Sacha Lees (born 1977) is a New Zealand artist, working primarily in

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

in the genres of

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

ure and

fantastic art Fantastic art is a broad and loosely defined art genre. It is not restricted to a specific school of artists, geographical location or historical period. It can be characterised by subject matter – which portrays non-realistic, mystical, myt ...

. In 2020 she was awarded the

Adam Portraiture Award The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata hosts the biennial Biennial means (an event) lasting for two years or occurring every two years. The related term biennium is used in reference to a period of two years. In particular, it can ...

, New Zealand's premier portrait prize. Lees also works as a freelance commercial artist.

Training and career

Lees was born in

Greymouth Greymouth () (Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coas ...

and grew up in

Kumara Kumara may refer to: Places * Kumara (Mali), a province * Kumara, New Zealand, a town * Kumara (New Zealand electorate), a Parliamentary electorate Other uses * Kumara Illangasinghe, an Anglican bishop in Sri Lanka * Kumara (surname) * The Four ...

, on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

of New Zealand's South Island. Her early training in art, figure drawing and visual communication took place in Christchurch at

Hagley Community College Hagley College (previously Hagley Community College and Hagley High School), is a state secondary school in inner-city Christchurch, New Zealand. Prior to 1966 the school was Christchurch West High School, which was founded in 1858. Description ...

and

Christchurch Polytechnic Ara Institute of Canterbury, often simply referred to as Ara, is an institute of technology in Canterbury, New Zealand. It was formed in 2016 from the merger of Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) and Aoraki Polytechnic. Ara ...

. Between 1997 and 2004 she worked at Weta Workshop in Wellington as a creature designer, model maker, sculptor and artist on

Sir Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

's ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy and designed some of the commercial merchandise for the productions. Her hands (in make-up) also 'acted' the part of Gollum's hands in a scene in ''

The Fellowship of the Ring ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' is the first of three volumes of the epic novel ''The Lord of the Rings'' by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It is followed by ''The Two Towers'' and ''The Return of the King''. It takes place in the fiction ...

'' where Gollum is tortured. In 2004 Lees spent a year studying

old master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

art techniques in Italy, completing the first year of a Diploma Programme in Realist Drawing and Painting at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence. On her return to New Zealand, Lees applied the skills acquired in Italy to the development of her art through a series of mainly private portraiture and fantastic art commissions. In December 2010 Lees was included in the exhibition ''White Cloud Worlds'' at the

Dowse Art Museum The Dowse Art Museum is a municipal art gallery in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Opening in 1971 in the Lower Hutt CBD, The Dowse occupies a stand-alone building adjacent to other municipal facilities. The building was completely remodelled in 20 ...

, and the book of the same title published in 2011. The exhibition and book were a showcase of fantasy and

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...

art by New Zealand artists, curated by Paul Tobin and Kate Jorgensen. Lees subsequently featured in the two follow-up volumes of ''White Cloud Worlds'' and associated exhibitions in Wellington and Upper Hutt between 2012 and 2017. In 2023, Lees began working towards a Master of Fine Arts postgraduate degree at

Massey University Massey University ( mi, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa) is a university based in Palmerston North, New Zealand, with significant campuses in Albany and Wellington. Massey University has approximately 30,883 students, 13,796 of whom are extramural or ...

in Wellington.

Adam Portraiture Award

Lees has been a finalist in the

three times. In 2012 she entered with a portrait of New Zealand celebrity chef Peter Gordon. In 2020 she won the Award with her self-portrait entitled ''Sometimes an outline coloured in''. The judges described Lees as “ruthless in her self-scrutiny”. In 2022 she was Highly Commended and won the People's Choice award with ''See me'', a portrait of her daughter.

Commercial art

Lees has been commissioned several times by

New Zealand Post NZ Post ( mi, Tukurau Aotearoa), shortened from New Zealand Post, is a state-owned enterprise responsible for providing postal service in New Zealand. The New Zealand Post Office, a government agency, provided postal, banking, and telecommunica ...

to design special commemorative editions of

stamps Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

and

coins A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

. She has designed two separate editions of stamps featuring ''The Lord of the Rings'', the first in 2002-03, and the second in 2021 marking the 20th anniversary of the release of ''The Fellowship of the Ring.'' Alongside the 2021 stamps, Lees also designed sets of ''Lord of the Rings'' commemorative silver coins. The following year, Lees was again commissioned by New Zealand Post to design five commemorative gold and silver coins for the

Platinum Jubilee A platinum jubilee is a celebration held to mark an anniversary. Among monarchies, it usually refers to a 70th anniversary. The most recent monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee is Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the other Co ...

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during h ...

. Design of the 2023 New Zealand Annual Coin - Native Bee - Ngaro Huruhuru.

Exhibitions

Solo

* 2015 ''Assimilate'', Exhibitions Gallery, Wellington * 2017 ''Vagrant Mind'', Exhibitions Gallery, Wellington * 2020 ''Embracing Shadows'', Artbay Gallery, Queenstown

Group

* 2011 ''White Cloud Worlds'', Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, Wellington * 2012 ''White Cloud Worlds'', Lopdell House, Auckland; Museum of Art and History, Rotorua; Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton; Rona Gallery, Wellington * 2012 ''Villains and Assassins'', Strychnin Gallery, Berlin * 2013 Adam Portrait Exhibition Tour: New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington; Lopdell House, Auckland; Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford; Millenium Gallery, Blenheim; The Sute, Nelson; Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore * 2015 ''The Creatives'', Puke Ariki Museum, New Plymouth * 2015 ''White Cloud Worlds'', Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington * 2020 Adam Portrait Award, New Zealand Portrait Gallery,Wellington * 2022 ''Perspective'', Exhibitions Gallery, Wellington * 2022-2023 Adam Portrait Exhibition Tour: Millenium Gallery, Blenheim; Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford; Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland

Publications

Works by Sacha Lees have been published in the following books: * 2002 ''The Lord of the Rings – The Art of 'The Fellowship of the Ring * 2003 ''The Lord of the Rings – The Art of 'The Two Towers * 2004 ''The Art of ‘The Lord of the Rings * 2008 ''Spectrum 15 – The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art'' * 2009 ''Spectrum 16 – The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art'' * 2010 ''Spectrum 17 – The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art'' * 2011 ''White Cloud Worlds, volume 1'' * 2012 ''White Cloud Worlds, volume 2'' * 2012 ''Spectrum 19 – The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art'' * 2015 ''White Cloud Worlds, volume 3'' * 2015 ''Women of Wonder - The Best of Women in Contemporary Fantastic Art''

References

{{Authority control 1977 births Living people People from Kumara, New Zealand Coin designers New Zealand stamp designers People from Greymouth 21st-century New Zealand women artists 21st-century New Zealand painters