About Leyla Kamliya

I live and work in Japan, where I find subjects in everyday streets, quiet neighborhoods, and the changing light of the cities I walk through. Architecture, atmosphere, and seasonal transitions are central to my work.

I am drawn to how architecture defines rhythm and proportion within a scene — how light interacts with facades, how scale is revealed through small human presence, and how even busy districts can hold moments of stillness.

All of my paintings are based on places I have seen and walked through myself, either painted on location or developed in the studio from my own photographs. Working primarily in watercolor, I explore transparency, contrast, and spatial balance — combining expressive brushwork with architectural clarity.

For me, painting is not about documenting a place, but about translating the sensation of being there — the air, the rhythm, the presence of space.