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Elsie James

AWARDS
First Prize – Drawing – Woodford Biennial Art Awards 2005
Highly Commended – Drawing  – Caloundra City Art Fesival 2006
Highly Commended – Miniatures – Gympie Goldrush Art Show

Elsie was born in London. She gained a place at S.W. Essex School of Art in 1959, studying for a National Diploma in Design, specialising in lithography. In 1960 Elsie emigrated to Australia and began work as a junior fabric designer for Vida Turner studios in Melbourne then continued her art at home and worked as a draughtsman in civil engineering and surveying.
In 1964 Elsie moved to Newcastle, N.S.W. and began exhibiting and selling her work. Although many of her paintings were oils or watercolours, her most popular work was done in pen and ink, a medium to which she became further skilled due to her career as a draughtsman.
In 1975 Elsie returned to England with her family in a bid to “see the world”. She began classes again and in 1980 decided to take a 2-year advanced level G.C.E. course in Art, which she successfully passed. During this course she added other mediums to her range such as gouache, acrylic, coloured inks and pastel. She also attended workshops with Ron Ranson, James Horton, Leslie Stew, Robin Mackervoy and James Fletcher-Watson. Elsie continued to exhibit and sell in the Cambridge area where she lived, joining the Cambridge Art Circle and Royston Art Society, tutoring and running exhibitions for some 14 years before returning to Newcastle. Elsie then joined the Newcastle Art Society and the Newcastle Society of Artists
In 1998 Elsie moved to Queensland with her family and more recently settled in Caloundra. Elsie is a member of Arts Council Sunshine Coast, The Australian Guild of Realist Artists, Sunshine Coast Arts Group and Bribie Island Community Arts Society. Her work has also been exhibited in the Bruce Watling Gallery Southport, Horizons Gallery Tweed Heads, Jasu Gallery Woody Point and Daveson Gallery Gatton. Elsie’s work can be seen in the AGRA Guild House Galleries Camberwell Victoria, Caboolture Shire Community Arts Centre, Bribie Island and Seaview Gallery, Moffat Beach.

Elsie James