Tay Mo-Leong (b. 1938, Penang) received his art education from the Taiwan Provincial Taipei Normal College (now National Taipei University of Education) in 1957 and later at the Longboat Key Center for the Arts, Florida, in 1970. It was in Taipei that he first developed an interest in batik. Upon his return to Malaysia in 1960, he set about perfecting his batik skills through repeated study trips to Kelantan. Though mostly known for his batik works, he was also proficient in watercolours, and served as Chairman of the Penang Watercolour Society for twenty years from 1985 to 2005. He has had solo exhibitions locally and internationally, in Japan, the United States, and Australia. In 2009, the Penang State Art Gallery honoured him with his first retrospective.