Wendy Leach is a painter and multi-media artist, whose studio is in Mangawhai Heads, north of Auckland.

 

She has a Master of Fine Arts (1st class hons) from Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, and previously gained a Diploma of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts. Wendy also has a Graduate Diploma of Secondary Teaching, and has been involved in art education in New Zealand, as well as Belgium, where she lived for six years. 

 

As an outcome of her MFA study, Wendy produced a body of work entitled ‘TIME SPACE LIGHT’. These light paintings were first presented as large photographic prints, created by solitary performances of mark-making and painting with lights in a darkened space.

 

In 2017 she revisited the light painting images to create her first set of light boxes. The physical dynamic of this process has informed and strongly influenced her more recent large acrylic works on canvas. Since creating the light paintings, her ongoing inquiry has been around the concept of mark-making, and the gestural nature and bodily scale of the mark-making process.

 

At a recent solo show at ArtHAUS Orakei, in Auckland, she exhibited her acrylic paintings that were an exploration around ‘line’ - how lines can communicate, and what they express: the fragility and ephemerality of thin lines; the strength and solidity of thick lines; curved lines express fluid movement, whether it is calm or dynamic; lines that are horizontal or vertical appear stable; diagonal lines appear unbalanced and filled with restless energy. 

 

Wendy will feature in our upcoming ARTWEEK show City Lights, and is also working towards an exhibition entitled ‘Large Works’ at Mangawhai Artists Gallery in opening April 2019.

More information can be found at her website www.wendyleach.com