Tamayo Leahy
PAINTER AND PRINTMAKER
Contact Tamayo
T: 0459 794 728
Tamayo Leahy was born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1948. After living in New Zealand for several years, in 1986 she moved to Carnarvon, Western Australia with her Australian husband and then to Tasmania in 1994. Finally Tamayo settled down in Perth, WA in 2014.
Tamayo has been enthusiastically making art for all of her life and formally graduated from the Art School at the University of Tasmania attaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2007.
Tamayo’s specialities are oil and acrylic painting, silk painting, watercolour and printmaking. She has held many solo & group exhibitions, mainly in Tasmania and had some art awards such as Best Print Award at the City of Burnie TasArt Exhibition in 2008 and Runner Up Print/Drawing section at the Clarence City Art Exhibition in 2008. Her unique hand-painted silk scarves are very popular. Tamayo also taught and demonstrated silk painting at Bellerive Community Centre and throughout Tasmania.
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. Tamayo 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 my art works. She sees her art works as bridging different cultures.
For the last three years 2011 to 2013, Tamayo took a break from art activities to undertake an amazing long-term journey around the whole of Europe, North America and Canada, visiting and being inspired by hundreds of fantastic art galleries and museums. Her unique style won the awards of “Interesting or Unusual Design/Composition” in 2017 and “Innovative, Imaginative, Original Thought” in 2019 at local exhibitions in Perth. Currently she is a member of very active Watercolour Society of WA (Inc).