Elise P. Speights

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Elise Speights began her art career in the 40’s at the United Art Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina. Family and work have always been a part of Speights’ live; however, she has never stopped painting in a variety of styles over the past 60 years. The artist has also never stopped pursuing further education. Classes at Meredith College and the NCSU School of Design brought Elise firmly into the modernist tradition and numerous summer workshops with abstract painter and teacher Joe Cox from the 1960’s to the 1990’s had a profound effect on her artwork.

Speights has painted abstract canvases ranging from organic, emotional compositions to cool color-field work, all as the mood struck her. A variety of styles has kept her artwork fresh and exciting. When at the coast she might paint the boat scenes around her and portraits and figure studies continue to be a regular subject of her work. Recent black and white patterned work has added a new dimension to her overall body of art. The abstract canvases continue to be what Elise Speights is best known for and they have shown in numerous exhibitions including those of the North Carolina Museum of Art in 1962,'69,'70,'7 l,'72 and ’74. She has also shown at the Gibbes Art Gallery, Charleston, SC, the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, NC State University Student Center, Raleigh, NC and a number of times at the Durham Art Guild, Durham, NC.

For more information about Elise Speights, please read her vitae.