Lee Evans
A lifelong love of plants, animals, painting and storytelling were interwoven several years ago into Lee’s small business, Feather Flower Brush. Between raising heritage breeds of chickens and growing daphne plants, Lee takes up her brushes to capture the essence of small farm life in her oils and watercolours.
Lee derives constant inspiration for her paintings from the old heritage-listed farm she lives on in Glenorie and from all the beautiful plants and animals, both native and domestic, that surround her there.
Lee enjoys capturing the individual character of farm animals and much-loved pets and finds the texture of oil paint ideal for these more expressive, realist works. She also uses oils for naïve-style scenes brimming with farm and garden life and activity.
Lee’s studies of native plants and the small birds and insects that inhabit them call for very fine detail. For these works Lee uses the dry-brush watercolour techniques of botanical art. She delights in concealing tiny creatures amongst the foliage to draw the viewer into closer examination of the painting.
Lee’s artworks are reproduced as prints and stationery including greeting cards, notepads, gift-wrap, writing compendiums and bookmarks. She also accepts commissions for original paintings.
Lee’s love of storytelling brings a strong narrative quality to her work. She writes an entertaining Small Farm Stories blog on her website and her greeting cards feature small stories about their subjects.
Lee Evans
Some of my highlights
After 30 years of driving to and from office jobs, often spending more than three hours in peak hour traffic each day, I took a leap into the unknown in 2012 and decided to see if it might be possible to make a living right here on the farm. I’m now ‘living locally’ by working from home and employing the services of local businesses – my printer works from a home office on the same road as me. And I’m ‘giving globally’ by reducing my carbon footprint and contributing 5% of profits from Feather Flower Brush to charitable organisations supporting the health and well-being of people and the environment both within Australia and internationally. My products are made from either recycled paper or paper from sustainable forests and my printer uses 50% solar energy in the printing process.
About half of the property is cleared, arable land and the rest is native bushland which backs onto an enormous uninhabited area of steep ridges and gullies stretching away towards the distant Hawkesbury River. My parents, Nona and Allan Evans, bought Abergeldie before I was born and I’ve had the great good fortune to experience the many riches of living on a small farm all my life.