“Fairytales and magic filled my childhood and sketchbooks”
Elsa paints from her home studio, nestled in the English countryside, where she lives with her husband and children. Her paintings capture a world of fairytale, myth, and childhood whimsy.
“I’ve been a creative spirit since I was tiny, and now our children are just the same. They are frequently to be found in the midst of a happy muddle of pencils, paints and glitter, creating a new piece for the wall. I am continually inspired by their own sweet paintings, the make-believe worlds they dream up in their own make-believe stories, and favourite myths and fairytales, as well as the small corners and creatures from our countryside ramblings and the English feast days we celebrate through the seasonal year.” Elsa
“whimsy”
The inks and drawings of E. H. Shepard were always my most treasured as a child. Nothing will ever surpass the sweet whimsy of Pooh and his friends. Arthur Rackham, John Bauer and Mabel Lucie Atwell are other favourites. There’s so much nostalgia whenever I see these much-loved illustrations in the pages of my children’s books now.
“naïve”
There’s a wonderful charm in the naïve way that children draw, paint and see the world. Free from the constraints of representational accuracy and objective judgment, they draw with unapologetic freedom, impulsively adding whatever comes to mind as they go, with little to no consideration for proportion, perspective and the whole and often squashing as much as they can into every bit of spare space. This makes for a magic all of its own. Some of my pieces are rendered with an adoption of this childlike liberty, taking inspiration from the many pictures, stories and characters my little ones dream up daily – as if my children had painted them.
