Festival time - film's big screen premiere

As the art scene continues to flourish in North Devon, Ilfracombe stages its inaugural film festival over three days later this month (April 22 - 24).

Among the packed programme of feature and short films, you'll have the chance to see the mini-documentary about my work as a taxidermy and assemblage artist on the big screen for the first time. It is showing at 2pm on Sunday April 24th on Screen 2 at the town's Embassy Cinema.

Ilfracombe Film Festival organiser Julia Knight said: "We're really looking forward to the diverse range of films on offer throughout the festival and pleased that Paul's film can be part of it. There are so many talented and creative people in North Devon, and this is a great opportunity to showcase them." Other films showing on the Sunday afternoon include 'Every Dive is an Adventure' and 'The Deep'.

The 3-minute film about my work was made by award-winning filmmaker Mikey Corker, another talented North Devon resident. We have more mini movies in the pipeline. For a full programme of festival films, please click here.

Get 'The Point'

I've written before about the amazing pool of talent here in North Devon where I live and work; Mark King is the editor and publisher of The Point magazine - an annual, limited-edition documentary photography publication now in its fourth edition.

I'm humbled to have 11 full pages dedicated to my taxidermy and assemblage art in the issue that's just hit the shops. Mark's eye for layout clearly comes from his skill as a photographer in his own right, with clever use of white space, minimal text and the photos close to full page.

Like me, Mark is a surfer with a passion for our environment; he often tackles issues such as marine litter and the protection of our oceans and beaches. He lives in Croyde with his partner Caroline and son Eli. Only 1,000 of each edition are printed, and they are hand numbered collectors items.

Do the right thing, and make sure you get 'The Point'!

You can read more about my recent media coverage here on my Blog.

New film documents work of Paul Broomfield taxidermy & assemblage artist

I'm delighted to release today the first short film by award-winning documentary maker Mikey Corker that follows my work as a taxidermy and assemblage artist.

The film is available to watch and share on both Vimeo and YouTube, and it examines where I find inspiration for my work, and why I started out on this creative journey. The featured piece towards the end of the film is a new work 'Conscious while the world sleeps', which was created as a tribute to one of my favourite paintings by Mary Krishna.

North Devon based filmmaker Mikey Corker has won awards for his work at the prestigious Waimea Ocean Film Festival in Hawaii for a documentary about the British big wave surfer Andrew Cotton, and from the National Trust at the annual London Surf Film Festival.

Recording the process of taxidermy art

There is a huge amount of talent here in North Devon, and I have been honoured to have award-winning filmmaker Mikey Corker following my work this week.

Mikey is a fellow surfer, and has built a global reputation through documenting another local man Andrew Cotton in his quest to surf the biggest waves on the planet! I'm keen to record the process behind my taxidermy art, and the techniques that are used in the modern era in this ancient practice.

In the photos you can see me working on a carp that died from natural causes at a local lake. While I love re-using antique taxidermy pieces, I have learned how to carry out taxidermy myself so that I can achieve exactly the effect I want when I assemble my new works of art. Mikey is not only filming me in the studio, he's going diving in the lake to show the habitat where the fish live - now that's real dedication in a British winter!

We plan to release the first completed short film by Mikey Corker in the New Year, watch this space.