Candia McKormack is treated to a dreamy afternoon at Ham Court, in the company of artist and writer Matthew Rice, his singer-cum-circus performer daughter Lil, and two badly-behaved lambs
If only every interview could begin with being greeted by a couple of black lambs bombing full pelt towards you on a fine spring day.
Lulu and Loretta (who, not unreasonably, believe themselves to be dogs) have found a new way of escaping their woven hurdle pen, but designer, artist and writer Matthew Rice finds it impossible to be cross with them as they’re scooped up and re-contained (for however long that may or may not be).
I’ve been invited to Matthew’s home for lunch and a chat about the exciting summer of events he has planned there. Ham Court, near Bampton in Oxfordshire – which had once been the gatehouse to Bampton Castle, built by the Earl of Pembroke in 1320 – was in desperate need of TLC when he and ceramicist wife Emma Bridgewater moved in 12 years ago. The 30-acre grounds now include the castle’s rediscovered moat, a walled kitchen garden, orchard and paddocks, and the couple have also planted thousands of trees, as well as restoring ancient farm buildings, and generally breathing life and love back into the place.
‘AREN’T THESE the most amazing ranunculus?’ says Matthew of the overflowing vase, as we sit down to the delicious meal he’s whipped up in the farmhouse kitchen, using fresh produce from the gardens.
The artist and author – now separated from Emma, though the two still work closely together on designs – is a passionate gardener, and he manages to get beautiful blowsy results like this so early in the year by nurturing the blooms in one of the poly tunnels. We chat as we eat, and I realise the more you get to know Matthew and his family, the more you discover just what an astonishing dynasty he is part of.
‘My mum was a textile designer [the prolific and gifted Pat Albeck],’ he says, ‘and my father, Peter, a theatre designer. My mum designed a lot of textiles for the National Trust, and, at one point, I remember her having a very firm argument with someone who said to her, “Annoying, this is a really good design, but it just doesn’t sell.” She replied, “No, that’s not possible; if it didn’t sell, it isn’t a good design. That’s all there is to it. It may be a design that you love, but it isn’t good because you’re only doing it to sell... otherwise, I’d be painting!”
Possibly just the wrong timing, I suggest?
‘Yes, that could very well be what makes it wrong; it’s rather like Instagram, when you post at the wrong time of day and too few people see it. It’s the same kind of thing; it’s all about designers trying to work out who wants to buy what when. My mother was a great believer in royalties, and of being paid for how well things sell.
‘I’ve done quite a lot of books,’ he continues, ‘and some of them have sold and some haven’t. It’s still a bit of a mystery to me why they didn’t, but I am commercial enough to know that they were slightly wrong.’
Matthew is as far away from the perceived stuffy, inaccessible air that surrounds some fine artists.
‘I love going out to the various book festivals – Cheltenham and all the others,’ he says, ‘but I really like the bit at the end where you sell your books; I think it’s really fun! I love meeting people and talking about the books. When you’ve spent a year or two thinking about something, to be able to talk about it to an audience is nice, because you’ve recently done the work. There are always things that you don’t put in the book – because it’s not quite right for it, or it doesn’t fit – and so I enjoy chatting to people about those things.
‘I did a signing for the Borzoi bookshop in Stow, and they were so good – they made the most brilliant evening, with Italian food and drinks, and crammed the place full of people. Quite wonderful.’
He says he believes he writes for other people and not himself, so I wonder if the same goes for painting and drawing.
‘Absolutely,’ he replies, ‘I’m very receptive to feedback. I worked closely with Emma for over 30 years, and we fought – violently and unpleasantly – about our work all the time. But it was actually good fun doing it like that.’
It can’t be stated enough just how much of a warm-hearted, generous person Matthew is. He likes nothing more than chatting when he’s drawing or painting – none of that brooding alone in a garret business for him – and doesn’t mind one bit if people come up to him to chat and ask questions when he’s out sketching in the field.
‘It’s a funny thing, but I think people quite often find it rather sweet and childlike,’ he says of drawing and painting. ‘I’m not sure people are particularly impressed, but think when they see artists sitting and painting, “Oh, that’s something I did as a child,” and that I’m doing something rather childish... which I probably am,’ he smiles in his wonderfully self-deprecating way.
Matthew is a strong advocate of the importance of observational art, which he believes isn’t being taught in schools and colleges the way it once was. There seems to have been a shift towards creative ‘expression’ in whatever form that takes, without the discipline of spending time looking – really looking – and interpreting what you see.
As part of the long summer programme of events at Ham Court, Matthew will be opening up his studios to students, where he’ll take in a small group over the course of two days. Delicious, fresh lunches will be prepared by a head chef, and artists of all ages and abilities – ‘the last time, I had someone of 22 and another of 81’ – will come together in the dreamy surroundings of the house and gardens to learn from him... and have a jolly good time of it, too.
‘Some on previous courses have been professional illustrators, some amateur painters, and we do half drawing and half watercolour. One of the weekends will be looking at sketchbooks, where we spend two days attempting to fill a book. I think the business of keeping a sketchbook is the best way of being up to scratch, and it’s also such a nice way of looking at things.
‘With the workshops, what I really want is for everyone to have a nice time; I don’t want them to feel any pressure of not being as good as someone else. Also,’ he says to me, with a lowered voice and mock expression of headmasterly sternness, ‘I don’t let them chat. I talk and they listen... they can chat at lunchtime and during coffee!’
Matthew and Emma’s daughter Lil joins us, and is immediately showered with love by Lulu and Loretta, who entertain us by climbing onto the sofa to join her, before landing – loudly and ungraciously – onto the flagstone floor. Completely, heart-meltingly adorable; they really do think they’re dogs.
Lil is heavily pregnant (as in a week or so to go) with her first child when I visit (the very beautiful Louis Marsh Cross is born shortly after, and now has an adoring fanclub on Instagram). I mention to her that I was incredibly impressed with her Cyr wheel practice video she put on social media a few days earlier; effortlessly spinning with a nine-month baby bump. Yes, really.
‘Weirdly, it didn’t feel all that different,’ she says, ‘as the weight is central and at the front. I think it would be different if it were at the back...’
‘Thank goodness it’s not,’ Matthew says, wisely.
Despite the imminent arrival of her and boyfriend Dave Cross’s baby (Dave is the head chef, who will be cooking suppers for the events at Ham Court), Lil is in full-on organisational mode for her 2023 run of Fool’s Circus shows, called The Green.
‘It’s a Pagan celebration of the land,’ she explains. ‘Most of us are experiencing some form of ‘psychic sickness’ because of the time we spend on our phones and the internet. Even when I was writing the copy about the show for Instagram, I was thinking, “What on earth... I’m sitting on a phone, writing about the psychic toll that life is taking on us, and thinking about what emojis to put in!”
‘The show is about ritual and our connection to the land,’ she continues, ‘and is going to feature Morris dancing, among other things. I discovered recently that all Morris dancers used to be women, because women were thought to have a real connection to the land. We were the ones who performed fertility rites, and gave hope for better crops. In Bampton alone, there used to be seven Morris dancing sides! Bampton is a weird and amazing town; if you go into one of the pubs around Christmas, there will always be mummers, which I find fascinating. Nell had a real interest in mumming, too.’
Yes, Nell – as in Gifford – the founder of Giffords Circus, who also happens to be Lil’s aunt. (I told you it was one helluva dynasty.) Nell was an astonishing woman – a true force of nature – and, when we lost her to breast cancer in December 2019, she entrusted her beloved circus to her niece.
The first time I saw Lil performing was at Giffords’ Xanadu show, where she effortlessly performed a human-gyroscope act in the Cyr wheel while singing beautifully throughout. Incredible.
As well as cooking for the circus evenings, Dave will be preparing dinner each night for the open garden events to be held at Ham Court. Matthew believes the gardens to be at their best at dawn and dusk rather than in the middle of the day, so groups of around 30 will be shown around the summer gardens before being treated to a ‘fancy dinner’.
Matthew Rice has had a fascination with buildings and architecture since he was a teenager, and this can be seen in his wonderful books, such as Village Buildings of Britain, Rice’s Language of Buildings, and, more recently, his sketchbooks of Venice and Rome.
‘Buildings are how we say who we are,’ he says. ‘When you build your house, it’s the biggest, boldest statement of what you’re about... whether that’s a huge palace or a tiny cottage.
‘It has been said that architecture is ‘frozen music’, he says, ‘and I think that’s a good analogy. You are just reorganising the same series of components in different ways, to evoke different emotions in people: to terrify them, to impress them, to romance them, to put them at their ease...’
Ham Court certainly is a beautiful, beautiful place – both house and extensive gardens – and Matthew has a very generous attitude to sharing his good fortune of living here with others.
‘It’s good living in an architecturally interesting house,’ he says. ‘I think being able to entertain people is an incredibly nice thing to do if you’re lucky enough to have somewhere like this.’
EVENTS AT HAM COURT
Ham Court Garden Supper
Saturday, June 10, 7pm
Saturday, July 1, 7pm
Saturday, September 9, 7pm
With a drink in your hand, Matthew Rice will give you a private tour of the garden in the evening light when it always looks its best. This will be followed by a delicious supper in the old dairy at Ham Court cooked by in-house chef, Dave Cross. £75 per person; wine available.
Open Garden at Ham Court
Sunday, June 11, 11am-5pm
Sunday, July 2, 11am-5pm
Sunday, September 10, 11am-5pm
Walk around the moat and through the walled kitchen garden, greenhouse, orchard and paddocks surrounding the last gatehouse fragment of the medieval Bampton Castle. There will be a small Emma Bridgewater pottery sale on the day and Matthew will be signing his books on Venice and Rome, amongst others. Admission £5; children under 12 free. Home-made teas available.
Ham Court, Weald, Bampton, Oxfordshire, OX18 2HG. To book, visit matthewricewatercolours.co.uk
Watercolour Courses with Matthew Rice
Wednesday, June 7 and Thursday, June 8
Sketchbook Courses with Matthew Rice
Wednesday, June 14 and Thursday, June 15
For the first time in 2023, Matthew is opening up his large, airy studio to a small group of students for a series of two-day courses focusing on painting nature from life. Professional materials will be supplied for use during each course, including best French watercolour paper, Russian sable brushes and Schminke watercolours – the same equipment that Matthew uses in his work; and students will enjoy delicious food cooked using locally-sourced ingredients, including some grown in Matthew’s kitchen garden.
£600, non-residential course. Email pa@ottercootllp.co.uk for more details.
Fool’s Delight Circus
July 21-31
Started by Lil Rice, Sam Goodburn & Dave Cross, Fool’s Delight is a circus and dinner show for all ages. The day show is a two-part, family-friendly circus show, whilst the evening show is for older audiences and is accompanied by a five-course dinner created by head chef Dave Cross. foolsdelight.co.uk
Summer Dahlia Day, with Willow Crossley
Tuesday, September 19, 10am-3pm
As part of the programme of summer events at the Court, world-renowned florist Willow Crossley will be hosting this flower course, where you will be able to enjoy a day making an arrangement and talking all things dahlias. Morning tea, a delicious organic lunch, afternoon tea, and all refreshments included. £275. willowcrossley.com
