Acclaimed local artist Leigh Bisset is preparing to showcase her latest body of work at the Immersion exhibition, opening next Thursday at The Gallery at the Ballito Lifestyle Centre.

Known internationally for her sensual, spiritual and ocean-inspired paintings, Bisset continues to create pieces that uplift, inspire and bring calm to spaces.

She will be displaying Finding Eden, a striking waterfall painting born from memory and emotion rather than a specific location.

The piece was inspired by a recent visit to Réunion Island, where the roar and energy of powerful waterfalls left a lasting impression.

“It captures the balance between intensity and peace – that moment when nature pulls you out of your thoughts and into the present,” said Bisset.

When Bisset comes across a subject that speaks to her, she begins a journey of collecting reference material to understand its form and nature.

“I then create my own compositions, often in Photoshop, which I use as a guide for my pieces. I think a lot before I start a piece, seeing the images in my mind’s eye. I then move to the canvas with the intention to use bold brushstrokes and colour to define the form without being too tight, I want to leave some details up to the imagination,” she said.

She gauges whether a work is successful by the way it makes the viewer feel.

“My desire is to create art that inspires hope and transcends the ordinary. To create objects of beauty that take on a life of their own. Work that moves and uplifts amid the noise, cynicism and chaos.”

At the exhibition, she will feature a selection of new works alongside pieces already collected as far afield as Canada, Greece and Australia.

Her journey to this point has been far from linear. After graduating cum laude with a Fine Arts degree in 2000, Bisset spent 12 years in Sydney working in branding and design.

Returning to South Africa in 2012, she joined LIV Village, a non-profit organisation supporting orphaned and vulnerable children. In 2015, she felt the call to return fully to her first love: Painting.

Now 47, she balances her career with family life. Married with three daughters, she describes herself as an ocean-lover and avid surfer.

“The balance is more like a juggle. But my family are my greatest supporters and the ocean is our playground.”

Looking to the future, she hopes her work will increasingly express the deeper “why” behind her art.

But for now, her focus is on Immersion, an exhibition that promises to draw viewers in, much like the ocean itself, to a place where beauty, stillness and spirit meet.

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