Norfolk by Design “FESTIVAL” at Houghton Hall

Last week, we escaped to the seaside at Hunstanton for a sunny, sandy, swimmy, children-led holiday with extended family.  My husband and I managed to escape for a precious grown up day to Houghton Hall to see the Henry Moore exhibition there and visit my pots.

I am very happy to be part of FESTIVAL, the pop up shop at Houghton Hall, run by Norfolk by Design.  It is the second year that they have asked me to be part of it and I am thrilled to have my work displayed among that of such talented folk as these.  It was lovely to see the exhibition again after having only seen it at the private view where we makers and artists gravitated towards each other, standing out with our slight scruffiness, full of enthusiasm for the work that surrounded us.  The work had changed somewhat since then as pieces have been sold and new ones supplied.  The standard has, of course, remained high and I still adore the baskets, love the paintings, hanker after the woodwork and admire the other ceramics.

We had already been at Houghton for a couple of hours before we even spotted our first Henry Moore sculpture, having thoroughly inspected the fabulous walled garden and partaken of a fine lunch with apple juice produced with apples from said garden.  The Henry Moore sculptures were glorious.  I have always loved his work and have been to his home in Hertfordshire a couple of times years ago.  We were told, on the way into the house, that we should view the sculptures in the house in particular ways, taking in their surroundings and seeing how they echoed the house and its contents.  It proved good advice.  Having only seen the house filled with spotty Damien Hirst paintings, I was really pleased to see the original paintings, though I loved the look of the Hirst spots on the red flocked wallpaper.  Feeling a little guilty about how long we had left our son with our family, we tried to view the house at a pace but the enthusiastic guides were far too interesting to be put off and we comforted ourselves with the thought that we could inform our family of all the facts that we had learnt. 

Rather later than we had planned, but thoroughly pleased with our day out, we headed back to the windy coast for more swimming and soft play.  Oh, the joys!

The Norfolk by Design pop up shop and the Henry Moore exhibition are open until 29th September 2019.