Colour through the eyes of an artist

When did you first discover an interest in photography?

At eight. My grandparents were keen amateur photographers, so I grew up surrounded by inspiring black and white portraits taken during their travels to Africa and Japan. I used to sit and watch transfixed as my grandfather developed beautiful images in their darkroom and wanted to do it myself.

Which colours are you naturally drawn?

I love a natural palette. I find soft, ethereal, dusky tones more pleasing to the eye and less overpowering to the subjects. I also love working with tone-on-tone, including the black-on-black technique I am often asked to recreate for my pet portrait commissions. My images are emotive and strive to capture the soul of my subjects. If I do use a colour, it is always a soft muted tone.

How do the colours in your home impact your everyday life?

Some people find white walls boring, but I treat my home like an art gallery. I have many art pieces and photographs on my walls, and Resene White Linen complements what’s happening within the image. I have an extensive collection of photography books and my partner Andy has many cookbooks, so we have lots of built-in bookshelves that sit within the walls of our home, which are also white but in a semi-gloss instead of the lowsheen finish used on the walls.

A deep charcoal colour like Resene Baltic Sea on the walls is also a great colour for displaying art and photography, as it provides a strong background for the colours on display to be the hero.

How has your approach to colour changed over the years?

I have always been more fond of muted tones in my photographic work, my home and even in the clothes I wear, although I’m getting a bit braver as I get older. My mum loved yellow, but it wasn’t a colour she could wear as it didn’t suit her complexion, so she painted the dining room in our family home yellow. It was such a fun vibrant room. I think I might take a leaf out of her book when we renovate and go bold in one of the rooms too – probably not quite as bright as Mum’s Resene Bright Spark yellow but something that will put a smile on my face.

What artistic projects do you have in the pipeline?

I always have ideas swishing in my head; I have published 19 books over the years, so I have to publish No.20 at some stage. I have a few ideas on what I would like to publish. They are all completely new projects that will take a few years to develop the images for, so it’s a work in progress.

I have recently launched an online store, Henry and George, which is the only place you can purchase original prints of the photographs I have published over the years, plus we have a few tee-shirts and other products in the pipeline, so I am constantly working on new images and design ideas to add to the collections. The website is a fun project that keeps me busy between photographic commissions.

How have you utilised colour to lift your outdoor living space this summer?

When Andy purchased a Komodo barbecue with the plan to build a barbecue station, we knew we would stain the wood with Resene Waterborne Woodsman Pitch Black – we’ve used it before and love it. We like pops of colour, and the barbecue stands out perfectly against the dark wood stain and the roof in Resene Forest Green. I stained the wooden floors of my old house in Ponsonby with Resene Colorwood Pitch Black wood stain before they were polyurethaned and they looked amazing. We also chose to use a dark stain so that it is quite simple against the garden setting, keeping it quite natural.