Bonjour: Zelda's taking on Paris

SOMETHING SPECIAL: Zelda Bruce with Desert Gypsy says she's not just a country girl going to the city; but a recluse going out into the world.

Featherston's Zelda Bruce has gone from hiding from the world to showcasing her work on the world stage.

Bruce, a painter, mosaicist and sculptor, will be exhibiting her pieces in Paris, at an exhibition curated by French art collective L'Association Mare Nostrum in May.

She received the invitation after members of L'Association visited her exhibition Notes from the Heart in Masterton. She will be the only New Zealander exhibiting in the show, titled The Other, which will feature works from 20 international artists.

"It's a fantastic opportunity - I'm on cloud nine," Bruce said.

"It just goes to show, when you make your art public, you never know who's going to be watching."

For Bruce, the Paris show is not only an exciting career move but part of a personal transformation.

In 2008, she sustained serious burns to her face, neck and chest while burning hay at her Tauherenikau property. She spent two weeks in intensive care at Hutt Hospital, wore a pressure suit for 18 months to reduce scarring and had a series of reconstructive operations. After the accident, she confined herself to her home, spending most of her time with her paints, canvases and tiles to help the healing process.

"While I was recovering, I lived a very reclusive life. Putting myself out there is scary - I'm not just a country girl going to the city; but a recluse going out into the world. But you have to be brave and face the unknown - I feel this has given me the opportunity to put my accident behind me, and take my art to a new level."

Bruce's Parisian adventure kicked off in January, when French art historian Elise Rat, holidaying in Wairarapa, saw her work displayed at Aratoi. She praised Bruce's emotive abstract paintings, some of which are at least 2m high, for showing "real emotion".

Later, she received an email from Ms Rat, asking her why she would like to be part of an exhibition in Paris. "I was thinking, 'oh, yeah right, they won't choose me.'

"So I made up a silly answer, saying my paintings wanted to go to Paris, as they didn't get enough attention at Aratoi."

When she got an email back inviting her to contribute to The Other, her "jaw dropped".

"Not many people can say they've gone straight from Masterton to Paris - the centre and heart of the artistic world. My exhibition was called Notes from the Heart, and Paris is the city of love - it works well together."

Bruce will run art workshops and host public exhibitions at her home studio to raise funds for her airfares and to ship her works to Paris. "Some of them are quite oversized, so I can't send them by regular mail. I need to do a crash course in French as well - the only word I know is 'bonjour'."