Saliha Tacal Tajhal came to painting later in life, not through formal training, but through necessity, love, and human connection. Her artistic journey began while caring for an eighty-four-year-old woman living with dementia. Together, they drew, coloured, and slowly dared to paint — discovering, in that shared quiet space, both companionship and creative truth.
That woman, Alicia Edwards, became Saliha’s first and most honest muse. Despite dementia, Alicia recognised what Saliha herself had not yet fully claimed: her gift. “Saliha, you can paint that sky,” Alicia would say. “You do everything with such pride — with all your heart and soul.” This exhibition, and much of Saliha’s work since, is created in her honour.
Saliha’s art is unpretentious and deeply intuitive. She paints life as she sees and feels it, refusing trends, categories, or fashionable constraints. Working across oils, acrylics, watercolours, graphite, and Prismacolour pencils, her practice is fluid and responsive — driven by instinct rather than doctrine. Each work is an act of gratitude: for life’s vicissitudes, for survival, and for the collective journeys we share.
Born in Turkey, Saliha migrated to Australia alone over fifty years ago — an unsupported young woman guided largely by intuition and ancestral strength. She raised two daughters as a single mother, built a successful career in fashion design, dressed celebrities, and even staged a fashion show at the Sydney Opera House. Throughout her life, creativity has been both her livelihood and her compass.
Her path has not been linear. She has known fearlessness and collapse, grand ambition and rock bottom. Yet creativity remained irrepressible. After rebuilding herself once more, Saliha returned fully to painting — finding in it a profound sense of belonging, freedom, and reconciliation with life.
Today, her work reflects a woman unapologetically shaped by experience. Versatile, instinctual, and impossible to contain within a single field or style, Saliha Tacal Tajhal paints with emotional honesty and spiritual curiosity. She continues to capture fleeting reflections — skies, bridges, waters, moments of stillness — as if listening to something larger unfolding quietly within.
Her work has been exhibited widely, including at Mosman Art Gallery, Lane Cove Gallery, and as a finalist in the Mosman Art Prize. She lives and works in Sydney, inspired by life in all its forms — and occasionally, by puppies.