Sophie Holt
Ceramic artist & designer
Ceramic artist & designer
With her bold colours, playful designs and unmistakable sense of fun, ceramic artist Sophie Holt creates pieces that make people smile. From her studio in Lower Moutere, she shares how her Dutch upbringing, love of nature and journey to Nelson Tasman have shaped her art and the life she's built here.
As told to local writer Catherine Milford.
Sophie Holt’s style is instantly recognisable. Bold, bright and unashamedly playful, her art is heavily influenced by her childhood in the Netherlands.
“I’m glad I grew up in the Netherlands as it really influenced my art style – it’s a bit different there. Some of the kids’ TV programmes were absolutely bonkers!” says Sophie, who lives in Lower Moutere with her partner, fellow artist Mat Tait, son Milan, mum Lot Brandt, Lot’s partner Frans van der Werf, and beloved labraspoodle Dusty.
“But I feel so lucky to live here. It’s all I’ve ever dreamed of.”
Sophie drew on her strong connection with New Zealand nature when designing her T-shirt for the Nelson Tasman artist series.
“I wanted to create a piece that’s still in my style, but is also connected to the area,” she explains. “It was a bit of a challenge as I don’t usually do native birds – there are other artists who do them really well – but I wanted to make people smile."
“Mountains are a big thing for me; Nelson Tasman has amazing fruit and sunshine so I had to include them, of course, and my garden is full of tūī which I love. I wanted to make a shirt that reminded me of those loud ‘80s shirts we all used to buy when we went overseas, because it’s a memory that makes me smile.”
Sophie’s quirky style has made her cups, plates and wall hangings popular nationwide.
But things haven’t always been easy for the artist. “I came to New Zealand in 2008 when I was 21, and lived in Auckland and Wellington. Then I got pregnant when I was 22 and moved to Christchurch.”
With her parents still in the Netherlands, life as a single mum was tough. “I liked Christchurch, but I wasn’t in love with it – then in 2011, the earthquake happened,” she recalls. “I was very traumatised – you don’t get earthquakes in the Netherlands, so I had no idea what one felt like.
“I lived in fear after that, until one day my dad asked me why I was staying in Christchurch if I didn’t like it? He’d always told me how incredible the Nelson Tasman area is, so in 2012, I packed up my car and moved here.”
Broke and alone, Sophie stayed at a friend’s house while she found her feet. “It wasn’t an easy move. I was very young with a baby, but it was a wooden house with a beautiful deck and flowers everywhere – exactly how I’d envisioned the area. That became a very happy time in my life,” she tells.
She joined the Riwaka Pottery Club and began selling her signature pieces. Soon her work gained recognition, and she was invited to join the Little Beehive Co-op in Nelson. From there, Sophie’s business grew, and when Lot and Frans relocated from the Netherlands 18 months ago, Sophie’s idyll became complete.
“Being here healed me,” she says simply. “There is so much art and nature – I feel safe and grounded here. Whenever I go away, I’m always grateful to come home.”
Sophie describes her home as her ‘happy place’.
“When we moved in, Frans and Milan went to the beach to collect driftwood, and we built our studio beams from that,” she smiles. “Now Mat, Milan and I live on the top floor, Mum and Frans have the bottom floor, and we share the kitchen.”
Sophie shares her studio with Lot, who, like her father before her, is also a sculptural artist. “I grew up watching Mum make things from clay, and we’d draw for hours together."
“Sharing a studio works really well; the window looks out onto the lawn and what we call our ‘spirit tree’. Every year herons come to nest there, which is so special.”
Art is more than a profession for Sophie – it’s also her therapy. “It sounds like a cliché, but art helps me process things. If I don’t do my art I become a very sad person. It helped me through a brutal breakup a few years ago, and it’s my sanctuary when I need to think.”
When she’s not in the studio, Sophie can often be found on the local beaches, hunting for treasures. “I enjoy finding crazy shaped driftwood, and I found a pufferfish once which was weird – it was perfect, like someone had just placed it there. Another day I found a load of apples which I think had washed up after a storm or something – that was surreal."
“My current obsession is trying to find the alphabet written in the stones, but I haven’t got very far yet. I currently have an N, an H, lots of Os and maybe a K. I think it’s going to be a lifelong project!”
