Colour Infusion |
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Well-known new zealand artist Jane Evans is celebrating a quarter-century of life at her Nelson home by cutting down the hawthorn hedge that has hidden one of the most painted gardens in the country.
For most people, the decision to cut down a hedge would be inconsequential, but Jane Evans isn’t most people. The hedge has served as a divider between her space and the world; behind it she has found inspiration for much of her art.
But now, approaching the age when she officially becomes a “senior citizen”, she’s breaking loose, opening her hillside home to the world, expanding her views of the sea and sky.
 Though Nelson painter Jane Evans is obliged to stay out of direct sun, her home and garden, like her art, are filled with light and colour.Since 1985, when she bought the Russell Street cottage, her garden has been an inextricable part of her life and work. She is known for her vibrant artworks and the garden beds and pots are always packed with seasonal colour.
The cottage, like so many in Russell Street, has always overlooked the sea. It was originally home to a sea captain – Captain Vickerman – and it’s said that he always kept a wary eye on the sea and the port through his telescope. The cottage was built in 1878, the same year the Theatre Royal was built, and the year Nelson’s most famous son, Ernest Rutherford, started school down the road at Foxhill.
Inspired by memories of the Mediterranean coast, where she travelled with friends as a young woman, Jane determined to turn the century-old cottage into her Kiwi equivalent of a Mediterranean villa. With inspiration and help from experts such as architect Ian Athfield and David Studholme, a consultant to the Historic Places Trust on cob buildings, she converted the rotting two-storey weatherboard cottage to a more substantial house with two bathrooms, two bedrooms and expansive living and dining areas. David helped her “cob” the house, using local Moutere clay in its natural ochre colour.
The aspect of her Russell Street home Jane loves most; the French casement windows open right back against the clay walls of the house and she says the curve of the brick invites guests in to her home; the decorative grape along the veranda has Jane’s favourite rose ‘Nancy Hayward’ growing through it.
Though she’s always lived in Nelson, one of New Zealand’s sunniest cities, Jane has had to avoid the sun throughout her life. She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus at the age of just 18 and cannot tolerate the sun. But, rather than allow it to be an issue, she has designed her home with plenty of windows for interior light and a covered patio space where she can safely enjoy the summer temperatures protected from direct sun.
“I have learned to live with it,” she says. “Certainly it was devastating to be told I can’t go into the sun and for a while, like any young person, I just ignored the advice and said, ‘Do you think I am going to hop from umbrella to umbrella on the Med?’ But I paid for it.”
These days, she’s buoyed by a more widespread appreciation of the dangers of sun exposure and finds almost every guest and friend prefers to join her out of direct sunlight.
There are exceptions of course. “My poodle Piccolo loves the warmth. He can think of nothing better than to pick a few toys out of his toy basket and lie on his cushion in the sun surrounded by toys. He is a delight.”
The kitchen has a workbench overlooking a dining nook so that Jane and her partner, Jim Martin, who does most of the cooking, can chat to friends while preparing food. A wall of photos evokes a million memories.
Above the sink hangs a chain of utensils, strung off an old yoke once used to carry pails of milk. Shelves to the side of the kitchen are crammed with ceramic kitchenware handmade by local artist friends. The profusion of colour includes roosters in various forms and sizes – gifts from friends familiar with Jane’s penchant for roosters.
One of her best-known works, Strutting Rooster with Audience Entranced, hangs at the entrance to the kitchen. It’s one of just two works Jane has selected for reproduction as giclée (digital inkjet) prints sold exclusively from her studio.
Every aspect of the house is packed with colour, art and intricate detail. Even the hallstand at the front door, home to hats and bags, is artistically arranged, with one of her works, Boy on a Bicycle with Birds, as a background piece.
The artwork is a tin portrait of Frida Kahlo, a gift from a friend.
“I often have guests and it’s nice to have a pleasant environment to sit and chat,” she explains. “Every week I have people who come in and help – my PA, someone to help with the garden, another who washes Piccolo, and I often get people wanting to meet me and look at art.”
It’s clear she operates her home and garden as efficiently as her business. Everything is in order and artistically positioned. At the time of the refurbishment, a new studio was built just a few strides from the house, but sufficiently far away to provide peace and separation from the home. Today palettes of paint and tools are scattered along the studio workbench. Record books with details of her paintings are stacked in a corner along with an order book listing clients awaiting works.
“I don’t need to exhibit,” says Jane. “I can’t keep up with the orders. I have clients waiting for works. We divide clients according to the genre of painting they want and my PA waits till I have a selection of, say, three works, which we photograph and then offer to a waiting client. My problem today is having the energy; it’s a special sort of energy you need for painting.”
It’s nearly 50 years since Jane won the South Island secondary schools painting cup as a 15-year-old Nelson Girls College student, launching her art career.
“I was always drawing but I remember when the teacher told me I had won I asked just what I had won. My teacher had entered my work unbeknownst to me.”
It’s been an interesting and rewarding ride for that young girl, who made up her mind to focus on her profession with the goal of one day being acknowledged as an artist of worth. Today, acknowledged and acclaimed, with her hedge down, a new batch of seedlings in bloom and the garden packed with flowering plants, Jane is ready to celebrate 50 years of life as an artist, nearly half of them spent in her inspirational Russell Street home.
The best piece of advice I received was: Go for broke! Use the best materials available as you don’t want to return to the scene of the crime.
The bravest thing we did around the house was: Inventing a method of cladding an old weatherboard house in clay that, to my knowledge, had never been done before.
This weekend I will be: Going to The Boat Shed for dinner with friends from Seattle who are staying in my B&B and then having Sunday lunch with Wellington friends at the newly opened cafe in historic Melrose House. Obviously far too much eating ahead!
My favourite part of the house is: The kitchen nook by the waterfall, which brings the birds so close to my open window that I could almost reach out and touch them.
I love this part of New Zealand because: The climate is superb. We have fresh local fruit and seasonal vegetables at the local markets. My fig tree is laden and I have my own boysenberries, raspberries, gooseberries, cape gooseberries, oranges and lemons. As a painter, I’m enthralled by the quality of light, encouraging colours to bounce off one another and really sing.
The best thing about painting is: The pleasure people get from living with my paintings. It is hugely humbling, particularly when people write to me about how much joy they derive each day and they often want another work. That is not to say that everyone loves my work, but the many who do certainly share their enjoyment with me – one of the many bonuses in a life of painting.
For web-exclusive images click on the "photo gallery" link above
Story: Jill Wild
Photographs: Daniel Allen
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