North Devon Art Students' Exhibition

OK, so I concede that submitting a post about art for that all-important first post in a music blog is wayward thinking, but music is aural art so I’m content that the more visual aspects of the field can occasionally fall under my contextual remit too. Plus, I need to get this off my chest...

I’m not a lover of art. By no means am I a hater. But I’m not a lover - writing’s more my passion. But a visit to an exhibition of work by art students from North Devon College at The North Devon School of Art soon put paid to my ambivalent attitude towards the artistic discipline. Such is the display of talent and inventiveness that I spent the next day in a kind of staggered stupor, adamant that I must swap the written word for the paintbrush, the literary pen for the drawing pencil.

The highlight of my personal foray into the art world is a risible portrait of a slightly ill-looking Tim Henman that was enthusiastically composed in my school days. Except I drew the tennis racket at such an angle that only the frame was visible – it looked more like a light sabre and it was clear that the outlook for my artistic future was pretty bleak.

But in showcasing such patent and utterly inspiring talent, from the jaw-droppingly beautiful to the mind-bendingly wayward, the students’ artistic banquet has resurrected those heady Henman days, and evidences a collection of North Devon artists whose abundant skill and creativity are a credit to the region and for whom I have nothing but the utmost respect.

It’s a haggard old cliché that a picture says a thousand words. This is just pinchbeck romanticism. It’s more than that. Art is about transcending the normal rules of communication and transporting its viewer into a different world that offers the chance to look at things from a unique perspective. It’s a world without limits and where creativity abounds. Walking round the maze of galleries at the exhibition is testament to this.

So, with gasoline poured on the flames of inspiration and a roving eye cast firmly on a discipline that knows no respect for rules or boundaries, it’s once again time to flex my feeble artistic muscle and fully embrace the world of the wonky-lined tennis player that wants to be in Star Wars.

Entitled Sum of the pARTS, the exhibition is showcasing the culmination of two years worth of work by North Devon College’s foundation degree and diploma students in Illustration, Fine Art, and Ceramics. The North Devon School of Art can be found on Pottington Industrial Estate. The exhibition is open Monday – Friday, 9am – 4pm until 3^rd July, entry is free.