Leanne Culy

Leanne Culy was born in Waipawa in 1963, but spent most of her adult life in Wellington were she worked as a freelance graphic designer and stylist in the film industry.

After having two children, Beanie and Billie, she and her husband spent four years in the Wairarapa, before moving to the Bay of Islands.  It was there that the extreme isolation and beauty drove her back to her art.

The blend of Maori, new immigrant and early settler populations had stark differences in how they lived and how they saw the future in the Bay of Islands and Far North.  This difference became of interest to Leanne and was a powerful influence in her work.  She has a passion for nostalgia.  The way things were, old baches, un-developed beachscapes and untouched land scapes.

Leanne loves to mix the traditional Maori colours - black, brown, red, and white with the bright, pacific colours used by some Maori on the painted houses in small towns like Moerewa, Kawakawa, Kohukohu and Rawene.

Although her oars look purely decorative, they do tell a story, as a totem would, and for Leanne to show the impact of European settlers on the land.  They often focus on the positive but with and underlying note of concern.

They are a vehicle for her environmental grievances, so she often focuses on nostalgic images of New Zealand the way it was before development, as her own form of protest.  Leanne also adds Maori images and manipulates them, as a symbol  of  togetherness.  She will fill a Tiki with roses or wrap a Maori artifact in lace for example.  Leanne also mixes lace with flax, teapots with traditional Maori tools and religious icons with spiritual objects from the land.

Moving to Hawkes Bay has added another chapter to Leanne’s story having had four successful shows at Black Barn gallery.  She is also the owner and creative designer for a home ware company, Home Base Collections Ltd where some carefully chosen design elements are used in her collections.