Hello!

I am Leafy Dumas. I was christened Alethea, but I'm known as Leafy. 

I am an artist born into an army family. After a nomadic childhood living in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean (and attending 9 different schools), I now operate out of my Mersea Island studio on the east coast of England. Gloriously cut off by high tides, I am surrounded by a watery wilderness of creeks and saltmarsh, and just a stone's throw from London.

I have always created art and I like making things. I 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. 

My artwork is awash with boats, North Sea air and all things salty. I like to work with a multitude of different media, from watercolour, gouache and pencil, to painting in oils or linocut printmaking and working in wood. Children's literature and seafaring history are clear influences woven throughout.

When I am not in my studio I am usually following Ratty's well-worn advice, "There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

For a closer look behind the scenes, see my instagram account @theseafaringrat