Budleigh Past and Present

        An update from the studio of Budleigh artist John Washington which will be of special interest both to British Devonians with links to East Budleigh and American residents of Gloucester, Massachusetts.  John is continuing to work on his painting of the celebrated 1625 scene at Fishermen’s Field. That was when Roger Conant intervened and avoided possible bloodshed in the confrontation between fishermen from England’s West Country, led by John Hewes, and Captain Miles Standish, military adviser to the Plymouth Pilgrims: 'I thought you might like to see the fishermen who now have their characters more clearly identified in their faces,' he writes.  'Also, I’ve brought more detail into Tablet Rock at the back as that is such a well known landmark in the context of the story.' 'Next on the left hand side of the painting is to work on the hogshead salt barrels to bring them into line with the rest of the painting - more paint, more  colour, more dept...

A work in progress - Roger Conant the Peacemaker: How John Washington's painting of the 1625 scene at Fishermen's Field, Cape Ann, was looking by 3 September Local history is often better told in pictures than in words. A visual impact is more engaging, and artistic licence means that a controversial slant can be introduced – which is always good for enjoyable and balanced discussion. There are very few paintings inspired by Budleigh’s history, and yet our area is crowded with fascinating events and people who would make good subjects.    Sir John Everett Millais’ 1870 painting ‘The Boyhood of Raleigh’ was surely the first and the best known. Then a century or so later we have Peter Goodhall’s 1983 depiction of smuggler Jack Rattenbury’s escape from the excise officer Captain Stocker – now in Fairlynch Museum. That painting was followed by the more recent one of the German Heinkel bomber strafing Budleigh High Street during WW2 And now local a...