Budleigh Past and Present

I haven’t yet made it to Budleigh Salterton’s sister town of Brewster on Cape Cod. One day perhaps. Until then I’ll enjoy reading about happenings over there thanks to Google news alerts, including this exhibition by Cape Cod artists.  Like so much of the artwork from that part of the US it’s suggestive of the wild beauty of that intriguing place jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. Benton Jones, seen above, is the owner of the Millstone Gallery in Brewster. He's an artist in glass with a cosmopolitan background: part Welsh, Norwegian and Italian, he’s married to Jana, a Czech lady.  Sadly, I won’t be able to attend the Reception on 18 July, but I’m sure that Benton and Jana would welcome any of my Devon readers. Click on  http://www.millstonegallery.com/  to see the Gallery's highly informative website.  This is what it says about the artists: Opening reception: Renditions of Plac...

Continuing with my task of versifying a range of artefacts linked to Fairlynch Museum, I remembered the story of Hugo the medieval saltworker.  Two years ago I wrote about him  here    when he was featured in our exhibition 'Sea, Salt and Sponges.'   His tragic end was cleverly depicted by local sculptress Angie Harlock Wilkinson, seen above. Here's my version:  My story is of Otterton And is a tragedy. Its time the Middle Ages In an ancient priory. For you must know that long ago The harvesting of salt Paid even better wages Than production of malt.    The Prior was an angry man And noted for his rage, And Hugo was his servant, Not noted as a sage. For he did like his cider In quantities profuse And oftentimes did yield To the wondrous apple juice. It happened on a summer’s day A day of burning sun, That Hugo in the priory vault Came seriously undone. For he did quench the frightful th...

  Christine Lee is one of Britain ’s outstanding figurative sculptors.   She’s also a Friend of Fairlynch and it was her friendship with the Museum’s late President that prompted the exhibition of her most recent work in Budleigh. Her best known creation is the extraordinary fountain, over five metres high, which stands in front of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon . The work was inaugurated by Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip on 8 November 1996.   Sculpted in stainless steel and brass it depicts two swans, wings outstretched, rising in flight. “Grounded yet soaring” is how Christine’s work has been described, and that’s certainly how you’d see her sculpture of two angels entitled ‘Compassion’ currently on view in St Peter’s Church.   Winged like her Stratford swans, this latest piece is very different. At just over two metres it’s an approachable piece for the viewer. There’s a warmth and a humanity about it ...

A Friend of Fairlynch Museum has been delighted to learn that a leading figure involved with human rights has again been honoured with her artwork at a ceremony staged at her former Cambridge College. Otterton-based sculptor Angie Harlock, who left Clare College in 1974, feels that her bronze figure 'Isadora, Joy', symbolic of the courage of dancer Isadora Duncan was an appropriate award when it was presented earlier this month to Dr Alice Welbourn, pictured above with her husband Dr Nigel Padfield. As the founder of Stepping Stones, co-founder and chair of trustees for the Sophia Forum and the Director of the Salamander Trust, Dr Welbourn, also a former Clare student, has spent her career working to raise the profile of HIV positive women from her base in Devon.   Dr Welbourn accepted the title of Alumnus of the Year 2012 at the Cambridge ceremony.   After studying Anthropology as a PhD student at Clare College she lived and worked in Somalia for fi...

  Journalist Najam Sethi, speaking up for the free press in Pakistan A Cambridge college honoured one of its distinguished former students last year at a ceremony marked by the presentation of an artwork sculpted by a Friend of Fairlynch. Sculptress Angie Harlock Wilkinson, who works from a studio in Otterton, created a bronze figure 'Isadora, Joy' which was presented to the journalist Najam Sethi. A prominent journalist in Pakistan who studied at Clare College from 1967 to 1970, Mr Sethi is known as a convinced democrat, an advocate of moderation in foreign policy, and an opponent of religious extremism and violence. On numerous occasions he has incurred the anger of autocratic governments. He was imprisoned for two years by the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto regime in the 1970s for siding with the Baloch nationalist movement. In 1984 General Zia ul Haq imprisoned him for a month for publishing a book - From Jinnah to Zia - by a former chief justice of Pakist...