Exeter Illustrators exhibition is open at The Welcome Cafe

The whole Exploring Exeter team are big Exeter Illustrators fans. What a privilege to have such a team of creative people living and working in our city. We’ve previously blogged about their debut exhibition at the Ramm and about the wonderful Clare Elsom book launch. So, of course, we were super excited to hear that they were taking part in Exeter’s art week 2018. I was even more excited when I was invited along to the Private View of their exhibition: Be Inspired.

Since their exhibition last year the illustrator’s group has grown in size having found even more talented illustrators working within the city, they have also partnered with Plymouth College of Art (PCA) and selected some of its students to also be apart of their exhibition this year.

So with much excitement and anticipation, I strolled down to the quay on Tuesday evening in the glorious Devon sunshine to view some beautiful illustrations and spend the evening in wonderful company. This years exhibition is being held at The Welcome Cafe, which is a gorgeous space right by the water. If you’ve not been there for a cream tea then you definitely need to make your way down there soon!

As well as a beautiful space indoors they’ve got a fab courtyard garden where I made the most of the complimentary wine and nibbles and good conversations before heading inside to see the artwork on offer and to do my best not to buy every piece in sight! Seriously there were at least 8 illustrations that I could quite easily have bought then and there.

Here are three of my favourites- though I will only share elements of each one, you’ll have to go and view the exhibition yourself if you’d like to see more.

I absolutely loved the detail of the flowers and the bees in this gorgeous illustration by Clare Elsom:

And the fluff on these ducklings by Hannah Foley is amazing:

Both myself and my friend kept getting drawn to this beautiful illustration by Paul Cherrill (in fact my friend ended up buying it!) which has an even more beautiful story behind it, the goat has such character and you can’t help but be drawn in:

During the evening Paul Cherrill gave a short speech, followed by the new Lord Mayor of Exeter, Councillor Rob Hannaford, who was also in attendance. He spoke of the pride that we should of have as a city to have such a talented group of artists, and what a richness that it brings to our city. I wholeheartedly agree.

If you’d like to see the exhibition it’s available to view every day from now until Sunday 3rd June between the hours of 10-5 at The Welcome Cafe. All artwork is for sale, and if you’re not quite in the market for a new piece of art right now they also have some great colourful prints, birthday cards, stickers and badges for sale at very affordable prices.

About the Authour: Stephanie Walker

Originally from Coventry with a slight detour via Wolverhampton and Luton, Steph moved to Exeter in January 2013. She lives in the St Thomas area of the city with her husband Chris, their 3 daughters and springer spaniel Freddie.

A primary school teacher gone rogue, Steph currently works for Makelunch a national charity seeking to end holiday hunger for children and also runs weekly singing sessions for toddlers and their grown ups.

Steph is passionate about building community, being honest about parenting ( in particular our birth experiences and post natal mental health) and food!