Inspired Artist

Delphine Chopard - Designer

By: Aurélie ROUTHIER

Delphine Chopard is like her work: aerial and free. Her drawings know no bounds: from the wall to the floor and ceiling. When it comes to rugs, they escape the frame and take us to an open space. Meet the artist who created Saudade’s designs.

Describe your job in a sentence

I make bespoke designs to dress walls, ceilings and floors, and thus create unique and personal decorations.

At a fundamental level, I look for ‘beauty'.

Tell us how you worked for Saudade

We started from the craftsman’s technical constraint to define this exclusively horizontal design with a minimalist spirit. We explored the world of artists such as Soulages or Fontana, which we interpreted with a Saudade spirit.

Wall drawing is another of your specialties. It seems technical… is it?

I originally launched into it by chance, for a private commission. My drawings are often made of plenty of small lines. The idea is that the gesture becomes instinctive, almost automatic, before I start drawing directly on the wall.

We say that the cobbler’s children always go barefoot. Does this explain why your walls are bare and white?!

Yes, since I work at home, I need it to be white. I also draw prints but prefer wearing plain clothes.

As for rugs, I didn’t own any before acquiring my Sintra rug from Saudade. I guess I needed a blank canvas.

If your rug could fly, where would it take you?

I would take my friends with me and spend the evening at La Cale in Blainville in the Cotentin. It’s a restaurant with the unlikeliest of decors made of odds and ends and kitschy tapestries. We sit on recycled furniture facing the sea and oyster farms. On the menu, mussels and chips or meat grilled in the chimney, with our feet in the sand. It’s like being at the end of the world!

An accessory for this rug?

The engraving of the little woman with chicken legs that I purchased 3 years ago during the contemporary print day at Place Saint Sulpice. It’s by Vera Makina who also draws cartoons for the Canard Enchaîné publication.

Crédit © [Noms]

At Saudade, we believe that everyone, object or human, has the right to a second life. What will you do in yours?

Be a researcher to move the world forward!

On my own small scale, I am a researcher for “beauty”.

Your definition of beauty

Beauty is what moves you.

Who would be in your pantheon of inspiring people?

I have always been fascinated by artist Gordon Matta-Clark, who worked with space. He is known for his spectacular cut-outs of abandoned buildings.

Who do you follow on Instagram that you would like to introduce to us?

London illustrator @molley.may and @zebrakadebra, Stockholm artist Emma Larsson’s Instagram.

Saudade is a mix of nostalgia and hope. What is your last moment of Saudade?

The light at the end of the day.