Elise Hammond

Elise McCauley Hammond

I will always be an artist, for I must create.
I must always be a teacher, for I must share.
I will always be a student, for I must learn.

I feel as though I have been an artist all of my life. One of my earliest memories is that of trying to capture my imagination in images drawn on paper. As a young 12-year-old girl, I watched in fascination as my Aunt Martha Elliot, a famous portrait artist, painted a life oil sketch of my father. I still have the notes I made as she explained the principles behind her meticulously executed strokes of paint.

In 1967 I received my art degree from Auburn University. I taught art for three years in the St. Louis school system before moving to Atlanta in 1970. There I participated in local juried art shows as an Atlanta Artist Club member.

After moving to Oxford, GA in 1978, I started a small business, Artline, and began teaching children and adult art classes as well as creating commissioned drawings and paintings.

In 1985 I became a charter member of the Covington Oxford Arts Guild for which I served as President and Secretary/Treasurer. I have remained a member through the many changes that have brought the corporation to its present status of Southern Heartland Art, Inc.; a non-profit organization seeking to meet the fine art needs of its community. I served as Director for the Southern Heartland Art Festival 2001 – 2003, the last three years the festival was held at Covington’s Salem Campground.

In 1992, I began a study on the re-introduction of the red wolf to the southeastern United States. This ongoing study resulted in two paintings that were selected as winners for the National Wolf Awareness Poster Competition in 1999 and 2007. In 2000, a third painting was exhibited in Artists’ Atelier of Atlanta’s juried show, “Wildlife and Other Worldly Creatures”.

In 2004, I was one of thirteen artists who worked together to form the Southern Heartland Art Gallery where I have since served as Gallery Director. In 2009, a pastel I submitted to the Scenes of Newton County Art Show received first prize. As a member of the Atlanta Portrait Society, I have had three portraits accepted into two juried shows for 2009. An oil portrait,” Jessie”, received a Merit Award in the Mable House Spring/Summer Show.

Corporate commissions include those for The Newton County Chamber of Commerce, The Bank of Covington, Emory University, General Mills, and the Newton County Judicial Center. Commissioned portraits hang in St. Simons, Covington, Oxford, Atlanta, Augusta, Georgia and Talladega, Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama.