1.    Devon Art Works

5.    Woodlands 5,000,000^th visitor!

1.   Devon Art Works

Over 500 Devon artists will be exhibiting in Devon Art Works, the largest Open Studios event ever to be held in the county. Devon Art Works will run from 8 – 23 September with artists and artist groups opening their homes and studios to visitors and showing work that ranges from traditional painting and ceramics to installations and performance pieces.

Devon Arts Works is a flagship project of Devon Artist Network, an artists’ membership organisation and follows on from the highly successful Nine Days of Art events that have been staged regularly since 2000. The new annual event will see studios across the county being opened simultaneously for the first time.  Click here for more details.  The Dartmouth Tourist Information Centre has the guide available for free, it's worth popping in for a copy!

A highlight of the show is:  Young Devon artist, Ejan Dalal Hahn, is exhibiting for the first time with her parents Carl Hahn, inventive sculptor and furniture maker, and Peet Leather, innovative textile artist at their farmhouse in the beautiful South Devon countryside. Ejan has grown up in live/work environments - first in a redundant Bacon Factory in London and for the last ten years at Ham Farm in Devon - both places bursting with creative work, providing a fertile breeding ground in which her natural ability has flourished. Ejan paints in oils on canvas using traditional techniques to produce atmospheric night-time cityscapes and intriguing portraits. Click here for more details.

Dartmouth itself has some of the best galleries in Devon, click here to see them too?

2.   Food Festival news
 

James Brown reports: "We are now one month away from the 4th Dartmouth Food Festival. This year's festival
programme builds on the success of last year's festival and should be hugely enjoyable for everyone who attends.

The festival kicks off with the Opening Party on Wednesday the 10th October. Tickets are selling fast (remember we were sold out last year!) and are available from Browns Hotel for £25. Expect some of the best food and entertainment that Dartmouth has to offer. The party is based in the Old Market Square and will be for 300 people. Oysters, champagne and wine bars, live music, great food, auctions and entertainment. The music will be more 'chill out' this year and a cleverly designed new menu will mean smaller queues and more chatting to the chefs that have cooked for you. Remember the party pays for the Festival, so if you want a Festival come to the party!

The Dart Marina Children's Days look set to grow and grow. The first half of the day focuses on local  primary schools with the themes of "Touch, Taste, Listen and Learn".  Later in the afternoon the Festival  will host an open event for the town's children - The Big Tea Time Adventure - great food, competitions and lots of fun. This event is free for the children though we do expect children under the age of 12 to be accompanied by adults.

Saturday and Sunday will see the Old Market Square transformed. If you liked the continental market you will love this. Over 40 producers from in and around the area will be selling their produce. Amongst these will be the fabulous food shacks where you can sample everything from local oysters, fillet steak to sea bass. The Over 60's rest room has very kindly been made available to the festival. You will now be able match a wine, beer or cider to a local delicacy and sit down and enjoy. Look out for the Seven Stars Talking Tent where a huge range of topical talks will be held in a really cool Yurt.  Watch bread being baked in our very own clay oven, chat to chefs, watch a cookery demonstration, try a wine tasting all in the Old Market Square.

Restaurants and Pubs If they are not cooking at a shack then your favourite chef will probably be tuning their menus in their kitchen. Check out the festival menus that will be available around town.

Watch this space for the latest news www.DartmouthFoodFestival.co.uk If you would like to volunteer to help at the food festival (cook, wash-up, count, steer, make buy!) or would like to help build the clay oven then please contact  James at info@dartmouthfoodfestival.co.uk ."

3.      Regatta bloomers

"I wondered what that button marked 'tilt' was for?"

"No fishing, that can't mean us?"

4.      Raffle and all that jazz

A superb limited edition print by local artist Stewart Edmondson has been donated to Dartmouth Caring to raffle as a prize at their Jazz evening in September.  The painting was presented to the Chair of Dartmouth Caring, Dee Nutt, by gallery owners Paul & Brenda Reach this week. The print, signed by the artist, is called Big Gnarly Oak.  Normally retailing for £500 the print measures 106cm wide and 103cm deep.

In donating the painting Brenda said ‘Stewart was keen to assist in helping Dartmouth Caring in its fund-raising efforts. ’  Dee Nutt said ‘Dart Gallery has been quick to assist us in raising funds and providing an added touch to our Jazz Night. It’s an incredibly generous gesture from both Stewart and Paul and Brenda and we’re hopeful that the raffle will raise around £2500 in funds.

The painting can be viewed at Dart Gallery and tickets purchased, for £5, from the Gallery or from Dartmouth Caring. Other prizes in the raffle will include £100 for second prize and £50 for third prize. The raffle will be drawn on 29th September at the Jazz Evening at Al Fresco’s featuring Louise Parker.

5.    Woodlands 5,000,000^th visitor!

Dartmouth was bathed in hot sunshine as a crowd waited for the five millionth person to enter Woodlands Park on Thursday 23rd August.  “I was amazed as a bouquet of flowers was thrust into my hand” Lisa said “I felt like a Queen. My family was given lifetime membership to Woodlands and Twinlakes Park in Leicestershire. When Pat Bendal told us we were being taken up in a helicopter I couldn’t believe our luck”.

As guests waited for the helicopter to return everyone was given goodies and surprises while the sparkling quips of Spangles the clown and the amazing balloon creatures created by Emazdad kept the crowd entertained. As the Cook family climbed out of the helicopter husband Nigel was ecstatic “It really was brilliant” he said “Devon looks incredibly beautiful from the air.

Jamie Cook and his cousin Liam were soon racing into the theme park to enjoy the watercoasters and family rides, they were exhausted by the end of the day. “It has been really cool” Jamie said “Nobody at school will believe we were VIP’s for a whole day, and we can visit Woodlands every day of our lives, it’s amazing.”