Elke's Art - Kunstwerke

Elke Sommer stands in front
of one of her paintings.
PHOTO: Hyde Flippo
> VIEW the PAINTING

Elke Sommer developed her interest in art at an early age while still a child in Germany. According to the information at her Web site, it was in the fields, meadows, and woods surrounding her German hometown where she saw the gypsies often portrayed in her work today.

With the encouragement of her parents, she began to paint with water colors. During her au pair stay in London, Elke helped stave off loneliness and homesickness by evoking in watercolors happy memories from her childhood — something she continues to do today. From her Web site: “When sad she paints happy scenes and when happy she paints sad scenes. In all of her paintings there is a recurring religious motif, usually expressed by the inclusion of a cross or church in her work. This is a direct tribute to the memory of her beloved father.”

When she was making films in Italy, she would paint during her free time, trying a new medium: oil painting. After her arrival in California, she credits the Italian painter Amen, then living in Los Angeles, with helping her to develop her current style. She now works in acrylics.

In 1965 Elke Sommer held her first one-woman art show at the McKenzie Galleries in Beverly Hills. Her artistic debut was a big success and she sold many of her paintings. Since then, she has had many more successful shows, over 40 to date.

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Copyright © 2003 Hyde Flippo