Delphine Lebourgeois

Feminine, fun, quirky and delicate, Delphine Lebourgeois’ hand drawn illustrations on found paper are regularly used across publishing, editorial and advertising.

In works such as "Birds in Hair Curlers", from her Amazons series, Lebourgeois produces portraits of imaginary women warriors. Obsessional, falsely serene or simply wild, the females resonate with a world of romantic visions never devoid of humour or irony.

Poetic, yet conceptual, Lebourgeois’ drawings stray away from the obvious. She believes that her work is about solving problems with elegant, economic and surprising solutions and is happy when she finds an idea that affects her enough to start drawing.

In most cases, her images narrate a quest, a struggle, a fight or an adventure. Lebourgeois describes her creative process as an enterprise in itself, working around mistakes rather than starting afresh. Scribbles, cut holes, tears and repairs are all part of the building of an image.  She sees the creative process as a performance that can last for a long time and enjoys being surrounded by unfinished ‘in waiting’ pieces that are alive with numerous possibilities of outcome.

Lebourgeois gained her BA in Fine Art in Lyon, before completing an MA at Central St Martins, London in 2005. She was the winner of the Images 29 Critics' Award in 2005 and has shown her work in various London venues including the Mall Galleries, the A&D Gallery, LCC, The Royal College of Art (RCA Secret), and the Coningsby Gallery where she had her latest solo show in March 2009.

Clients include Penguin Books, Harper Collins, The Guardian, The Times, Time Out, and the BBC amongst many others.