Interpretation

Wendy Leach was born in Auckland, New Zealand. She is a graduate from Elam School of Fine Art, University of Auckland. She is also a qualified secondary school teacher. The early days of her career were spent teaching art to secondary students, including working as an assessor for national art examinations. Wendy went on to a tertiary position at the ASA School of Art in Auckland. During this time she also ran workshops in drawing, oil painting, mixed media painting and experimental techniques. She finished teaching in 1995. Alongside her teaching, Wendy was also developing her career as a painter. Since 1988 she has had numerous solo exhibitions and group shows. Leach works with both oil paint and mixed media painting techniques. She is inventive and adventurous and has always enjoyed exploring the possibilities within technique and materials. Her works display a love of vibrant colour and show a degree of influence from the New Zealand tradition of hard edged painting that has evolved due to the strong, clear quality of New Zealand light. Although Wendy lives and works in New Zealand, she has also travelled overseas to paint. From 1993 Wendy has travelled and painted in Europe each year. Her journeys took her firstly to the South of France and later to Tuscany, Umbria and Apulia in Italy. Each year she explores and discovers new places to paint. Recently Wendy turned her focus back to the natural landscape of New Zealand. Her journeys are closer to home, depicting areas of the South Island and New Zealand coast line. Wendy also produces giclee limited edition prints of her New Zealand and European landscape paintings. Her paintings are held in public, corporate and private collections in New Zealand and in many countries throughout the world.