Honiton Hill Rally 2023

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Natalie Grace
1 September 2023
18:28
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My second stand of the year at Honiton Hill Rally.

Over the August bank holiday weekend last weekend, I had my art stand at the Honiton Hill Rally. This was a step up from my previous stand as this was a two day event, with a much larger audience. I had actually somewhat decided to do this event late last year after I had been to the rally last year, and seen as my boyfriend is part of the committee I had no reason not to!

The Honiton Hill Rally (honitonhillrally.co.uk) is held every year over the August bank holiday, and is a long running event that has been going since 1972. It started out as a vintage farm machinery rally, where enthusiasts could show their steam engines, tractors, and other vintage farm equipment. This is still very much the main feature of the rally today, but has expanded over the years to become a fun family event.

This year I decided to have a pitch in the Arts & Crafts tent, and have been looking forward to this for a long time, especially after how well my first art stand went. When the weekend actually came along, I was very glad to be inside the tent.. on Sunday it was windy, rainy, and just felt like winter. The Monday was much drier but still windy, if anyone knows Dunkeswell, you will know it has its own weather.

I think because the weather was rubbish on the Sunday, and it was the first day of the event, it was very quiet and I sold barely anything, it was bit of a disappointing day really. I made the most of it though and did a couple sketches whilst I was there. I also spent a lot of time chatting to the lady at the stall next to me, a great thing to bear in mind for future stalls as it can come in handy if you need someone to look after your stand whilst you nip to the loo!

Despite this, I was still optimistic for the Monday. And for good reason too! Monday was a great day, I sold much more stuff and got to speak to a lot of people interested in my pet portrait commissions. Have also worked out that my giraffe drawing is definitely one of the favourites with my customers too, as I sold a couple prints, cards, and bookmarks of my giraffe.

Looking back at the two days, it was a great success. It was so lovely to catch up with some old faces and to meet lots of new customers who either bought something on the day or have booked themselves in for a commission. My pet portrait raffle also had lots more entries, so I am hoping to finish that this weekend and draw the winner, so keep your eyes peeled if you entered.

One of the highlights from the day was also seeing my old Tech teacher who was my favourite at school, so it was nice to be able to show what I have been doing since I left 5 years ago. The other funny thing that happened was the 82 year old security man who kept coming over to my stand and talking to me and my mum about random things. At the end of the day he gave me an old 1967 penny, as a penny for my thoughts.

As always, thank you to my family who helped me on both days, and to all of you who came over to my stand. Hopefully I will see lots of you there again next year!

Welcome to Natalie Grace Art!

Hello, I'm Natalie!

Hello everyone, welcome to my page! My name is Natalie, and I am a self taught artist based in East Devon. I specialise in pencil portraits of pets but love drawing all types of animal!