Artist Sally Rich was so angered by a parody poster mocking Exmouth that she decided to create her own artwork to convey a more ‘upbeat’ side of the town.
Sally has created her own impression of the town in response to a ‘cheap-shot’ poster claiming Exmouth is the ‘end of the line’.
Her painting was created in response to seaside satirist Jack Hurley’s latest creation, which showed Exmouth as a place where you can find elderly residents using UKIP-sponsored walkers, tracksuit-clad drivers lamenting their overturned cars and revellers vomiting over the promenade wall.
Jack’s tongue-in-cheek piece is part of his ‘rubbish seaside’ website, where he has given similar treatment to Weston-super-Mare and Teignmouth among others.
Artist Sally claims there is ‘another side to the story’ and that towns like Exmouth are an easy target.
“It’s really easy to knock a place, particularly seaside towns, but actually it’s a fabulous place to live,” said Sally.
“I love different artwork, but, because it was about my town, it made me cross because that could be any town or city across the country. It’s a cheap-shot.
“I wanted to do it far more upbeat. I wanted to say ‘there’s another side to this’.
“I wanted to show how lovely and quirky Exmouth is and what Jack showed could have been Liverpool, Birmingham or Exeter.”
Sally, who normally illustrates for greeting cards and jigsaw puzzles, was inspired to act after seeing a story about Jack’s poster in the Journal last month.
She went down to the same part of the seafront featured in Jack’s artwork and found enough inspiration to create a positive painting for the town.
Sally, who has lived in Exmouth for 20 years, said the project has also encouraged her to look at other seaside towns with a view to making artwork for those areas, too.
She is currently getting the painting framed at South West Art, in Sidmouth, and would like to find somewhere in Exmouth to display it.
Anyone who would like to get prints of Sally’s work can email sally@sallyrich.co.uk
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