About the Artist

Tamayo Leahy was born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1948. After living in New Zealand for several years, in 1986 Tamayo moved to Carnarvon, Western Australia, with her Australian husband and then to Tasmania in 1994. Finally she settled down in Perth in 2014.

Tamayo has been enthusiastically making art for all her life and formally graduated from the Art School at the University of Tasmania to acquire a Bachelor of Fine Art in 2007.

Her specialities are oil and acrylic painting, watercolour and silk painting, and printmaking. Tamayo had held many solo & group exhibitions, mainly in Tasmania. She had several art awards such as Best Print Award at the City of Burnie TasArt Exhibition in 2008. Her unique hand-painted silk scarves are very popular. She also taught and demonstrated silk painting in Tasmania and Perth.

In recent years Tamayo has concentrated on creating colourful images of stylized ladies which depict the harmony, not the conflict, between Japan and Australia. “Harmony between Two Cultures” is her main theme. She weaves the different icons from the East and the West harmoniously into her art works. Tamayo is very proud of expressing sweet images with love and hope for all humanity in her art works. She sees her art works as bridging different cultures.

For the last three years 2011 to 2013 she took a break from art activities to undertake an amazing long-term journey around the whole of Europe, North America and Canada, visiting hundreds of fantastic art galleries and museums and being inspired by them.

Her unique style won the award of “Interesting or Unusual Design/Composition” in 2017 and “Innovative, Imaginative, Original Thought” in 2019 at local exhibitions in Perth.