Leon van den Eijkel: “A Colourful Nation – Kleur Bekennen”
In 1995, Leon van den Eijkel exploded onto the Aotearoa art scene with a brilliant burst of colour – and an exhibition that brought the Dutch influence of Mondriaan’s modernism to New Zealand.
Since then, the works by the Dutch immigrant have featured on the Wellington waterfront with the Urban Trees wind sculpture of colourful squares, the Avalon and Hobsonville sets of three Smiling Windmills, the Waiheke Cross Roads, Totem on the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, and his gigantic masterpiece Red Cloud Confrontation in the Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park on the Kaipara Harbour.
Lisa was born in Auckland at the start of the 1970s, living in a small campsite community on the North Shore called Browns Bay. She spent a significant part of her life with her grandparents, often hanging out at the beaches. Lisa has many happy memories from those days at Browns Bay beach, where fish were plentiful on the point and the ocean was rich in seaweed. She played in the water for hours, going home totally “sun-kissed.” “An adorable time to grow up,” Lisa tells me.
Lisa enjoyed many sports; she was a keen tennis player and netballer, playing in the top teams for her age right up until the family moved to Wellington. Lisa was fifteen years old, which unfortunately marked the end of her sporting career. Local teams were well established in Wellington, and her attention was drawn elsewhere.