After a quarter of a century creating works of art in the two-storied villa right in the heart of Upper Moutere, clay artists Katie Gold and Owen Bartlett are heading to the beach to potter.
For most of those 25 years, they have run a seven-day-a-week business where the public has enjoyed their garden as well as the gallery, so they have decided it is time to take life a bit slower.
That means moving to Tapu Bay, where they will still work their magic with clay and sell it online, through galleries and possibly pop-up shops, but not through their own gallery.
The much-photographed 1893 villa sold at auction at the end of last month to a family that will turn the gallery space back into part of the residence. When Katie and Owen moved into the house in 2000, they opened one room as a gallery and that grew to three rooms. The house and garden, as much as their colourful collection of clay pieces, has drawn the public through the gate time and time again over the years.
“I was working in the gallery one day,” Katie remembers.
“There was someone taking photos of the sunflowers and there was a bunch of ladies asking if we ran cooking classes. I’d left the kitchen door open and they had found their way into it!”
“Lockdown was the only time we’ve had a normal home where people were not wandering around the garden looking for us,” Owen says. “But it’s been nice to share it. It’s a fabulous place.”
Visitors have become intergenerational, with many returning every year during their holiday to the region and calling in to see both their artwork and the house.
“We’ve been part of people’s summer holidays,” he says.
“We’re now getting adults coming in who say we got one of these when I was four years old – which is a bit grim! With some people, their children are now buying our work.”
“We used to get someone calling in every year to pet our cat and take selfies,” Katie adds.
“Now we’re invited to their Italian house to stay.”
Katie says being part of the Upper Moutere community and the Moutere Artisans’ group has been a highlight of their time in the village.
Though they’re heading to the beach, she says “we’re not stopping potting”.
