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Karyn Wiggill
Karyn Wiggill took an early interest in art and remembers copying pictures onto scraps of paper and pieces of card from story books and reference books from as young as 6 years old, and hasn’t stopped drawing since.

In early years her drawings helped her achieve success with school projects and she achieved a Third Place in a provincial Biology Project competition for High Schools; Karyn was in Standard 6 (Grade 8) at the time. She also won a small art competition held at her school where she won the overall prize for her painting. The judge of the competition was taken with the amount of detail Karyn, even then, produced in her painting.

Karyn grew up in the small town of Virginia in the Free State province where she completed her schooling. Art as a subject was not part of the curriculum and deciding that art would not be a suitable career to pursue, she therefore has no formal qualifications in art. Karyn has a Bachelor of Social Science degree from the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg) and an Advanced Diploma in Labour Law (Rand Afrikaans University – now University of Johannesburg). Her passion for her art was kept alive by drawing regularly and completing several commitions

Karyn Wiggill moved to Johannesburg and worked in the Human Resources field for seven years and it was during this period that she received informal oil painting lessons from Nuccia Taylor. (Ms. Taylor was commissioned to paint the portrait of Gen. Jan Smuts, which hangs in a gallery in London.)

Karyn joined the Paint and Palette Society, based in Edenvale, Johannesburg and exhibited at several of the society’s exhibitions.

After the birth of her twins, Karyn Wiggill left the Human Resources field and decided to take her art more seriously. She received several commissions, two of which were oil paintings of leopards measuring 1.5 x 2.5 metres. One of the highlights of her career was receiving a commission by a corporation, to paint the portrait of the late President Nelson Mandela. With the success of this painting, she received a further commission to paint the chairman of the company.