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Stéphane Delaprée, a.k.a. Stef.
Painting Cambodia with Joy Since 1993
French-born and raised in Canada, Stef has made Cambodia his home and artistic inspiration since 1993. For more than three decades, he has developed a distinctive pictorial world of vibrant colours, bold black lines, gentle humour and affection for everyday life.
From intimate scenes to monumental paintings, his work celebrates the people, landscapes and small moments that make life beautiful. His paintings have been acquired by the National Bank of Cambodia and a select group of international art collectors. His career also includes commissions and collaborations with institutions such as UNDP, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and Thai Airways.
Stef continues to create from his studio in Phnom Penh, exploring new themes while remaining faithful to a simple conviction: art can bring joy into everyday life.
Original Unique Artwork
Artworks by Stéphane Delaprée
Acrylic on Canvas
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Moto Chickens, 120×200 cm / 47×78 in.
8,000$ -
Quebec Wet Kiss, 61x76cm / 24x30in. For Collectors only.
4,500$ -
Cambodian Countryside Everyday Life, The Blue Buffalo, 60x70cm / 24×28 in.
1,950$ -
Birds and Daisies, 129×120 cm
3,700$ -
Birds in a Flowered Tree, 129×120 cm
3,800$ -
Six Birds on a Pink Sky, 89×117 cm
3,700$
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Lovers under a Tree with Birds Cages, 138×200 cm / 54×78 in.
8,000$ -
A Cambodian Cool Dad, 40×40 cm / 16×16 in.
1,990$ -
1996 Monk Umbrella Blue Background, 138×200 cm / 54×78 in.
8,000$ -
Tuktuk in Cambodia, 50×50 cm / 19×19 in.
1,999$ -
Vietnamese Happy Family Fishes Sellers, 67×97 cm / 26×38 in
2,500$ -
Flowers on Yellow Background, 138×200 cm / 54×78 in.
8,000$
Limited Edition Serigraphs
Hand printed with a traditional screen printing system on mulberry paper.
Mulberry paper is handmade from the bark of the tree, its long fibers give a unique distinctive finish and texture.
Numbered and signed
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White Elephant on fuchsia background, 55×77 cm /21.5×30 in.
499$ -
Two Cambodian Sellers with a baby, 55×77 cm /21.5×30 in.
499$ -
Tuktuk face Thai Royal Palace, 32×48 cm / 12×18 in.
280$ -
Moto-Taxi & a Monk, 55×77 cm /21.5×30 in.
499$ -
Monks on the beach, 55 x77 cm /21.5×30 in. Serigraph
599$ -
Biking in the Countryside, 55×77 cm /21.5×30 in. Serigraph
499$ -
Three-Walking-Fruit-Sellers, 55×77 cm /21.5×30 in. Serigraph
499$ -
Happy Birthday Elephant, 55×77 cm /21.5×30 in. Serigraph
499$
Get in touch
Press and Media
Asia Life
June 2018
Siem Reap Map
May 2013
Phnom Penh Post
May 2016
About Stef
An enduring love of Cambodia, expressed in colour.
Stéphane Delaprée, known as Stef, is a French-born Canadian artist who has lived and painted in Cambodia since late 1993. Born in Paris in 1956, he grew up in Québec and spent part of his adolescence in Senegal. Entirely self-taught, he first built a career in cartoons and illustration before devoting himself to painting in the early 1990s.
Cambodia became more than his home: it became the heart of his artistic language. His Happy Painting style brings together vibrant colours, confident black outlines, playful compositions and a deeply human view of everyday life. Beneath its cheerful appearance lies an enduring affection for the people he encounters and the country he has watched change for more than three decades.
Over the years, Stef established galleries in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap and worked on projects for international organisations. His artistic career includes commissions and collaborations with UNDP, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and Thai Airways, a 15-metre airport mural, exhibitions abroad and major paintings for a historic chapel in France.
In 1995, King Norodom Sihanouk expressed his appreciation of Stef’s contribution to contemporary art in Cambodia in a personal letter. His work has been acquired by a select group of international art collectors and, in 2026, by the National Bank of Cambodia.
Today, Stef continues to work from his studio in Phnom Penh. His recent series — Vibrations, Flowers Power and Happy Birds — reveal an artist who remains curious, experimenting and finding new ways to celebrate life.
His belief remains simple: a painting can bring warmth, poetry and a smile into a room.
Artistic Journey
From the drawn line to a life in painting.
1956–1973 | Early influences
Born in Paris in 1956, Stéphane Delaprée grew up in Québec, Canada, and spent part of his adolescence in
Senegal. These different places shaped his curiosity about people, cultures and visual storytelling. Drawing
became his first artistic language.
1974–1992 | The cartoonist years
Stef began working professionally as a cartoonist and illustrator in 1974. Over nearly two decades, he created
illustrated stories and educational cartoons, contributed to publications including Tintin, and developed his own
projects. Among them was Bambou, an illustrated magazine he founded in the 1980s. This experience in narrative
drawing shaped the assured outlines and immediately readable compositions that would later characterise his
paintings.
1991–1993 | Discovering painting
In the early 1990s, first in Québec and later in Costa Rica, Stef turned towards painting. Working as a self-taught
artist, he explored bright colour, simplified forms and the expressive freedom of the canvas. He arrived in
Cambodia in late 1993, a decision that transformed his work and his life.
1994–1999 | A new artistic home
As Cambodia entered a period of profound change, Stef developed the visual language he calls Happy Painting:
colourful, tender and full of humour. Cambodian daily life became a central theme. He began projects with
organisations including UNICEF, UNDP and the World Food Programme. In 1995, King Norodom Sihanouk
thanked him in a personal letter for his contribution to contemporary art in Cambodia.
2000–2009 | Galleries, public works and exhibitions
Stef’s paintings reached audiences through galleries in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap and exhibitions in public
venues. Since 2000, his illustrations have appeared on more than 130 covers of Nyo Nyum magazine. In 2008, he
created a 15-metre mural for Sihanoukville Airport. In 2009, the Ahuja Museum for Arts in India presented a solo
exhibition of his Happy Painting works.
A Continuing Artistic Life
2010–2019 | Commissions and recognition
Stef pursued significant commissions for public and private spaces, including a large work for Thai Airways and
three substantial religious paintings for the chapel of Château de la Barre in France. He participated in
international exhibitions, including the Art Naif Festival in Poland. His visual language evolved while retaining its
humour, warmth and humanity.
2020–2024 | Independent studio practice
After closing his final gallery space in 2020, Stef continued his independent practice from his studio. Free from
the daily demands of a public gallery, he focused on making original paintings and maintaining direct relationships
with collectors and clients.
2025–2026 | New directions
Stef continues to explore large formats and new themes through series such as Vibrations, Flowers Power and
Happy Birds. His recent work includes monumental compositions and renewed interpretations of Cambodian life.
In 2026, the National Bank of Cambodia acquired two of his original paintings.
Today | Painting with curiosity
More than thirty years after arriving in Cambodia, Stef remains active in his Phnom Penh studio. He combines the
freedom of a self-taught painter with decades of experience: colour with sensitivity, humour with careful
observation, and joy with a lasting respect for people.
“Art can bring joy into everyday life.”
Stef / Stéphane Delaprée
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
stefhappygallery.com
sdelapree56@gmail.com
t.me/StephaneDelapree
Biography
Born in Paris, France, raised in Quebec, Canada, and in Senegal. Stef’s artistic career began at the late of seventies, with educative cartoons, adventure cartoons and theaters posters.
In 1992, while living in Costa Rica, willing to change the medium of artwork, 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”.
In 1994, Stef moved to Cambodia where he made work for UNICEF, United Nations Development Programme and World Food Program. 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.
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, Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, thanked Stef for his precious contribution to Contemporary Art in Cambodia.
In 2008, Stef made a 15-meters 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. Later, for Thai Airways International’s 50th anniversary, Stephane Delapree was commissioned to create a 3-meter mural for the TAI ‘Cambodia headquarter. In 2009, the Ahuja Museum for Arts, Calcutta, India, organized a solo exhibition with Stephane Delapree’s Happy Painting. For the 60 anniversary of Pasteur Institute in Cambodia, Stef was commissioned to create a big size canvas, for the Phnom Penh’s Pasteur Institute lobby.
In 2013, Stef was commissioned by the Count de Vanssay to create three huge religious artworks canvases to illuminate the chapel of his 14th century Castel, le château de la Barre, Loiret, France. In 2014, Stef was going to close his shop in Phnom Penh due to piracy but later stayed after making a deal with the Foreign Correspondent Club, until April 2016. In 2014, he made his debut in New York City. One of the world’s biggest Beaujolais nouveau wine producers, the French Georges Duboeuf, commissioned Stef a personal label design for the 59th anniversary of Georges Duboeuf famous Beaujolais Nouveau wine.
In 2016, the artist was commissioned 5 huge religious paintings by Spanish Bishop. Stephane Delapree represented two times Cambodia, 2014 and 2016, in the Art Naif Festiwal Katowice, Poland.
WHEN COLORS BLOOM.
I dare say that at the very first glance, we know without a doubt that Stephane Delapree’s artwork, bears the unmistakable signs by which we recognize this too rare, but highly prized quality: authentic and powerful art. We are particularly struck by the fact that his paintings are both carefully constructed, yet seemingly spontaneous. They are both fragile and powerful; naïve and learned.
While they offer a very personal vision of the world, that vision also has a universal scope. It is why now; Stef’s happy painting is widely celebrated.
All painters know that there is more to a picture than what gets to the eyes. And while staring at Stephane Delapree’s healing paintings, I could not resist the thought that in the glistening of colors one could also hear a simple but powerful message. My understanding is that the message is one of hope, a reminder of the pure beauty and fragility of the world.
The message is infinitely valuable in the rather dark hours that are upon us. It is a quiet voice, so you have to be careful to hear it.
I feel confident that more and more human beings from Europe, Asia, America, and everywhere else, will have the opportunity to see Delapree’s artwork and hear what his paintings have to say since he is a part of us. This kind of magic by which one speaks of everyone while saying “I” has a name: art. Or poetry.
Normand Baillargeon.
