2024 Exhibition

Philippa Miller – Broadland’s Artist

Philippa Ruth (Pippa) Miller painted, filmed, and recorded the Broads for many decades. Born to a boat building family in Oulton Broad in 1905, she loved everything about Broadland.  Although Miller moved to Norwich in 1930 to teach art, her inspiration was always in the open waterways of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads.

In 1923 Miller said she would sail all day, moor up at night and paint what she saw. She described Broadland as the “vast and almost unending flatness of lonely marsh”.

In World War Two Miller documented the damage done to Norwich’s terraces and suburbs by the 1942 bombing.  Her sketched images, done within hours of each attack, were given to the Norwich Castle Museum.

As well as sketching and painting, Miller created short films, made miniature worlds, and researched and wrote books on local village signs.  She also wrote and illustrated two booklets on the Broads in her lifetime.

The Museum is honoured to have the largest collection of Philippa Miller’s work in its care.  This special exhibition enables us to show some of the incredible and varied output of a talented artist inspired by the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads.

A special exhibition booklet and a booklet about Miller’s miniature creation, ‘Pypton Village’, are both available for sale in the Museum’s shop, as are other items inspired by her work.

This exhibition will run until the end of 2024.