(1902-1963)

Painter, muralist, lithographer. Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on January 30, 1902. Elise Seeds studied with Daniel Garber, Hugh Breckenridge, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In the 1920s she studied dance with Isadora Duncan and acted as W.C. Field’s comic partner in the Ziegfield Follies. After settling in Los Angeles in the 1930’s, she was active in the local art scene and on the Public Works of Art Project. Six feet tall and eccentric, during the 1930s she sported purple hair. Her married names included Elise Cavanna, Mrs. Merle Armitage, and Mrs. James B. Welton. The artist died in Los Angeles on May 12, 1963. A modernist, her works are mostly abstractions.

Exhibitions: Fifty Prints of the Year, 1933-35; Ebell Club, Los Angeles, 1935 (1st prize); California Pacific International Exposition, San Diego, 1935; Antheil Gallery, Los Angeles, 1938 (solo); New York World’s Fair, 1939; Forsythe Gallery, Los Angeles, 1950 (solo).

Murals: Exposition Park, Los Angeles; Oceanside Post Office, California.

Who’s Who in American Art, 1938-53.

–Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940.