Stéphane Delaprée

Stéphane Delaprée, born in Paris, France, in 1956, is a French-Canadian artist resident in Cambodia.

Activities - Artist, Graphic artist, painter scenarist

Medium used -
 * Pen & Ink drawings;
 * Illustrator;
 * Painter.

Movement - Happy Painting

Type - Naive Paintings combining Humor & Realism

Cartoons
Between 1970 and 1980, Stef began his artistic career as cartoon illustrator. He mostly worked in Quebec where he founded Bambou magazine in Quebec City. He also worked for Belgium's Tintin magazine and for Fripounet magazine based in France.

Contemporary Painting
In 1992, while living in Costa Rica, strongly influenced by the naif style, Stef moved to painting. His brightly colored canvases depict subjects in nature, with pure rounded motifs. Very quickly, he found a very personal style and created what he terms his own painting movement, the Happy Painting, an artistic concept based on simplicity, very strong colors and “joie de vivre”.

A year later, in 1993, Stef joined his two brothers in Cambodia. The subjects depicted in his paintings evolved to portray daily life in Cambodia. His personal, very positive vision of the country, just out of civil war, met immediate commercial success.

Stef is not attached to and does not receive support from any government, association or artistic group.

In 1997, during the crisis in Cambodia, Stef was amongst the very few foreigners who still believed in the future of the country and stayed there.

The Happy Painting movement influenced a number of Cambodian artists. In a personal letter, HRH Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, thanked Stef for his precious contribution to Contemporary Art in Cambodia.

In 2008, Stef made a 15 metre mural for the new international airport in Sihanoukville. In 2008, he represented Cambodia at the second Contemporary Art Exhibition in Malaysia. Stef’s creations are currently in galleries in Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and India.

Galleries
Permanent exhibition in the following galleries:
 * HPG Foreign Correspondent Club, Phnom Penh
 * HPG Phnom Penh International Airport
 * HPG Old Market Square, Siem Reap
 * HPG Angkor Century Hotel, Siem Reap
 * HPG Foreign Correspondent Club, Siem Reap

Cambodia

 * Happy Painting Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
 * Happy Cambodia Art Gallery, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
 * Klick Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2002
 * New Art Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
 * Inter-Continental Hotel’s Art Gallery, 1997, 1998, 1999
 * Hotel Raffles Le Royal’s Art Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1999, 2000, 2001
 * Hotel Sofitel, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1995, 1996, 1997
 * Cambodiana Hotel, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
 * Princess Angkor Hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2003
 * psara Angkor Hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2002, 2003
 * Angkor Century Hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009.

Malaysia

 * Heng Masterpieces Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2008, 2009
 * International Contemporary Art Expo Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2008

Singapore

 * Gnani Arts Gallery, Singapore, 2009

Laos

 * MB Art Gallery in Vientiane, Laos, 2006

India

 * Ahuja Museum for Arts, http://www.ahujaptm.com/museum, Calcutta, India, (permanent exhibition).

Notes and references

 * «Le monde est petit, c'est pourquoi il est fantastique», interview of Stéphane Delaprée by Gilles Angers, page E-9, in Le Soleil (section Crayons de Soleil), mercredi 20 novembre 1985, Québec;
 * Canuck comics, a Guide to Comic Books Published in Canada, 1986, John Bell, Luc Pomerleau et Robert MacMillan, éditions Matrix Books, Montréal;
 * «La bande dessinée au Québec», 1994, Mira Falardeau, éditions du Boréal, collection Boréal Express, Montréal;
 * «Bande dessinée québécoise» : répertoire bibliographique à suivre, 1996, Bernard Dubois, éditions D.B.K., Sillery;
 * «BDQ, Répertoire des publications de bandes dessinées au Québec des origines à nos jours», 1999, Michel Viau, éditions Mille-Îles, Laval;
 * «Histoire de la bande dessinée au Québec», 2008, Mira Falardeau, VLB éditeur, collection Études québécoises, Montréal.