THEIR PLACE JANE SMITH

Illustrator Jane Smith lives in Māpua, with her photographer husband, Neil, and their 2-year-old springer spaniel, Archie.

JANE: We moved to New Zealand in 2002. Before that, we were living in London and both working in design and advertising.

We had friends here, but never visited New Zealand before, not even on a holiday.

When we first came here we did a tour, which took us to Nelson. We love it there. But as Neil had his job in Christchurch we lived in Diamond Harbour for years.

Then in 2010 we moved to Māpua. We both love it here. We live in a very nice, sensible modern house that we don’t have to worry about. We liked the fact that there was nothing to do. We wanted somewhere where we could get Neil out of the print business and into photography.

I started doing illustrations for books about three years ago. Before that it was graphic design.

I also do some volunteer work for the Superhero Project, a worldwide project that’s run from the US. They work with children with serious illnesses to create personalised superhero posters.

They provide a brief on what’s needed, and you design an illustration. And then the child gets a poster.

Jane Smith and springer spaniel, Archie at home in the studio.

The scales belonged to Smith’s mother-in-law who was a wonderful cook.