Sacha Lees

Sacha Lees (born 1977) is a New Zealand artist, working primarily in oil painting in the genres of portraiture and fantastic art. In 2020 she was awarded the Adam Portraiture Award, New Zealand's premier portrait prize. Lees also works as a freelance commercial artist.

Training and career
Lees was born in Greymouth and grew up in Kumara, on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Her early training in art, figure drawing and visual communication took place in Christchurch at Hagley Community College and Christchurch Polytechnic. Between 1997 and 2004 she worked at Weta Workshop in Wellington as a creature designer, model maker, sculptor and artist on Sir Peter Jackson'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 where Gollum is tortured.

In 2004 Lees spent a year studying old master 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, and the book of the same title published in 2011. The exhibition and book were a showcase of fantasy and science-fiction 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 in Wellington.

Adam Portraiture Award
Lees has been a finalist in the Adam Portraiture Award 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 to design special commemorative editions of stamps and coins. 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 of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Design of the 2023 New Zealand Annual Coin - Native Bee - Ngaro Huruhuru.

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