Leafy Dumas
Leafy Dumas is an artist and illustrator who works from her studio on Mersea Island on the Essex coast.
Christened Alethea but known as Leafy, she was born into an army family and had a nomadic childhood living in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean, attending nine different schools. Leafy achieved a first-class honours degree in graphic design from Exeter College of Art, and later a double distinction in a Level 3 diploma in boatbuilding from The Boatbuilding Academy in Lyme Regis.
A prolific maker and mender, Leafy works with a multitude of different media from painting in gouache or oils to linocut printmaking and working in wood. Her artwork is awash with boats, North Sea air and all things salty.
Leafy is a member of Mersea Island Artists.
Artist Statement
I make joyful pictures and storytelling illustrations all with a nautical bent. Children’s literature and seafaring history are clear influences as is the watery wilderness on my doorstep. I spend much of my life afloat, my experiences woven throughout my work.