Budleigh Past and Present

Fairlynch volunteer Maggie Giraud has just updated her website ( www.talksaboutart.co.uk ) and would like to draw your attention to some of the talks she has booked, which she hopes will interest and entertain you in the coming (colder!) months. Maggie is a locally-based freelance art historian and curator. Her talk ‘Understanding Henri Matisse’ was chosen to round off the Museum’s AGM on 29 April. It was one of many talks which she has given during 2015. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Maggie lists her specialist topics as Renaissance Florence, the early 20th century period in Paris, and Dartington Hall, where she was employed as curator and archivist.  However her talks on art cover a wide range. “The ongoing series at The Castle Hotel, Taunton, ends on 12 November with a new lecture on Francis Bacon who has preoccupied me for a long time,” she writes. “Presenting him coherently is a considerable challenge, but his fame is such now that he cannot be...

Nice to see the Budleigh Journal (12 March 2015) covering the Venture Art Group's Millais Boyhood of Raleigh' project. The painting will be on show in Fairlynch from 3 April when the Museum re-opens. Click on the image to enlarge. 

It may not seem the best time to expand a business but the owners of East Devon-based Bargainarts are so convinced of the area’s natural beauty as one of the factors which draws artists to our coastline that they have opened a new shop in Budleigh Salterton High Street. Bargainarts sell a fantastic range of artists’ materials at very competitive prices – they specialise in canvases. The business is owned by Darren and Kirsten Hinch, who have over 20 years’ experience each managing and owning retail businesses. “We have three great children, Tom (11), Bob (9) and Katie (6), who will sometimes be helping us in the shop,” said Darren, pictured left. “We sell from our main shop in Ottery St Mary, Ottery News and Cards, from our website which is currently been heavily updated, and now from our artists’ materials shop here in Budleigh.” The business has grown very quickly over the last few years and Bargainarts now sell more canvases than virtually any other retailer in the South West. They ...