“I moved to Exmouth four years ago to live with my husband who has lived here for over 40 years and has a strong love for the place. I must admit, I was intrigued by the town and happy to live near such a beautiful beach. Its vibrant music scene was also a bonus because I love live music. I found Exmouth stunning, in fact I still do. The sunsets and the quality of light are everything an artist could dream of. It’s funny really, if I was a landscape or seascape artist I would be in my element. But I am an illustrative artist. I paint stories and quirky animals, such as a grumpy rabbit or a daydreaming woman. However, Exmouth still holds a lot of inspiration for me. The people who live in Exmouth inspire and encourage me with their generous outlook and positive vibe. I have had a nomadic lifestyle and lived in various sea side towns across the UK, but I have never come across a place full of such strong characters – it’s truly unique. Perhaps the seaside holiday feel helps create this, or maybe Exmouth has a history of being big hearted? It is easy for a town to feel threatened by new things, and conceptual/community art is usually fresh and a bit ‘out there’ so it certainly creates discussion. A community artist’s biggest hurdle is often getting the local acceptance. This is not the case in Exmouth – they’re up for anything new and fun it seems. In my case the Pom Pom Field (a community art piece on Rolle road) was warmly welcomed and the Bra Bunting on Exmouth seafront, another conceptual art piece, a symbol of women’s equality (and a nod to our Parminter cousins in A La Ronde), was made by generous donations from over 1000 local women. I’ve been into art all my life, I consider art my first language. I am dyslexic, I couldn’t read or write properly till I was ten, so that’s most likely why art is so important to me. After art college, life got in the way and I worked in various jobs to support my family. Fortunately, five years ago I decided to focus on painting again. At the time, being new to the art scene and new to Exmouth, I knew very few people. Painting at home is a lonely occupation so I decided to open my house up as a gallery/studio. I called it Sea Dog Art and invited people to drop in. Exmouth seemed to like my candid approach and soon my drop-in groups and classes were happening daily. The natural progression from this was to go back out into the community. This is why I created Exmouth’s community art trail, and more recently, WooHoo Art Events, where on average over 70 local artists get involved. These are non-conformist exhibitions with an experience attached to the exhibition that encourages the non-gallery going public to visit, such as Art In The Dark (yes torches were needed). This summer’s big show focuses on secrets of a seaside town. I cannot give anymore away at the moment but follow WooHoo Art Events on Facebook to stay in the loop. Perhaps if there was an art centre in Exmouth when I moved to here I wouldn’t have opened Sea Dog Art or created WooHoo. Most towns the size of Exmouth have some kind of arts provision and I understand this frustrates people that we don’t. Maybe it’s because I am very optimistic, but I think Exmouth is on the brink of something awesome creatively. I believe without an art centre and with a vibrant community that encourages art, which Exmouth clearly has (seen by the support I’ve been given for the art trail, Sea Dog Art and WooHoo Events), Exmouth is the perfect town to have art in every business, office, shop, and restaurant. This would create a fluid and fun art culture and an outlook to the art community that would be modern and unique to the UK. Right now, I am trying to enable this with a small merry team who are working hard on ‘Lost and Found Art’ which will be running May-December. Similar to the art trail but with more structure and some of WooHoo’s fun thrown in too it will hopefully unite businesses with art and support creativity locally, while also showing visitors to Exmouth that we have a dynamic art scene. As I’ve already said, Exmouth has supported me - it is important to support each other, and this is why I am behind the Neighbourhood Plan. There is so many positive visionaries in this town which it will encourage and cultivate. It is vital that we uplift each other and to me this is what the neighbourhood plan stands for.” So if you too, like Anna, would like to support the Exmouth Neighbourhood Plan then put 21st March in your diary to go and vote. And if you’re interested in any of Anna’s projects you can email Sea.dog.art@gmail.com and keep up with the latest Lost and Found developments via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Lost-Found-Exmouth-Art-Trail-808520196149533/

Former mental health worker and teacher Anna Fitzgerald’s art always has an impact. Whether she’s stringing bras up along the seafront as part of WooHoo, getting lost in an art maze at Powderham, or planting pom-poms, Anna is a whirlwind of creativity. We persuaded her to put her brush down for a few minutes and tell us what inspires her, and why she’s so committed to the community in Exmouth…