Drawn to the Valley Open Studios 2016

Foreword
In AD997, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, raiding Vikings travelled
up the Tamar and Tavy rivers as far as Lydford, burning Ordwulf’s monastery
at Tavistock on the way.
Contemplating a river, it is usual to think of a course from source to sea: a
bubbling forth from an obscure spring, a wandering channel finally opening
into the sea. My daughter’s school project had her scrambling along rocky
escarpments from the remote Cranmere Pool on Dartmoor to a walk along
the River Dart, finally to board a boat which took her out to the Castle at
Dartmouth. Yet discovery, exploration (or conquest), is more likely to come
from the other direction, from seaward.
Thus it is seafarers, at the whim of the winds and ocean currents, who come
upon a river’s mouth whilst searching for a sheltered landfall, navigating
inland from ports to settlements and the meandering upper reaches. It is
from the history of the Tamar, as first and foremost a river of explorers, that
we begin a trajectory that takes us from Plymouth Sound, with its
connections to naval power, and draws us further into the course of the
Tamar, simultaneously flowing and fixed as a border between Devon and
Cornwall, almost to the north coast.
The artists of Drawn to the Valley are exhibiting a remarkable range of
contemporary art practices, from painting, printmaking and ceramics to
photography, textiles and jewellery in this annual Open Studios event.
What binds them together in a common approach is the practice of drawing.
This is to think about drawing in its widest sense, whether actual markmaking,
the manipulation of materials, or the traces of light recorded in a
photograph. Drawing is a process of exploration, like seafaring, where the
artist navigates a course of action between competing forces, by deciding
when to yield or to reassert control, steering the drawing into a flow that is
most conducive to the emerging artwork.
It is this idea of flow that is so favourably served by the Tamar and which has
been assimilated by these artists. It is in the same spirit of exploration that
Drawn to the Valley invites you to discover the diversity of the work shown
in Open Studios 2016 and to find out for yourselves what makes this such a
rich place for artists and makers.
Dr Stephen Felmingham
Programme Leader
BA (Hons) Painting, Drawing and Printmaking
Plymouth College of Art
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