43 LOCAL ARTIST


Marc Farrell M


INTERVIEW BY GINNY WARE


arc Farrell’s easel is permanently set up just inside the front door of his bijou flat and that’s where I find him, paintbrush in hand,


when I call round. We drink tea on the patio while Marc tells me about his lifelong passion for art, which began with meticulous miniature watercolour landscapes and animals. His burgeoning talent was nurtured by the infamous


‘Dartmouth Five’ group of artists, with whom he enjoyed many collaborations. He went on to specialise in homages to the


paintings of old masters and today depicts larger local scenes in acrylics. Marc is now firmly part of the Dartmouth art


scene. The River Dart and surrounding coastline are a constant source of inspiration for his paintings, which are regularly exhibited at the Dart Gallery where they sell for between £400 to £2,000. “I’ve always been interested in art, even as a


youngster. “My art teacher allowed me to use the art classroom


at lunch breaks, and I used to sit around the town doing scenes at the weekends. “I was pretty rubbish at it but I liked the process of drawing, especially tiny things.


“I just like detail and the neatness


of it. You really have to concentrate and study what you’re painting.” After leaving Dartmouth


Community College Marc studied graphic design at Torquay Tech, where he was taught by John Gillo. Their paths crossed again a few years later in the


early 1980s when Marc took four of his miniature paintings to John’s gallery in Dartmouth’s Old Market Square to enquire about framing.


John invited Marc to become his picture framer – a job he did for the next 18 years. Marc said: “In that time John encouraged me to paint


for his gallery.


“He also put quite a lot of my work into print for me. “I had my first exhibition at the Coombe Gallery in Dittisham, courtesy of Paul Riley, and I was really excited.


The Dartmouth 5 + 1 “I probably had about 20 paintings


there and sold most of them on the opening evening which was a real surprise, and lovely – you can’t get much more encouragement than that.”


John, Paul and the rest of the


‘Dartmouth Five’ - John Donaldson, Simon Drew and Andras Kaldor - took the young Marc under their


wing, encouraging him early on in his career, so much so that they become known as the Dartmouth 5 + 1. “Three of them had galleries and I exhibited in all of them, and did exhibitions with them. That went on for


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