Eana Jeans

Eana Blyth Jeans (16 August 1890 – 9 May 1986) was a New Zealand artist best known for her watercolour paintings of native New Zealand bush.

Early life and family Born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, on 16 August 1890, Jeans was the daughter of artist Blandina Jeans (née Maxwell) and Thomas William Jeans. The family moved to New Zealand in 1894, settling in the Leith Valley area of Dunedin. She later studied at the Dunedin School of Art and the Barn Studio, Dunedin, alongside notable New Zealand artists Alfred Henry O'Keeffe and Mabel Hill. In 1934 Jeans travelled to England and studied at the Slade School of Art in London and exhibited her work at the Paris Salon, Royal Institution of Watercolourists, the Royal Society of British Artists Salon and the Chelsea Art Society in London.

Honours and legacy Jeans was an honorary life member of the Otago Art Society, and her works are held in both private and public collections in New Zealand, including the Hocken Collection, the Dunedin Public Libraries and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in Dunedin. In 2002 an exhibition of her paintings was held as part of the Otago Festival of the Arts.