HOUGHTON HALL & GARDENS

Field Trip Report And Competition Results

An impressive turnout of members and friends of the RPS Creative Eye Group met at Houghton Hall near King’s Lynn in Norfolk on a gloriously sunny Sunday 8th July for the Group’s first organised Field Trip.

This was a day with challenges – a wide range of Damien Hirst’s controversial colour space paintings to be considered in the Hall, Hirst’s gigantic sculptures in the grounds to take in, plus an RPS photo competition to make top creative images for.

With the hundreds of acres of landscaped gardens showing off the sculptures, and then the beautiful 5-acre walled garden with its own works of art and wonderful flower and vegetable beds, this was also a day hard on the feet.

But everyone enjoyed themselves, any hard work made easier by frequent stops for refreshments at the two cafés.

It was really great to see so many keen members, and so many friends, joining us. For me, some people had until then been just names from RPS publications, and to be able to put faces to those names was wonderful.

Hirst’s colour space paintings – the “Spot paintings” – seemed to provoke a “like it or hate it” reaction among our members. But as the colour space paintings had replaced all the usual ancient paintings of venerable ancestors in the State Rooms and bedrooms, one could not avoid the question of judging their possible relationships to the building and its furniture and decorations.

Outside, the vast Hirst sculptures seemed more accessible and enjoyable, though they did make creating good images pretty difficult simply due to the scale – which lenses to use and how to frame the subjects becoming major decisions.

The open photo competition organised by our Group Chair, Moira Ellice, and judged by Professor Brian Falconbridge PPRBS, should give a good idea of what we ended up seeing through our Creative Eyes!

It was a very enjoyable day out and well worth the long journey up to Norfolk – some travelled more than two and a half hours to get there – and a nice opportunity to get together and meet new friends as well.