Born in Washington, D.C., and educated at Brown and Yale Universities, Leya Evelyn has worked as an abstract painter since her early twenties. Her career in the arts has extended up and down the East Coast into Canada.

At Yale, she studied under Josef Albers, concentrating on painting and colour. She moved to rural Nova Scotia, after a twenty-four year residence in New York City.

She teaches workshops and has had a regular part-time faculty appointment at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, teaching painting and drawing at the undergraduate level.