Drawing from the hides at RSPB Titchwell Marsh reserve in Norfolk.
Drawing is at the core of her practice and often forms the finished work. Gestural line and partly abstracted shape and form convey familiar subjects. She explores mark making, as a filter between true representation and emotional response.
Grey Seals at Horsey Gap.
Wynona Legg is an artist and conservationist, based currently in Norfolk, UK.
Her drawing practice has been nurtured by a career in nature conservation, protecting at-risk species with UK conservation organisations, where prolonged periods spent observing and monitoring species in-situ, often in remote locations, has given her an innate understanding of her subjects and has informed the expression of her marks.
Wynona favours mediums that offer immediacy for fast mark making, with the aim of capturing the essence of moving subjects quickly. Works are made from life and finished in the field on location, often following long periods of observation or repeat studies to distil key information. Ink and brush is often chosen. Marks jostle and journey across empty space to describe movement, posture, behaviour or trace elements of a fleeting encounter.
Wynona was elected a full member of the Society of Wildlife Artists in 2021, having been awarded the John Busby Seabird Drawing Course Bursary in 2017 and the Greg Poole Bursary in 2019. Her collection of field drawings made on the Isle of Fidra during the John Busy Seabird Drawing week in 2019 won the inaugural Larson-Juhl Award for drawing and dry media. In 2024 Wynona was awarded the BirdScapes Gallery ‘Conservation through Art’ Award for her body of work highlighting the secret lives of nesting Ringed Plover, and the threats they face on UK beaches.
Wynona regularly exhibits with the Society of Wildlife Artists at their annual show, The Natural Eye, held at Mall Galleries in London. She has undertaken two project residencies including the Wadden Sea Project in Denmark in 2022 and more recently the Massingham Heath project closer to home in Norfolk, UK in 2025.
Wynona’s work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the UK and internationally. Her work has been featured in published books including The Haunted Tide, documenting The Wadden Sea project and Red Sixty Seven – a collaboration aiming to reverse the declines of our most at-risk birds.
Memberships
Full member of the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) | Elected 2021
Awards
The BIRDscapes Gallery ‘Conservation through Art’ Award | 2024 | BIRDscapes Gallery | Awarded at the SWLA 61st Annual Exhibition The Natural Eye at Mall Galleries
The Larson-Juhl Award | 2019 | Larson-Juhl | Awarded at the SWLA 56th Annual Exhibition The Natural Eye at Mall Galleries
The Greg Poole Bursary winner | 2019 | Society of Wildlife Artists
The John Busby Seabird Drawing Course Bursary winner | 2017 | Society of Wildlife Artists
Residencies
2025 | Massingham Heath Project | Society of Wildlife Artists | Norfolk
2022 | Wadden Sea Project | Society of Wildlife Artists | Denmark
2019 | The John Busby Seabird Drawing Week | Society of Wildlife Artists | Scotland
2017 | The John Busby Seabird Drawing Week | Society of Wildlife Artists | Scotland
Selected Exhibitions
2025 17 April - 1st June | Drawn from Nature | Waterston House, Aberlady, UK.
2024 6 July - 28 July | Summer Collection | BIRDscapes Gallery, Norfolk, UK
2023 | The Natural Eye, Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition. Mall Galleries, London, UK
2022 | The Natural Eye, Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition. Mall Galleries, London, UK
2022 28 April - 5 June | Joint Exhibition Kittie Jones & Wynona Legg | Waterston House, Aberlady. UK
2021 | The Natural Eye, Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition. Mall Galleries, London, UK
2021 | New Drawings and Paintings Kim Atkinson & Wynona Legg | Trymwood Studios, Bristol, UK
2020 | Close to Home: The Art of the SWLA during Lockdown. Society of Wildlife Artists online exhibition
2020 | The Natural Eye, Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition. Mall Galleries, London, UK
2020 | Christmas Show. Artmill Gallery, Plymouth, UK
2019 | The Natural Eye, Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition. Mall Galleries, London, UK
2019 22 July - 1 September | Fuglefortolkning ‘Bird Interpretation’. Fanø Kunstmuseum, Denmark
2017 | The Natural Eye, Society of Wildlife Artists annual exhibition. Mall Galleries, London. UK
Published
2020 Featured artist in [Book] Red Sixty Seven | Published by BTO
Press
2022 Wadden Sea Residency National Park Vadehavet | National Park Magasin Nr. 9
2020 Wynona’s Wild Work | Four Walls Magazine | | Issue No. 35
