Donna Elias

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"Summer has always been my favorite time of the year. I love taking walks along the ocean or sitting on the beach with my toes in the sand, smelling the salt air and listening to the sound of the surf before me. These are the relaxing moments I cherish most by the seaside."  - Donna Elias

Award winning artist Donna Elias has spent most of her life painting just about everything that is near and dear to coastal America. In pen and ink and colorful watercolors, Donna has celebrated everything from historic lighthouses and life-saving stations, to beach cottages, surfboats, shore birds and simple beach chairs. If it’s near the water, Donna’s probably painted it.

Donna Elias was raised in Southern New Jersey, where she began her career at sixteen drawing caricatures on Atlantic City’s famous boardwalk. From her easel on the boardwalk she looked out over the beach where tourists relaxed and played in the surf. Inspired to further her skills, she took a high school art class and after graduating, began schooling herself in pen and ink and later in watercolors.

The young aspiring artist painted a variety of subjects and took a particular interest in coastal architecture. In 1988, Donna spent the summer in Cape May, New Jersey, where she discovered and began painting lighthouses. Soon after she formed Resort Graphics with her husband; she went on to create the nationally renowned and best selling Great American Lighthouses Collection ®. While engulfed with the monumental task of researching and painting over 250 of America’s most historic lights, she began envisioning other coastal series, including By the Seaside ™.

Today, Donna is one of the best known coastal artists in America. Her work is offered as fine art prints, and also adorns a variety of licensed home accents, apparel, tabletop and fine gifts, which are sold worldwide.

Collections by Donna Elias include:

By the Seaside ™,

Great American Lighthouses ®,

Surfboats by the Seashore ™,

Heroes of the American Coast ™

Victorian Homes

Surf Cities ™

"In 1988 Donna Elias tried her hand at painting a lighthouse – Today she’s a one woman industry"
United Press International

"Painting lighthouses is her forte...the artist is known across the country"
Courier Post

"...her lighthouses sparkle and shine like few others; her work is a tribute to the romantic symbols of our maritime heritage."
Wayne Wheeler
President (retired), US Lighthouse Society

The Beacon Award

Absecon Lighthouse Museum

Acadia National Park

Atlantic City Historical Museum

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

Chesapeake Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society

Cape Henry Lighthouse

Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum

Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

Hereford Inlet Lighthouse

Hull Life Saving Station & Museum

Indian River Life Saving Station

Key West Art & Historical Society

New Jersey Lighthouse Society

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Museum

QVC Television Network ®

Scituate Lighthouse

Sea World of Florida ®

Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse

Trump Taj Mahal ®

Tybee Island Lighthouse Museum

Universal Studios Islands of Adventure ®

United States Lighthouse Society

Walt Disney World ®