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A home fro m a h o m e W R I TT E N BY B E T H ROS E | P H OTO G R A P H Y BY A N N A B R I G G S
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childhood spent off the grid and surrounded by native bush has been reimagined in a Churton Park townhouse. Photographer Bonny Beattie has created a homage to her upbringing and her artistic heritage in an unassuming home. Small, modern and secure, these numerous almost identical two-level town houses are built for practicality and convenience, and have their own pool, tennis court and gym. Who lives in a house like this? Appearances – as they say – can be deceiving. Bonny and her husband Kyle Beattie, a website and app creator, started renting here six years ago when they came back to New Zealand after a year in Kyle’s home country of Zimbabwe. The initial attraction was being able to arrange their tenancy while still overseas, whereas it usually requires a face-to-face interview with the landlord. The couple have since enjoyed the security and stability of their little rental and have no plans to go anywhere until they buy somewhere of their own, which they say is a few years away yet. “Churton Park developments leave covenants on bush land, so there are places we can go walking. And we have access to doctors, pharmacist, supermarket and a café,” says Beattie. This all sounds neat and tidy, but the Beatties also hold creativity and individuality dear, and
there are obvious limits on scope for personalisation and dramatic expression if you don’t own your home: the walls must stay where they are. An artistic mind, however, finds ways around them. Paintings of nature, nostalgic family photographs and bright still life compositions own the rooms. Beattie’s early family life was lived self-sufficiently off the grid, at Helena Bay, near Whangarei, with her mother, stepfather, sister and two brothers. Her stepfather, John Robinson, built their house, on 390 acres of bush, and it was surrounded by a further 500 acres of Department of Conservation land. Recalling the decade at Helena Bay is making Beattie laugh. “There was no fridge,” explains Beattie. “I realise how unusual it can sound but for me, it’s completely normal.” The beloved homemade house no longer exists. The next owners lost it to a house fire – in its remote location, there was nothing that could be done, and it burnt to the ground. For her Masters’ degree in Fine Arts at Massey University, Beattie produced an abstract “reconstruction” of her family’s home using old photographs, framed and re-photographed. The essence of this work is also what makes their townhouse in Churton Park a home. Her own artwork sits alongside bought and made curiosities, mirrors and frames made by her
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