Dundalk's Creative Spark welcomes French artist in residence

Creative Spark in Dundalk has welcomed French illustrator and printmaker Léa Babé as part of its current artist residency programme. Hailing from rural Franche-Comté, France, Babé’s multidisciplinary practice explores themes of identity, collective experience, and the natural world through mediums such as engraving, risography, gouache, coloured pencil, and, more recently, weaving.
With a deeply observational approach, Léa treats her artistic practice as a form of landscape exploration—gathering, digesting, and retranscribing impressions of the world around her. Drawn to the traces of fleeting moments, her work captures patterns, rhythms, and the tension between unity and fragmentation.

Walking forms an essential part of her creative method, allowing her to isolate and recompose visual elements into imaginative, ever-shifting terrains. As a result, her compositions invite the viewer to engage with images that appear to unravel and reassemble in real time.

Léa holds a Master’s degree in Editorial Design from ÉSAM (École supérieure d’arts & médias de Caen-Cherbourg), along with a degree in Children’s Literature from the University of Le Mans. Her portfolio spans fine art prints, illustrated narratives, and bookmaking. Notable works include Les Baladeurs, a children’s book celebrating the joy of wandering, and Hjem, a poetic and philosophical project-in-progress that explores the concept of “home” through landscape and movement. Her illustrations have been selected for prestigious international exhibitions, including the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and she regularly facilitates workshops combining storytelling, drawing, and book arts.

During her three-month residency at Creative Spark, Léa Babé will continue developing Hjem, focusing on the idea of traversing, fragmenting, and reassembling landscapes. Inspired by walks along the coastline, she gathers impressions shaped by wind, tide, and light, recording them through coloured pencil drawings, printmaking, weaving, and digital fabrication techniques such as laser cutting and engraving.

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“In digesting and recomposing these fragments, I aim to create visual markers—forms and patterns that guide both myself and the viewer through the landscape,” Babé explains. “The work mirrors the central theme of Hjem: how we understand and map our surroundings to create a sense of home.”

Léa Babé’s residency represents Creative Spark’s ongoing commitment to supporting contemporary artists whose work bridges traditional craft and contemporary inquiry.

Creative Spark Artist-in-Residence Programme is supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and The Arts Service of Louth County Council.