One of Waltham Forest's most prolific painters is celebrating her 100th birthday the best way she knows: by sharing her work with her neighbours.
Elly Davies, who turns 100 on 4 November, will show 100 of her paintings at Winns Gallery in Lloyd Park, Walthamstow. The exhibition, 100 paintings for 100 years, runs from Saturday 31 October to Sunday 8 November.
A life rooted in Walthamstow
Elly was born in Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland, in 1926, and was a teenage war refugee. After the Second World War she married a British serviceman, and after her husband's death she settled in Walthamstow, where she raised her son. She has lived in her Warner flat on Lloyd Road since 1963.
That long connection shows in her work. Her sketches and watercolours capture the local landscapes many of us walk through every day: the Wetlands, Church Hill, Epping Forest and Whipps Cross.
Flowers, cityscapes and found materials
Her range goes well beyond the borough. She paints detailed flowers, winter landscapes and London cityscapes, and makes collages from materials found along the River Lea and the Thames. She has also painted Dublin, Berlin, Venice, Copenhagen and her birthplace.
Elly has exhibited with The Essex Art Club and The Wanstead Art Group, and has held solo shows at The Barbican, Bankside Gallery and The South Bank, as well as twice at The William Morris Gallery. Every year she opens her flat to visitors during the Walthamstow Art Trail.
Reflecting on her practice, she said: "I've been so lucky to devote my life to doing what gives my life meaning – my paintings. Whether pruning bushes or painting flowers in vases, flowers are life-giving."
Updates on the exhibition are posted on Winns Gallery's Instagram.
