David Delamare was born in Leicester, but lived most of his life in the United States. He began painting in childhood and never had another job, except a brief stint as a blues guitarist. He lived in the bohemian Hawthorne District of Portland, Oregon with his wife and print publisher Wendy Ice, two rabbits, and a giant tortoise named Pip.

David worked in a variety of media including etching, acrylic, and gouache, but in later years painted almost exclusively with oil on canvas. His dream-like paintings have appeared on book and album covers, in television programmes (such as Marsalis on Music) and in numerous films.

In all, this hugely-talented artist illustrated eleven books: a retrospective of his work, nine children’s titles (including two of his own original stories and a collaboration with singer-songwriter Carly Simon) and an adult alphabet book titled Animerotics: A Forbidden Cabaret in 26 Acts with a story co-authored by Wendy Ice. But it his unique version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for which he is best remembered and, probably, most admired.