The Connecting the Culm project has worked with architectural illustrator, Richard Carman, to visualise the River Culm, its tributaries and the wider catchment. Here we’ve gathered together some of the artwork and illustrations that have been created so far.

Catchment scale illustrations

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Illustration by Richard Carman showing the lower River Culm catchment

View of the Culm: south west from Cullompton to Exeter

Click to view an interactive version of the illustration showing the issues affecting the Culm.

An illustration of the upper River Culm by Richard Carman

View of the Culm: north east across the Culm valley

Click to view an interactive version of the illustration showing the issues affecting the Culm.

Illustration by Richard Carman showing aerial image of the upper Culm showing land use as it is today

Upper Culm valley: present

Illustration by Richard Carman of the upper River Culm catchment

Upper Culm valley: vision for the future, 2050

An illustration representing the River Culm catchment during a possible bad winter in the future by Richard Carman

Culm catchment in the future: flood

An illustration representing the River Culm catchment during a possible hot and dry summer in the future by Richard Carman

Culm catchment in the future: drought

Vignettes of futures activities in the Culm catchment

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An illustration of sustainable building materials by Richard Carman
An illustration of people working on the land by Richard Carman
An illustration of children learning outdoors by Richard Carman
An illustration of local food and small scale enterprises by Richard Carman
An illustration of detention and retention ponds by Richard Carman
An illustration of a cycle path by the River Culm by Richard Carman
Illustration by Richard Carman showing fisherman next to river with crystal clear waters
An illustration of cattle grazing in an orchard by Richard Carman

How were the illustrations created?

Richard Carman worked closely with the Connecting the Culm team and members of the community to co-create many of these images. Learn more about this process in this short film.

Rob Hopkins, who facilitated visioning workshops for the Connecting the Culm project, has also written about the creation of these images in his blog which can be read here.

Richard Carman & Dominic Acland – co-creating the Culm Blueprint

In this short film Richard and Dominic take us on a co-creation journey from the source of the River Culm right down to where it meets the Exe, thinking about how the various contributions of Culm communities have shaped the Blueprint illustrations, vision and action plan.