Lela Stroutsi

Lela Stroutsi is an artist and illustrator based in Athens, Greece.

After studying Business Administration and Marketing Management in Greece and the UK, she worked for many years as a client service director for international advertising agencies. At the same time, she took classes in drawing, painting, digital illustration, children’s book illustration and photography.

In 2013, she decided to follow her true passion and started working exclusively as a freelance illustrator (and sometimes as a children’s books writer).

Today, she works with major publishing houses and companies in Greece and Cyprus. She has illustrated more than 50 children’s books, some of them shortlisted for the Greek State Literary Award for Best Children’s Book, Ibby/Greece book awards, "Anagnostis" magazine book awards and selected for «Τhe White Ravens» annual catalogue of the International Youth Library.She has also worked on various advertising and packaging illustration projects and game applications design. She has taken part in fine art and illustration exhibitions in Greece and abroad.

Her work is full of colour, clarity and light, humour, optimism and joy of life. She is passionate for life and this is reflected in her work. Greece and the Mediterranean aura are always a source of strong inspiration for her. Very often, she is commissioned to work on projects that reflect the spirit of Greece, history, folklore, tradition, people and architecture, as she illustrates familiar and beloved Greek heritage icons with her own fresh perspective.