Natural harmony |
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Climbing to it from a Parnell street, the house looks as small, dark, gabled and almost absurdly picturesque as you’d expect of a 1920s arts and crafts style cottage designed by Sholto Smith. But, late in life, the lovely higgle-piggle of low ceilings, angled staircase, mysterious doors and little rooms has been married to a much younger, light-hearted extension. They have little in common but are wholly compatible and will live together happily ever after.
The indoors flows out and the outdoors flows in. The garden is present in the house in Anna’s huge photographic flower portraits, but it’s also there in botanically themed fabrics, objets d’art, chandeliers and china and the views framed by every window, like Karl Maughan paintings. “I’m happiest photographing outdoors and love the immediacy of the connection with the garden,” says Anna. “I can always see what’s happening.”
Mature pohutukawa, Kermadec nikau and griselineas underplanted with Euphorbia wulfenii screen the house from the street, giving way to buxus and port wine magnolia hedges, then hellebores, daphne and star jasmine at the front door. A side path lined with camellias winds to the back garden with its terraced beds of daffodils, stocks, scented geraniums, rosemary, topiary bay, violets, acanthus, heritage dianthus, globe artichokes, vegetable beds, citrus trees…
“I choose plants that remind me of family and friends. My mother had Magnolia stellata in her wedding bouquet so I’ve got it here.”
Anna’s flowers are her muses. Her hellebore will grace the common sitting room of Ronald McDonald House’s new Auckland apartments for the families of sick children. Blown up to a metre square, it’s her first work on perspex.
Her poppies inspire her too. “I love the roundness of them – photographers are always looking for some underlying shape – and of course I love the colours… whether it’s vibrant or pastel. I’ve always been a colourist and I love rich colours in interiors.”
In her home a pink peony portrait contrasts with her studio’s apple green walls; the extension’s rich brown sitting room is made even warmer by the yellow water lily portrait above the fireplace and the uplifting butter yellow sofas suggested by interior designer Neil McLachlan.
The house was the first and only one they viewed when they decided to sell their old villa in Parnell. “We fell in love with it. It was a bit small because we had three children but it was very charming and we saw its possibilities. And we liked the no-exit street.”
Extensions were done in two phases. Their 1989 alterations shifted the kitchen and added a bedroom – now Anna’s studio – that might have been put there by Sholto Smith himself. But four years ago, when they decided to extend again, they opted for light – as much of it as possible – and hitched classic to contemporary.
To a photographer, light is like Punch; there’s no show without it. Says Anna: “I’m always watching it, indoors and out, waiting for the right moment.” Geoff Ward’s design hoisted the dining-living area stud to 3.3 metres and added a big second sitting room with a “light box” window right around its equally lofty ceiling.
“I wasn’t aware of the house being dark before but now I’m aware of this part of the house being a lovely, illuminated space. I like the contrast and juxtaposition – the darker, intimate cottage side of the house with the new, airy part; the different ceiling heights and the shifts in scale.” Contrast, juxtaposition, shifting scales and, necessarily, light, are the essence of her work as well.
Shot in extreme close-up and blown up on to canvas, paper, vinyl and now perspex, her flower prints are micro in subject – stamens, petals, part of a frond – but macro in impact and size.
Her mother’s flowers and her father’s cultivation of “white grapes, acid-free tomatoes and other things that were unusual at the time” first nurtured Anna’s interest in the garden. It was during a visit to her sister in the United States 30 years ago that she discovered that taking pictures “was something I could do”. A degree in photography and English followed and in 2006 she started shooting large-format botanic images.
Most of us can step into our gardens, pick a flower and stick it in a vase. Anna steps into the garden, picks a flower and makes a work of art.
“My home and my professional life are in harmony,” she says. “Living here enhances my life as a botanic photographer.”
For web-exclusive images click on the "photo gallery" link above
Story: Prue Dashfield
Photographs: Tessa Chrisp
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