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Welcome to Devon Sculpture Park, a unique haven where art and nature collide to create an unforgettable experience.

Unlike the confines of a traditional gallery, Devon Sculpture Park allows art to breathe freely. Here, open-air art becomes an extension of the environment, each piece carefully chosen to complement the natural beauty that surrounds it.

As you wander the park, towering metal structures converse with ancient oaks, while whimsical installations add a touch of whimsy to hidden corners. This immersive experience encourages visitors to not just view art, but to connect with it on a deeper level, sparking imagination and igniting curiosity.

The park caters to every kind of explorer. Art enthusiasts can delve into the stories behind each sculpture, appreciating the diverse styles and mediums represented. Nature lovers can lose themselves in the meticulously rewilded gardens, a testament to the genius of Capability Brown.

Families can embark on a "Garden Safari", a guided tour that combines artistic exploration with wildlife discovery, making learning a fun adventure.

But Devon Sculpture Park offers more than just stunning scenery and artistic intrigue. It's a place to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Unwind with a gourmet picnic lunch amidst the artworks, or simply relax by the lake and lose yourself in the symphony of nature.

Whether you're an art aficionado, a nature enthusiast, or simply seeking a peaceful escape, Devon Sculpture Park at our first LettsRetreat offers a unique experience that caters to all. It's a place where art comes alive, inviting you to rediscover the beauty of the natural world and reconnect with your inner artist.

To find out more about our first eco-estate retreat go to LettsRetreat.com.

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‘5 artists, 5 years, 5 media’ is the work of two conceptual environmental artists, one large scale abstract ceramic artist, one land and performance artist and a video and photo artist. Each artwork has been carefully nurtured and curated in this mesmerising place reimagined into a national showcase for tackling the issues of our time head on. Devon Sculpture Park effortlessly combines eco, nature, 3D and the power of creativity not just physically but in the digital realm as well. A mash-up of history, modernity and issues based identity so lacking in our modern way of living life and doing business.

The artists: Chris Speyer, Terry Howe, Robert Marshall MRSS, Colin Porter and Jem McCluskey have spent a great deal of time in this haven crafting their bold work for this wonderful private collection on Britain’s coastal shores. Their work is a passage through time and media. The art is not only in the park but also online thanks to an exciting partnership with LettsArt, the new way of showing, collecting and cataloguing art online. It’s an emerging online platform that can support any number of artists – going beyond the smaller cross section of artists involved at DSP.

Any time spent with these 5 artists is time well spent. They are passionate about their art form, but also about climate issues, politics and social change. Each adds a great deal to their local communities – some at soup kitchens or food banks, some in schools and some in nature. They make art, write, perform, photograph and communicate the issues of our time with frank honesty.

From the moment you enter the first gate into LettsRetreat Exeter you know you are somewhere different. A peahen wanders casually down the drive, a fallow deer bolts and the sea beckons you from below. The land is wild, vibrant and abundant. A place set out to repair the damage of climate change and nature pared back by man.

From when you park your car you spot the added glint of art and architecture. It starts with Japanese style outdoor paintings hanging under trees leading onto one of the earlier UK eco-art installations of cob, stone and glass. It is not long before you confront Chris Speyer’s first installation of haunting looking forms of massive clay carefully crafted to remind us that in this historic estate soil rules. Further into the Capability Brown gardens you experience how he shapes clay to spin a story about our rewilding and his roots in the Australian outback.

Marshall MRSS and Howe entertain us with bold, audacious conceptual environmental art that leaves you with an endless series of questions. They provide not just 3D art in this wild park, but portals to a different world – one not only conjured in their minds eye through their extraordinary creations fashioned from found and recycled materials, but fathomed around them by the custodians of the park on a mission to make the place bio-diverse, climate solving and ‘new chic’: Thoughtfully cause driven, a place where humans genuinely draw inspiration from their relationship with nature as previous power-names such as Lancelot Capability Brown, James Boswell and Robert Adam did before.

Porter and McCluskey provide a final slate of artistic poetry in this climate panacea – reflecting its two extremes. One centred on land art and the other on digital. Both bring the physical into the digital and both entertain us with their messages inspired by Devon Sculpture Park but way beyond this secret corner.

Where else might a historic building carry a green roof and glass ceilings? Where else takes a hidden, overrun Capability Brown garden and painstakingly restores it as a national rewilding masterpiece? Where else achieves conservation goal after conservation goal in a small 100 acre park? At LettsRetreat we combine all these elements to try to tell one essential story about history, contemporary art and climate protection.

Visit LettsRetreat’s Capability Brown gardens and see the work of Chris Speyer, Terry Howe, Robert Marshall MRSS, Colin Porter and Jem McCluskey this summer with a Garden Safari or 3 Hour Wildland Safari. When you do you will be supporting our rewilding and conservation work, while learning about the climate causes and techniques we champion.

Keep up to date with LettsRetreat’s latest news and updates at our website and on twitter.

Book your 2023 day visit today and experience one of the largest private collections of open-air art. We recommend booking early as numbers are limited.

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The Robert Adam Orangery is one of the UK’s finest historic coastal homes. It sits in the heart of the Capability Brown gardens overlooking the sea. Robert Adam’s famed dome looms high over the landscape.

Wander the 15 acre Capability Brown gardens with one of our signature Garden Safaris - experiencing art, architecture and rewilded gardens for wildlife. Relax, renew and rediscover yourself.

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Experience environmental art as it should be. Surrounded by nature in its most powerful form. Buttressed by it. There are over 60 environmental art installations to discover in this unique private collection.

Bold, contemporary art is surrounded by massive, ancient trees and breathtaking sea vistas at every step. It’s like a natural amphitheatre of culture. A hidden part of Exeter - so magical and unique.

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Doyle’s ‘Whirl’ transforms the wind into a dynamic dance of colour and light. The audience is invited to rest beneath the domed structure, relax and enjoy the mesmerising light show overhead.

Whirl aims to showcase the beauty and versatility of wind power and inspire the audience to imagine a future powered by renewable energy. Whirl featured at Canary Wharf for Summer Lights 2021.

Helena Doyle is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator from Ireland working across a range of mediums from installation and video to street theatre and land art. With sanctuary as a major theme in her work she creates immersive spaces and experiences that encourage contemplation and evoke a sense of awe in the viewer.

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She draws on sacred geometry and Zen design principles when designing the aerial sculptures she refers to as ‘soft architecture’. Rather than function to protect the body from the elements, these transient spaces relate more to spirit and reflect on impermanence. 

In her practice she works with waste, natural or found materials where possible and promotes how artists and makers can create value from the abundance of materials coming from countless waste streams. 

Helena explores mythology, folk crafts and indigenous technologies as a way to find the common threads between cultures. She believes in collective crafting as a tool for healing and community building and facilitates workshops where participants create installations together. We are proud to welcome her to the impressive roster of climate conscious artists at the park.

You can enjoy ‘Whirl’ at Exeter’s Capability Brown Gardens - book a visit today.

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This unique collection of Speyer’s works include massive abstract clay sculptures and aboriginal imagined wood and ceramic artworks that point to sweeping views across the Devon landscape out to the sea.

The video at the top of the post reveals Chris’s indoor display in the Sheds called ‘EARTH WORKS’ which is a stunning fusion of clay and wood narrating the importance of soil, nature and artist.

Book a visit and experience the magic of Speyer’s eco art and Mamhead Park’s rewilded gardens via Devon Sculpture Park.

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Robert Marshall’s works are deliberately big, bright and bold. They ask the viewer to reconsider how individuals impact the environment. They ask us how to cease being passive, blinkered watchers of deleterious effects of environmental damage and become active negotiators and protagonists to force change through our own personal choices.

'In Search of a New World…’ comprises four large scale conceptual sculptures offering different pathways via portals into possible worlds. They open liminal spaces and allow you to peer into them through doors left ajar.

By helping us look inside/out and outside/in Marshall encourages the viewer to not settle for one utopian vision but contemplate the many possible outcomes and journeys through a series of revolving doors.

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Robert Marshall MRSS’ ‘Portals: In Search of a New World’ can be seen at Devon Sculpture Park from 25 June 2022. Book your visit today.

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