Lee-Anne Schmidt is a South African multidisciplinary artist and surface pattern designer based between Cape Town and Sitges, Barcelona. She works across surface pattern design, illustration, collage, and photography - a practice shaped by decades of freelance and commercial work spanning Spain, South Africa, and beyond.








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Lee-Anne Schmidt is a South African multidisciplinary artist and surface pattern designer based between Cape Town and Sitges, Barcelona. She works across surface pattern design, illustration, collage, and photography - a practice shaped by decades of freelance and commercial work spanning Spain, South Africa, and beyond. Her output is vibrant and playful, with a strong storytelling instinct that connects her pattern work to her broader fine art practice. She sells prints directly via Instagram and accepts freelance commissions.
Lee-Anne's visual signature is warm, surreal, and imaginative - sitting somewhere between narrative illustration and decorative pattern. She draws on vintage magazines, her own photography, and hand-drawn elements, layering them into compositions that blend the ordinary with the unexpected. Her work carries a distinct cross-cultural energy shaped by the places she has lived: South Africa, Italy, Spain, Australia, and Portugal. Colour is consistently vibrant; tone is playful rather than refined. The collage sensibility - physical and psychological - runs through her pattern output as much as her fine art.
Lee-Anne works in collage (combining vintage print sources, hand-drawn marks, and personal photography), illustration, and surface pattern design. She also works in photography and graphic design. Her website lists Kids Wall Art and Wall Art as distinct service areas alongside illustration and surface pattern design, pointing to a practical commercial range. Physical collage with paper, scissors, and glue is referenced directly in her own words alongside digital production.
Wall art and kids décor are the clearest commercial contexts for her work, explicitly listed as service categories on her website. Surface pattern design runs as a parallel freelance discipline. She sells fine art prints directly through Instagram DM. Her work has been published in American and European literary magazines, suggesting an additional editorial illustration presence (specific titles unverified).
Lee-Anne worked for a wall art company in Spain for a number of years, then moved to a photo editing role in Cape Town. When she returned to Spain with her family in 2014, she set up as a freelance illustrator and surface pattern designer working from home. More recently she has returned to collage as a primary creative focus, drawing it back into dialogue with her ongoing pattern and illustration practice. She exhibits locally and has had work published internationally.
Surface pattern design sits alongside illustration and collage as one of three core disciplines. Instagram image selection shows pattern-led work across roughly a third of the reviewed posts, with product placement images also present - suggesting active commercial output rather than portfolio-only content. Her patterns reflect the same playful, story-driven sensibility as her collage work: warm colour, organic imagery, vintage influences.













Lee-Anne Schmidt is a South African multidisciplinary artist and surface pattern designer based between Cape Town and Sitges, Barcelona.
Style and Aesthetic Lee-Anne's visual signature is warm, surreal, and imaginative - sitting somewhere between narrative illustration and decorative pattern. She draws on vintage magazines, her own photography, and hand-drawn elements, layering them into compositions that blend the ordinary with the unexpected.
Pattern Focus Surface pattern design sits alongside illustration and collage as one of three core disciplines.
Markets and Clients Wall art and kids décor are the clearest commercial contexts for her work, explicitly listed as service categories on her website. Surface pattern design runs as a parallel freelance discipline. She sells fine art prints directly through Instagram DM.
Techniques and Tools Lee-Anne works in collage (combining vintage print sources, hand-drawn marks, and personal photography), illustration, and surface pattern design. She also works in photography and graphic design.
Use the contact links on this profile to reach Lee-Anne Schmidt directly about your brief, timeline and budget.
Career Path Lee-Anne worked for a wall art company in Spain for a number of years, then moved to a photo editing role in Cape Town. When she returned to Spain with her family in 2014, she set up as a freelance illustrator and surface pattern designer working from home.
Lee-Anne Schmidt is a Surface Pattern Designer. Browse their portfolio and contact them for projects.