“My adult life consolidates the symbiosis between art and personal experience. And my work is a reflection of my family life and the deepest longings of my being.”
Filipa Sáragga d’Orey is a Portuguese visual artist and writer who dedicates her creative talent to transcendence, family, and causes linked to childhood. She creates paintings and books with purpose.
Her visual and literary work is an emotional self-portrait that reveals dreams, joys, and fragilities, capturing the soul of what surrounds her to connect with beauty, total serenity, and offer peace to those who contemplate it.
Born in Lisbon in 1984, Filipa Sáragga graduated in Visual Arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, and in 2013 completed a postgraduate course on the Development of Expressive Arts. Her life journey, marked by experiences of self-improvement in health, motherhood, and self-discovery, has shaped a personal voice in children’s literature and a distinctive perspective in Portuguese contemporary art.
This artist transforms light, spirituality, and her daughters into the pillars of her work. Her artistic universe, profoundly linked to colour and emotion, develops from her home studio, between the sea of Estoril and the serenity of her home, with a language of her own where introspection, faith, and everyday beauty converge a space in which her creative process coexists with daily life and spirituality.
Her latest individual exhibition, Roots and Light, opened at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon in February 2025. Inspired by her family life and inner world, it was an abstract journey through nature, sacredness, and love, full of intimate geography and vibrant colours. A dialogue between the earthly and the transcendental across 13 botanical canvases.
Over the years, Filipa has exhibited her collections in some art galleries in Portugal, such as Galeria AP’Arte, Cordoaria Nacional, and Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes.
Her books generate social impact for children and families in vulnerable situations. Through delicate stories and colourful illustrations, she teaches children to love themselves and discover the value of being unique, addressing issues such as inclusion, autism, illness, and bullying in a subtle and universal way.
Her books, The Blue Princess and the Hidden Happiness and The Book of Emotions, are part of the National Reading Plan of Portuguese schools and were supported by the writer and psychiatrist Lobo Antunes, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and the President of the Republic of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
Thanks to the success of her emotional intelligence books, Filipa Sáragga is a popular author in her country and founded the Blue Princess Association, with which she toured schools for a year in a sincere campaign to prevent bullying and promote the inclusion of every child.
In her early career, Filipa Sáragga d’Orey had the support of the internationally acclaimed Portuguese artist Paula Rego as her mentor. She is currently working with passion on The Three Daughters, a double pictorial and literary project: a collection of educational books and large-scale paintings.
Asociación Princesa Azul
The Blue Princess Association, founded by Filipa Sáragga after the publication of her book The Blue Princess and the Hidden Happiness (2015), with a preface by António Guterres, was created to promote emotional well-being and social inclusion through education and awareness. Its mission focuses on preventing bullying and fostering self-esteem, empathy, and resilience among children and young people, especially in school contexts.
Throughout its trajectory, the association has developed solidarity actions and awareness campaigns, such as its collaboration with the Vogue Fashion’s Night Out Lisboa event, which raised funds to support the defense and promotion of children’s rights in situations of harassment and vulnerability.
In addition, the author toured schools for over a year to present the book to the children, the real protagonists.
TEDx Aveiro
In November 2015, Filipa Sáragga was invited to participate in TEDx Aveiro. With her talk, “The Colours of Life”, she reflected on the transformative power of art, the emotional dimension of colour, and her commitment to profoundly human creation.
dimension of colour, and her commitment to profoundly human creation.
Through her experience working with children in vulnerable situations, Filipa demonstrates how painting and artistic expression can become tools for dialogue, self-esteem, and healing. Her work seeks to awaken empathy and reminds us that art is not just aesthetics: it is also communication, identity, and hope.
“Art is a bridge: it unites what pain separates, gives voice to those who do not have it, and paints sense onto the silences of the world.”