Welcome to this website about artist Vera Elias (1922-97). This site is being presented by Vera's children Kathy, Dorothy, and Peter, and her granddaughter Kimberly. We want to display her paintings and other artwork for the public's enjoyment and invite you to share any stories and pictures of her art that you might have.
Vera was a fashion designer, potter and sculptor before she began to paint in the 1970's. In the last years of her life she also became an avid quilter. Creativity was a central and consistent focus of her life, and its varied expression in different periods of her life brought her solace, joy, and ultimately, the community she had been craving.
Born in Czechoslovakia to an assimilated Jewish family, Vera first worked creatively during the early years of the war designing clothes. She was deported to the Nazi's show camp Terezin in 1942. During her three years of imprisonment she was able to work in a pottery, which afforded her an escape from the privations and despair surrounding her.
She emigrated to the US in 1949 following the Communist takeover of her country.
Pottery and sculpture sustained her until she began painting in the early 1970's.
You can send stories or photos to eliasd@shaw.ca
Please note that all dimensions of paintings are given in inches. The paintings are all oil on canvas, with a few exceptions being oil on board.
Artist Statement
Prepared by Vera Elias for her solo exhibit in Seattle in 1996:
"When I look back at my creative activity, my arts and crafts beginning with ceramics and mosaics and continuing with painting, I see that most of what I did was composed of small parts. They were houses or only small roofs, but each little part formed a part of the larger whole. And so it continues today, when I do larger abstract pictures. They in turn have "structure", are composed of colored parts fused or bordered by strong lines-walls. Only the final whole gives the mood and form, the individual parts themselves are subjected to the whole.
And so it seems to me that my art expresses my life's philosophy. My days are structured, my activities vary and they have different moods. There are good days and sometimes bad ones -but only the sum total of these days can give you the final picture. It is necessary to step back and look at the colorful mosaic of my life and judge the good and the bad as a whole.
I studied ceramics and sculpture at the College of Applied Arts in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1945 - 49. After the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, I emigrated to the United States and became a US citizen in 1955. I settled on Long Island where I was a housewife and raised three children. Until 1965 I pursued my art in my own pottery workshop at home. I lived in Germany from 1971 to 1984 and was employed as a graphic artist.
I began painting in oils as a naïve artist in 1970, painting family scenes and European cities. In the course of years, my style changed and my interest was drawn to abstract expression.
After my retirement, I moved to Seattle where I became a member of Women Painters of Washington and exhibited with the group. I have had solo exhibits in Munich, New Haven and Kirkland."