Artists inspired ‘thanks to access to Dartmoor’

Today’s artists continue to try to capture the moor’s rugged essence.

Millie Brown, co-owner of Field System Gallery, said: “There’s something about, I don’t know if you would call it the nature, spirit, or magic, but Dartmoor has a lot of it and people are seeking it out increasingly.”

Her husband Mark Jessett, an artist, agrees.

“It’s an extraordinary place in its diversity, woodlands, valleys, rivers, the expansive high moor, colour, alongside the mythology, the magic, the folklore. It’s a very rich source of inspiration,” he said.

Dartmoor’s folklore even inspired those fighting modern legal battles such as that over the right to wild camp on the moor in 2025.

The artist behind the Dartmoor Folklore Map, Ethan Pennell, said: “As part of that campaign, the story of Old Crockern, the guardian spirit of the moor, was brought to the fore, so there was that element of ritual.”

“I like the idea that these land spirits are there looking out for us, or maybe not necessarily for us but for the land,” he added.