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title Painting raises $3000 for teal publication The Leader description Article by Matt Lawrey date 28:09:2006 painting It's a sitting duck The sale of a painting by Nelson artist Anna Leary at an auction in London has raised $3000 to help save the endangered Campbell Island teal. Leary's nine-panel work, It's a Sitting Duck, was shown in an exhibition at New Zealand House last month organised by the New Zealand Society to raise awareness of the plight of the threatened duck. The painting was then sold at a fundraising auction at London's Marlborough House earlier this month. Leary is pleased her painting featuring numerous references to the bird, including an image of Campbell Island, has helped the cause. "I think saving a species from unnecessary extinction is a worthwhile project and it's been great to contribute to it," she says. Overall, the auction raised more than $21,000 for the Campbell Island Teal Appeal, an achievement that has impressed Leary. "It is a big undertaking to organise something like this from the other side of the world and in a way it's testimony to how New Zealanders living outside New Zealand still connect with this place and how they value what makes these islands as special as they are," she says. Leary is now busy creating artworks for her upcoming solo exhibition at Woollaston Estates in Mahana. The exhibition opens to the public on October 8 and will be on display from 11am - 4.30pm daily until October 24.