"I was born in Norfolk [UK] and have always loved Norfolk," she says.
Hope has written about her life in Norfolk and the school at which she taught.
Martin and Sarah have been cataloguing their mother's work and found she had been writing about her family, initially through diaries, and then with stories and poems, from the 1940s through to the 1960s ... "then a flurry in the 1970s when she started to get things published", says Sarah.
So far, their sorting and cataloguing have revealed more than 500 short stories written by Hope, some of which have been published.
"Mum is a prolific and unstoppable writer," says Martin.
"I can't help it," says Hope.
She is still creating with words. A recent spontaneous entry in a Turakina visitors' book reads as follows:
"The flag was flying wisps of joy
It sprinkled widely with wonder
This wonder wide I held with pride
And nought would draw it sunder."
"When Hope first moved to Whanganui she became really involved in ARLA, Adult Reading and Learning Association, and did a lot of one-on-one tutoring for adults with literacy difficulties, so that passion for language and reading and writing has been a constant through Hope's life, whether formally, as a teacher, or more informally in those one-on-one relationships," says Sarah.
Sarah says her mother has been painting and drawing for as long as she can remember.
"What I specifically remember with the paintings that are included in the exhibition is that there are paintings from 1988 ... and that was when she was going through a prolific period, like she did in the 70s with her writing, I feel, in the 80s with her painting and drawing using felt pens, and it was in the early 1990s that Hope had some exhibitions in Scene Gallery in Whanganui and Square Edge in Palmerston North."
Martin says his mother's media were felt pens and acrylics.
Some of the paintings have short verses or pieces of writing to accompany them. Some drawings were made to illustrate stories: Hope found a way to combine her creative talents.
Hope's other son, Nigel, is an established painter and Martin paints as well.
"Sarah and I both love language," says Martin. "In fact, my son, Sarah and myself ... have a chat group in which we discuss those sorts of things, called 'Words, cats and Steely Dan' ..."
"Martin and I were blown away by the amount of work that Hope had created, when we catalogued the short stories recently," says Sarah. "As a child, it meant my mother was a 'fun mum'. When my friends came over they would often say, 'Can your mum play with us?' With Mum's creative thinking she would be part of our game or come up with ideas for games. It was a wonderful thing to have had that exposure to a mum who was playful and creative."
Now, Hope's children are honouring her and her visual creativity with this exhibition at HLjKO.
Hope Hucklesby's work is on display now at the gallery at 69 Ridgway St, next to the Gatshack, in a show titled Hope Hucklesby Retrospective Exhibition, and continues until October 22.
