Elaine Kantar is an artist who has delved into various media and many different subject matters in order to communicate her artistic impressions of the world, it's inhabitants, and it's wilflife. Elaine has been involved with art in one form or another nearly her entire life. Being the daughter of an Air Force pilot, who was a Hurricane Hunter, afforded her the luxury of living in many diverse environments, countries and cultures. Many different visual inspirations, memories and observations have contributed to her realistic renditions of the world around her.

While living in Japan for four years, Elaine's mother commissioned an old

Japanese artist, Mr. Kaneko, to do individual family portraits. After discovering that Elaine appeared to have a great curiousity in his art, Mr. Kaneko began to give her oil painting lessons. Soon she was going up into the mountains near Tokyo to paint on site near a beautiful green river set against huge black boulders. Elaine still paints using the same wooden paint box that Mr. Kaneko had given her when she was 15. She has in the ensuing years painted exquisite Japanese characters which remain in her personal collection.

 Living in Bermuda as a child had a profound visual impact on Elaine and has continued to influence her color preferences. The incredible blue hues of the coral reef ocean vistas set against the pastel-colored homes surrounded by vibrant florals have stayed with her. Her oil paintings are rich in vivid, bold color, capturing the interplay and intensity of hue and light. Elaine sees each oil painting she begins as a challenge to bring her subjects to life on the canvas. Because of this quality that she is able to capture, her animal, character and nature creations are very desirable and sought after.

 Elaine has just this year entered the print market having limited edition giclée prints of her work produced. These beautiful giclee' prints are generally a bit smaller than the original oil paintings, but Elaine feels that the quality and color are incredibly accurate. She is amazed at this technological process and believes that it makes beautiful art more accessible and affordable to many more people who love art and want to collect it. Her giclee' prints are done on Somerset Velvet paper or high quality canvas and are signed and numbered and come with a certificate of authenticity.

 Elaine welcomes commissions and would love to work with you in freezing a moment in time of that special subject on a canvas. Her painting of "A Ticklish Encounter" was actually done in 1999 from a photograph of her daughter Nicole.