Kenzy Cheeseman, an artist and fashion designer, makes botanical art prints using flowers from her father’s garden, and also designs and sews face masks. She lives in Hataitai, Wellington, with her partner Luis Perez, a chef.
KENZY CHEESEMAN: We bought this townhouse about four and a half years ago. It was pretty rundown when we got it, with dirty yellow walls. We completely gutted it and painted the walls white. It’s a really cosy house in the winter and a suntrap in summer. It’s so close to town and Hataitai beach for swims in summer.
I keep my bike inside so I remember to ride it, although I must admit I do find the Wellington roads a bit terrifying.
Ross Giblin
Cheeseman bought these colourful Bitossi wine and water glasses from Bello.
At the time we moved in, I was managing Bello, a homewares store, and a lot of our things come from there. I had not long finished up my silk and merino loungewear label, For Every Minute, which ran for five years. I’ll be honest, I lost a bit of my creative confidence after having to close down a brand I’d put my heart and soul into.
My Bitossi glasses are quite precious. They’re colour coded so when friends come over we get a colour each so we don’t get our drinks mixed up.
The Tsé Tsé ceramic bowls and plates are bold with Uzbek patterns, and I’m drawn to their irregular shapes. Luis and I both enjoy cooking. When you get to present food on beautiful plates, it makes the dining experience so much more interesting.
Ross Giblin
Cheeseman’s dining suite holds plenty of memories – here she is sitting in one of the dining chairs as a child.
Ross Giblin
Cheeseman’s parents brought the table and chairs with them from London when they moved to New Zealand in the 1990s. The ceramics are Tsé Tsé. The bike is kept inside as a reminder to ride it.
I wear a lot of black, but I prefer colourful interiors. Colour brightens everything up. We’ve got a bit of orange through the house. It plays off nicely against all our green things.
My parents bought the green dining table in 1975. It’s by the Italian designer, Vico Magistretti, and they had it in their London flat. They’ve always had such cool style – powder pink walls and Mum made their black and white zigzag curtains.
When I was growing up in London, it was our dining table in our formal lounge. We bought it out with us when we moved to New Zealand in the 1990s. I always told my parents I wanted dibs on it. My parents had amazing dinner parties around it over the years, and we’ve loved entertaining around it too.
Ross Giblin
Cheeseman’s Brother sewing machine which she used to start a business designing and making face masks in 2020.
After I closed the business and five years of retail, I missed making my own products. I had no job, and no plan, but was positive and open to opportunities.
That was when I brought my old sewing machine, which had been gathering dust, down from upstairs. The day before the [March 2020] lockdown, I bought a lot of fabric from Spotlight and started making face masks for family and friends, then it went crazy, and our house turned into a production factory.
Ross Giblin
The sofa was originally cream linen, but Cheeseman recovered it in orange fabric. ‘I wear a lot of black but I prefer colourful interiors,’ she says.
I was given the sofa from my mum’s friend. It was a cream linen. I ordered the orange fabric and I had a couple of weeks up my sleeve during one of our lockdowns, so I recovered it. I took a pattern off the old sofa and I made the new covering and the cushions on my sewing machine.
Mum and Dad gave me the Seraphine Pick artwork for my 21st birthday. It’s from the late 1990s. I’ve always loved it.
Ross Giblin
Cheeseman’s parents bought her this Seraphine Pick artwork for her 21st birthday.
Last year, I spent a week looking after my father’s quarter acre garden in Greytown. Dad has a background as a typographer and art director and he combines plants, colours and textures with such a wonderful eye. His garden is my happy place. I started handpicking and arranging flowers, leaves and seed pods he’d grown and I captured them digitally using the process of flatbed scanography.
I thought I’d make them into textile patterns, but a friend asked for one as a framed print, and that was that.
Ross Giblin
Cheeseman will be showing her digital flatbed scanned floral art at the NZ Art Show on in Wellington, her first exhibition.
Ross Giblin
The images are scanned from flowers in her father’s garden in Greytown – Cheeseman says he’s the Monty Don of New Zealand.
I find it mesmerising choosing flowers like dahlias, canna lilies and achillea and arranging them, and standing back and seeing what artwork unfolds. It’s also a chance to watch the flowers and plants changing with the seasons. I can’t wait for the hellebores to bloom in winter.
I’m excited to be exhibiting at the NZ Art Show [over Queen’s Birthday weekend]. It will be my first exhibition ever.
Ross Giblin
This scarf is a reminder of Jan Daly, one of the Wairarapa knitters who worked with Yarnly.
My mother and grandmother were both keen knitters – I don’t have the knack for it! Over in Wairarapa I came across all these knitters and I thought it would be a great way to profile them and support them. I set up Yarnly, which is a collaborative project that brings together a team of skilled hand-crafters to knit, crochet and weave NZ wool yarns into fashion items and accessories. I design the ideas and the knitters make them.
I keep my scarf on a mannequin in my workroom, as a reminder of Jan Daly, one of the knitters who passed away last year. Her wool collection was donated to charity and our knitters did their magic and knitted the wool into baby blankets.
The New Zealand Art Show is on June 3 – 5, Queen’s Birthday Weekend at the TSB Arena in Wellington.
