Lucia Deleiris

Lucia deLeiris’ love of art began during early childhood. She would go on painting excursions to do watercolors of the Rhode Island seashore herparents, both avid painters. Some days, she would spend the day sketching animals at the zoo with her father. “We both filled folders full of zoo drawings, and I learned so much in the process about drawing animals, and how to work with moving subjects. It was challenging, but so much fun!” she recalls.  DeLeiris comes from four generations of painters, and grew up in a house full of paintings and art books. Her French grandmother worked as a professional portrait painter both in France and New England. deLeiris remembers watching her grandmother paint.  “I was aways drawn to  drawing and painting.” she recalls. “I’m lucky that my family was supportive of my interest in art.”

Part of her artistic development came from working at a bird sanctuary during high school summers. There, she painted displays for the museum, cared for young or wounded animals, and learned bird banding. During her last summer there she was prompted to illustrate a trail guide. “It was a revelation to me to see my artwork in a book.” she notes. “I had always illustrated my school book reports, and scribbled drawings in my school notes, but I had never before thought about working as an artist.” 

Later, while attending the University of Maryland where she studied zoology, she took some chopped up photocopies of the trail guide drawings in a manila folder (her first attempt at a portfolio), and walked into the office of the National Parks and Conservation Association in Washington, DC. There she picked up an illustration job drawing grizzly bears for their magazine. That prompted further illustration jobs for several natural history magazines in the DC area. 

Her career took off upon graduating from University, when she was granted a residency at the Smithsonian National Zoo Conservation Center in Front Royal Virginia. She lived there six months sketching and observing Père David Deer from a jeep for a scientific study, and then illustrating the resulting book. Living among the semi captive animals, she was able to combine her interests in art and biology. When a documentary film crew arrived, she did a painting of golden lion marmosets for the film introduction. Of sketching in their enclosure, she remembers, “One of the tiny monkeys climbed down my arm while I was drawing, to play with my pencil eraser!” 

Early in her career, deLeiris earned her pilot license (by working one summer at a rental desk of small airport in exchange for flight hours),  she flew an antique airplane for six years on painting excursions. She made a living during those years by painting watercolors the waterfront towns of the east coast, and making a series of 35 prints which she sold through local galleries. She flew from Maine to Miami and to islands off the coast with her French easel and folding bike behind the seat. From some small airstrips, once landed, she would pedal off to paint the local waterfront.