October 28, 2011

country style cover

It all started with a friend's holiday shack. I was staying there over the summer holidays. Resting. Reviving. Renewing myself ahead of the new year. Every day, sometimes many times over, I walked along a bush track to an isolated beach. On this journey I passed a little white cottage and every time I had to slow down to admire its charm and poise. I could see the outlines of a towering bookcase beyond the front door, and I was intrigued as to what else lay inside, and who owned such a place.

I wrote a note, folded it in half and left it under a gumnut on the cottage's front terrace. Days later, when I was back in Bondi, I received a call from the owner. When we met months later she told me that she called because I had chosen a gumnut as a paper weight. It was a fortuitous decision. I was to learn that the owner, Cherie-Christine Curchod, painted them as part of her art practice. In fact, she often has the florist Grandiflora in Potts Point source particular varieties from Western Australia for her botanical paintings.

The result of our meeting is in the latest issue of Country Style. It was one of the first batch of homes Chris Warnes and I shot for Warnes & Walton, and I was thrilled to discover yesterday that it had made the cover of the latest November issue.