Martist Exhibition in the city
A Hamilton woman, who paints holding a brush with her mouth, will exhibit her work as part of an initiative aimed at tapping into the creative talents of mums.
Toni Leefe will present five paintings at the Martist Exhibition at the Next Level Gallery in Hamilton in May.
Martist stands for Mothers, Artists, Martyrs and Their Craft, and was aimed at encouraging mothers with children under 10 to continue with their art and exhibit to the public.
Leefe was a well-credentialed artist and had a three-year-old son, Korban. She became a tetraplegic after a trampolining accident in 1993. She lost her ability to use her hands.
She learnt to paint holding the brush in her mouth under the influence of the late mouth painter Alex Craig.
Leefe became a student member of the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists in 2000 and lives in Hamilton with her husband Paul. Among her paintings for the Martist Exhibition is ‘‘Nikau Palm’’, which was an acrylic on tapa cloth.
‘‘It is a real challenge to paint on tapa cloth as it is very absorbent so the paint had to be done in layers to build up to the depth of colour and transparency wanted,’’ Leefe said.
‘‘I took random pieces of tapa and glued them onto card to give the background a sense of rawness.’’
Another painting was called ‘‘Autumn Golds’’. ‘‘It is a small square canvas that I did to go on my kitchen wall and the colours are the same as my kitchen,’’ she said. ‘‘Budapest Chain Bridge’’ was painted from a photo her brother took while touring through Europe and was her first attempt at a ‘‘true to life painting’’ using acrylics.
‘‘NZ Summer’’ was a watercolour painting compiling everything the artist loved about
Ithe New Zealand summer.
‘‘While ‘Boatyard’ is an exercise I was given by well-known watercolour artist Ben Ho at a class I attended.’’