Artist Léa Chaillaud primarily works with traditional media such as watercolours, gouache and coloured pencils to bring woodland critters to life. Being based in the South of France, her love for exploring nearby forests and trekking mountains has honed a deep passion in her for everything nature-related. Hence, her works look like they have come straight out of a fairy tale where all things, from rabbits to warthogs, have become one with their natural surroundings.
These pieces remind her audiences, especially children, that every critter, no matter how big or small, is a cherished part of a larger ecological system. They encourage viewers to think about what part they can play in order to help maintain this delicate balance. This is why Chaillaud’s work is relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Life on Land.
In pieces such as Waterfall, Chaillaud would typically portray a single “hero” animal whose composition and stature dominate the field. This animal can be found resting or going on a casual stroll, moving at a pace that is slow enough for them to almost merge with their natural surroundings. Telling a story where moss, trees and even waterfalls take root in their bodies, before eventually other animals will live, feed and bathe from their body parts. The work is a wondrous acknowledgment and celebration of the ecological web of life.
Unlike other pieces that focus solely on natural beings and ways of life, her piece Overgrown Cemetery is an odd one out. It is the only piece of work that explicitly shows human-made items, therefore alluding to a contemplation of human beings in nature. In it, a single deer lies under a tree, sleeping peacefully as algae, moss and fungi grow on its body. As the title alludes, a deer is found sleeping in what appears to be a cemetery with human-made tombstones littered around it. With the rest of Chaillaud’s oeuvre in mind, one could take a macabre reading of this painting as a statement that today’s way of life has reached a point where humanity can only coexist with nature in their death. Considering this interpretation, it becomes a call for comprehensive environmental action before nature takes its course and disregards human life.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been sounding the alarm that biodiversity has been declining at an alarming rate between 1970-2020, with vertebrate wildlife populations declining by an average of 73 per cent and species extinctions occurring 10 to 100 times faster than they would naturally. Its studies have found that an estimated 1 million species are now threatened with extinction, as 75 per cent of land environments and 66 per cent of marine ones have been significantly altered by human activity.
Léa Chaillaud’s illustrations are more than enchanting fairy tales—they are gentle, urgent invitations to invite her audiences to see themselves as part of nature’s delicate web. Her tender paintings of critters entwined with forests, waterfalls, and moss depict ecological harmony while offering a vision of a world where every being belongs. Yet, in pieces such as Overgrown Cemetery, that vision sharpens into a quiet warning: that without care, humans may become mere relics in a landscape that has learned to thrive without them. Chaillaud’s art, in all its whimsical beauty, becomes a soft but steadfast reminder to protect, cherish and reweave humanity’s place in the living ecological web she has lovingly portrayed.
Find out more about Léa Chaillaud and her paintings by checking her website www.leachaillaud.com or Instagram @leachaillaud.art.