About Wild@Art

Wild@Art grew from a long friendship, a shared love of nature, and the quiet belief that art can help people reconnect with the wild world around them.

Leigh Austen and Charlene first met around 2011 through the Art Beat Gallery in Mossel Bay, where Leigh joined as an exhibiting artist and later helped establish a pottery studio alongside the gallery. From the beginning, Leigh’s work carried a distinctive atmosphere: part nature study, part dreamscape, woven with mythology, mystery, wildlife and a deep reverence for the natural world. Looking at Leigh’s art is a journey of discovery, with each painting full of hidden gems, story’s and the creatures that inhabit our beautiful world.

Over the years, life carried them along different creative paths, but the connection to art, storytelling and nature remained constant.

Wild@Art was born from reconnecting again years later with a shared desire to create something meaningful together. What began with original paintings and market stalls beneath trees slowly grew into prints, wearable art, and carefully crafted pieces inspired by the forests, creatures, birds, flowers and hidden magic of the Cape landscape.

Leigh’s art is mostly displayed in reclaimed frames, or developed through small-scale local production. The intention has always been to keep things organic, soulful and close to nature rather than polished or mass-produced.

Wild@Art is about growing naturally, branch by branch.