Eve Macfarlane is an illustrator and watercolourist living in Te Mata. You may recognise her as an Olympic rower, but since retiring two years ago she has fully embraced her lifelong passion for art.
Coming from a family intensely interested in creating, Eve took her granny’s advice to heart; “If you can learn how to draw the figure, you can draw anything”. From an initial life drawing class in Hamilton, to seeking mentorship from Dominique Marriott, and finally settling into Raglan’s regular life drawing group; Macfarlane’s practice has gone from strength to strength.
Drawing immense satisfaction from the ‘yummy line’, Macfarlane is process driven, making work for the pure joy of it. When she speaks about the world she sees, it’s clear she’s constantly undergoing a process of distillation – breaking landscape, bodies, objects down to their essential elements in her mind. “I love to sit and see the beautiful line of a cushion, a hill. Sometimes it’s just too much, too overwhelming, and I have to tell myself to get out of my art brain”.
Working from her tiny but gorgeous light-filled studio, Eve draws inspiration from wild places she has travelled, quickly sketching the essential information as she goes. Her mark making even here shows an assuredness of purpose – she’s clear about what she’s seeing and wants to preserve from a scene, leaving 99% out. “I quite enjoy documenting a point in time…I’m so inspired by composition. Life drawing has taught me how to see, how to actually, properly see…light, dark, line, colour, and form.”
Macfarlane is always taking the time to experiment and master new mediums, trying to not “get stuck in what you know; it’s nice to be forced out of your comfort zone. I’m still finding out who I am as an artist, delving into exploring materials.”
Eve has recently joined the Artistry Huddle – a group of artists who get together to critique each other’s work, in addition to the mental exercises she does to deactivate the constant critique of the right brain – drawing with her left hand, keeping her eyes deliberately averted from the drawing emerging or listening to music, “the louder the better”!
Eve takes commissions, and has a few pregnancy nudes and a landscape in the works. “At the end of it all, I find myself endlessly inspired by the little flaws, seeing a bit of movement in a work, and of course, that tasty, tasty line.”
W: evemacfarlane.com
IG: @evemacfarlane
About the writer – Sarah Bing is a ceramic artist based in Upper Wainui Road
