mattiscombe and Slapton, as well as a significant section devoted to life drawing, painting and sculpture.

For all concerned, a crucial part of the process is “a relentless curiosity about how the creative mind works - how the same object or scenario can be interpreted in infinitely different ways through different media.” While poets seek out words and phrases in response to particular images, the visual artists find the words of the poets visually evocative, and so the conversation continues.

The fruits of this partnership were first showcased in the Raw Landscape exhibition at Harbour House in and then, to great acclaim, at the Ways With Words festival in Dartington in 2010. Other exhibitions and readings followed, and ‘Poets and Painters’ as an entity is now an established presence on the Southwest arts scene, thriving as a vigorous offshoot of the Moor Poets organisation.

www.moorpoets.org.uk

For more information visit http://www.harbourhouse.org.uk/gallery-PoetsandPainters12.html