Step into Cathy Jones’ studio in Washington Valley and the first things you’ll see are figures and florals. But these aren’t your mother’s dainty blossoms – Cathy’s work is bold and uncompromising, featuring female figures in dynamic poses, and native New Zealand plants in a colourblock style, almost like stained glass. Look a bit closer, however, and you’ll start to see something more. The undulating lines of a landscape might hide a woman in repose, while the various plants express a quirky sense of movement.
“I’m a botanist, and I still do a tiny bit of work for the Department of Conservation,” Cathy says. “I work with rare plants. Searching for them, monitoring them in the field and deciding what management they might need. Mostly my work has been in South Marlborough.” Cathy has been painting and exhibiting across New Zealand since the mid-1970s, even finding the time to do regular illustrations for the New Zealand Botanical Society newsletter.
Today, many of her works continue that strong ecological message. “It’s really important to me to present the New Zealand flowers as being attractive and interesting. And that we need to look after them. I have a need to have the plants recognizable, not just to be pretty decorations. I think it would offend my botanical self too much if I didn’t. There is a strong conservation ethic right through me.”
Coming off a 2020 solo exhibition in the McKee Gallery at the Suter Art Gallery and a subsequent spate of commissions, Cathy is now turning toward what she’ll paint next. “I’m more interested in how I may alter my style subtly. Something is pushing me towards change. I graduated in 2017 with an Advanced Diploma in Art and Creativity from The Learning Connexion in Wellington. And that sort of stirred up all sorts of additional things, encouraged me to delve a bit as far as style and even subject matter are concerned.”
Top of her mind is another series of works centred on Molesworth Station, a reserve amongst the scree-sloped mountains and tussock of Marlborough. It’s an area Cathy has painted before, culminating in a 2004 series also exhibited at the McKee Gallery in the Suter, “Molesworth,” and she’s keen to revisit how it has changed. “There’s been more emphasis on conservation. That has meant there is quite a regrowth of woody vegetation, shrubby stuff – some native and not native. The lower altitude sites will gradually return to forest over hundreds of years.”
1/47A Washington Road, Nelson
Open Wednesdays 12-5pm, and by appointment
03 546 9499 | cathyjones4art.weebly.com
