Pietermaritzburg

Leda moved to Pietermaritzburg after her first exhibition in 1978. She settled in an old colonial red-brick house at 430 Longmarket Street, which became both her home and her studio.

Pietermaritzburg offered a very different setting from the one she had known before. Its architecture, gardens, and surrounding landscape became part of the visual world around her and entered the atmosphere of her work.

During her years there, Leda became politically active and involved herself in work supporting abused and displaced women. She volunteered with Lifeline Counselling and Rape Crisis, and these commitments formed an important part of her life in the city.

This was also a period of personal readjustment. After the earlier endings of her relationships with Cecily Sash and Rosemary Bamford, Pietermaritzburg became the setting for a new phase in both her life and work.