Pounamu effect creates soothing artwork

Paula Campbell is a busy woman. As co-founder of Little Beehive Co-op, director of The Great Christmas Market and the designer behind the Solo clothing label, her life is full of art, colour and creative people. She talks to Matt Lawrey about her favourite artwork, her full schedule and her awesome mum.

Paula Campbell’s favourite artwork could easily be mistaken for the biggest piece of pounamu jewellery you’ve ever seen. A fusion of resin and paint framed in copper, the large untitled work was created by contemporary Māori artist Natalie Kere, who used spray cans to get the stone effect.

Paula bought it after painting a wall of the co-op’s Bridge St store pink and deciding she wanted something really special to hang on it.

“I think the colours are amazing. It’s like she’s created a piece of pounamu with the resin but there’s movement in it as well. The colour evokes a feeling. I think it’s really soothing,” Paula said. “I think everybody who looks at it probably feels something different, which is nice as well. We get lots of comments on it. People are drawn to it, so I’m sure Natalie will get lots of commission work from it being in the store.”

Paula first discovered Natalie’s work through her jewellery.

“A mutual friend came into the Beehive and she was wearing one of Natalie’s pounamu, and I just thought it was stunning.”

That encounter led to the two women meeting, the co-op stocking Natalie’s creations, and Paula becoming a big fan of the full range of her work, which also includes carving and prints. Paula says the home she shares with her husband Mitch and blended family is full of art, much of it by friends, including Nelson artists Fleur Woods, Jessica Lindblom-Brice, Soph’ Holt and Peter Geen.

“Everything has got a story and I love colour, I’m not afraid of colour on the walls. I have an eclectic collection from contemporary street style art to an antique still life handed down from my Oma,” she says.

Paula’s love of colour will come as no surprise to anyone who has visited Little Beehive Co-op; the place is about as colourful as a space can get. Nine years after its launch, Paula remains excited about the co-op and its future.

“It kind of started on a whim and then it all fell into place. It just seems like it was meant to be. I still love the whole concept of being an incubator for smaller businesses, and having that outlet for them to sell, and connecting the artists with the customers.”

Paula, who was recognised at the 2019 Eelco Boswijk Civic Awards for her contribution to the city, also gets a huge amount of satisfaction from her other ventures, her clothing label Solo and the hugely popular Great Christmas Market.

A clothing designer for 20 years, Paula runs Solo out of her sewing room next to the Little Beehive.

“It’s all about slow fashion. I spend about 10 hours a week on it. I focus on every-day, easy-to-wear garments. A lot of what I make are one-offs or very small runs. Occasionally I collaborate with artists and screenprint their work on my designs,” she said.

If Paula wasn’t busy enough, she recently joined the board of Uniquely Nelson. She’s got a lot on her plate but that seems to be the way she likes it.

“It doesn’t always feel like work to me, which is such a nice feeling. I feel really lucky that I can say that. Mitch and I will tinker on our computers at night and do bits and pieces all the time, but I think I’ve got a pretty good balance. I don’t stress myself out too much. I can put things down and walk away and come back to it later.”

It’s not hard to trace Paula’s love of creativity to her childhood in Tauranga and the influence of her mother, mixed media artist Lu Ossevoort. A talented landscape and portrait artist, and a former shop window dresser, Lu also made her kids’ clothes.

“I loved the clothes she made us. The whole neighbourhood did. We lived in a little cul-de-sac and I remember her making clothes for other girls in the neighbourhood as well.”

Paula was seven when her mum did something extraordinary. After school one day, Paula and her two sisters came home to discover their mum had done a large mural of a fantasy scene, featuring elves and mushrooms, on a wall of their shared bedroom.

If that wasn’t magical enough, Lu had also made each of her daughters a stuffed toy based on the elves in the mural.

“We got an elf each. They were very well-made and she’d painted their faces. It was just the coolest day ever,” Paula says.

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