Harry Leaf was born in Chicago, IL in 1962 and lived there until 1985 when he moved to San Francisco. Once in San Francisco his artistic focus has been on painting and ceramic sculpture. He started painting in 1985 while living in London, England just prior to his move to San Francisco . After settling in San Francisco he started to study art in the late 80s and early 90s at the San Francisco Art Institute. Since then his paintings have been shown in the San Francisco Bay Area in galleries, cafes, salons and street fairs with collectors around the world. In 1996 he won first place at the juried West Portal Fine Arts and Music Festival in San Francisco.

Based on a gridwork pattern, most of his paintings combine brightly colored smaller sections of fine detail layered beneath a simple organic subject. This provides for the creation of intricate colorful patterns while still allowing for an overall piece that has a simple livable quality. Most of his work is done in oil paint layered on top of initial layers of acrylic to create a depth and variance not available to one type of paint alone.