Octogenarian Capitol Hill Artist Elinore Bucholtz Explores Abstract Lyricism

It’s not often that an 86-year-old artist celebrates the opening of a solo show in Seattle. But abstract expressionist painter Elinore Bucholtz isn’t your everyday octogenarian. 

Since moving to Seattle from New York City in 2017, she has had solo shows at Joe Bar on Capitol Hill, Café Ladro in Edmonds, Fresh Flours Bakery on Beacon Hill, and Equinox Gallery in Georgetown. During the Capitol Hill Art Walk, her work was shown at Chophouse Row, Starbucks on Olive Way, Ada’s Discovery Café, and Roy Street Coffee & Tea. In October, Capitol Hill Seattle Blog featured Bucholtz in its “Meet the Capitol Hill Artist” series, and Kismet Salon & Spa on Broadway showcased her work. Seattle Refined named Bucholtz an Artist of the Week in November.

Elinore Bucholtz describes her work as embodying “abstract lyricism” -- clockwise from left: Dragonfly; Color Strips; A Brighter Dawn; Color Flows; Carousel 

Not bad for a former New York City public school teacher who started painting when she retired at age 56, when she took workshops at the Art Students League of New York. “I never dreamed of doing art before then,” she explains. “I couldn’t draw anything when I was young. I didn’t even doodle.”

Born in British Palestine in 1938, Bucholtz and her father Samuel, mother Rena, and older sister Edna experienced a harrowing, three-month journey emigrating to America During World War II. “The United States government thought that German general Erwin Rommel was coming through the desert to take over British Palestine,” she explains. “They told us to get out as fast as we could.”

According to Bucholtz’s late father Samuel, her mother’s stomachache prevented passage on the first available ship—a lucky break in hindsight, considering the ship was bombed and sank. Instead, the family booked a boat out of Port Said, Egypt, traveling first by train some 450 miles to Cairo when she was two years old, then another 125 miles to Port Said.

“My father told me the station was bombed as our train left Cairo,” says Bucholtz. Her family sailed on three different ships—skirting open ocean combat and rough weather, according to Samuel—before arriving at Ellis Island. “My father said he held me up to see the Statue of Liberty, but I don’t remember that.”

Her family lived in New York for a few years before moving to Arizona and eventually settling in California. Bucholtz majored in English and American Literature at the University of California Los Angeles and, at age 23, moved to New York City in 1961, where she taught junior high school English for 25 years.

“When I retired, I asked myself, ‘What do I enjoy doing?’” she says. “I enjoyed visiting New York City’s art museums and seeing other artists’ work. So, I decided to try it myself and got hooked.” 

Initially, her art was representational and figurative. She used pencils, acrylic, or watercolor paint to create images of leaves, trees, fruit, people, and other objects. “A couple of years into those workshops, I thought, ‘If I have to do one more tree, leaf, or flower, I’ll shoot myself.’ So, I went abstract and found I was very comfortable with it. Color and shape were enough for me.”

She describes her work as embodying “abstract lyricism”—sweeping and colorfully bold acrylic-on-canvas paintings that are loose, free-flowing, and evoking movement. She prefers to create serendipitous experiences for viewers by incorporating incomplete forms, unusual arrangements, and informal strokes. “My work sings to you,” she explains. “It moves, almost as if dancing, rather than just sitting there. Also, colors are very important to me. Almost everything I do is in color.” Others describe her work as intuitive and spontaneous, intimating limitless space that breaks down the barriers between the physical and the ethereal.

Her process is simple. “I take a brush, put the paint on the canvas, and then see where I should go,” she adds. “It’s not anything I work out ahead of time. It just happens. I think my work is freer than I’ve seen other people do.”

Bucholtz moved to Seattle to be closer to her son and daughter-in-law. Her two-bedroom Capitol Hill apartment serves as her residence and painting studio, while a storage unit in Seattle holds roughly 250 original paintings.

As for what’s next, Bucholtz celebrated her 86th birthday in November, and plans are underway to showcase her work at another Capitol Hill bar and café. She adds, “I went to a psychic once, and she told me I would live to be 105 years old. Who knows?”

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More information about abstract painter Elinore Bucholtz is available online at elinorebucholtz.com.