Holt! Who goes there?

Some friends from London decided a couple of days ago to book a few days away in a house just around the corner from us.  We arranged for them to come to us for dinner on Friday evening but walking into town this morning we bumped into them in a local art gallery where Kieron Williamson has his present exhibition.  He is undoubtedly a very talented artist and although only 21 years old his paintings sell for many thousands of pounds, but I have to say I generally find them a little 'flat'.  Couldn't say too much though, as he was in the gallery working on a new painting!

We ended up going for a drink with our friends and chatting for a couple of hours before heading home.  On the way back we passed this other exhibition which is part of the Holt Festival; 'German Expressionism and the Third Reich'.  We visited it on Monday evening and it is a fascinating, if sometimes difficult, exhibition.  One painting on show is owned by the actor and comedian Stephen Fry's mother, and still bears a slash in it from when her own mother was leaving Germany in the 1930's and her luggage was bayonetted by border guards in case they were smuggling out any unauthorised people.  The family have chosen not to have it restored but to leave the slash as part of its history.