“I create illustrations in a search of depth, balance, aesthetic and expressing vibrant emotions through colors. I explore and get inspired by the various representations of our reality in art, films, myths, stories, dreams, visions and symbols. My goal is to make feel-good images that we can all relate to and enjoy.”

Maite Leon is an artist and illustrator. Of French-Greek origin, she lives and works in Paris. 

She grew up in Athens, Greece. She arrived in France in 1991 to study linguistics at Paris X. In 1995, she trained in visual communications at the Ecole supérieure des arts appliqués Duperré. Her career then diversified into a number of creative industries (Sony Music France, Disney Interactive Studios) and publishing (J’ai lu, Hatier). After fifteen years of Greek-French subtitling (Arte, Titra-film), she became Plantu’s collaborator at Le Monde for twelve years. With him, she wrote a dozen collections of press cartoons published by Editions du Seuil, and archived his collection of almost 30,000 original drawings, now stored at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Since 2021, she works full time as an artist and illustrator.

She bears witness to the universal beauty of the world and documents the wonder of everyday life through a surreal, symbolic and pop approach. Through her images, she touches our heart and imagination, to make us think or smile. In this way, she encourages us to question our perception of things, people and the world around us.

Her figurative work is inspired by the exploration of human nature, dreams, symbols and archetypes drawn from Greek mythology, cinema, fairytales and everyday life. Her research is akin to the Symbolist movement in its recurring themes, and its emphasis on the psychic and universal dimension of her images.

She sketches out her ideas on paper, using felt-tip pens, then moves on to drawing them digitally. She carries out extensive research into the materials and textures she creates in ink or watercolor and adds them to her compositions using Photoshop. The final images are in digital format and come in various high-definition formats.

Viewers describe her works as dreamlike and tinged with humor. Her compositions are vibrant, with intense colors and the velvety texture of digital pastels offer a warm, organic rendering. Her images, are both aesthetic and mysterious, and invite viewers to share her sensory vision of the world and drift towards the uncharted imaginary shores of our inner depths.