Zoe Leeb-du Toit, Waiheke painter

Painter Zoe Leeb-du Toit in her Waiheke Island studio.

I recently had a chat with the artist Zoe Leeb-du Toit at her home studio on Waiheke Island.

After a brain aneurysm three years ago, Zoe Leeb-du Toit does not have the memory that she once had and sometimes the brain doesn’t tell her body what to do. The first year after the aneurysm she did quite a lot of painting but slowed down considerably as she needed to recover. 

Zoe started painting in Wales, initially painting on silk. Once in New Zealand, she studied at at Unitec. At the time Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland had ceased their painting program and many of those tutors moved to Unitec. At Unitec she studied under landscape painters Karl Maughan and Julian Cooper. She wondered whether landscape painting was still relevant until Julian Cooper, who paints with pattern and texture suggested Zoe use patterns for her landscapes. “It was as if a light had suddenly turned on. Patterns link to my love for fabrics, plants, tapestries and jewellery and it all made sense from there,” and she eventually settled on landscape painting.

“I struggle to describe my landscapes, although the tapestry analogy is fitting because I do cross stitch and embroidery. My work is semi-abstract: the sea and sky are always present in my work and I make them look as real as possible, but the plants and coves in my landscapes are always abstract patterns.” The intricacies of her pattern work is daunting to look at up close, but a few steps back gives you perspective and allows the viewer to decipher which beautiful Waiheke coastline they’re viewing.

I asked if she ever runs out of patterns? “Yes, all the time but mostly the same pattern is used for the same plant but I am always looking for new patterns. Recently, a beetroot had an interesting concentric pattern which I have incorporated in a painting .”

Originally, Zoe studied as an environmental scientist. “Studying science makes you very pessimistic, sustainability is frustrating as people aren’t going to make money and the entire system needs to change which probably won’t happen for a very long time. So, I paint landscapes by recording and documenting them, celebrating what’s still left. I am documenting nature as I see it now.”