Once you get past the "Wow! They look so real!", you'll be free to appreciate the stunning art of Katy Buess, now being exhibited at Fine Arts Gallery in Taupo Quay.
Leaf Lines is an unusual body of work from the Invercargill-based printmaker / painter / bookbinder / 3D artist
and will be on display until September 13.
"About two and a half years ago, my husband Rob (Wait) and I went to our very first Womad and we drove the car up from Invercargill," says Katy. "Coming down from New Plymouth, really keen to have a look around galleries in Whanganui. It just seemed so friendly, accessible and so much happening, and the minute I came into this gallery I loved the space and loved the idea there was a collective working together to run the gallery. I think that's really healthy for artists to have that feedback and support."
When Katy and Rob visited, Gaynor Mulholland was on the front desk and before long they were discussing how to arrange an exhibition of Katy's work.
"I was, for many years based in Dunedin, and then, for the last 10 years in Invercargill, so I thought I really need to start showing work a little further afield."
Katy crafts paper foliage, leaves of all types from trees and shrubs common and unusual. With those leaves she creates three dimensional artworks, some delicate, others more robust.
"I decided to show a collection of work that started out in Vanuatu."
In 2008 Rob and Katy went to Vanuatu to live for two years on a Volunteer Services Abroad programme.
"I got obsessed with the croton family of plants with their bright, vibrant leaves. So I started doing some sketches and paintings, and eventually I cut out the shapes."
The next step was to make the leaves more sculptural.
Part of her motivation was to produce a lasting representation of these things of beauty.
"In the small village where I lived in Vanuatu, young women would gather flowers and leaves from the garden to make beautiful salusalu, a garland similar to lei. Whenever I received a salusalu, it would remain pinned to a wall until the leaves shrivelled up and lost their colour. While I was reluctant to discard these 'artworks' to the organic rubbish pile after a ceremony, the locals were happy to throw theirs away immediately.
"I also had the ambition to record nature. The idea to replicate leaves into artworks came about observing local flora, regional customs and museum collections. Not being allowed to take leaves back to New Zealand to document and catalogue, encouraged me to create my own paper versions."