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Tom: So Lelia, up until you were elven, you were raised by your grandparents Paulomie and Yvonne. And as soon as you were able to hold a brush and a pencil, your grandfather is teaching you techniques passed down from Camille. What impact does that have on a mind so young? How do you think this changes the way you view the world around you at that age?
Lélia: So the first thing which is very important to mention is that I started to draw at the age of three years old. Which is like when most children start, really. The only difference is that he encouraged me very much from the beginning. But how do you teach a little girl to see.... to look. Moreover, to observe. That made a very big difference and impact in my life as an artist later on and I remember very clearly him asking me to go in the garden with him, and to find a cobweb. So we were walking together - him much taller than me of course - and I didn't find a cobweb. But suddenly he stopped, and said to me "I can see one, from where I stand I can see one." So I would come close to him, I would look around. I didn't see it until he showed it to me. And I realised that I passed, I looked but I didn't' see it. And from that point, he showed me the difference between seeing, looking and observing. And that has been a very important part of my teaching because in order to learn to draw you need to be able to observe. It is something that learning from such a young age, I developed a normal attitude to observe everything in life. To see differently and in order to become a good artist, you need to be able to observe. Later on in teaching a lot of my students, I realised that it is not so easy to observe. It is something that comes with a lot of practice. But it is something I developed at a young age thanks to my grandfather.
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