Chloe Blades lives in a house happily overflowing with books, and that is exactly where the magic of her art begins. Literature and painting go hand in hand for Chloe; reading her favourite books, she finds inspiration for her art.
Those words from the books she reads and the paintings she draws help her process the exhausting, beautiful, and sometimes wild journey of motherhood. Between early morning wake-ups from her little boy shouting "BOO!" and the busy reality of raising kids far from family, her paintbrush is a safe space to dream. On the canvas, Chloe gets to create her imagined spaces.
Whether she is leaving a favourite paperback on her windowsill for a friend to take, or painting a cosy scene that invites you to pull up a chair, Chloe's vision is the same. She offers a beautiful, temporary escape and a warm reminder that we are never alone in what we feel — and that you can be a mum and still dream about your carefree days.
My work is fueld by the dichotomies of motherhood: an overprotective love paired with unparalleled exhaustion. I paint imagined tablescapes where I can find stillness and humor, honoring the idea that a woman truly owns the real estate in her head. It is a way to bottle up the essence of a moment and find poetry in the stacks of books and stolen minutes of quiet."
She loves capturing the feeling of special memories, like the sunny, carefree nostalgia of living in Greece when she was eighteen. Other times, she paints beautiful dinner tables, set and waiting for good friends, picnics on the beach, and a glass of gin.
Chloe is an artist and bookseller whose work explores domesticity, nostalgia, and the "real estate" of the feminine imagination. A staple of the Auckland literary scene at Unity Books, her practice is inseparable from the written word. She translates underlined quotes and the energy of the bibliophile community into bold, colour-rich portrayals of motherhood and shared tables.
Photography credits: Babiche Martens
